Thank you for the question on the distasteful aspects of the Bible, “The Bible has a lot of things in it that aren’t very inspiring (like Genesis 34 and Numbers 31). These are usually not covered in sermons or Sunday School. How is it that people who haven’t read the entire Bible think all of it is the Word of God?”
Here are some thoughts for one’s consideration:
A. The Bible records the “good, the bad, and the ugly” actions of God’s people.
B. The Bible does not condone the evil actions of God’s people.
C. The Bible records the reactions of God’s people to the events that happens to them.
D. The Bible records the discipline or punishment by God on God’s people.
In citing Genesis 34, one must remember who instigated the reaction by Simeon and Levi. It was Hamor who raped her. He violated or defiled her. Hamor could have asked Jacob for her hand in marriage but allowed his passion to control him.
Simeon and Levi felt that this was an injustice. They wanted justice for Dinah. The plot between Hamor and his people with Simeon and Levi were of mixed values. Hamor’s expressed motive to his people was that they can eventually own everything of Jacob’s. Simeon and Levi and later their brothers did what the would have done to them. Both sides had skewed motives.
Hamor says this in the following verses: “Let them live in our land and trade in it, the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours…Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours?” It was a plot to take over Jacob’s heritage.
I am not saying that what Simeon and Levi did was justified to the men of that city. It was wrong. If anything, the punishment should have been Hamor and his alone. Just as Hamor’s passion got the best of him so the passion of Simeon and Levi got the best of them. They both lost control and did evil.
Summary: The Bible doesn’t “downplay” sin but shows the fulness of its ugliness. Isn’t that something that the Bible would record the sinful actions and not delete it from its record!
-Kingston