As recorded in GENESIS xxix. 34.
"And she (Leah) conceived again, and bare a son: and said, Now this time will my husband be _joined_ unto me, because I have borne him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi" (that is, 'joined;' see margin).
Here, then, we are presented with the birth and name of this most remarkable character--a name of wondrous significance as looked at in connection with his after history, whether in nature's wild and lawless extravagance, in which we find him "_joined_" with his brother in the perpetration of a deed of blood and murder (Gen. xxxiv.), or in the day when he was called to drink deeply and largely of the cup of God's electing grace, when "_joined_" with Aaron in "the work of the tabernacle" (Num. viii.).
GENESIS xxxiv. 25, 26.
"And it came to pass on _the third day_, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males. And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went out."
As the Spirit of God in Jacob has furnished us with a striking commentary on the above piece of cruelty, we will consider the scripture in which the commentary is given, namely:
GENESIS xlix. 5-7.
"Simeon and Levi _are brethren_; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, _come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united_: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel; _I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel_."
We have here a truly humbling view of human nature as looked at in the light of the holiness of God. It is as if the Lord would say to us, Look here! behold a man clothed in nature's blackest garb, and presenting nature's most forbidding aspect. Examine him closely, in order that you, seeing what _man is_ when stripped of all that false clothing which ignorance or vain self-righteousness would put upon him, may know the rich aboundings of My grace, which can avail to lift even such a one into the loftiest heights of communion--heights which human conception would utterly fail to mount, but which My grace, through the blood of the cross, can make available to the very chief of sinners.
In reading such a description as that which the above passage presents to us, how needful it is for the sinner to bear in mind that it is not only in the light of _God's holiness_ that he is called to look at himself, but also in the light of _His grace_. When this is learned he needs not be afraid to penetrate deeply into the dark recesses of his heart's corruption; for if God in grace _fill_ the scene, the sinner (so far as his own righteousness is concerned) must necessarily be _out_ of the scene; and then it is no longer a question of what _we_ think about sin, but how _God_ will deal with it in grace, and that is simply to put it away forever--yea, to bury it forever in the waters of His forgetfulness: thus it will be placing _our sin_ side by side with _God's grace_; which is what the gospel invites us to do, and which, moreover, is the only way to arrive at a proper settlement of the question of sin. On the other hand, where this saving principle is not known--not believed--the sinner will undoubtedly seek to make the load of his guilt as light as possible, in order that he may have as little to do as he may. This will ever lead to the most unutterable and intolerable bondage; or if not to this, to that which is much worse, even to detestable religious pride, which is of all things most truly abominable in the sight of God.