Genesis 34 — Thoughts

Can Faith Be a Weapon?

This story is bananas. On the surface, it sounds like a rescue story worthy of a blockbuster movie. It's all about the good guys cleverly and decisively triumphing over the villains. ...Right?

Not quite.

It's pretty easy to make the argument that Jacob's sons overreacted here. Given their penchant for revenge, it's actually not that surprising that they would sell their brother Joseph into slavery later. They make their problem with one guy a problem for an entire city.

But it's the way they overreact that's interesting to me: They use circumcision as a weapon.⁠

Circumcision was a symbol of God's covenant relationship with Abraham — a reminder of His promise to bless the world through Abraham's family. But in this story, it's not used for blessing. And it's not used to represent a relationship with God. It's used for murder. They've taken something holy and married it to something ugly.

How often do we do the same thing?

Christianity has a history of being used as a weapon. I think of the way Scripture was twisted to justify slavery. I think of the way my homosexual friend was traumatized by the conversion therapy his Christian school forced him to attend. And I think of how Jesus' name has been appropriated by politicians to further their questionable agendas.

The thing about Christianity is that it's powerful. It's the faith that tells us how to walk with the living God! So it shouldn't be surprising to us that taking God out of Christianity is actually an incredibly dangerous thing to do. It does a lot of damage.

Jacob's sons took God out of circumcision and used it to wipe out an entire city. What damage might I be doing by taking God out of some aspect of my own faith?

We need to be incredibly careful that we don't ever do this. We exist to lift up God's name, never to weaponize it.

(Originally written August 12, 2020)