Cities of Refuge | Part 11

Song of Solomon 8:5: "Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" (NKJV).

The name of the city Shechem originated from the name of the prince of the land at the time of Jacob and his family residing in the area. The prince rapes Jacob’s daughter Dinah and then desires to reconcile the situation by asking to marry her to bring the two families together. 

Scripture never excuses Prince Shechem's actions, nor does it place blame upon Dinah. The sin belongs entirely to the one who violated her. Yet the Holy Spirit preserved this painful account because it reveals what happens whenever covenant is replaced by selfish desire. Prince Shechem wanted the privileges of intimacy before demonstrating the character of covenant love. How different is our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, who first gave Himself completely for His Bride before asking for her heart.

Long before Shechem became a City of Refuge, it became a place marked by tragedy. The story can be found in Genesis 34.

Jacob and his family had settled near Shechem after returning to the land God had promised his fathers, Abraham and Isaac. His daughter, Dinah, "Went out to see the daughters of the land" (Genesis 34:1, NKJV). While there, she was violated by Shechem, the son of Hamor, the ruler of that region. The shame belonged to the offender—not to Dinah.

This is a key factor that is still often invoked today, suggesting that the victim desired the cruelty of another person’s sin. God never asks the wounded to bear the guilt of the one who wounded them. “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart” (Psalm 34:18, NKJV). He is the Defender of the oppressed and the Healer of the brokenhearted.

As we read this account, our hearts should ache for Dinah. She was someone's daughter and sister, a young woman whose life was forever changed by another person's selfishness. This account in Genesis was preserved in history as a key to understanding the difference between counterfeit love and covenant love.

After violating Dinah, Prince Shechem did something unexpected.

The Scripture says, "His soul was strongly attracted to Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young woman and spoke kindly to the young woman" (Genesis 34:3, NKJV). He even asked his father to arrange a marriage. At first glance, someone might have wondered if he was trying to make things right; however, true covenant begins with giving, not taking. “For God so loved, He gave…” (John 3:16 NKJV).

Shechem is no longer simply "the city of the shoulder for us to lean on." It also has a deeper significance as the city where God redeems the broken covenant and reveals what true covenant love looks like in Christ. This is the central message of John 3:16. While we were ignorant of our identity in Christ from before the world's foundations, God unconditionally loved each of us as our Father who created us in His image. Whether we believe it or not, nothing can separate us from His unconditional love (Romans 8:35-39).

Jesus did not come to take from His bride, but to love her, the church – body of Christ – as His own body, giving His life for her before she even knew He existed. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her" (Ephesians 5:25, NKJV).

Let’s take note of how Jesus demonstrates the love of unity and marriage: 

He gave Himself first when He died on the cross, bringing redemption and reconciliation to our ignorance and lost identity, before we even knew we had a problem. Before He asks for our trust, He shows us His faithfulness. He gave His heart to us unconditionally before He asks for ours. He never forced or threatened anyone into being His bride… He woos, He calls, and He waits for our response, never leaving or abandoning us, even when we don’t feel or acknowledge His presence.

What a contrast between the prince of Shechem and the Prince of Peace. Jesus never sought to possess us but to redeem us into the fullness we were created to be. He does not wound us or prompt us to act on selfish desires, but to heal us out of sacrificial love.

The story doesn’t end with the marriage of Prince Shechem and Dinah. Jacob's sons were devastated by what had happened to their sister. Their grief and anger were understandable. Any brother who loved his sister would have been outraged. But wounded hearts can make dangerous decisions if they are not surrendered to God.

The brothers agreed to the proposed marriage—but only if every male in the city would first be circumcised, the sign of God's covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17:10–14, NKJV). Outwardly, it sounded like a covenant, but inwardly, it was a trap.

While the men of the city were recovering from being circumcised, Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, were so full of anger that they entered the city and killed them. Revenge can never be part of unconditional love.

Years later, Jacob reflected on that day when he blessed his sons before his death. He did not curse Simeon and Levi as individuals. Instead, he said, "Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel!" (Genesis 49:7, NKJV). What a lesson to meditate on. Even righteous pain can become unrighteous if we place vengeance above God's justice.

Simeon and Levi not only used vengeance as their righteous judgment but also took the sign of the covenant—circumcision—and turned it into an instrument of deception. Something holy became a weapon. The king and prince honored the covenant of circumcision as a token of their commitment to their agreement with Jacob and his family. Jacob’s sons used the sign of birthright holiness unto God as a bartering tool of justice. Jacob knew the pattern and consequences of their hearts and actions. He did the same thing, bartering his brother Esau’s birthright for something to eat. 

Here is a lesson we, the church reconciled to our Beloved Bridegroom, must consider:

• How many people have been wounded by Scripture used without love?

• How many have been crushed beneath legalism instead of lifted by grace?

• How many have walked away from the Church, not because they rejected Jesus, but because they encountered people who used God's covenant as a means of control rather than a ministry of reconciliation?

If this story ended there, Shechem would forever be remembered as a place of violence, deception, and grief. However, God is in the business of restoring all things. Jesus’s ministry is about reconciliation, not separation and division.

Centuries later, the Lord chose this very place to become one of the six Cities of Refuge. God did not erase Shechem's history but redeemed the land. God declared this land would be remembered for refuge. 

This is a beautiful illustration of how God makes promises and is faithful to bring them into the fullness of the plans He has for each of us. When Abram was first told by God to leave his father’s house, he ventured to the land of Canaan. It was at Shechem that God spoke to Abram with a promise of land for him and his descendants in this place. At this time, Abram had no children. “So, they came to the land of Canaan.  Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the Oak tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.  And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. So, Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South” (Genesis 12:5-9 NKJV).

Shechem is a place on this earth that speaks to generations throughout history as powerfully as Jerusalem. We have the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, among many others, including Joshua, and then we have the story about the bride of Christ. 

It wasn't by accident that Shechem became one of the Cities of Refuge. Shechem sits between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal—the mountains of blessing and cursing. It became a place where Israel repeatedly gathered to renew its covenant with God. Abraham built an altar there upon entering Canaan. Jacob buried the foreign idols beneath the oak at Shechem. Joshua assembled Israel there and declared, "Choose this day whom you will serve." The division of tribal land was decided there. Then, after centuries of waiting, Joseph's bones were finally buried there. But what about Dinah.