A Bunch of Losers... Who Will Reign With the King of the Universe

All the Rest of Israel – Part 1: Simeon

(1 Chronicles 4:24-43, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, July 16, 2017)

[24] The sons of Simeon: Nemuel, Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, Shaul; [25] Shallum was his son, Mibsam his son, Mishma his son. [26] The sons of Mishma: Hammuel his son, Zaccur his son, Shimei his son. [27] Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters; but his brothers did not have many children, nor did all their clan multiply like the men of Judah. [28] They lived in Beersheba, Moladah, Hazar-shual, [29] Bilhah, Ezem, Tolad, [30] Bethuel, Hormah, Ziklag, [31] Beth-marcaboth, Hazar-susim, Beth-biri, and Shaaraim. These were their cities until David reigned. [32] And their villages were Etam, Ain, Rimmon, Tochen, and Ashan, five cities, [33] along with all their villages that were around these cities as far as Baal. These were their settlements, and they kept a genealogical record. [34] Meshobab, Jamlech, Joshah the son of Amaziah, [35] Joel, Jehu the son of Joshibiah, son of Seraiah, son of Asiel, [36] Elioenai, Jaakobah, Jeshohaiah, Asaiah, Adiel, Jesimiel, Benaiah, [37] Ziza the son of Shiphi, son of Allon, son of Jedaiah, son of Shimri, son of Shemaiah—[38] these mentioned by name were princes in their clans, and their fathers' houses increased greatly. [39] They journeyed to the entrance of Gedor, to the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks, [40] where they found rich, good pasture, and the land was very broad, quiet, and peaceful, for the former inhabitants there belonged to Ham. [41] These, registered by name, came in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and destroyed their tents and the Meunites who were found there, and marked them for destruction to this day, and settled in their place, because there was pasture there for their flocks. [42] And some of them, five hundred men of the Simeonites, went to Mount Seir, having as their leaders Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi. [43] And they defeated the remnant of the Amalekites who had escaped, and they have lived there to this day.

Our text this morning gives us a record of the tribe of Simeon, descended from one of the twelve sons of Jacob and part of the people group that are known today as the Jews. The Bible gives us information about the man Simeon and about the tribe that came from him. One thing that our passage reminds us about this ancient group of extended families is that “they kept a genealogical record.” It is records such as these that help the Chronicler to reestablish the nation of Israel after a period of subjugation five centuries before the birth of Jesus.

The details of the people listed by name here are completely lost to history. Verse 27 mentions one “Shimei” from this tribe who had many descendants, but we know nothing about him beyond what's mentioned in these verses. Even the cities they inhabited mentioned in verses 28-33 were not theirs alone. They shared these with the far more prominent tribe of Judah.

Finally our text emphasizes in verses 34-41 and then in 42-43 that the descendants of Simeon were involved in significant armed conflict with their neighbors. While this can be said of all Israel, a distinction should be made between those fights that were directed by the Almighty and those that seemed to rise up from the people themselves. Simeon was engaged in questionable military exploits against other people groups both inside and outside of the original borders of the Promised Land. There is no indication of divine command for this. This over-militarized tribal pattern fits in with what the Bible says about the man from whom they all descended.

The heritage of the man, Simeon, in the Word of God

Simeon was Jacob's second son of his unloved wife, Leah. When she named her son “heard” or “hearing with acceptance” in Genesis 29:33 we read these sad words: “Because the LORD has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” When Simeon grew up, he and his brother defended the honor of their sister by slaughtering a large extended family outside of Jacob's descendants. They did this in a particularly blasphemous way, giving the men of that people group circumcision in a supposed agreement to join with them, and then killing them all when they were in pain. Their father, Jacob, said to them in Genesis 34:30, “You have brought trouble on me.” When Jacob was on his deathbed, he remembered this event with these final words in Genesis 49:5-7, “Simeon and Levi are brothers; weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.”

The checkered providence of God for the tribe of Simeon

The words of Jacob were fulfilled differently for these two tribes. For Simeon, their scattering was largely within the borders of the more significant tribe of Judah, the tribe of Joseph and Mary, and therefore the tribe of Jesus. You may remember that when God brought His people out of their Egyptian bondage, they did not immediately go into the Promised Land, but spent forty years in the wilderness because of their faithlessness. The army of fighting men “twenty years old and upward” was numbered by tribe both at the beginning of that period and at the end. No tribe lost more than Simeon, experiencing over a 60% decline.

During that period a man named Zimri is mentioned of the tribe of Simeon. He committed an outrageous act of sexual immorality with a woman right near the entrance to the place of worship. Because of this pagan combination of false worship and sexual sin, the Lord brought a plague upon Israel that led to the death of 24,000 people. The plague was ended when one of the men from another tribe put a spear through Zimri and the woman he was with. This episode is one of the only historical details we have today about the tribe of Simeon.

As they went into the Promised Land, they were invited by the tribe of Judah to fight with them, which they did. Their entire territory ended up being within the larger boundaries of Judah, and eventually we lose all track of them as one of the twelve tribes of the Jews. They are far overshadowed by their more significant brothers in the tribe of Judah.

The final conquest by God for the elect of Simeon

The ancient tribe of Simeon began in sorrow and went forth with violence. They were left with little hope at the death of Jacob, and were largely overshadowed by the preeminence of Judah. Yet God remembered them, and they have a place in the final kingdom visions of the Old and New Testaments. (See Ezekiel 48:24, 33 and Revelation 7:7, 21:12.) Though particular individuals, families, and clans within God's covenant community may esteem themselves as losers who are forgotten and hopeless, Jesus was wounded for all His people. Those who repent of their sins and follow Him are joint-heirs with the High King of Heaven. Christianity uniquely provides hope for the lowly because of the doctrine of substitution. He is our new worth.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 22 – They have pierced my hands and feet.

Gospel Reading—Matthew 8:18-22 – [18] Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. [19] And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” [20] And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” [21] Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” [22] And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”