Simeon, A Picture Of Grace
Joshua 19:1-9 – “And the second lot came forth to Simeon, even for the Tribe of the Children of Simeon according to their families: and their inheritance was within the inheritance of the Children of Judah. (Simeon, because of his misconduct [Gen. 49:7], was under a curse. As a result, he was really to have no inheritance in the Promised Land. And so he didn’t, and again, so he did!)
“Judah shared her inheritance with the outcast brother, and thus doubled her joy. Dividing Divine blessing with others doubles it. This is a great principle, and should motivate our actions at all times."
“Thus it was that Simeon, justly doomed to wrath, was taken up in Grace — the curse being turned into a blessing — and given a seat among the sons at the King’s table; for the Lord sprang out of Judah" [Heb. 7:14].
“Simeon was saved by Grace, not by works; the name means “hearing.” The Holy Spirit in Galatians 3:2 contrasts salvation by doing and salvation by hearing, and teaches that only upon the latter principle can sinners be given a portion in the Heavenly Canaan — Williams.
“In truth, Simeon and Judah proclaim a type of the human race, and our Lord in His Grace. The whole of the human race is cursed. But our Heavenly Judah, by His Grace, and certainly not through any good thing that we have done, has made room for us in His Inheritance. And, to be sure, a place in Judah’s Inheritance is the greatest position of all.)"
“And they had in their inheritance Beer-sheba, and Sheba, and Moladah,
“And Hazar-shual, and Balah, and Azem,
“And Eltolad, and Bethul, and Hormah,
“And Ziklag, and Beth-marcaboth, and Hazar-susah,
“And Beth-lebaoth, and Sharuhen; thirteen cities and their villages:
“Ain, Remmon, and Ether, and Ashan; four cities and their villages:
“And all the villages that were round about these cities to Baalath-beer, Ramath of the south. This is the inheritance of the Tribe of the Children of Simeon according to their families.
“Out of the portion of the Children of Judah was the inheritance of the Children of Simeon: for the part of the Children of Judah was too much for them: therefore the Children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of them.”
Temple Houston was the youngest son of Texan Governor Sam Houston. He was born in 1860, he was a strong willed child who also possessed a keen intellect, with an intelligence that would help him to learn to speak fluent Spanish, French, Latin, and seven Indian dialects. At age 13 he left home and became a working cowboy, working on cattle drives from Texas to Kansas. It was at this time that he became an accomplished gunman known for being one of the fastest in the west. After one cattle drive, he decided to go to New Orleans where a family friend got him a job as a Senate Page in Washington D.C. He did this for three years, during which time he became interested in debates, and the Law. He returned home to Texas and entered Baylor University, completing four years of study in nine months. He then pursued the Texas Bar Exam becoming the youngest lawyer in Texas at the age of nineteen. Even at such a young age, he proved to be such a fine attorney that within two years, he was appointed by the Governor as the Attorney for the Thirty-fifth Judicial District. In no short time he became one of the best trial lawyers in America with several of his closing summations being published nationwide and even posted in the Library of Congress as examples of how a trial summation should be given.
His most famous case took place in 1899. Houston was in Court attending to another case when a prostitute named Minnie Stacy was placed on trial for prostitution. Unable to afford a lawyer, she stood before the judge alone, when Houston seeing her without representation, stepped up and told the judge he would take her case. He asked the judge for ten minutes to speak with his client. His unrehearsed closing argument was called “one of the finest examples of American oratory ever uttered.” Houston told the all-male jury:
“Our own sex was the author of her ruin. Where the star of purity once glittered on her girlish brow, burning shame has set its seal, and forever! . . . Now what else is left her? Where can she go and her sin not pursue her? Gentlemen, the very promises of God are denied her. He said, ‘Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.’ . . . Society has reared its relentless walls against her, and only in the friendly shelter of the grave can her betrayed and broken heart ever find the Redeemer’s promised rest . . . There reigns over her penitent and chastened spirit of desolation now that none . . . but the Searcher of all hearts can ever know.”
Alluding to opposing prosecutors across the room who would have “gathered a rock and stoned her,” he then challenged the jurors, “If any of us can say unto her, ‘I am holier than thou . . .’ who is he? . . . No gentlemen, do as your Master did twice under the same circumstances that surround you. Tell her to go in peace.” With scarcely a dry eye in the room, the jury unanimously acquitted the woman after a few minutes of deliberation. The trial and Houston’s oral arguments were reported to much acclaim, even outside Oklahoma Territory. Minnie Stacey, the story goes, quit prostitution and moved to Canadian, Texas, where she supported herself taking in washing, joined the Methodist Church, became a devout Christian, and died there in the 1930’s.
My friend, we were all born guilty, destined to stand before a Holy Judge, but thank God we had an Advocate Who pleaded our case not on the merit of us, the guilty, but upon the merits of our Heavenly Saviour Jesus Christ, and thank God the verdict was “not guilty.” That, my friend, is Grace, God’s Grace, Grace greater than our sin.
SIMEON
The Children of Israel now in the Land of Promise are receiving from Joshua their inheritance as it regarded their place of domicile within the Promised Land. God Himself had drawn the border for each Tribe, nothing was left to chance. However, for Simeon and Levi, there was to be no inheritance because years before Simeon and Levi, the sons of Jacob were cursed by their father due to their cold-blooded murder of the men of the city because of the defilement of their younger sister, Dinah, by Shechem the son of Haman.
Genesis 34:30 says, “And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have troubled me and made me to stink among the inhabitants of the Land. . .”
In Genesis 49:5, 7, it says of Simeon and Levi, “Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations . . . 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.”
Now nearly 300 years have passed and the reality of that curse of no inheritance is coming true.
JUDAH
Joshua 19:9 says, “Out of the portion of the Children of Judah was the inheritance of the Children of Simeon: for the part of the Children of Judah was too much for them: therefore the Children of Simeon had their inheritance within the inheritance of them.”
In Bible typology, Simeon is a picture of the human race doomed to an eternal Hell. Judah, which was the Tribe of our Lord, portrays to us the Grace of Jesus Christ. We had no place to go. But, our Heavenly Judah stepped up and said, “I have more than enough for both of our Tribes to dwell together,” and to receive an inheritance we didn’t deserve. A curse was turned into a Blessing. As for Levi, though cursed, God made them the Priestly Tribe of Israel. This is Grace in action.
GRACE
What is Grace? Grace is God’s Goodness given to undeserving humanity. Grace is God taking our wrong and putting it into His Right and making everything alright. Right now no matter how deep in sin you may be, you have an Advocate Who has never lost a case, and if you will let Him, he will take your case and the results will be the same as Minnie Stacy.
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