Making things right - Genesis 32-35

Jacob, the son of Isaac and brother of Esau, lived a life of high drama.  He and his mother orchestrated an elaborate plan to steal his brother Esau’s blessing.  Upon his success, he was charged to flee to a nearby land by his father, to escape his brother’s fury.  He chose a wife, but was deceived into marrying another.  After finally securing the hand of his true love, they entered into a life of love triangles, difficulties bearing children, adding handmaids into the marriage bed to bring forth more children, and finally the death of his beloved Rachel in childbirth of Jacob’s final son. 

Jacob was never naïve to the fact that he had done a grave wrong to his brother, and many years later, had a deep desire to make things right.  There was much planning that went into the encounter that Jacob would have with Esau.  Could Jacob appease Esau with generous gifts?  Would there be any forgiveness?  COULD there be any forgiveness?  God “met” with Jacob twice to reassure him of his blessing.  Once in a wrestling match, and again later when God confirmed his blessing by changing Jacob’s name to Israel.

Genesis 35:9-12     ⁹ God appeared^[c] to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. ¹⁰ And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel. ¹¹ And God said to him, “I am God Almighty:^[d] be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.^{[e] 12} The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.”

In the entire brood of boys that were the sons of Jacob, was his only daughter, Dinah.  Dinah’s name means justified, or vindicated.  “After Dinah, the daughter of Leah and Jacob, went out to visit the women of Shechem, where her people had made camp and where her father Jacob had purchased the land where he had pitched his tent. Shechem the son of Hamor, the prince of the land, ‘seized her and lay with her and humbled her. And his soul was drawn to Dinah ... he loved the maiden and spoke tenderly to her,’ and Shechem asked his father to obtain Dinah for him, to be his wife.

Hamor came to Jacob and asked for Dinah for his son: ‘Make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us; and the land shall be open to you,’ and Shechem offered Jacob and his sons any bride-price they named. But ‘the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah,’ saying they would accept the offer if the men of the city agreed to be circumcised.

So the men of Shechem were deceived, and were circumcised; and ‘on the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came upon the city unawares, and killed all the males. They slew Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away.’  And the sons of Jacob plundered whatever was in the city and in the field, ‘all their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses.’

‘Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, 'You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.' But they said, 'Should he treat our sister as a harlot?'"

In researching this portion of the passage, I learned that this act of revenge by Simeon and Levi (who were only about age 13 at the time) is the scriptural basis for holding a Bar Mitzvah for a boy at age 13. 

A Jewish boy celebrates his bar mitzvah, his Jewish “coming of age,” when he turns thirteen.
What is the biblical source for the age of bar mitzvah?
And it came to pass on the third day, when [the people of Shechem] were in pain [following their circumcision], that two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each man took his sword, and they came upon the city confidently, and killed every male.¹
Simeon and Levi are called “men.” Our sages calculate² that the two were thirteen at the time. Thus it’s clear that at thirteen years old, boys are already considered men.³
While the Torah’s use of the word “man” is necessary in order to inform us the age at which Jewish boys become responsible for mitzvot, the choice of placement is seemingly disturbing.
In what context do we learn of our children’s moral and religious maturation, accountability and responsibility? From an episode in which two thirteen-year-olds apparently behaved with none.  
-From A Time to Kill by Mendel Kalmenson

There is never a time when we should not desire to make things right- whether between ourselves and God, or between one another.  How we go about it should be bathed in much prayer, seeking God for direction.  At times, we are able to make things right immediately.  Other instances, it takes time and patience and a healing that only God can do.  He promises “Behold I make all things new…”