Auto Generated Transcript
I’m going to invite you to Genesis. Chapter 35 is where we’re at together today, Genesis chapter 35, as we’re looking at the story of Jacob and as we get ready to engage this text, uh, we’re going to find that this this particular section of Scripture is highlighting one area. It’s focusing on this place called Bethel. And it’s because of what Bethel has represented in the life of Jacob in light of the things that he has gone through. If you remember the story of Jacob, Jacob is not the most impressive person. He is a person of deception, and he’s been humbled, often based on on where his deception has has led him. And in Genesis chapter 28, because he was considered a a deceiver and lived a life of deception, in Genesis chapter 28, he manipulated his brother’s brother, gets angry, tells us, tells Jacob he’s going to kill him. His brother’s name is Esau, tells Jacob he’s going to kill him. And so his Jacob goes on the run, and while he’s on the run, he ends up in this, this place. He doesn’t even know where he is. He’s just destitute. And he cries out to to the Lord. The Lord intervenes in his life. And and that place becomes known as the place of Bethel, the place where he experiences God. I don’t think it’s where he becomes a believer initially, but. But he realizes that he is absolutely destitute, and God, by his grace, intervenes in his life in this area of Bethel.
And then he goes into this land called Paddan Aram, and he’s there with Laban and Laban. He finds his a greater deceiver than even Jacob was. The deceiver gets deceived and taken advantage of for about two decades, and Jacob knows there’s no future there. So he decides to run away from that land, and he knows he’s going to get chased by Laban, who becomes his father in law. And when he’s running away from that land, he’s going back to the Promised Land where God had told him to be. And when he gets that promised land, he’s got to confront his brother again. That he left two decades ago and his brother. The last thing he said to him was, I’m going to kill you. And so when he’s leaving the the land of Paddan Aram and he’s going back to the promised land, he’s reminded to go back to the place of Bethel, the place where God had made his presence known. When he gets to the Promised Land, he goes to this town called Sukkoth. And then he goes to to Shechem. And while he’s in Shechem, that’s where his his daughter Dinah has taken advantage of. That’s where his sons rise up against the men of Shechem and slaughter them all. And now Jacob and his family have this this bad testimony in the land. They’re concerned for their own safety. And it’s in those moments that God again reminds them to go to to Bethel.
Bethel became this place where he experienced God’s presence in the midst of adversity. In fact, in Genesis 35 verse one, it says this God said to Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. So, so Bethel becomes this, this place of recognizing God’s presence in his life in the midst of hardship. And that’s important for all of us, because hardship tends to be this tool that can either be used in our life to soften us towards the things of God, to seek after him, or to harden our hearts because of the adversity of circumstances. And a lot of it has to do with how you respond in the midst of the challenges you face. Sometimes we go through adversity as we struggle with with loss, we we try to cling in our own strength to the things that we feel have evaded us, or we become impaired from moving forward because we, we, we come riddled with anxiety over, over anticipation of things we can’t even control. And so rather than step into what God calls us to, we try to rest in our own strength. But we realize we’re fallible and. And it makes us, um, lack really relationship with God because we, we lean more on ourselves than, than who God is.
And I’m not trying to just simply give us a blanket statement for the reasons of of how we relate to all the adversity we go through. But just in our human nature, sometimes adversity can harden us. But but in other times, God uses that in our lives to soften our hearts to to who he is in his presence. And Bethel becomes that place and ask the question, Why is Bethel necessary? Bethel becomes that place for for Jacob, where he experiences who God is in light of his circumstances, which helps him continue to to move forward in becoming who God has called him to be. So when we read about this, this region of of Bethel, it really for the life of the believer takes on a metaphorical sense, right? That to understand God doesn’t call us today to a place, but rather God calls us to a person. What made Bethel such a powerful place for for Jacob is that it was at that place that he experienced God’s presence, and God gave him his promises, talking about the deliverance that would come through his lineage, which was ultimately a person. And so for for us as believers. It’s not about the sacredness of a place that you go to that makes anything special. One of the beautiful things about being God’s people is, you know, buildings can be a wonderful gift. I’m thankful for the building that God gives us right to, to worship.
And I keep praying for a bigger one. Right. But but for for now, we’re we’re thankful for where God has us because God can do a work here. But it’s not about the building that that God that, that God needs in order to do that work. What we need is a person who is Jesus, right? And so when you look at these promises that are given to Jacob in Bethel, it was ultimately pointing to a greater hope that would come to us in Christ. And so what we have when we think about Jacob, this, this metaphorical idea of as Jacob learned to go to Bethel, where he experienced God’s presence, we as God’s people should learn to run to him. In fact, in Hebrews chapter four, verse 14 to 16, it gives you that promise that you would come boldly to the throne of grace and find the Lord in your hour of need because of what Jesus has done for you, the great High Priest. So wherever you’re at in this world, you can experience Bethel because because of who Jesus is and what he has done for you and the amidst of adversity that becomes important for us to to learn when we face adversity or we know we’re about to face adversity, there are some important reminders that we we need to hold on to in light of who God is. And this is what Jacob learns at Beth when we ask the question, why, Beth? Why does God continue to send him to Bethel? It’s to learn those powerful truths in the midst of a circumstances that he is walking through.
And the same thing is true for us. And point number one in your notes is this if you grab notes this morning, you can fill this in. If you didn’t grab notes, you can look on our bulletin. We have sermon notes listed under the bulletin. But point number one, Bethel reminds us that while life never lacks problems, we will never lack God’s presence. While life never lacks God’s problems, we will never lack God’s presence. God’s presence is what carries power, and it becomes for us this incredible place of of security. And you see this starting in in verse two, it goes on and says, so Jacob said to his household and to all who are with him, put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify for yourselves, and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel. We’ll talk about the idea of of foreign gods in the next couple of verses here. But but I want you to see when when Jacob first came back to the Promised Land, God told him to go to Bethel in Genesis 31 verse 13. And Jacob ignored it. And that’s where he ends up in Shechem and faces some some terrible adversity. But now Jacob is finally listening to God, and God calls him back to Bethel.
And the reason God calls him back to Bethel is not to get him stuck in his past. Remember in Genesis 28, Jacob ran away from from the promised land. He ran away from his brother who wanted to kill him. He was absolutely destitute. He had to sleep that night with his head on a rock. When we looked in Genesis 28 together, he had nothing right? And now, when he’s coming back into this promised land, God wants him to come to Bethel again. And it’s not to get him stuck in the past. Don’t you remember? You know fondly that I was here and I met you. But rather what he wants to do is is is to remind Jacob of his presence. That as as Jacob has not always recognized God in his life, God has always been faithful to be with Jacob. And so he wants Jacob to be mindful that Jacob, as you ran away from your brother even while you were in the land of Paddan Aram and coming back. I have never failed to be with you. Even in the midst of struggle, God’s hand was always with him. Jacob could see the hand of God working in his life. And so Jacob’s now coming back to this land, to, to and called to Bethel to be reminded of God’s presence, even through adversity. And I think that’s so important for the life of, of of a believer and walking with the Lord.
Our tendency is when we face hard things, uh, oftentimes we we might look to God, and oftentimes we might be tempted to blame God. But typically we ask these two kind of questions is and we go through hard things, we ask, Is God not with me anymore? Or does God not love me just because we we face adversity? We we sort of have that temptation to to question those thoughts. But it reminds me of the of the book of James in chapter one, knowing James is writing to a church that’s facing persecution. James himself is is is near martyrdom. And he starts off his book writing to a Persecuted church. Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you face various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. I mean, how incredible of a thought is that to open a book right into people who are facing persecution and tells them to count it joy? You know, I think to myself, that is something very rare in the life of every human being, even believers, right? Where you’re going through difficult things, you’re like, I am just so full of joy. And I think there are different ways that we can we can look at the struggles that we’re going through. I think in the in the lives of, of Christians, it doesn’t mean you have to be thankful for everything, but but there is a way to be thankful in everything.
You know, when I read about the life of Dinah in the past chapter, I need to stop and say, oh, thank you so much that Dinah got raped. The rapist raping is certainly not something to be praised. But the God who refuses to leave them behind in the midst of the struggle they’re facing. In that there is joy. God, it tells us, as Jesus, when he came to this flesh in the flesh in Isaiah 53, he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. It tells us that in the midst of our struggle, God continues to care for us and God is with us. That’s why the this first point becomes so important for us to understand, because in life we’re going to face problems. We’re going to to have struggle. But how important it is to discover the presence of God in the midst of our adversity? And in verse three, this is exactly what Jacob says. He says, then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress. So he’s acknowledging the distress. But look what he says and has been with me wherever I have gone. Sometimes we try to simplify our journey in life this way that when we come before God, the only time we come before God, and the true interest that we have in coming before God isn’t to know God.
But rather get that God to remove our troubles. Our only interest in coming to God isn’t relationship with God. But rather to use that God in order to get rid of things that we find complicated about our lives, so we can get back to doing the things that we want. And in so doing, you never truly have a relationship with the Lord. It is far better to learn to walk with God in the storm than to walk without God and have no storm, because at the end of the day, if all you ever learn to do is just simply remove the storm, then you fall short of the eternal scope from which we were created and enjoying the presence of God, no matter what the journey may bring. And Jesus taught this to his disciples over and over. Reminds me of the story when Jesus and his disciples out on the in the waters, he tells them, get a boat. Go across to the other side of the sea. I’ll meet you there. And Jesus goes on the mountain and prays, knowing that his disciples are about to go through the storm. And in the midst of the storm, Jesus walks out on water. If you remember the story, Peter freaks out because he thinks it’s a ghost. Jesus calls him out of the boat and walk on water and and Peter steps out and he at first he’s walking.
Then he realizes, oh no, I’m on water. And he starts to sink because he took his eyes off the Lord. And he teaches us that valuable lesson. It’s not about just removing the storm, but about calming the heart of the believer in the midst of the storm. It’s about recognizing the greatness of who God is and in the midst of our daily struggles, because we’ll learn to trust in him for for more than just those struggles, but also for for eternity. And God uses those things to grow us in our relationship with him. And this is what Jacob is acknowledging for his family, that in his distress God continued to be faithful. In fact, if I if I skipped ahead just a little bit, Jacob reminds us of this in verse nine and ten. He’s reminded that though he he didn’t acknowledge God’s presence, that God had always been all over his life. And in verse nine it said, And God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him. And God said to him, your name is Jacob. No longer shall you be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. So he called his name Israel. And so a couple important things here in this passage, you see that God is is faithful. This word again reminding him that God is there over and over. God is in Jacob’s life even when Jacob doesn’t acknowledge him.
And not only that, he blesses him, which is a word of grace that isn’t something Jacob earned. This is something that’s only been given to him because of the nature of God is good. I mean, Jacob is known as a deceiver. It’s only the grace of God made known in his life that transformed him, that God didn’t owe Jacob anything. But but God gave it to him anyway. And so Jacob is acknowledging and seeing this over and over again in his life, the the goodness of who God is. And God reminds him of that even in his name in verse ten. And Jacob says, or Jacob is reminded that your name is Israel. You know, if you remember, God has already said this to Jacob. And in chapter 32, when when Jacob came back to the Promised Land, as he was on the border of entering to the Promised Land just before he met his brother, who two decades before, the last thing his brother said to him is, I’m going to kill you. And Jacob’s now entering back into his promised land, he realizes he’s coming back to the land the same way he left that he is. He’s losing everything, and that unless God intervenes in his life, he could lose his entire family. And in that brokenness, when he realizes he’s absolutely powerless, he clings to God and says, unless you bless me, I will not let go of you.
And this is where God gives him that name, Israel. This is where I think Jacob’s life is truly transformed when when he utterly surrenders himself before God. Not based on on who Jacob is, but based on the grace of who God is made known in his life. And Jacob now has this name. And now in this passage you see God saying to Jacob again, your name is Israel. And some people look at this might ask the question, wait a minute, why would God do this twice? Like did did God forget Jacob’s name? Did he show up and be like, oh yeah, you’re that guy, right? What was that? I called you before, I can’t remember, you know. Is God just trying to remind himself in this passage? Why does God say this twice? And the reason is very simple. It’s not because God has forgotten who Jacob is. It’s truly because when we go through adversity, we have the tendency to forget who God is. And Jacob is being reminded of his name because it’s the way of God’s declaring, look, Jacob, I have been faithful to you and what I have promised I have delivered because if you read these verses as they unfold, you realize as Jacob has gone away from God, God gave him that promise in Genesis 28, I’m through you. I’m going to bless all people groups because from you will become will come the one who will bless everyone, which is the Lord Jesus.
And now Jacob is coming back in that land, seeing the blessing of God’s hand. In verse 21, now you read the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. And so this is God’s way of saying, look, as I’ve given you this name, look how I have faithfully shown up over and over again. I’m not saying your name because I forgot your name. I’m saying your name because you forgot my name. Jacob. In the midst of adversity, we have this tendency to forget how great our God is and think more about how big our problems are. And God wants to remind Jacob that his presence has been with him faithfully, wherever he has gone. And so, number two then, in your notes is this Bethel reminds us to release what we cannot keep, to gain what we cannot lose, release what we cannot keep to gain what we cannot lose. Um, God and his authority wants to reorient Jacob to the singular, singular idea of of really the power of who he is. And in verse four, you see, it says, with Jacob he says, so they gave to Jacob all their foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that that was near Shechem. Now I know, for for many of us the idea of creating false idols and bowing down in worship, um, might sound, uh, maybe a little bit ridiculous in our modern minds.
I don’t know, but but, you know, I think it’s important to recognize we we as people were we have the tendency to always create idols in our heart, to find our worth and value and meaning in things and and in Jacob’s day, the way this was done was through foreign gods. Um, it typically worked like this, that in any region that you went, people would often have a foreign god to to worship that God in an area. And if they didn’t have one god, they sometimes would have multiple gods. This was true even up into the days of Jesus, that some regions would have several gods that people would bow down to. And when you would journey to that region, it was expected that you would take your gods, but not just your gods with you, that you would also worship the gods of that area. And part of it was considered respectful to the people of that land, that you would bow down to their deities. But also part of it was a a way that you could play the field and hope, you know if your God was wrong, the other gods maybe were right. And third, it was a way of of saving your own hide. And the reason I say that is because when you would go to a, you would go to a foreign land and they would have these other deities if you went into that land and refused to bow down to those gods, not only was it considered disrespectful, but if anything disastrous happened or some sort of natural disaster fell upon the land, the people’s tendency were to look around at everyone and think, who here among us made our gods mad? And whoever it was was probably the person not bowing down to this God the way that they should and did not bow down to that God, if something disastrous would happen, could ultimately lead to your death for not honoring their God.
And they would they would blame you. And so it was customary in those days for people to, to grab a pantheon of gods and, and bow down to them. But this is contrary to to what the Bible tells us, right? The book of Exodus, chapter 20, when the giving of the Ten Commandments tells us, have no idols before God, there is only one God. Isaiah 4043, verse ten, Isaiah 44 six and eight. Uh Deuteronomy six four. There is only one God. That’s all there ever has been. That’s all there ever will be. Anything else that that attempts to be God is is simply an idol that’s usurping the position of who God deserves to be in your position in life, that, that, that, that for the life of the believer, we’re called to a monotheistic faith that there is only one God, and that is all that there is.
But there is this this tendency, even today, in our own hearts to to discredit the the glory of who that God is by, by. Um, I may I say it like this. As a pastor, I often get asked questions like, um, don’t all roads lead to Rome, right? As long as you just have a god and as long as you’re good and what you think you should be doing, that’s all that God really cares about is, is Jesus? Is Jesus really exclusive? Is he? Is he the only way? What about innocent people? You know, get that that question? What about what about innocent people? Let me just let me just add clarity. I think that that fits this and hopefully encourage you a little bit. You know, sometimes when we think about what it means to put our faith in Christ, there might be this reluctancy in our life to to embrace him because, well, what are my friends and family think? And I don’t want to make them mad. I don’t want to create any contention. I don’t want to. The Bible very clearly says the truth is what sets you free. And so you should be willing to to follow truth no matter the consequence. Because in it, if if that’s where freedom is found, not only do you get to walk in that freedom, but then you get to encourage other people to discover the same freedom that you have found in the Lord.
And so let me give you this challenge for those that might think, and and I know I’m not talking to anyone here. Okay. If you might think, um, you know, what about innocent people? There are innocent people out there. Just go through scripture this year and find out how many times the Bible talks about the idea of just the innocent people that exist out there. And I’ll give you a couple verses just to start your journey. Um, Romans 118, Romans 323, Romans 623. I just read the first six chapters of Romans. How about that? And the Bible says very clearly, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And meaning there is no such thing as an innocent person, and it tells us the wrath of God in Romans 118 is against the sons of disobedience who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And so what is saying is there is. This in our in our inner being there is this understanding that there is a creator. But what we actually do as human beings from the beginning is we suppress that we war against God. And the reason we do that is because we like to elevate ourselves as God. And that’s what happens from the very beginning of the book of Genesis, chapter three, Adam and Eve chose to believe that what they desired was better than what God had for them, and they wanted to take the position of God well because they thought they knew better.
And from that day all of creation fell. But all of humanity has that same bend. There is no such thing as an innocent person. And in so saying that there is nothing that God owes us, that God is completely just in judging us. And it’s not about good people going to heaven, but about forgiven people going to heaven, because the only way we’re reconciled to a God that we have alienated ourselves from by, by usurping his position, is that God would forgive us. In fact, in Matthew chapter seven, verse 21 to 23, that’s another great verse to know where Jesus says, many, many people will come to me that day and say, Lord, Lord, do we not do many wonderful works in your name? And he says, on that day I will say to you, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Jesus refers to them as workers of iniquity, good people, religious people. And then he says, the most important thing I never knew you. And Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father but by me. John 14 six. Uh, John 824 he says, unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. Unless you believe that I am. He can. Can I just tell you? If all roads lead to Rome, then then probably one of the most stupid figures in all of history is Jesus.
One of the most foolish people to ever live is Jesus. If there were another way to relationship with the Lord without Christ, that what Jesus did was unnecessary and foolish. That’s why John Galatians 221 says, if righteousness could be could be achieved through the law, then Christ died needlessly. There was no point to what he went through if there were other paths to the Lord. But when you understand why Jesus did what he did, it screams at us the significance of what he accomplished and how much we desperately need him in our lives. And part, part of understanding that really roots itself back all the way to Genesis chapter 35, to to know who that one true God is and lay aside from us anything that will separate us from him so that we can walk in clear understanding of this God who pursues us. I remember where Jacob was. He was completely destitute. He had no hope in this world. God had to intervene in his life. And the same thing is true for us, that apart from the grace of God coming to set us free, we are a people that are hopeless, which speaks to the urgency of the cross. And it says to us, don’t diminish its power in your life. To do so is to undermine the precious gift that Christ has done for you. And so the more clearly we walk in this, the the more beautiful it is for us in our relationship with God to walk hand in hand with him.
Bethel reminds us to release what we cannot keep, to gain what we cannot lose. Verse five it goes on and says, and as they journey, the terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them. So they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. Remember, Jacob’s sons had just killed all the men in Shechem. And so they’re concerned now for for the way people are going to treat them in the area around. But God protects them, and as he’s called them, to back to Bethel, verse six, And Jacob came to Luz, that is Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who are with him. And there built an altar and called the the place El Bethel, because the God that God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. I love this this idea of Bethel. He already called it Bethel once, which means the house of God. Um, and so really, what he’s saying is, is this is really God’s house. This is God’s house of God. This is that’s how it translates. The word el is the shortened name for Elohim, which is the broad term for God in the Old Testament. And so the end, at the end of Beth El is the name God, at the beginning is the name of God, and Beth is the idea of house.
So it’s God’s house of God. And Jacob’s saying, like, I met God here once, but this is really where God is, right? God’s God’s presence is really made known here. And so you see him grabbing hold of the Lord, the hope that God has given him to to walk in God’s presence. And then point number three, then is, is to remind us of this. Bethel reminds us that life can never take from us what God intends for us. Life can never take from us what God intends for us. You know, we may suffer temporary loss and the things of this world. But the Bible tells us all things work together for good for those who are called in Christ Jesus. The Lord reconciles all things in him. And so if God intends it for you, it’s never truly gone. And you see this, this important reminder for Jacob as he’s he’s rooting himself in the goodness of God, coming back to this place of worship when he often didn’t listen to God here in these moments, he’s he’s surrendering. He’s listening. He’s realizing God’s presence, faithful in his life over and over again and significant because of the path he’s about to walk. And I’m going to move through this really quickly. But I just want you to see as as now he’s come back to Bethel here in verse eight, Deborah, which is Rebecca’s nurse, it says, and she was buried under the an oak below Bethel.
So he called the name Alon, which is, which is translated as this, this oak of weeping. And so as Jacob is mindful of God’s presence wherever he’s going, he’s also seeing the struggle of loss in this world because of the pain of sin. And it’s this beautiful picture for us as believers. And Romans chapter 12, verse 15, it says, weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. There are two things God’s people should be incredibly good at, and one is the idea of weeping. The other is rejoicing. And we don’t have to ignore either of those things that we can walk with, with pain in this world, and also incredible hope we’re not called in our hope to just ignore our pain, but to acknowledge it. And I think knowing that Jesus was a man of sorrows, a describes in Isaiah 53 helps us to realize that we can acknowledge the sorrow, too, that we we as people, because of the sinfulness of this world, should have a lot of weeping happening. When there’s loss, it’s okay to weep. In fact, it can be worshipful to weep because it reminds us at the same time, in the midst of weeping, that we weren’t created for this, that when God made us, he made us to enjoy a perfect relationship with him forever. It’s only because of the consequences of sin that we experience loss.
And in that loss, we’re reminded of the brokenness of this world. We weren’t made for death. We were made for life and life forever in God’s presence. And so we better than anyone, should be a people that mourn in loss because we understand the consequences of sin and what it costs us. But at the same time, uh, first Thessalonians chapter four, verse 13 reminds you that in our grief that we’re also to be a people of incredible hope because we realize we weren’t made for this world, and because of what God has done, and his presence is with us, and his presence was made known by him becoming flesh. We’re a people of incredible hope that this this is as bad as it gets if you belong to the Lord. And with that, then comes this great anticipation that everything’s going to be restored. And so we walk hand in hand in the midst of that. And so while Jacob is filled with the promises of God, he also walks in the midst of struggles. And and here we’re seeing that God is rubbing the ointment of his promises to Jacob’s wounds. He goes on and says in these verses, verse nine, he says, we’ve read this already. But God appeared to Jacob again. And when he came from Aram and blessed him, and God said to him, your name is Jacob. No longer shall you be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.
So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and the king shall come from your own body. 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. So here’s what God is doing. He’s he’s rooting Jacob in the promises that he has faithfully given to Abraham, to Isaac, and now to him. And he’s saying to Jacob, Jacob in chapter 28 of Genesis, I promised you this, and now I’ve brought you back into the land, and you see how my hand has worked in your life. Even in struggle I have blessed you. I’ve brought family around you, the 12 tribes of Israel listed in verse 21. So you’re seeing his divine hand in the midst of struggle that God is faithful. And here’s what I want you to see in this passage. I think the the most important phrase in all of this, while you’re you’re thinking about God again, showing up and the idea of blessing and all the description of blessing goes on in verse 11 and 12. I think the most important phrase in this section is found in verse 11 where he says, And God said to him, I am God Almighty. Everything that you have in the Lord is only as secure as as the one that you’re trusting in.
Meaning if God is not able, then God should not be trusted. But when you understand the greatness of who God is, that’s what gives us the confidence to believe what God says. I find this, that one of the most important things when someone becomes a new believer in Christ is to start to diminish how they look at themselves and start to elevate how they look at God. And let me be clear on this. I’m not saying you’re worthless. I’m not. I’m not saying that I’m not. I’m not telling you to to go degrade yourself. I’m not saying that. But what I am saying is we have a tendency as human beings to boast in ourselves, to think about how great we are and lower the greatness of who God is. And the reason we do that is because of our sinful nature. All the way back from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve believed the lie that they knew better than God, and in so doing, we tend to put our trust in ourselves and what we can accomplish and not our trust in our Lord and what he has accomplished in our behalf. But I think one of the most valuable things that can happen in the life of the believer is start. Stop looking at the greatness of who they are, and start looking at the greatness of who God is.
Because the more familiar you come, you become in the power of who God is in your life. The more you’re going to see who God has made you to be in him, which is far greater than anything you’ll do in your own strength anyway. And this is exactly what God is acknowledging for Jacob. Remember who I am because my presence and my promises are established on my authority. And when you come to understand the greatness of this God, it it allows your soul to rest in his presence no matter what the circumstance brings. And so Jacob is in the midst of loss. This is what’s churning in his heart. And and it goes on from there. And and you see in these next verses, Jacob went up on the place where he had spoken, and Jacob set up a pillar, and he’s worshiping God, which when you start to discover God in this way, the only incredible response that you have, I think the only the only reasonable response that we should have is worship to the Lord. Lord, Lord, show me more. Reveal to me more. God, teach me about who you are, because I understand on that basis becomes everything that I will do. In your greatness. Which again, Jacob is in the midst of that reminded of difficulty, because in these next verses, this is the passing of Rachel, and not only the passing of Rachel, you see something even more.
Well, it’s something additionally difficult in this passage, you see. Then they journeyed from Bethel, and well, when they were still some distance from Ephrath, uh, Rachel went into labour and she had a hard labour. Verse 17. And when her labour was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, do not fear, for you have a son. And as her soul was departing, for she was dying. She called his name Benoni, but his father called it Benjamin. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is, in Bethlehem. And Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb that is a pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day. Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. And then verse 22, something interesting here. While Israel lived in the land, Reuben went and lay with Billy, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. So here they are again, listing these hardships. Right, Rachel? Rachel passed, and Jacob’s trying to weep and mourn in the midst of holding to the promises of God, though what we are in a fool to lose, what we cannot keep, to gain what we cannot lose in the Lord. To let go of those things. But what we have in Christ is never truly lost. That Jacob has an ultimate hope. Through this there’s this weeping and mourning, but also this cherishing of this God who has blessed him again and again.
And then this really challenging verse. It seems almost odd to mention it, but Reuben sleeps with his father’s concubine, if you remember. And I’m not saying this is a perfect family, all right, by any stretch of the imagination, but but Jacob, he had four wives or two wives and two concubines, which would have been like saying his third and fourth wife. And when Rachel died, Reuben, who was the son of Leah, became concerned of what was going to happen to his mother. Remember, Jacob didn’t love Leah like he loved Rachel, and out of concern for his mother and wanting her to take the position of the next matriarch in line, he goes and sleeps with one of his father’s concubine in order to shame her so that Leah would be elevated. This family certainly broken, but. But what’s important to remember is that they’re also forgiven. In the midst of that mess, God still chooses to walk with them by his grace, again and again. Now I don’t have time to to go through the rest of this, but let me just let me just cap it for you. And I’m going to look at chapter 36 give you the last point. But but you continue to see this in verse. The next verse is verse 23. I think I refer to it as 21, but 23 he starts to list for them the, the, the, the lineage of Israel. And how God’s hands been with him.
And then you see at the end the last couple of verses here, verse 27 2829, the death of Isaac again. So here he is in the midst of blessing and hardship, finding God in his struggle, God being faithful, knowing because of God’s faithful hand what he has in the Lord is not ever truly lost. Which leads me to point number four. Bethel reminds us that while people may disappoint, God is always faithful. God is always faithful, and he uses this in the midst of really a broken family. If I just, I’m not going to go through chapter 36 because it’s genealogy. Okay, but but I want you to I want you to just see some highlights of chapter 36, because the importance of chapter 36 is really made known throughout the rest of the Old Testament in the lineage of Esau. But in chapter 36 it says, these are the generations of Esau, that is Edom. Verse one, verse eight, it goes on and says, So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir. Esau is, uh, is Edom. Verse nine, these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites and the hill country of Seir. Timnah was a concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son. She bore Amalek to Eliphaz. Here’s what it’s saying. Here. You have two brothers raised in the same household, and their parents loved the Lord. Isaac and Rebecca. They love the Lord. And they had two boys, and one chose to follow the Lord and the other one didn’t.
As parents, it just is a reminder you can do the best you can to point your kids to the Lord, but at the end of the day, they’ve got to make the choice of what they’re going to follow. And here you see Jacob following the Lord. But Esau, he he had God’s hand all over his life, but God was never in his heart. And one of the things this chapter wants you to see is from Esau’s lineage come the Edomites. And the Edomites go on to be a thorn in Israel’s side even into the time of Jesus. You’ll read books at the Old Testament. King Saul had a war with the Edomites. King David had a war with the Edomites. The book of Obadiah deals with the Edomites and not just the Edomites. There was also the Amalekites that came from Esau. Esau had the son of Amalek from a concubine, and because he came from a concubine, he was not acknowledged from the lineage of the Edomites. But he had the Amalekites and the Edomites that war against Israel, to the point that even when Jesus was born, Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, wrote that King Herod, the king of the land where Jesus was born, was himself an Edomite, and he was the one that gave the order to kill all the children. Two years and under in the town of Bethlehem, Edomites continued to be a thorn in the side of Israel up until, um, the even until the birth of Christ.
And for us, it’s it’s to to be reminded that, you know, people might disappoint you in what they do. But but God is always faithful. And for us as we think about our own time and life and putting our trust in Jesus. And sometimes those the thought of how people can respond play into how we might make a decision of Christ. What will what will people say? What will people do? But to be reminded of the presence of God in your life? The grace of God made known that what you have in Jesus will never be truly lost. That that God gives you his power in the midst of the storm, that God desires to walk with you, that regardless of what people do or don’t do, it should never, never lead you astray from where God has called you, which is in his presence. Because it’s his presence that holds us secure, his presence that gives us what we we need. And then in Genesis 37, verse one, it goes on and says, Jacob lived in the land of his father, sojourning in the land of Canaan. The way chapter 37 kicks off is just seeing through all the trouble. God has faithfully delivered Jacob to be exactly where he wants us, wants him to be. In Second Corinthians five seven tells you, as a believer we are called to walk by faith, not by sight.
And that doesn’t mean, look, you need to live ignorantly and just kind of hope that you’re right in your Christian faith. What it what it’s saying to you, rather is for us. Circumstances around us may look difficult at different seasons of life. There may be adversity, but it doesn’t make God untrue and it doesn’t make his presence unreal. What it means is you’re just going through difficult circumstances. But what’s important to remember is that God is faithful and he carries you through. And one of the one of the Christians, I think that was such a beautiful testimony. And walking by faith and not by sight is a lady by the name of Fanny Crosby. I jokingly, as I was looking up her story to share with you, I kept referring to her as freaky Fanny, because there’s not a picture of Fanny Crosby where she smiles. It just is. It is just not a good look. At one point she told her smile for any right eye will come across a little better to the people. But, um. Fanny Crosby was born in the 1800s. She was born in 1820 to 1915. And when she was just a baby, she got an eye infection. They took her to a doctor. They ended up being a quack doctor, and the doctor applied something to her eyes that, rather than help, actually made her permanently blind.
It scarred her eyes, made her permanently blind, and right after she was blinded as as just a baby. Her father soon passed away and her mother, 21 years old, went back to the workforce and gave Fanny Crosby to her grandmother to raise, while her mom went out to earn a wage in order to pay for her daughter, Fanny Crosby went on to a school for the blind in New York, and she ended up becoming the greatest hymn writer and really, all of American history. Uh, it’s estimated she wrote over 8000 hymns. Probably the the most popular you would know is Blessed Assurance. Um, she she did all this while being blind. 8000 hymns. In fact, so many people believed that it was impossible for someone to write 8000 hymns, that she started to go by pseudo names. She in her lifetime had over 200 pseudo names that she went by. Just just because people would not believe that she actually wrote those hymns, and her life was given over to the work of God. She received, um, somewhere between 1 to $2 for every hymn that she wrote. She would be equivalent today to like a, I think, more like a Taylor Swift. If you’re a swiftae here, I feel bad for you, but but I can. I feel worse for Laker fans. Okay, but it’s sorry. I shouldn’t shouldn’t do that. Um she she was that that type of popularity in the 1800s as a singer songwriter and Fanny Crosby though she lived her life for the Lord, she she eventually moved to inner city New York and not just anywhere and to the most impoverished areas of New York, because she wanted to serve the poor.
The money that she made in writing him, she used to give back to the people in her area because she just she ministered to the poor. And she said this about her life and thinking about that doctor, she says, I have not, not for a moment in more than 85 years, felt a spark of resentment against him because I have always believed that the good Lord, by this means, consecrated me to the work that I am still permitted to do, that she she really discovered who she was through her adversity, and she went on and said, this God will answer your prayers better than you think. Of course, one will not always get exactly what he asked for. We all have sorrows and disappointments, but one must not forget that if God, if commended to God, they will issue in good. His own solution is far better than any we could conceive. The only way you get to that conclusion is for your life to be overwhelmed with the greatness of who God is, but when you discover it, it gives you the confidence to move with him through anything you face. Because of his grace made known in your life.