All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn back with me to Genesis 35. Genesis 35. The Lord has graciously delivered
Jacob and his family from being overcome with the temptation
to align himself with Nahar and Shechem. the inhabitants of the
land. Nahor had offered to allow the
intermingling of their sons and daughters with the daughters
and sons of with the daughter and sons of Jacob and to dwell
in the land and to trade and humanly speaking it just sounded
good. One might look at that and say, boy, the Lord has surely
blessed me. But the offer was contrary to
the command and the will of the Lord. The Lord had said in Exodus 34,
12, I'll just read this for you. Take heed to thyself, lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, whether thou goest,
lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. We live in a world, we work with
people that are unbelievers, we live in the midst of neighbors
that don't know God, and we wanna be a good neighbor, but you just
can't intimately be associated with them. And the Lord warns
us of that. In Genesis 28, 15, the Lord had
told Jacob, and behold, I'm with thee. and we'll keep thee in
all places whither thou goest, and we'll bring thee again into
this land, Bethel, where he was. The Lord said, for I will not
leave thee until I've done that which I have spoken to thee of. The Lord overruled the men of
Shechem, that place, that city. and he destroyed them, thereby
proving that his word is so. Well, graciously delivering Jacob
from becoming intermingled with these there in that place, the
Lord commands Jacob. He says in verse one, and God
said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel. dwell there and make
there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou
fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother." I looked at that
again this morning, going over my notes. We behold the immutability of
God's love. God is immutable. I mean, He
doesn't change. But he loves his own, he loves him to the
end. If he's ever loved him, he always
loves him. The Lord of heaven, the scripture
declares, he loved Jacob. And according to his covenant
mercy, he commanded Jacob, here in Genesis 31, 3, return unto
the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred, I will be with
thee. And even in Jacob's weakness, this last encounter that he had
Nahar, even in his stumblings, like us, he was fearful, but
God's will will be done. And almighty God did keep Jacob. He did do him good. The Lord
is faithful to his word. And he was gonna cause Jacob
to see himself. in Jacob's weakness and calls
Jacob to remember something of his weakness and his proneness
to waver. It's like John was told by the
Lord when John was on the Isle of Patmos there in the book of
Revelation. The Lord said to write a letter,
write a letter to seven churches of Asia. And in Revelation 2.5,
he wrote this letter and it says, remember therefore from whence
thou art fallen and repent. and do the first works or else
I will come into thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick
out of his place except thou repent. So the Lord is gracious
to move his people to repentance that he might graciously show
them his mercy. And in mercy, the Lord speaks
to Jacob about going to Bethel. Now, this is what, as I read
it this morning, I saw this this morning. I've been looking at
this passage of scripture for a week or so. But this morning,
I read verse one again, and it struck me of exactly what the
Lord said to Jacob. And God said unto Jacob, Arise,
go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto
God." And when I read that, I thought, it would just have, I'd have
thought that it would have said, and God said unto Jacob, Arise,
go up to Bethel, dwell there, and make there an altar unto
me. That's not what he said. He said, and God said unto Jacob,
Go to Bethel, go up to Bethel. and make an altar unto God. Well, having read that, God said,
God said, go make an altar unto God. Well, it stirred me to,
okay, let's look at those two words. Let's look at God and
God. And they're two different words. Two different words for God. God said unto Jacob, Now here's
the first thing that struck me. Verse one just kind of jumped
out. I thought I might just preach on verse one, but I'm not, I'm
gonna preach five. And God said, arise and go up
to Bethel. Well, I got out a map, and I
looked to find out where Bethel was in relationship to Shechem. This is where he's at, he's in
Shechem. Arise, go up. Now in my mind, when I say up,
if I'm going somewhere, if I'm going to Morgantown, you know
where I'm going? Up. I'm going north. I'm going north,
so I'm going up to Morgantown. If I'm going to Clarksburg, I'm
going down, because I'm going south. Well, I looked on a map,
and Bethel is south of Shechem. Bethel is south. of Shechem. And the Lord said, go up to Bethel. So the Lord is giving Jacob a
word to go to a place that is of greater significance, obviously,
than where he is. Go up, go up to Bethel. He starts off and he says, and
God, and that word God there is the word Elohim, and it's
a plural word. It's plural. And the triune God
said, Elohim, plural. The one, same one, I look back
to see who wrestled with Jacob. That one right there. Elohim,
Elohim. And so the plural, the word,
the plurality, Father, Son, and Spirit, and God said unto Jacob,
Arise and go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an
altar unto God. Now that word is El, E-L, E-L,
and it means the one true God. So here's what the Lord said
to Jacob. And Jehovah, Jehovah, the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Jehovah said to Jacob, go up
to Bethel and dwell there and make there an altar unto the
true and living God. Oh, the preciousness and the
exactness of the Spirit of God to set forth the glory of the
Lord God Himself unto His people. The plurality of the Godhead. One God said, you go up and build
an altar to the true and living God. And God that appeared unto
thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Now, whenever Jacob was in Bethel,
at first, when he fled from the face of his brother Esau, the
Lord gave Jacob a vision of a ladder, and it reached from the earth
to heaven. That ladder, upon that ladder
were the angels, and they were ascending and descending. And
the Lord, the scripture said the Lord stood above it, and
addressed himself unto Jacob. He said, I am the Lord, God of
Abraham, of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, the Lamb
whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it to thy seed. And Jacob
said, whenever the Lord awakened him, he woke up, and Jacob said,
surely the Lord, Elohim, is in this place, and I knew it not. And in Genesis 28, verse 19,
the scripture says, 28, 19, and he called the name of that place
Bethel, the house of God. He called that place Bethel. And the scripture says, in verse
20, and Jacob vowed a vow, saying, if God will be with me and will
keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat,
raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in
peace, then shall the Lord be my God. And this stone, which
I have set for a pillar there in Bethel, shall be God's house. Of all that thou shalt give me,
I will surely give the tenth unto thee. So here, Jacob is
met by Elohim, the plural word for God. And the plural word
for God, Elohim, said to Jacob, you go up, you go up to Bethel. Now, that spot where Jacob was. That truly was a place of memorial. He set a pillar there. A place
where the Lord first gave him visions of himself. God gave visions unto Jacob of
God. And the name Bethel, again, it
means, you can read it, it means house of God. And the name of
that city, Bethel, we find that numerous times in scripture,
Bethel. But that name, house of God, it is the setting forth
of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bethel, the house of
God. In him, as I said a moment ago,
in him dwelleth all the fullness of Godhead. And exactly as he
walked this earth, the disciples that touched him saw him. We handled the word of life.
We saw him, we touched him. That's what John said. And he
ascended up into heaven. And those two angels that were
standing there, you men of Galilee, why stand you here gazing into
heaven? This same Jesus that you see in likewise same manner
returned just like that. He's in glory right now. He's
in this place right here, two or three gathered together in
my name. He resides within his people, Christ in you, the hope
of glory. He's at the right hand of the
father. There's a man, there's a man sitting on the throne of
God. God, Elohim, said to Jacob, you
go up. You go up to Bethel. You go up to where God first
met you. And you go to that place that
is a glorious picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who is
truly The house of God, the one to whom we must ever come. I've entitled this coming back
to Bethel. Coming back to Bethel. Bethel
is a picture. It's a type of Christ. And God
said to Jacob, you go up, you go up to Bethel. You go from
the lower place where you are, you go. The Lord said, he that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Go up to Bethel. Oh, how gracious is our God to
restore our soul. You think of all that Jacob's
gone through, through the last 20 plus years that he was gone,
of where he was to, now he's coming back and he's, arise,
go up to Bethel and dwell there. Boy, you just see the beauty
of that, you know, You come back to Him and you dwell where He
is. You dwell with Him. Go up and dwell. This is David's
prayer. This is what David prayed. He
said in Psalm 51, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Uphold me with thy free spirit.
And by the grace of God, God spoke to Jacob in that first
verse. He restores his people. Why?
Because we're naturally inclined to go down. That's just a natural
inclination because of the presence of sin. And the fact that any
of us are still sitting under the sound of the gospel is a
miracle of God's grace. Still longing to hear his word
being proclaimed. God said to Jacob, said unto
Jacob, arise, go up. Verse two, and Jacob said unto
his household and to all that were with him, put away the strange
gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments. Turn with me to Isaiah one. The
Lord had given Jacob a heart to do that which was spoken of
to the Lord's people through Isaiah. Isaiah chapter one, verses
16 to 18. Here's what Jacob said. You hold your place right there
in Isaiah one. Jacob said unto his household and to all that
was with him, put away the strange gods that are among you and be
clean and change your garments. Isaiah 1, 16 to 18 says this. Wash you and make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings
from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do
well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for
the widow. Come now and let us reason together
saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
as white as snow. Let's reason together, the Lord
said. You know, one thing I can tell
you for a fact, and you know this, you don't reason according
to our flesh, according to our carnal notions, according to
our goodness, we don't have any of ourselves, there's none good,
but rather we reason together with the Lord according to the
mercy and the compassion that God has shown us in Christ. This is the only merit of any
reason. Lord, You've shown mercy to me
because of the Lord Jesus Christ and the shed blood that put away
my guilt. Lord, You that chose me in Him. Here's the reasoning. Lord, You've
shown mercy to me. What have I done? You predestinated
me according to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
yourself. You've robed me in his righteousness,
and you've cleansed me in his blood. Lord, and I come to you. I come according to your word,
Lord, accepted in the beloved. So Jacob talks to his household
and he tells them, put away the strange gods that are among you
and be clean and change your garments. Remember when Rachel,
remember she had those gods that she took from her daddy and his
daddy got all mad and he's looking for them and she hid, she sat
on them and she hid them from him. It only said, it only said
Rachel had them there. But now look who he's talking
to. Then Jacob said unto his household, and all that were
with him, put away the strange gods that are among you. Boy, I tell you what, that stuff's
contagious, isn't it? It just, it just, man, we're
so prone to grab hold of gods, little gods. Just put away, put
away the strange gods. It caused me to remember. how
all of us, because of indwelling sin, desire to hold on to the
things that would naturally distract us, things that would steal our
hearts, but for the grace of God. But for the grace of God,
Jacob, if left to himself, he'd probably been just satisfied,
stayed in Shechem. God wouldn't let him. Oh, how needful. Whenever Jacob said to his household,
put away the strange gods that are among you, be clean. Remind
me, remind me how of I need. Lord washed the feet of his disciples.
Remember that? Peter said, you gonna wash my
feet? No, you'll never wash my feet. The Lord said, if I wash
not your feet, you don't have any part with me. We need that
daily cleansing because of the filthiness that we acquire in
our walk. We need to be cleansed by the
hearing of the word. I don't, I started to say, do
you realize what hearing the word doing tonight to us? I don't
realize the fullness of it, I don't. But I know we need it. We need
to hear this. But didn't we just do church
Sunday? Yeah. By the grace of God, we'll do
it again Sunday too. But we need to be here right
now. I need to hear what God has to say. Wash, wash you. Be clean and change your garments. Again, I'm being reminded of
the grace of God who has robed us in the righteousness of Christ's
obedience. I need to hear that. I need to
hear it again. I know that every believer has this knowledge that
there was some point in his life. I've had people ask me, well,
when were you converted? I've told you this before. I said, I don't know. There was a period of time when
I remember the Lord began to deal with me. And I was hearing
the truth. There were struggles, but I know
that there was some point in time, and it's only known to
God, only God knows. 247 on a Tuesday afternoon on
June the 4th, you don't know that, nobody. Only God knows when His people
passed from death unto life. But while we're truly found to
be the recipients, we know we are. And we know we have passed
from death unto life. But still that old man is there
and the flesh is weak and the law of sin is still working within
us, but the Lord is faithful and keeps us and we grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. The Lord is even
now keeping us. Jacob is telling me, he said,
put away. Put away that. All those things that we need,
be reminded of being cleansed by the blood of Christ. Be reminded
of being robed in his righteousness. Verse three and four, let us
rise and go up to Bethel. And I will make there an altar
unto God who answered me in the day of my distress and was with
me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all
the strange gods which were in their hand and all their earrings
which were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the
oak which was by Shechem." How merciful. That the Lord would
give any of us when he said, let us arise and go up to Bethel. That just rings of he that cometh
to me. It just reminded me of that prodigal
son, that story. I love that passage description. I just relate to it daily, daily. He says, I remember a time when
I came back to the Lord, I'm telling you, this is an everyday
thing with me. I will arise and go to my father
and say unto him, father, I've sinned against heaven before
thee. Can you not relate to that every day? Is there a day that
goes by that you, I'll go, Lord, forgive me. You know when this
prayer right here starts for me, Mitch, first time when I
get up, first thing I get, Lord, I'm so sorry. I'm not worthy of the least of
your mercies. I'm not even worthy to be standing here, sitting
here, calling upon you. I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy,
but by your grace, I thank you. Lord, please keep my mind. Please
let me think upon you. Please keep my mind wandering. I'll go back to my father. I
say, Father, I've sinned against you. Yes, heaven before thee. Jacob had been moved to consider
the mercy that God had shown him, instructed his family, put
away these strange gods that we possess. And they did, they
gave them to him. And the scripture says he hid
them under an oak that was by Shechem, under the oak. A fit
picture that the Lord has been pleased. to hide the sins of
his own and blot out our iniquities. Cast them as far as the east
is from the west. Where are the sins? They're behind
his back. I don't know. But I can tell
you this, according to his word, he's been pleased to not impute
them to his people. And that's a great joy. So Jacob
took them. He took those gods and he buried
them. He buried them. He buried them.
One writer said he noticed that he didn't take them and melt
them down and make something else out of them. He didn't even
want them. Whatever they're made out of,
I don't care what they were. Gold, I don't care. I don't want
them. I don't want them. He buried them. Why? He knew something of man's nature.
Knew something of the hindrance and the need of those things
to be removed. If there's going to be a hindrance
to worshiping God, give it up. Give it up. You say, you don't
understand. I understand. They journeyed, verse five, and
the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about
them. And they did not pursue after
the sons of Jacob. You know, it's wonderful. If
you want to turn, I'm going to read a little bit out of John
15 as I wrap this up. How wonderful to know of the
security that we have of the Lord. The Lord is pleased to
tell us something of the world's attitude toward himself and his
people. John 15, 18 to 19, he said, if
the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated
you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his owner. But because you're not of the
world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you. I looked that word up. The world hates you, it hated
me. Here's what it means. To pursue
with hatred. I mean coming after you. That's
the attitude. There's a natural enmity in every
unawakened heart, unregenerate heart. There's a natural hatred
toward the Lord and His people. And I know that because the Lord
said so. But here's where we find out
why. You might say, well, I just don't
think that, evidently they don't hate me that badly because I
don't find anybody pursuing me with hatred. That doesn't mean
God's Word's not so. There's a natural hatred born
in every man, every woman born in this world. There's a hatred
of God and a hatred of God's people. The Lord said there was.
Do you want to know why people are
not pursuing you to kill you right now? Now, I do know that
there have been believers martyred. There's no doubt about it. And
those that have stood for the faithfulness of the gospel and
their love for the Lord and for His people. But if any believer
is martyred, it was because the Lord's will was that they would
be taken out of this world in that way. It was the Lord's will
that they do that. But if God's people are protected,
and if people are not pursuing them with hatred right now, today,
right now, wherever you were today, according to the word
of the Lord, the word of the Lord has set forth in Genesis,
it's what it said, In that fifth verse, they journeyed and the terror
of God was upon the cities that were round about them and they
did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. And that word hatred
means to pursue with hatred. The reason they don't is because
of the terror of the Lord that's been holding them back. That's
the reason they don't. That's the reason they don't.
If it were not for that, The Lord said that they hate
you. Nothing takes place in this world
without his will being done. He watches over his people. I'm
with you. I'll be with you. I'll protect
you. That's what he told Jacob. You
go back home. I'll be with you. I won't forsake
you. I'll keep you. I tell you the reason that all
the friends or whoever of Shechem, where all those men were killed
by Simeon and Levi. I'm telling you, the reason that
they didn't get Jacob and his sons is because God put the terror
upon them. They left them alone. They left
them alone. That's the reason God's people walk in this world,
kept. How thankful we are that we walk
through a world that's confident of his mercy. They say, as David
said, Psalm 23, four, Though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? For thou art
with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Jacob is going up to Bethel. He's going up to Bethel. He's
going up to that place where God first met with him, blessed
him. bringing him back to that place
in peace. Lord willing, we're going to look next time at this
a little bit more at this place called Bethel and what happened,
how Jacob as he was traveling, his wife, Rachel is going to
go into labor. She's going to have the last
of Jacob's sons. She's going to have Benjamin.
I encourage you to read the rest of this chapter. She named that
boy Benoni, Benoni. That's what she named, that's
what. Before Rachel died, her handmaid told her, said, you're
gonna have a boy. He's gonna be, you're gonna be a boy. She was hard in labor. I don't
wanna preach this message, it's good though. She was hard in
labor, and she died. She had a boy, and she named
him Benoni. Jacob said no, his name's Benjamin. Read the rest of the chapter,
Lord, we'll look at it next time.