Jacob moved & named - Isaac gathered

This is Genesis 35. It's a potpourri, is how I would say it, because there's lots of different kinds of events. Some of them are only stated just with one verse, sometimes even only part of a verse. And so stepping through that, here is the chapter where after about 30 years, Jacob, who left Bethel alone, is now coming with a huge entourage of family members, both multiple wives and concubines and sons and at least one daughter, perhaps more, other servants and herdsmen and great flocks of animals. And so here is they have spent some time in Sukkoth and Shechem. They're now moving down towards the city of Bethel. And just for sake of orientation here, you have the Sea of Galilee on the north end and the Dead Sea there on the south end. Jacob returns to Bethel and starts the process and he buries pagan idols in the process of getting ready for that. God appears to Jacob and makes promises to him, the ones that Courtney just read for us.

Rachel gives birth to Benjamin, Jacob's twelfth son and then dies shortly thereafter, dies in childbirth. Reuben lays with Bilhah, one of the two concubines. Bilhah had been the maid of Rachel. Jacob was quiet about it and we'll take a look at that. Additionally, Jacob's 12 sons are listed by name, all 12 of them for the first time here in this chapter. Jacob goes to see his father Isaac in Mamre, which is near Hebron. And Isaac dies and is buried in the family cave there in Machpelah. And Jacob and Esau come together for what's recorded anyway for the last time.

Now, so here they are getting back to Bethel. The Lord told Jacob to return to Bethel. Go back to this place. You haven't been there, he says, basically for 30 years. I want you to get back there. This is the place where I appeared to you before. This is the place where you had a vision of angels coming and going to and from heaven. Get back there, he's telling him. This is the place where the Lord had not only spoken to him, but made explicit promises that he could count upon.

He said, Jacob, as you travel up to this place here, Paddan Aram, as you travel up there and come back and spend all the time there and through everything that will happen through you, I will be with you. Don't worry. I'll take care of you. I will be with you every step." And he makes that abundantly clear. He says, I'll bring you safely home. We too have a promise from the Lord like that.

In Hebrews 13.5, the last part of that verse says, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. And those are verses that we can count upon, similar to what Jacob had, and even better in some sense, because it's for every single one of us, and we can count upon it all the time. He will never desert us, never forsake us. And by the way, the way that that is written in the original language means not even remotely, and it says it twice. we can be ultimately secure in the Lord's presence with us.

From the evidence of several chapters, including some that we see in this one, we have several passages there in Genesis listed, it appears that God's intent for Jacob was that he get back to Bethel all along. That all this kind of hanging around different places on the way home was not really what God had in mind, it's time for Jacob to follow through and get back there. One of the things that Jacob does, it isn't something that the Lord explicitly had recorded that he had told Jacob, but Jacob tells to his family members, so all the people that are part of his herdsmen and the various servants and whatnot, He tells them all, you need to get rid of all your pagan idols, all these little household gods.

See, they would have gods similar to the ones you see in the picture there that they would carry with them. If someone had a fixed home, they would tend to keep it in the home in a place where they could look at them and hold them regularly. Even jewelry of different kinds, including earrings, would be marked with pagan symbols.

And so he's saying, let's get rid of it all. And so he took what was there that they gave to him. And remember, Rachel was one of those who had some of these. They took all these things and gave them to Jacob and he buried them underneath an oak tree there and left them behind.

Now, what about this idols thing? Is that something we look at and say, well, we don't have that. You know, that was long ago and far, far away, and that's not an issue for us. Well, in 1 John 5, the Apostle John, later in his life, at the very end of 1 John, he says, little children, guard yourselves from idols. Do we have idols in our culture? I mean, at this time, heaven sakes. I mean, we've got iPods, you know. Do we have idols? Well, if you look at it, what is an idol?

It is something that spiritually draws our attention and trust and focus away from the Lord. Anything do that in our lives? Anything prone to that? Yeah, can be. An idol can be anything that calls the shots in our lives where it should be the Lord doing it. Can that happen now? Oh yeah. Yeah, many things can be idols even now, even in this era, even in this era of iPods. Many things can be an idol if they draw our attention away from the Lord. So here's Jacob on telling his family that they're heading to Bethel. He tells them they would build an altar there. The altar would be one for sacrifice and for dedication to the Lord.

And as he tells them about it, he says that God, he testifies, God answered me in the day of my distress, and he has been with me wherever I have gone. Now notice, so far as we know, the Lord said that 30 years ago. But notice that after all this time, Jacob, he doesn't hesitate to testify to that. He says, I've been all kinds of places, I've done things, and some things maybe I shouldn't have done, and some things I should have done. But through it all, the Lord's been with me." He can testify to that. He trusted the Lord for his word.

Jacob testifies to them about God's faithful, continuing presence. And don't we have that very same promise? Didn't we just see that in the Hebrews 13 passage? God's faithful, continuing presence and about God's response to Jacob's prayers. And as we looked at, sometimes the Lord even responding before Jacob prayed. Beginning the response before Jacob even asked.

Something else happened. Thank you. Something else happened along the way. And as they journeyed, okay, as they journeyed, It says here, and this is kind of a unique thing because it's the first time it took place, there was a great terror of them all among the people of the land of Canaan. Now one hazard as one travels in that kind of country is that as you're traveling you make yourself vulnerable to people coming along and wanting to pirate this caravan of people. And instead it says there was this great terror among the people. And that terror seemed to be substantial, huge.

Now, this is the first time that others are fearful of Jacob and his offspring as they walk in fellowship with God. Why do we make note of that? Typically, Jacob had been the one who was afraid. We saw that again and again, starting with chapter 28 on into the prior chapter we just finished last week. Jacob had been the one who was afraid.

Now, for the first time, and we see it's a pattern that continues on into subsequent centuries, Jacob and his descendants are the ones, when they walk with the Lord, that are feared rather than the one being afraid. They're afraid when they don't walk with the Lord. They are feared when they walk with the Lord.

So, be it ever so humble, there's no place like Bethel. Jacob went down to Bethel, the place that he had begun, at least in terms of God's communication with him, begun this travel with here, and he built an altar to the Lord there at Bethel. He named the place El Bethel, which is almost redundant in some sense because Bethel means house of God. But this means the God of Bethel, the God of that place. That's where God had appeared to him some 30 years previously. Here's a timeline. You'll find this on page one of your handout. Let's kind of step our way through it in terms of what's gone on over these last 30 years that we talked about.

Here at point zero, Jacob leaves Bethel for the first time after the Lord had spoken, heads to Paddan Aram, there where Laban and his family are located, and shortly thereafter begins working for Leah. He doesn't know it, but he's working for Leah. He's working for Rachel, he thinks, for seven years, only to find out that he's married to Rachel. after the wedding. And then eight days later, so just basically a week between, he marries Rachel. And then the next seven years is paying off the debt for Rachel. So it's 14 years there working for these two wives. And then from 14 to 20 were times where he just simply worked for Laban. It wasn't working off wives. He leaves for the promised land there at 20 years and then finally, as we're reading here in this chapter, returns to Bethel after these stops in Succoth and Shechem.

Something that happens here in verses six to eight is we see recorded the first of three deaths in this chapter. It's interesting that we see that many significant deaths recorded here. Rebecca's nurse, Deborah, dies. And it's interesting, we don't hear mention of her before. She must have come to be a very special lady among them. to have this noted. It was not something you would expect. So that's a death that's recorded. The barrier beneath an oak that's named basically the Oak of Weeping is the meaning of it. The deaths of Rachel and Isaac follow later on, the second and third deaths in this chapter.

Now, God appears here now that Jacob is in Bethel. God appears to him again. And he blesses him. And then the Lord makes promises to Jacob, similar to the promises that have been made to Abraham and to Isaac before in the chapters we've already studied, starting with chapter 12. Along with those promises, God also tells Jacob to do a couple of things.

One is, I'm going to change your name. Now, he's already told him that, so this is a reiteration of it, a reinforcing of it. Israel, he who strives with God, or you could kind of paraphrase that, a wrestler with God. So that's his name because he had wrestled with the Lord during the night before he encountered Esau. And then the next thing he tells him to be fruitful and multiply. Okay? You didn't see that. Be fruitful and multiply. Oh well, okay. Anyway, as we look in this chapter here, in verses 10 through 12, there's some things we want to take a look at. And this is part of the passage that Courtney read for us.

And these are the promises and the things that he tells Jacob to do. And one, that's what should be called Israel, and that's something that he had said before in chapter 32 that we looked at. He also said, I am God Almighty, which is El Shaddai. This is something that he says several times in the Old Testament, and this is one of them. He said it previously, he'll say it again.

Be fruitful, multiply. That points back to the time in the garden when Adam and Eve were created. It also points back to the time right after the flood when Noah and his family were told to be fruitful and multiply. And then king shall come forth from you. And it starts with the line of David and continues on with that line all the way to Christ himself. One of the things we saw almost a year ago At Christmas time, we looked at Genesis 49, 9 and 10, and that points to the birth of Christ, the one who would be born King of the Jews. And then, finally, I will give the land to your descendants.

And that's one that's been promised previously in chapters 13 and 15 to Abraham, as well as other places. This passage here is packed with things that have been promised before. They're reiterated to Jacob and told directly to him. Now, at this point, God goes up, leaves Jacob there, but Jacob does certain things in response to his relationship with the Lord.

And I think that this is key. He does things in response to his relationship to the Lord. Look at what happens here. As God goes up from that place, Bethel, Jacob responds with, he sets up another stone, a pillar like we have there. a drink offering, pours oil on the pillar, renames Bethel. He does these things in response to his relationship with the Lord. And that's really our situation as well. We are ones who respond to who the Lord is and what He has done and who He has made us to be. We respond to the Lord and what the Lord has said.

Then they go from Bethel to Ephrath. Jacob moves on there from Bethel to Ephrath. It's later called Bethlehem. There's an interesting sequence of names here. Ephrath was the original name of the town there. It's later on called Bethlehem. The Canaanites had an interim name, Bethlehem. Now, what's the difference between those two? Bethlehem. is the House of Bread. Bethlehem, like the Canaanites called it, is to the Canaanite God of War. So the Prince of Peace is to be born in this place here. His name was changed from the Canaanite God of War.

All right, now, this is the place called in Micah 5.2, and a number of you may have read this and wondered, well, why is it Bethlehem Ephrathah? The reason is, it's Bethlehem, this one, with this name Ephrath connected to it. That's why, it's that one, because there's another Bethlehem near Nazareth of a different name.

Now, he goes there, here his wife Rachel gives birth to her second son, Jacob's 12th, but dies in childbirth. Isn't it interesting that later in the same town, Mary would give birth to a son and Mary would live, but her son would die on purpose. Mary would live, but her son would die for her and all others on the planet. Rachel, before she dies, names her son Ben-Oni, which means son of my sorrow. Well, Jacob renamed him with a name that at least starts similarly, Benjamin, son of my right hand.

Jacob buries Rachel there and again, this guy is really into the pillars, right? He goes and puts a pillar there at the place where she's buried. Today, there's no pillar there anymore. Although it says in this passage that the pillar is there. Today that's what you'll find. Rachel's tomb, still there in Bethlehem.

So here is the 12th son, Benjamin. This is a chart that we've had out previously as a supplement. We'll have it out again when we get to chapter 49 when Jacob blesses his 12 sons. and step our way through it. But here now is the all 12 sons, the heads of each of the tribes of Israel.

Okay, now we have this one verse, verse 22, and the way I've titled this is, Reuben's done it now. Okay, Reuben's done it now. Reuben lay with Bilhah, remember there two wives, two concubines. Bilhah was the maid of Rachel. And so Reuben lays with her. And she had become the mother of Dan and Naphtali.

Now there's a couple of different thoughts because the Bible doesn't say why did he do this or how did this come about. In some ways you might be thankful that there's not the detail. But some of the thoughts are one, Reuben was the oldest, the son of Leah. Was he trying to make Leah look more attractive by comparison, by humbling this other concubine? Perhaps.

Another pattern that took place throughout the Middle East was one way to try to usurp power. In a family situation, especially in a situation where there's potentially a lot of power struggle, is to humble the wives or concubines of the one who has the power.

With the incident in the Canaanite city of Shechem, where Shechem, the prince there, lay with Jacob's daughter Dinah, Jacob seems to do and say nothing about this event until Genesis 49. He doesn't, so far as any record comes up, doesn't mention this until years later when he's just about to die. Absalom in the story of King David. Absalom, son of David, lay with his father's concubines and said nothing, and also tried to usurp power. And guess what? David said nothing.

So this is a problem, isn't it? So here is Reuben, the oldest. And by the way, that's going to cost him. Ordinarily, the first place goes in the family to the eldest son. This is going to cost them, and here's Bilhoff, so we see the relationships there. This is one, I've got slides, but not on your handout. For parents, there are three time frames for dealing with things, and the Bible brings up all three.

Okay? One is to prepare the child ahead of time for the time that they will have the need for the wisdom and understanding. Preparing them ahead of time for the issue, whatever it is. Whether it's something for them to pursue or something for them to avoid. So that's the first step. Scripture talks about that in Ephesians chapter 6. It tells fathers that they have a place in their children's lives for the discipline and instruction of the Lord ahead of time. Secondly, there's the opportunity to respond to the situation in the immediate set of circumstances.

Jacob, for example, could have said here, that was not a good thing to do. Reuben, you know, here are the problems with what you just did. And he may even have some kind of consequences near term. But to bring up something, to say this isn't right, He seems to show, however, a repeated pattern for responding long after the event.

Do parents have a chance to do that? Well, yeah, it's not the best choice, but it seems to be the one that Jacob keeps picking, isn't it? Genesis 49, he is blessing his sons, but the first three, for reasons that we'll see in detail here, the first three don't get blessed. He waits till long years after the event, before saying anything.

Here is his words to Reuben, we won't go through it in great detail, other than to say as he gathers the sons together, here's Reuben the firstborn, and what does he do? You're my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power, or at least that's what you had. But verse 4, uncontrolled as water you shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it. And then he turns to the rest of them and says, he went up to my couch. So, he doesn't bring it up until way, way too late.

So we'll see more of that when we get to chapter 49 and look at the time when Jacob blesses his sons. And by the way, many of those are not just statements of blessing, but statements of prophecy. We'll take a look at that when we get there. Here in this chapter is the first list of Jacob's 12 sons. It's the first of at least 19 lists that I could count in the Old Testament. 19 times where here's the sons of Jacob and the tribes that follow after them. And we got part here on one column and I have to go into the next column to complete them. Interestingly enough, Revelation chapter 7, 4 through 8 lists tribes but has some changes. Let's see, we haven't told you yet about the electives for next year. One will be Revelation. We'll go into that then. Okay. So here are the 12 sons. We've shown this chart previously, but here they are, all of them, every single one.

And one of the things we pointed out is who's descended from whom. From Levi, we have Moses and Aaron. And from that family, we have the Levites priests and high priests in Israel. And then from Judah, we have King David, and then descended from King David is the Lord Jesus himself. And then from Benjamin, we have King Saul, a one-man dynasty. And Paul, however, was from the tribe of Benjamin, and he makes note of that more than once. Now, the other thing that comes along here is Isaac's last days. Jacob comes to see his father Isaac and Mamre near Hebron.

We have it here on the map, south of Bethel, west of the Dead Sea, between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean there. Isaac dies and then is buried in the family cave there at Machpelah. This is the one that Abraham had bought when Sarah died, and numerous family members had been buried there in that same place. You have this on the last part of page 2 of your handout here.

This kind of steps through the three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We find Jacob leaves Haran there at age 75 and dies at 175, so 100 years time between those. He is 100 years old when Isaac is born. Isaac is 60 when Jacob is born, and then we have here in Genesis 35 recorded Isaac's death.

But I've got a question for you. Here we have Hebron, the city where Abraham was buried and now Isaac was buried. There's the place here on planet Earth. It's still there. You can go see it. As a matter of fact, it's easier to see it if you're not Jewish, because the Arabs control it. Now, let's ask this question. When Isaac died, was that the end? The passage doesn't talk about heaven or something, or what happens to Isaac afterwards. Is that just the end? Put Isaac down in this hole in the ground, cover it up so it's dark, Is that all? Is that all it is? In Matthew 8, verse 11, our Lord says this, I say to you that many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, a time yet to take place here. We have it quickly charted out.

Here is the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, approximately 2,000 years before the time of Christ, and then from the time of Christ until now, about 2,000 years, and sometime And it could be very soon. I hope it's today. The Lord will come and take us to be with him. But then following a seven-year tribulation period, Isaac and Abraham and Jacob and all the Old Testament saints will come and be here at this time of the kingdom of heaven. The book of Revelation chapter 20 says it's a thousand years long. It's as close as seven years from now, possibly.

But here's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They'll be there. The Lord says so. Here's another one in Matthew 22. And by the way, this chapter records a conversation that was just in the week before our Lord's death. On that day some Sadducees, you've probably heard the old song, you know, they're Sadducee.

Why? Because they say there is no resurrection. This life is all there is. They come to Jesus with a question. I won't go into the details of the question. But their point being that they try to give him a brain teaser that points to, nah, there really isn't a resurrection. This is a question you can't answer. Well, guess what? He answers it. Jesus did answer and said to them, you're mistaken. For you don't understand the Scriptures or the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. Gender isn't the issue.

But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God out of Exodus 3.6? And by the way, the Sadducees only believed in the first five books of the Bible. So Jesus picked one that they would believe in.

I am, present tense, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Why? It's present tense for each one of them. Right now, I'm the God of Abraham, the one who is living. Right now, I'm the God of Isaac. And right now, I'm the God of Jacob. But I've got a question. What about for us? But if we die, put you down in a hole in the ground, What about you and me? When they cover up the door, is that it? When the clods go on or however they do it, is that all? Are we done?

Here's 1 John again. John the Apostle writes and he says, See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us. This is a passage that just about a month before I came here, I was finishing up a class and translating this passage and just as soon as I got through translating those verses, I couldn't see the screen. Nothing was wrong with the computer. My eyes just teared up as soon as I translated it.

See how great a quality of permanent love The Father has bestowed graciously on us that we would be called children of God. And such we are. For this reason, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Ah, yes. It's not just the grave is the end, is it? It's not just, oh, you know, so-and-so is a nice guy, or she was a nice lady, but it's too bad. No. Instead, behold what quality of permanent love the Father has bestowed on us. We are children of God. We shall be like him when he appears. We shall see him as he is, face to face.

The sky shall unfold preparing his entrance. The stars shall applaud him. with thunders of praise. The sweet light in his eyes shall enhance those awaiting, and we shall behold him. Then face to face, we shall behold him. We shall behold him face to face in all of his glory. We shall behold him. Yes, we shall behold him. face to face our Savior and Lord.

The angels shall sound the shout of his coming. The sleeping shall rise from this slumbering place. those who remain shall shall be changed in a moment and we shall behold him face to face and we shall behold him We shall behold Him face to face in all of His glory. And we shall behold Him. Yes, we shall behold Him. Face to face, our Savior and Lord. We shall behold Him. Let's pray. Lord, how marvelous.

What a hope we have that we can look forward to that day. I hope it's today. that we shall behold you. That it's not a matter of we lay the body on the ground and go tsk-tsk and it wasn't too bad. But instead we have this great hope, this certain hope, the blessed hope of seeing you face to face and glorying in that and glorifying you in that forever. We do pray in Jesus' name. Amen.