BURIED UNDER THE OAKS OF SHECHEM
Written by Rev Fred Parker
November 6, 2004
FOCUS
As we peer into the subdued shadows of our pasts, it is often extremely difficult to discern those indiscriminate things that are disturbing our devotion to God in the present. ___ E. Fred Parker (November 6, 2004)
TEXT:
Gen 35:1-4
1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
2 Then 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:
3 And let us arise, 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.
4 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. KJV
SHECHEM
1. Also called SICHEM and SYCHEM, a district in the central part of the land of Canaan.
2. Also called SYCHAR, a city of refuge in Mount Ephraim
(from Nave’s Topical Bible, Electronic Database Copyright © 1990 by Biblesoft, Inc. and TriStar Publishing)
John 4:5-7; 16-24
5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
SCRIPTURE LESSON:
Gen 12:5-7
5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. KJV
Joshua 24:25
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.
INTRODUCTION:
Some are often bound by the deviate acts of their ancestry; however, they may be loosed by their display of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ in the present. As we peer into the subdued shadows of our pasts, it is often extremely difficult to discern those indiscriminate things that are now haunting our present. Our past as well as our refusal to acknowledge the need for repentance often keeps us from walking in complete victory. It is quite interesting that things that were buried generations before Jesus met the woman at the well had to be dealt with before she could experience total victory and complete deliverance from her sins. It was only after the sins of adultery and promiscuity were revealed that she was able to walk in complete victory with Jesus Christ. What had been hidden under the oaks of Shechem from generation after generation was not revealed until the “Light of the World” stood before an adulterous woman illuminating her dark past and lighting her path.
Friend, it does not matter how long sin has been buried it does not decay. As a matter of fact, it grows like a kudzu vine and will eventually kill anything in its path. There are some things that we may do to halt it’s tentacles and kill it’s progression. We find at least three things in our text today. We must
• Put away the strange gods that are among you,
• Be clean, and change your garments:
• And let us arise, and go up to Bethel;
• I will make there an altar unto God,
I. Put away the strange gods among you…
A. Idolatry is worshiping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshiped. ___Augustine.
B. Where is our loyalty and dedication?
How far does your loyalty go?
A young man in the army confided to his preacher that he never went about with another girl if he was within fifty miles of home, his loyalty went fifty miles. How far does your loyalty to Jesus Christ go?
Babe Ruth …The Great Bambino
One of the all-time greats in baseball was Babe Ruth. His bat had the power of a cannon, and his record of 714 home runs remained unbroken until Hank Aaron came along. The Babe was the idol of sports fans, but in time, age took its toll, and his popularity began to wane. Finally, the Yankees traded him to the Braves. In one of his last games in Cincinnati, Babe Ruth began to falter. He struck out and made several misplays that allowed the Reds to score five runs in one inning. As the Babe walked toward the dugout, chin down and dejected, there rose from the stands an enormous storm of boos and catcalls. Some fans actually shook their fists. Then a wonderful thing happened. A little boy jumped over the railing, and with tears streaming down his cheeks he ran out to the great athlete. Unashamedly, he flung his arms around the Babe’s legs and held on tightly. Babe Ruth scooped him up, hugged him, and set him down again. Patting him gently on the head, he took his hand and the two of them walked off the field together.
Source Unknown.
Duet 6:4-5
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. KJV
Isa. 44:6-8
6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
7 And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.
8 Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any. KJV
Isa 42:8
8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. KJV
Isa 43:10-11
10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. KJV
Isa 44:8
8 Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any. KJV
Isa 45:6-7
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. KJV
1 Tim 3:16
16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. KJV
Statue of Buddha
Hideyoshi, a Japanese warlord who ruled over Japan in the late 1500s, commissioned a colossal statue of Buddha for a shrine in Kyoto. It took 50,000 men five years to build, but the work had scarcely been completed when the earthquake of 1596 brought the roof of the shrine crashing down and wrecked the statue. In a rage, Hideyoshi shot an arrow at the fallen colossus. "I put you here at great expense," he shouted, "and you can’t even look after your own temple." Today in the Word, MBI, August, 1991, p. 23.
Semper Fi
One of the most tragic events during the Reagan Presidency was the Sunday morning terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, in which hundreds of Americans were killed or wounded as they slept. Many of us can still recall the terrible scenes as the dazed survivors worked to dig out their trapped brothers from beneath the rubble.
A few days after the tragedy, I recall coming across an extraordinary story. Marine Corps Commandant Paul X Kelly, visited some of the wounded survivors then in a Frankfurt, Germany, hospital. Among them was Corporal Jeffrey Lee Nashton, severely wounded in the incident. Nashton had so many tubes running in and out of his body that a witness said he looked more like a machine than a man; yet he survived.
As Kelly neared him, Nashton, struggling to move and racked with pain, motioned for a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote a brief note and passed it back to the Commandant. On the slip of paper were but two words -- "Semper Fi" the Latin motto of the Marines meaning "forever faithful." With those two simple words Nashton spoke for the millions of Americans who have sacrificed body and limb and their lives for their country -- those who have remained faithful. J. Dobson & Gary Bauer, Children at Risk, Word, 1990, pp. 187-188.
II. Be clean, and change your garments…
A. Some things Mama always told me,
a. Even poor people can afford soap.
b. You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.
c. A mule dressed in a tuxedo is still a mule.
d. A hog will always return to the waller.
Their Clothes Just Weren’t Right
In 1884, a young man died, and after the funeral, his grieving parents decided to establish a memorial to him. With that in mind, they met with Charles Eliot, president of Harvard University. Eliot received the unpretentious couple into his office and asked what he could do. After they expressed their desire to fund a memorial, Eliot impatiently said, "Perhaps you have in mind a scholarship." "We were thinking of something more substantial than that... perhaps a building," the woman replied. In a patronizing tone, Eliot brushed aside the idea as being too expensive and the couple departed. The next year, Eliot learned that this plain pair had gone elsewhere and established a $26 million memorial named Leland Stanford Junior University, better known today as Stanford!
Today in the Word, June 11, 1992.
a. Holiness starts on the inside and works out—it does not start on the outside and work in.
b. Adhering to standards of dress do not make you a Christian…you may look holy on the outside and be rotten to the core on the inside. Remember, “A mule dressed in a tuxedo is still a mule.” ___ Traditional.
c. You may fool your friend’s and family but God sees your heart.
III. Arise and go to Bethel (the house of God)…
Jacob’s Dream of the Ladder
Gen 28:17-19
17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.
19 And he called the name of that place Bethel : KJV
Better Business Bureau
A school teacher lost her life savings in a business scheme that had been elaborately explained by a swindler. When her investment disappeared and her dream was shattered, she went to the Better Business Bureau. "Why on earth didn’t you come to us first?" the official asked. "Didn’t you know about the Better Business Bureau?" "Oh, yes," said the lady sadly. "I’ve always known about you. But I didn’t come because I was afraid you’d tell me not to do it." The folly of human nature is that even though we know where the answers lie--God’s Word--we don’t turn there for fear of what it will say. ___ Jerry Lambert.
Ps 73:1-2; 16-17
1 Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
16 When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
Eccl 5:1
1 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God , and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. KJV
Praying Boy
After attending church one Sunday morning, a little boy knelt at his bedside that night and prayed, "Dear God, we had a good time at church today--but I wish you had been there!"
Heb 10:25
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. KJV
1 Peter 4:17-19
17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God : and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. KJV
IV. I will make there an altar unto God…
Gen 35:3 “…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.”
God has once again given us an opportunity to unearth those things, which we may have buried years ago. They may not be buried under the oaks of Shechem none-the-less they are buried. Let’s allow the Lord to shine His revealing light into our souls and reveal those things, which may be causing us so much frustration and grief that we curse life. Francis Scott Key wrote a hymn that speaks so well, concerning what really needs to happen in our spirits today. Listen to the words of this hymn named:
Before the Lord We Bow
Words: Francis Scott Key; Music: "Darwall’s 148 th" by John Darwall; Ps 145:1
Before the Lord we bow, the God Who reigns above,
And rules the world below, boundless in power and love.
Our thanks we bring in joy and praise, our hearts we raise
To heaven’s high King.
The nation Thou hast blest may well Thy love declare,
From foes and fears at rest, protected by Thy care.
For this fair land, for this bright day, our thanks we pay,
Gifts of Thy hand.
May every mountain height, each vale and forest green,
Shine in Thy Word’s pure light, and its rich fruits be seen!
May every tongue be tuned to praise, and join to raise
A grateful song.
Earth, hear thy Maker’s voice, thy great Redeemer own;
Believe, obey, rejoice, and worship Him alone.
Cast down thy pride, thy sin deplore and bow before
The Crucified.
And when in power He comes, O may our native land,
From all its rending tombs, send forth a glorious band.
A countless throng, ever to sing to heaven’s high King
Salvation’s song.
(from Biblesoft Hymnal, PC Study Bible electronic database Copyright © 2003 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
CONCLUSION:
Today if we look closely at Calvary, we will notice another tree where sins are buried. We affectionately call it the “Old Rugged Cross.” One of the differences between this tree and the oaks of Shechem is that our sins are not buried under dirt and rocks but by the blood of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We must ask ourselves this question this morning, “What can wash away my sin?” and we will receive the emphatic answer, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus!” Don’t you feel it is time for you to lay your sin under the blood of Jesus Christ by being baptized in his all-powerful name? Won’t you allow His precious blood to cleanse you from all unrighteousness?
NOTICE:
I have a PowerPoint presentation that goes with this message. If you would like a copy of it contact me @ pastor@firstapostolicms.org
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