BACK TO BETHEL
GENESIS 35:1-15
INTRODUCTION… “Kids’ New Years Resolutions” (www.bluefishtv.com)
Today is the first Sunday of 2009 and you may have been thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. Most people do. With a New Year, comes the opportunity for a fresh start. There is something about writing a new year on a check or when you write the date that allows you to have a clean slate. A new year means you again have 365 days to better yourself in a particular area before the next year rolls around. This morning, we will be looking at a passage that relates to these feelings of wanting to start fresh, setting goals, and making a clean break.
Let’s read from Genesis 35. This passage focuses on a man named Jacob who certainly needed a fresh start. Jacob needed a clean slate with everyone around him, his God, and with himself. I don’t know about you, but I can identify with that. Let’s read from Genesis 35:1-15.
READ GENESIS 35:1-15
Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau." 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone." 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. 5 Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. 6 Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. 8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth. 9 After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. 10 God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel." So he named him Israel. 11 And God said to him, "I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body. 12 The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you." 13 Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him. 14 Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. 15 Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.
As we read this passage, we find that Jacob is being called back to a place called Bethel. You see, Jacob had been there before earlier in his life. Genesis 28 (verses 10-22) records for us that Jacob is running from his brother Esau because he monstrously cheated him. Jacob stops at a certain place to rest and has a dream that angels are ascending and descending there and God spoke to him. God shared that He would be with Jacob. God shared that all of the promises of Abraham and Isaac would be Jacob’s. Genesis 28:16-17 says, “When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” He named the place Bethel. It was after this significant event that Jacob meets his wife, Rachel (Genesis 29) and he has so many ups and downs. Jacob marries, has many children (Genesis 29-30), and many years pass by. Jacob becomes prosperous (Genesis 31). Jacob again meets with his brother Esau and is able to ask for forgiveness (Genesis 32-33). Jacob has a daughter who is raped (Genesis 34). Jacob’s life had its ups and downs just like ours. He knew prosperity and sadness. He knew joy and shame. He knew strength and felt weakness. It was after all of this, Jacob needed a new start.
How about you? How was 2008 for you? How have the past few years been? Are you in need of a new start? Perhaps you have known prosperity and sadness, joy and shame, strength and weakness. In Genesis 35:1, God offers Jacob and his family a new start. Verse 1 of chapter 35 tells us that God told Jacob to head to Bethel. Go back to Bethel. Go back to Bethel for a place of renewal. Go back to Bethel for your clean slate. Go back to Bethel to renew yourself. God’s message to Jacob then is the same as His message to us today.
I. PREPARING FOR BETHEL (35:1-4)
Jacob receives the message from God in verse 1 to go back to Bethel, settle there, and build an altar. I think it is interesting that Jacob does not set off right away, but spends time preparing for Bethel. Jacob prepares himself and his family for the journey and for what awaits them at Bethel. Jacob gives his family three instructions on preparing themselves.
First, he tells them to “get rid of the foreign idols you have with you.” It is amazing and sobering and shameful to think that Jacob had idols in his household. Jacob lived in a land full of idol worshippers and over time those idols crept into his home. For some in his household, the Living God as the priority had been replaced by a man made god. And it probably was not something that happened overnight, but a gradual loss of God as the priority. God would have to be the priority for Jacob and his household if a clean slate were to be possible. The Bible is full of this truth over and over. Exodus 20:3 commands, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 34:14, “Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” The message is the same to us. If you want a fresh start and a clean slate, begin by making God the priority in your life: His will be done, His way with money, His way in relationships, His way of spending your time. Over time, other things may have crept into your life and stolen the throne away from God. It is time to put God at His rightful place in your life.
Second, Jacob tells them to “purify yourselves.” The word ‘purify’ here gives us the picture of ‘pure gold’ or ‘cleansed of leprosy.’ I like this word because neither gold nor the leper began clean and pure. Gold has to be refined to become pure and when it is… there is nothing finer. A leper must be healed and their skin restored with no sign of disease… and nothing is quite so soft and lovely as pure skin. Both of these things happen as a process. Jacob is of course speaking not only of the outward appearance of himself and his family, but of their insides as well. Jacob wants their hearts to be pure as gold. Jacob wants their consciences cleaned of the leprosy of sin. A clean heart and mind are important for a clean slate. David knew this in Psalm 51 when he wrote, “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (verse 7) and “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (verse 10). Jesus spoke the same truth in Matthew 23:25-26, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” Jacob wanted himself and his family to get rid of their sin and to be pure from the inside out. The message is the same to us. If you want a fresh start and a clean slate, begin by confessing sin and making things right with the people around you. It is time to fix broken relationships and to ask and give forgiveness. Make the effort to purify yourself.
Third, Jacob tells his family to “change your clothes.” Why would Jacob tell his family this? Were they a bell-bottom family in a capri pants world? Were they wearing last years white sandals after Labor Day? No of course not. The changing of the clothes had nothing to do with fashion, but all to do with what they looked like. Jacob’s family looked like everyone else. They blended in perfectly with the Canaanites, Hittites, and any other ‘ites’ that they came into contact with. His family looked, acted, spoke, and behaved like everyone else. Romans 12:2 cautions and commands us about this, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will.” The message is the same to us. If you want a fresh start and a clean slate, begin by changing those things that make you look like the world. If you look like the world that serves self, Satan, and sin… then you have no witness that you are different. Perhaps it is your clothes. Perhaps it is what you drink. Perhaps it is how you speak. Perhaps it is where you shop. Do you look like the world? A clean slate and a fresh start means that you transform yourself with God’s help to look more like Him and less like the world.
So, Jacob tells his family (35:2), “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.” And what was their response? Verse 4 tells us, “So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.” His family listened. They buried their idols. They buried the rings that made them look like the world. Jacob and his family buried these things and made a fresh start towards Bethel.
PRAYER OF INVOCATION WITH CONGREGATION
If you would stand for a moment, I would like to give us the opportunity to prepare for Bethel ourselves. A clean slate doesn’t just happen. A fresh start must be desired and sought after. I will lead us in a time of prayer about everything we have been talking about.
It is time to cast any idols that have taken God’s place under the oak and bury it.
It is time to throw the rings of gold that make you look like the world into the hole and cover it up.
It is time to make a decision to be godly and not worldly.
It is time to bury those things that have been holding you back.
It is time to make a firm decision and with God’s help… create a clean slate and a fresh start.
Prayer
* Do you need to place God as the priority in your life?
* Do you need to purify your heart and conscience?
* Do you need to make the decision to be less like the world and more like God?
You may be seated.
II. BACK TO BETHEL (35:5-15)
The story of Jacob going back to Bethel does not stop at the first four verses. Jacob and his family prepare themselves for Bethel and set off. I can imagine that Jacob and his family were afraid and unsure and had some doubts. We haven’t touched on this, but the name ‘Bethel’ is a significant one. Jacob was going back to a significant place. The name means “House of God.” When Jacob had his amazing dream in Genesis 28, he knows that such a place with angels ascending and descending could be none other than the House of God. “Beth” means “house” and “El” means “God” so Bethel is the “House of God.”
Guess where you are today? You are in the “House of God.” You have come back to Bethel, like Jacob and you can have a fresh start, just as he did. Today in this place you have the opportunity for a new start… a new beginning. I’d like to reread portions of this passage so that we have a good handle on what is happening as Jacob goes back to Bethel and has his clean slate.
* Genesis 35:5-8 says, “Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. 6 Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth.
I want you to notice that it was not all smooth sailing when Jacob returned to Bethel. God was certainly with them after they purified themselves and committed themselves to God. No one in the land attacked them or otherwise stopped them from traveling and the end of chapter 34 makes it clear that Jacob still had enemies. There was danger all around them.
It is not smooth sailing when Rebekah’s nurse passes away. She would have been the oldest family friend that Jacob knew. She was as close as someone could be without actually being family. What a blow this would have been. I can imagine that Jacob could have had doubts. He was trying to start fresh and yet there are obstacles. There will always be obstacles.
As you start your new year, you must realize that as you head back to Bethel and seek a fresh start, that it will not all be perfect. Things will happen. You will make mistakes. Others will sin against you. All of these obstacles will be put in your path to test you. 1 Peter 1:7 says plainly, “These have come so that your faith-- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” James 1:4 also says, “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Jacob did not sit down and quit and neither should we. Part of a fresh start and a clean slate is not stopping when we hit a bump in the road. Perseverance after failing is key when trying to break old habits and form new ones.
Perseverance after obstacles is key when trying to place God as priority one.
Perseverance after heartbreak is key when mending your heart and starting new.
* Genesis 35:9-15 says, “After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. 10 God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel." So he named him Israel. 11 And God said to him, "I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body. 12 The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you." 13 Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him. 14 Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. 15 Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.”
Bethel became the place of renewal for Jacob. God reminds Jacob of many things as they talk together. God reminds Jacob that He has given Jacob a new identity and named him ‘Israel’ (Genesis 28). God reminds Jacob that He is part of God’s people chosen and blessed by Him. God reminds Jacob that all the promises of Abraham and Isaac are also his. God reminds Jacob of His presence.
The reminder is the same for us. It is my prayer that today, this time and this place, would be Bethel for you. We are in God’s House, let this be a time when you renew yourself and make a brand new commitment to Him. This is the time for you to make a clean break and start over.
This is the time and place where God reminds you that you have a new identity in Christ!
This is the time and place where God reminds you that you are part of the Body of Christ and a community of believers that love Him and care for one another!
This is the time and place where God reminds you that all the promises of Scripture have come true in Jesus Christ and are offered to us!
This is the time and place where God reminds you that He is with you!
CONCLUSION
