We’re going to begin our message tonight by reading through our passage of Scripture, which is Psalm 24:3-6:
3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. 5 He shall receive blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face. Selah
Who may ascend the hill of the Lord and stand before God’s presence? The answer to this question is that those who are of the generation of Jacob may stand in the beauty of God’s holiness. This passage reminds me of the praise song entitled “Give Us Clean Hands.”(1) The words to this song say, “Give us clean hands. Give us pure hearts. Let us not lift our souls to another. Oh God, let us be a generation who sees, who seeks your face, oh God of Jacob.” When I hear this song it makes excited to envision a new generation of worshippers arising who seek after God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength and who are willing to sacrifice their very lives to follow hard after Christ.
I believe that every so often a generation is born that truly runs after the heart of God. The evidence in Scripture is clear that some generations chased after idols and foreign gods, while others bowed down in submission to the God of Israel. For example, David was a man after God’s own heart and the people of his reign truly sought the Lord. However, his grandson Rehoboam sowed seeds of disobedience and ultimately bondage for Israel. Through a careful study of what it means to be the generation of Jacob we can learn some concepts that will help us understand how to be a generation who seeks the Lord and how to be someone after God’s own heart, as was David.
We need to understand that the term “Jacob” is a general classification for any generation in which many people turn to God and seek to worship Him. You have to wonder, though, why the term “Jacob” was chosen when the biblical character Jacob didn’t always demonstrate great faith. One example of Jacob’s lack of faith was when he panicked in the presence of God’s messengers, or angels, when he found out that his brother Esau was coming to meet him. Even though angels were in his presence, he divided his family and servants, relying on his own human reasoning for protection instead of trusting in God’s deliverance (Genesis 32).
Jacob may have experienced doubt at times, but he still understood how to worship God. As we will come to discover, much of his desire and understanding of how to worship came from his life experiences – from both time in the valley and on the mountaintop. There are some qualities that we can learn from Jacob that will help us understand how to be true worshippers. Some of our insight into worship will be taken from Psalm 24, verses 3-4, and other helpful information will be gained from viewing some selected Old Testament passages about Jacob.
Looking at Psalm 24:3-4, it says, “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.”
We read here that those of the generation of Jacob who are able to enter God’s presence must have clean hands, a pure heart, and have not lifted their soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully. We are going to group “clean hands and a pure heart” together, and “idol worship and swearing deceitfully” together, and examine these concepts in this particular order.
Point # 1: The Generation of Jacob Knows Jesus Christ
There is an underlying message contained in the admonition to have clean hands and a pure heart. These words speak of the salvation that was to be later revealed in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. You see, the Hebrew words translated for us in the English as “clean” and “pure,” also have other meanings in the Hebrew. That word “clean” can also mean, “blameless, exempted, free, guiltless, and innocent.”(2) When Jesus died on the cross He took all of our guilt, and bore all of our sins so that we could be innocent and free from the wages of sin, which lead to death (Romans 6:23). Jesus did this so that we might be made free (John 8:36). If we have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord, then our hands are free from the chains of sin.
Concerning the word “Pure,” it can also mean, “beloved,” and is similar to the Hebrew word for “son or heir.”(3) We learn from Galatians 4:1-7 that God has adopted us out of bondage to be His sons and daughters, or heirs, because Christ paid the redemption price which bought our lives and broke the shackles on our hearts.
The bottom line here is that if you want to worship God, then you must first know Him, and the only way you can know Him is through the mediation of Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 2:5-6 clearly states, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all.” Jesus has given us clean hands and a pure hearts and made us holy, so that we might ascend the hill of the Lord and come into God’s presence.
Point # 2: The Generation of Jacob Looks Only To God
The expressions of not lifting one’s soul to and idol and not swearing deceitfully speak of taking our eyes off of God. Concerning the mention of “idolatry,” the definition is that it is an “immoderate attachment or devotion to something,” and “loving or admiring to excess.”(4) Idolatry is an extreme obsession with any person, place, thing, or idea. It is a distraction to our “focus on” and “devotion to” God. Idolatry comes in many forms, but the most common manifestation of idolatry in America is materialism, and Colossians 3:5 says that covetousness – or desiring earthly, material things – is idolatry.
In today’s society instant gratification is our motivation. We can’t seem to wait to obtain something we desire, but what we want may not be what we need. Jesus tells us not to fret over earthly things, that God already knows what we need and will provide for us. Concerning the desire for fine clothing Jesus says, “Why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither [labor for] nor [sew clothing]; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not [clothed] as one of these” (Matthew 6:28-29).
We, as American Christians, have subscribed to the theology that God’s blessings come through material bestowals, and that if we’re not healthy and wealthy that we are out of God’s will. Through this reasoning, however, we would have to conclude that Jesus was out of God’s will, because He said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).
Many of us claim to be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, but we don’t always act like it. We “swear deceitfully,” as we read in Psalm 24:4, meaning that we say we are one person, but inside we are another. We say we worship God, but what we really worship are perhaps material possessions.
If we are going to be of the generation of Jacob and truly worship God, then we have to stop allowing Satan to distract us from God through the desire for worldly gain. We have to stop worshipping or idolizing new cars or homes. We have to stop working toward, stop daydreaming about, and stop allowing our hearts and minds to bow down to and serve the creature rather than the Creator.
If you have ever heard the expression “creature comfort,” Webster’s dictionary says it means, “something (as food, warmth, or special accommodations) that gives bodily comfort.”(5) You see, many of us are in the habit of worshipping the creature, and the things associated with it, rather than the Creator; and we have to stop this mindset and behavior in order to truly worship the Creator God.
Point # 3: The Generation of Jacob Finds Fulfillment Only in God
Before we will totally submit our lives to God and bow down to Him we have to come to a point where we realize that fulfillment can’t be found from the things of the world, its pleasures, or its ways. Jacob had to find this out the hard way.
In Genesis 27:41-46, we read that because Jacob had deceptively obtained Esau’s blessing from Abraham, that Esau wanted to kill him. Instead if killing him, Esau excommunicated Jacob and sent him to Padan Aram to leave his family that he so dearly cherished. Jacob had found his fulfillment in his family, especially his mother who favored him above Esau, but he was forced to give up everything. So, what does the Scripture tell us happened to him immediately after he lost what he loved in the world?
Genesis 28:10-22 shows us that God spoke to him in a dream. In that dream Jacob saw a ladder ascending into heaven, possibly ascending the hill of the Lord as we read in Psalm 24:3. At that moment Jacob’s hope turned from his reliance on his family to a trust in God, to which God responded by telling him “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go” (Genesis 28:15). And when Jacob awoke from his dream he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it!” (Genesis 28:16). God was with him all along, but he didn’t realize it because the things of the world had formerly distracted him.
When Jacob learned to turn from the things of the world and seek God, then he ascended the hill of the Lord and worshipped. Scripture shows us that he actually stood in God’s presence, because Jacob declared, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Genesis 28:17).
We learn in Genesis 29 and 30 that Jacob went and dwelled with his uncle Laban in Haran. While he was there the things of the world distracted him once again – actually it was a woman who stole his attention from God. Genesis 29:17 shows us that Jacob was to choose a wife among Laban’s two daughters, Leah and Rachel. We read that he chose Rachael because she was physically attractive, and he passed up Leah because the only good quality she had was gentle eyes. Go figure! Jacob allowed his lust and passion to cloud his judgment.
He worked seven years for Rachael, only to be tricked on his wedding night and wake up in the morning to find that is was Leah to whom he went to be with in the dark room. Because he was so set on Rachael, he worked another seven years for her and when he finally got her he found out she couldn’t have any children and she was a thief (Genesis 29:31; 31:34). Jacob tried to make his own way in the world apart from God only to find that he couldn’t do it alone, and that his own ways led to misery and strife.
God came to Jacob in his time of self-inflicted trouble and told him he needed to be reconciled to his brother Esau (Genesis 32:1-6). When he heard that Esau was coming to meet him he fled and struggled with God on the matter of meeting Esau (Genesis 32:22-32). He didn’t just struggle mentally, spiritually, and emotionally, but he physically and literally fought with God. We read that he wrestled with an angel, and in Genesis 32:30 Jacob said, “I have seen God face to face.”
Jacob fought with God because he didn’t want to be blessed in God’s way, but in his own way. He had a preconceived idea about prosperity and it involved women and earthly possessions. God sought to bring him back to his brother for a blessing and provision, but he fought the Lord because he was too scared to trust that God would protect him, and too proud to humble himself before Esau.
While he fought with God he asked the Lord to bless him before he would let go of his struggling (Genesis 32:26). Jacob wanted to be blessed through his own notion of what it means to be blessed. In application, many of us see other Christians who have a large house or a new car and we become envious, and we struggle to get these things even though they might not be God’s will for us. We fight with God and say, “Why don’t you bless me like you have blessed my neighbor?” God’s intention is to bless us, but we must trust that His ways are perfect and that His blessings are always better for us than what we can imagine.
When Jacob refused to let go until God blessed him, the Lord “touched the socket of his hip” or the “sinew of his thigh” and made his hip come out of joint (Genesis 32:25). Commentator J. H. McConkey gives us an illustration that helps in understanding why God did this to Jacob. He shares the following account, “We said to a physician friend one day, ‘Doctor, what is the exact significance of God’s touching Jacob upon the sinew of his thigh?’ He replied, ‘The sinew of the thigh is the strongest in the human body. A horse could scarcely tear it apart.’ God has to break us down at the strongest part of our self-life before He can have His own way of blessing with us.”(6)
As Jacob struggled with the Lord, God broke him right then and there. We have to come to a point of brokenness about our own ways and our own life before we will ever surrender and submit to God. We have to be humbled before we will bow down and worship the Lord. After Jacob was humbled we read in Genesis 33:3, “Then he crossed over before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came to his brother.” Jacob finally submitted to God’s will for his life after he was humbled and realized that he couldn’t make it without the Lord’s help. To be of the generation of Jacob we must realize that we cannot find fulfillment in the things of this world. Our eyes must be totally fixed on the Lord.
Point # 4: The Generation of Jacob Seeks Reconciliation
At the command of the Lord, Jacob sought to be reconciled to Esau. Only after Jacob and Esau had resolved their differences was Jacob blessed. We read in Genesis 33:17 that, after reconciling with Esau, Jacob was able to build a house and make stables for his livestock, and live in peace.
Before we can ever hope to come into God’s presence in worship and live in the peace of His blessings, we have to be about the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 tells us that God “has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
Reconciliation is forgiveness. There is no way we can worship God if we have not forgiven someone, because we harbor bitterness in our heart and bitterness is a distraction to worship (see Matthew 5:23-24). If we desire to be of the generation of Jacob and not become distracted from worshipping God, then we must learn to either forgive those who have hurt us, or ask forgiveness from those whom we have hurt.
Time of Reflection
If we wish to ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in God’s holy place, then we must show forth the characteristics of the generation of Jacob, the generation that seeks God’s face.
From the four main points we have looked at, one common trait can be identified with the generation of Jacob, and it is the trait of self-sacrifice. We must get rid of the “self” that is in us before we can bow down to God. Instead of placing any value or worth on our own lives, we must place God in the position of worth, because that is what the word worship means. Worship means to place something in a position of worth.
Paul said it best when he stated, “I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ . . . that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:8, 10).
NOTES
(1) Passion, “Give Us Clean Hands,” taken from the album One Day Live, 2000.
(2) James Strong, “naqiy,” Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Peabody, Mass.), taken from page 80 in the Hebrew Dictionary, number 5355.
(3) Ibid., “bar,” taken from page 23 in the Hebrew Dictionary, numbers 1247, 1248, and 1249.
(4) Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed. (Springfield, Mass., 1996).
(5) Ibid.
(6) P. L. Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: A Treasury of Illustrations, Anecdotes, Facts and Quotations for Pastors, Teachers and Christian Workers (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, 1996).
