2024.09.15. Sermon Notes. Genesis 35. GET BACK ON TRACK. JACOB'S REVIVAL
Jacobs return to Bethel, Rachel’s death at Benjamin’s birth.
William Akehurst, HSWC
Revival in Jacob’s Life
BIG IDEA: Jacob is back in the land, but not where he is supposed to be. His misplacement has brought trouble and sorrows to him and his family. But GOD is calling him back. And revival has come to the heart of Jacob.
Are you off course? Get back to where you were on the path with GOD before you went awry. Repent, turn around, go back, and get on track with GOD.
WHEN WE GET OFF COURSE. WE MAY NEED TO GO BACKWARD TO RETURN TO THAT PLACE OF MISALIGNMENT TO GET BACK ON TRACK WITH GOD.
Scriptures: Genesis 35:1-29, Ephesians 4:22-24, Revelation 2:4-5, Isaiah 53:3,
Psalms 110:1, Colossians 3:1
Recap
Jacob is back in the promised land, but not where he is supposed to be.
A wrong choice, to settle in Shechem for 10 years +/-
Dinah – raped by a prince of Shechem of the same name.
Simeon and Levi – murderers of the men of Shechem
All of Jacob’s sons – Plundered the city of Shechem.
Jacob’s anger at his sons’ actions.
Sons’ response – Should Dinah be treated as a harlot? Shows no remorse or repentance.
Why all this? Because Jacob has not completely obeyed GOD.
Chapter 32, it seemed that Jacob surrendered to the LORD, he was broken. Given a new name, ISRAEL, meaning “to be governed by GOD” but was he?
Chapter 33-34, Jacob was off track in GOD’s Plan
End of ch. 34, Jacob is broken.
In these past few chapters, the LORD is not mentioned.
In Chapter 35. We will see that GOD is present in Jacob’s life, directing him.
POINT: GOD let Jacob go his own way, and as a result, Jacob is broken. And now when GOD calls Jacob, Jacob is ready to receive GOD’s direction.
Illus. An employee, Charlie, worked many years for me. When he was diagnosed with cancer, I met with him and gave him a New Testament, from the Gideons. In that Testament, the Gideons have questions in the front and back covers. I told Charlie that he was at a point in his life, where he couldn’t wait any longer, he had to answer those questions. Faced with a critical time in his life, Charlie listened and read those questions and gave his life to Christ. Charlie was born again. He called me from the hospital bed just before he was to have surgery and told me that he had received Christ. But he asked me, Why I had not told him these things before. Well, I had, but Charlie hadn’t been listening. Now in his pain, in his sorrow, he was broken, and in that brokenness, Charlie finally listened and surrendered to GOD.
Genesis 35:1-29
Genesis 35:1. God speaks to Jacob, calling him back to Bethel.
1 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
“Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there”
The whole Dinah/Shechem incident happened because Jacob was not in Bethel where he was supposed to be. Now at last he went where God told him to go.
Genesis 31:13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’”
POINT: Jacob was not where he was supposed to be. Physically and spiritually. And yet GOD by HIS grace spoke to Jacob and called him back to the place of blessing. Where Jacob first met GOD. This is GOD’s gift to an undeserving Jacob. This is GOD’s Grace to you and me.
APPLICATION: GOD is telling you. You don’t have to stay where you are. Get back on track. Go back to your “Bethel”, where you met GOD. Where you first came to love the LORD. It’s not too late to change. It’s time to go back to where you were with GOD, your Bethel. Not a physical location, but the location of your heart.
Change direction. Head a different way.
To make progress in life doesn’t always mean to push forward. Sometimes you must go backwards. Back to where you were in alignment with GOD, before you got off track.
“Make an altar there to God”
Jacob was told to go back to Bethel and resume a life of worship there.
APPLICATION: An altar is a place of worship, and a place of sacrifice.
We are to worship the LORD with all our heart, mind, soul, spirit, strength.
To do so, we must sacrifice ourselves, our ways and our thoughts. Put to death the things that hinder us from giving our ALL to the LORD.
Genesis 35:2-4 The cleansing of Jacob’s family.
2 And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. 3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.
“Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves”
Jacob’s children kept idols, foreign gods, just as their mother Rachel did.
Genesis 31:19 When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s household gods…and she hid them when her father searched them out.
No matter how hard we try to teach our children godly conduct, they will continue to do what we do.
Jacob’s family only got right with God after Jacob himself did.
The father’s role as head of the household has great influence on his family and children. When a father gets right with GOD, his family will change.
“And change your garments”
Clothes weren’t washed as they are today. Jacob wanted everyone cleaned up to go before the LORD. Physically and spiritually.
Ephesians 4:22-24 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
POINT: We too must rid ourselves and our homes of the things that distract us from GOD.
Anything that is ungodly or connected to the occult, get rid of those things.
On my drive to church this morning, I saw Halloween decorations of giant ghouls, ghosts and demons in peoples front lawns! GOD help them! Open their eyes! Open their hearts!
“Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.”
POINT: Hid them means Buried them. To Bury means to Put them to death and bury them.
What things in our lives do we need to put to death and bury, never to dig up and return to again?
God’s protection of Jacob; he comes to Bethel.
Genesis 35:5-7 God’s protection of Jacob; he comes to Bethel.
5 And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. 7 And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.
“The terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob”
God’s protection was on Jacob and his family.
“He built an altar there and called the place El Bethel”
Jacob did what is right in in following after GOD’s will.
An alter, a place of worship and sacrifice of self before the LORD.
Genesis 35:8 Death of Deborah
8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth.
“Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died”
We’ve not heard of Deborah before. We can speculate that when Rebekah met Isaac, that Deborah was one of the handmaids that went with her. Perhaps she was midwife to Rebekah during Esau and Isaac’s birth. It appears that Jacob loved her as part of the family, and the place she was buried, Allon Bachuth means, Oak Tree of Weeping.
Rebekah’s nurse: Some commentators assume for some reason that she came to be in Jacob’s household, coming from his mother’s household, but we do not know for certain if this is the case.
Genesis 35:9-15 God speaks to Jacob again at Bethel.
9 Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. 11 Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.” 13 Then God went up from him in the place where He talked with him. 14 So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.
“Then God appeared to Jacob again… and blessed him”
Jacob finally arrives where GOD told him to go and immediately he is blessed.
GOD appears to him, GOD blesses him, and GOD calls him by his new name Israel.
“Your name is Jacob”
Jacob. Deceiver, Supplanter, Liar…
This reminder was important as Jacob had been acting like the old Jacob instead of Israel. GOD wanted to set his mind on the new man GOD called him to be.
The LORD does the same with us, reminding us who we are in HIM.
“Israel shall be your name”
Meaning Surrendered and Governed by GOD.
“God appeared to Jacob again”
The Relationship was restored.
This was an excellent example of what it means to return to your first love, as in Revelation 2:4-5 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.
Jacob remembered to go back to Bethel. He repented by getting rid of all the idols, and he did the first works by building an altar and worshipping God as before.
“The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land”
A reminder of GOD’s covenant that began with Jacob’s grandfather Abraham, his father Isaac, and now to him. GOD encouraged Jacob to understand and hold onto that promise.
“Then God went up from him in the place where He talked with him”
GOD had appeared to Jacob to bless him after Jacob’s return to his first love.
POINT: Blessings will wait for us until we do what GOD tells us to do.
“He poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it”
Jacob performed sacrificial acts of worship to GOD who had blessed him so much
A Drink offering is to take a drink, and pour it out. GOD has and will provide.
Genesis 35:16-17 The birth of Benjamin, and Rachel’s death.
16 Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. 17 Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; you will have this son also.”
“Rachel labored in childbirth”
Conceived in the Promised Land, Rachel’s childbirth was difficult, to her death.
Genesis 35:18 naming of the last son
18 And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin.
“She called his name Ben-Oni”
Rachel named this last child, “son of my sorrow”. For what should have been a joyous occasion, Rachel was sorrowful, perhaps knowing that her life would end.
“But his father called him Benjamin”
Jacob named the child Benjamin, meaning “son of my right hand.”
SIGNIFICANCE: JESUS is called the Son or Man of Sorrow.
JESUS is the SON of FATHER’s RIGHT HAND.
Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Psalms 110:1 The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
Colossians 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
Genesis 35:19-20 The death and burial of Rachel.
19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.
Rachel’s death was a tragic fulfillment of the curse Jacob himself pronounced on the one who stole the idols of Laban in Genesis 31:32.
In Genesis 30:1, Rachel pleaded with Jacob “Give me children, or else I die!”
Both became true. She had children, and died as a result.
“Jacob set a pillar on her grave”
When we get right with GOD, returning to our first live. It doesn’t mean that life becomes easy. Trusting GOD will bring challenges as HE reforms us.
Genesis 35:21-22 (NKJV)
21 Then Israel journeyed and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. 22 And it happened, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard about it.
“Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine”
RUBEN! SERIOUSLY!????!
Reuben the firstborn sins in the most offensive way against his father and family.
In a family filled with strife and contention and pursuit of the flesh, it’s no wonder. But that’s no excuse.
IMPORTANT: Through their sin Reuben, Simeon, and Levi seemed to disqualify themselves from the high calling of Abraham’s blessing. It will be up to the fourth son, Judah, to bring forth the Messiah.
Genesis 35:22-26 Jacob’s 12 Sons
22 …Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: 23 the sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun; 24 the sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin; 25 the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali; 26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan Aram.
These were the sons of Jacob:
This is a severely dysfunctional family.
And yet, GOD uses this family, not because they were great or spiritual men, but because HE CHOSE THEM BY HIS GRACE ALONE.
JACOB’S STORY AND TESTIMONY
GOD IS GRACIOUS
GOD IS MERCIFUL
GOD IS GOOD
APPLICATION: GOD TAKES OUR MESS AND WILL USE IT FOR HIS GLORY!
Genesis 35:27 Jacob reunites with his father Isaac
27 Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt.
Jacob came to his father Isaac:
More than 30 years have gone by since Jacob left his home fearing Esau’s threat. Jacob probably never expected to see his father again before he died. There is no recorded words of this reunion, but we know that they saw each other before Isaac’s death.
Genesis 35:28-29 Esau and Jacob reunited to bury their father
28 Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. 29 So Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Jacob and Esau had already been brought together by GOD’s hand.
Now united by the death of their father, they buried their father together.
Reunited (at a funeral) to bury their father.
Death brings people together.
JESUS took the bread and said, this is my body…
JESUS took the cup and said, this is my blood…
Do this in remembrance of me.
Luke 22:19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
We are united in CHRIST by HIS death on the Cross
We are united in HOPE by HIS Resurrection to life.
We are united in Destiny by HIS Ascension into Heaven, and HIS Words, I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come back for you.
WHEN WE GET OFF COURSE. WE MAY NEED TO GO BACKWARD TO RETURN TO THAT PLACE OF MISALIGNMENT TO GET BACK ON TRACK WITH GOD.
Let’s pray.
FATHER, we praise YOU for YOUR WORD and PROMISES are Faithful and True.
Purge us by the POWER of YOUR SPIRIT. Lead us in the WAY in all TRUTH. Guide and direct us back to where we may have strayed, to get back on that RIGHT PATH. That we would have LIFE here and now that pleases YOU. Teach us to lay our lives aside to worship YOU. That we would have the HOPE and PROMISE of LIFE ETERNAL in YOUR PRESENCE forevermore. In JESUS Name, Amen.
Be Blessed and Be a Blessing,
Bill
