Genesis Series #59 September 15, 2002
Title: Life Lessons for Our Spiritual Journey
Email: pastorsarver@yahoo.com
Website: www.newlifeinchrist.info
Welcome to New Life in Christ. Today we continue with message #59 in our verse-by-verse study of the Book of Genesis.
Read Genesis 35:1-15
Opening Prayer
Today I will be sharing with you on the topic: Life Lessons for Our Spiritual Journey. The Christian life and spiritual growth can be figuratively described as a journey. It has a beginning point, when we respond to God’s call, and it has a goal, Christ-likeness or spiritual maturity. Along the way in this journey we can experience delays, detours, discouragement, dangers, etc.
In a literal journey, from one place to another, a person may need certain things to help make that journey successful, by arriving at the intended destination. For instance, a person may need a map, a compass, transportation, guidance, provisions, or specific instructions. In a similar way, we need certain things to help us complete our spiritual journey successfully. God has provided these things. They include instructions, provision, encouragement, etc…
This chapter in Genesis is the story of Jacob progressing on his journey toward the goal, after an unnecessary delay in Shechem. His journey figuratively represents our spiritual journey, in the same way as Israel’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt figuratively represents the Christian’s deliverance from the world and slavery to sin. Since Jacob’s literal journey represents our spiritual journey, we can learn from this chapter several important life lessons for our spiritual journey. There are several life lessons for spiritual journey which I will share with you today. The first is this:
1. To make progress on our spiritual journey we must not stop short of complete commitment to God.
Read Genesis 35:1
The city of Bethel was were Jacob had his first supernatural encounter with God, when he had a dream of a ladder reaching to heaven and God spoke to him. Jacob had promised to make the Lord his God and to give him a 10th of all that he had, if the Lord brought him back safely (Genesis 28:20. ) It was inferred in this vow that Jacob would return to Bethel to keep this promise. So in a sense, Bethel represents Jacob’s commitment to the Lord.
The problem was that Jacob stopped short of fulfilling his commitment. For one reason or another he stopped short of Bethel and settled in the city of Shechem. He was in the Promised Land and he was worshiping the Lord (Genesis 33:20), and he had still stopped short of complete commitment. He was like many Christians today who have a verbal commitment to follow the Lord with their whole hearts, but after some time has passed, so does their zeal and commitment to the Lord. They may have some commitment but not complete commitment and this hinders their spiritual progress.
This stopping short of complete commitment to God was keeping Jacob for making progress on his journey in arriving at the destination or goal that God had intended. This is why we see in verse 1 the emphasis God places on Jacob returning to Bethel. During a time of tragedy and trouble (Genesis 34), when God had Jacob’s attention, God specifically tells Jacob to "Go up to Bethel, and settled there, and build an altar there to God. . ."
Jacob had entered and settled in the Promised Land. He had even built an altar to God, but God is still calling him to keep moving, and to keep progressing. It was not enough for Jacob to settle and build an altar in Shechem; he was to go to Bethel, onward to complete commitment to God. This reveals to us life lesson number 1 for our spiritual journey.
1. To make progress on our spiritual journey we must not stop short of complete commitment to God.
Many times Christians find themselves in the same situation as Jacob. Jacob had a relationship with God, he experienced his blessings, and progressed in the right direction, but he did not go all the way, he did not keep going. Christians are in many ways doing the same thing. Many times we enter into a relationship with God and began to experience the blessings of God, and even progress toward spiritual maturity, but then we began to relax our efforts and our zeal and we accept the status quo.
God is calling us to complete commitment but all too often Christians put their spiritual lives in park before they have crossed the finish line. We cannot be content with where we are spiritually. We have to keep going! I hope we do not have to experience trouble and tragedy like Jacob did before we will get moving on again with our spiritual journey.
1. To make progress on our spiritual journey we must not stop short of complete commitment to God.
Read Genesis 35:2-4
2. To make progress in our spiritual journey we must make a complete break with the old life.
Before Jacob and his family could move forward, they had to clean house first. They had to rid themselves of idols, which represent anything which we trust, desire, or prioritize over God. Then they had to purify themselves, which was an outward washing, which represented the inward cleaning the Christian’s experiences as they confess, repent, and renounce sin in their lives. They had to change their clothes, which was symbolic of leaving the old sin tainted clothes behind and putting on garments of righteousness. They even got rid of all their ear rings (verse 4), which apparently had some association with paganism or cultism. In summary, they had to completely renounce and rid themselves of those things which offended a holy God and hindered their spiritual walk.
2. To make progress in our spiritual journey we must make a complete break with the old life.
What does this mean for us on our spiritual journey? It means that we cannot make progress until we willingly lay aside anything in our lives which the Bible or Holy Spirit has shown us is offensive to God. Examples of this might be: ungodly entertainment (TV, books, games, music, etc.), unacceptable relationships, questionable financial practices (taxes, gambling, etc.), sinful habits, occult practices such as astrology, fortune telling, or the psychic hotline. It may be something else altogether, but the point is that you cannot move forward in your spiritual life without leaving something behind!
2. To make progress in our spiritual journey we must make a complete break with the old life.
Now let’s move on to verses 5-7 where we learn a third life lesson for spiritual journey.
Read Genesis 35:5-7
3. God will see that we’re able to complete our spiritual journey.
Keep in mind that two of Jacob’s sons had killed the men of Shechem; therefore the people of Canaan were likely to seek vengeance on Jacob small clan. Bethel is deeper into the land of Canaan, so Jacob’s risk of attack only increased by going there. In other words, there was an enemy who was intent on destroying Jacob before he completed his journey, just like we have an enemy (Satan) who desires to keep us from going on to spiritual maturity.
Verse 5 tells us that the "terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them." In other words, God made sure that Jacob’s journey was completed. He does the same for the Christian in their spiritual journey today.
Read Philippians 1:6, Jude 24
In some ways, our spiritual journey is like a two-person canoe trip. We are in the front and God is figuratively speaking in the back. In this illustration, God is in the back because that is where you steer a canoe, and it is certainly God who is directing our lives. We have to do our part on this trip and paddle and not resist God’s direction for our lives, while at the same time God is navigating our spiritual journey so that we will make it through the rapids and other dangers that we face along the way.
3. God will see that we’re able to complete our spiritual journey.
In verses 6, 7 we see that Jacob and all the people with him did arrive safely in Bethel where Jacob builds an altar, as God had told him. This brings us to verse 8.
Read Genesis 35:8
It is difficult to be sure of the point of this bit of information being inserted into the narrative. Rebecca was Jacob’s mother and Debra her nurse. Apparently Rebecca had died sometime earlier and Deborah was now traveling with Jacob. She was with him as a boy and now he was an old man, so Jacob would have been very close to her. Therefore her death would’ve brought him much grief. The point of this verse maybe that even though Jacob was doing everything right, he still experienced trials and hurts in life. This is certainly a lesson every Christian needs to understand. Sometimes we think that obeying God completely will mean a trouble-free life, but that is not true or scriptural.
Read Genesis 35:9-13
There is a fourth life lesson for our spiritual journey in these verses.
4. Failure is not fatal to our spiritual journey.
In other words, just because we fail at times in our spiritual lives, does not mean that God is through with us or has changed his plans for us. For the last 30 years or more, Jacob has been in a very up and down spiritual journey. He certainly has not always been the godliest or most committed of people. He has deceived others, he has been distrusting of God’s promises, he was apathetic about sinful corruption in his own family, and he’d been reluctant to return to the Promised Land and especially to Bethel, but after all this God comes to him and reaffirms his promises and blessings to him. God did not give up on Jacob! God confirms to Jacob that he was still Israel in his eyes, that he would still increase in numbers, and possess the land, and receive the covenant blessing of Abraham.
We also will have our times a failure in our Christian journey, but thanks to God’s love and mercy, failure is not fatal!
4. Failure is not fatal to our spiritual journey.
Read Genesis 35:14-15
Jacob response to the mercy and grace that he had been shown was to worship God and to "pour out a drink offering", which was symbolic of commitment or pouring out one’s life to God. In other words, Jacob rededicated and reaffirmed his commitment and faith in God, the same way that Christians need to do on occasion today, especially when we have backslid and are returning to the Lord.
Due to time constraints, I will only briefly comment on the upcoming verses in the next chapter. Both these sessions primarily serve as a conclusion to the main focus on Jacob before moving on to the next major character in Genesis which is Joseph.
Read Genesis 35:16-29 comment briefly on pertinent verses as reading.
Read Genesis Chapter 36. Comment on these verses and especially note that one point of this section is to contrast the apparent prosperity of Esau, who represents the ungodly, with Jacob, who represents God’s people. From all appearances, it appears that Esau and his descendants are more prosperous and powerful than Jacob and his descendents. According to Genesis 37:1 Jacob "lived in the land of Canaan" but Esau and the Edomites had many kings and lands long before Israel had a king or was even a nation. This is an illustration of how it often is when comparing the life of the Christian with that of the wicked. Oftentimes it may seem that the wicked prospers but it is God’s people who have eternal inheritance.
Closing Prayer
