In The Presence of the Lord
Text: Gen. 35:1-15
Introduction
1. Read Gen. 35:1-15
2. Illustration: If I could ask the Lord for just one thing,
One request from my heart, the favor would be
To dwell in his house forever, in his house forever,
I want to see his face all my days.
In the presence, in the presence of the Lord.
To gaze upon his beauty
In the presence of the Lord all my days.
To gaze upon his beauty
In the presence of the lord all my days.
To gaze upon his beauty
In the presence of the Lord all my days.
3. Ps. 27:4 One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.
4. One day we will be in his presence forever. However, we can experience his presence now if we will seek after it.
Proposition: If we will seek after it with all of our hearts, we can experience the transforming presence of Christ.
Transition: Being in his presence...
I. Takes Preparation (1-4)
A. Go Up to Bethel
1. When Jacob got to Schechem, he fulfilled the first part of his promise to God and set up an altar declaring Yahweh as the one true God.
a. However, he delayed in keeping the second part of the promise to go back to Bethel.
b. So God sent him a gentle reminder.
c. When you forget a promise that you’ve made to God, He has gentle ways to remind us.
2 He told 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."
2. First, he told him to go up to Bethel.
a. He had to literally go up there because Schechem is only 1,880 feet above sea level, but Bethel is about 2,890 feet above sea level.
b. This was the place that God first appeared to Jacob, and Jacob had promised to go back there.
c. A promise being made must be kept.
3. He was to build an altar at Bethel.
a. Altars are a common feature in the Book of Genesis.
b. They consisted of "earth or unhewn stones."
c. It had no fixed shape, but varied with the materials.
d. It might consist of a rock (Judges 13:19) or a single large stone (1 Samuel 14:33-35) or again a number of stones (1 Kings 18:31f). —International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
4. Jacob knew that this was a place of anointing. He knew that this was a place to encounter God. He also knew that preparation was need to come face to face with a holy God.
5. So he told his family "Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments."
a. They needed to put off the old way of life.
b. They needed to leave the past behind them.
c. An encounter with the living God meant a change of heart, attitude, and mind.
B. In the Presence of a Holy God
1. Illustration: At an intersection, the green light changes to yellow; At the theater the house lights flash;
In the Battalion Tactical Operations Center a Warning Order comes down from Brigade;
At the airport terminal the boarding call comes over the intercom;
At a railroad crossing the lights begin to flash;
In a small Midwestern town the tornado siren screams;
On the football field the two minute warning sounds;
In the cargo bay of a C-140 a red-light comes on;
In the Desert of Judea, a voice of one calling in the wilderness is heard declaring, "Prepare the way of the Lord."
What do each of these have in common? They are signs or warnings that we need to prepare ourselves for what is about to happen.
2. An encounter with the living God takes preparation.
3. Every time we come to church we should expect an encounter with God, so every time we come to church we need to prepare ourselves to meet Him.
4. I’m not talking about external preparation.
a. God is not very concerned with what you wear as long as it is modest.
b. God is not very concerned with how much or how little make up you wear (unless you’re a man, then we’re all a little concerned).
c. God is not very concerned with what your hair looks like.
5. God is not as concerned with what is outside of a person as He is what is inside.
a. Matt. 15:17-19 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
b. God is concerned with what is in our hearts.
c. God is concerned with our attitudes.
d. God is concerned with our thoughts.
6. If we come to church expecting an encounter with the living God, then we must prepare ourselves by seeing that...
a. Our hearts are right before God
b. Our attitudes are right before God
c. Our thoughts are right before God
Transition: Then and only then, are we ready for an encounter with the living God.
II. Affects Other People (5-8)
A. The Terror of God
1. As Jacob and his family traveled to Bethel "the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them..."
2. When Jacob obeyed and went to Bethel, the Lord delivered him from the anger of the Canaanites who dwelt nearby (v.5).
a. It is significant that Jacob called God the one "who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone" (v.3).
b. Jacob was in constant distress; yet in each instance God remained faithful to his promise and delivered him.
3. Because of Jacob’s obedience, these warrior-like people around them dared not touch Jacob or his family for he was God’s man, God’s anointed.
a. A fear of the Lord, and Jacob His servant, fell on the people of the land.
b. From this we learn that the hearts of men are in the hands of God.
c. He can inspire with fortitude who in themselves are weak.
d. He can also soften those who are hard-hearted (Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries - Genesis, 237).
4. When they arrived safely at Bethel "he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother."
a. God brought him safely to place that He had promised.
b. Jacob fulfilled his part of the promise by building an altar to God.
5. However, there is a very vital piece of information that we are given here that we must not overlook.
a. He had once named this place Bethel because it was "God’s House."
b. Now he changes its name again and calls it "El-Bethel."
c. The name "El-Bethel" means "the God of the House of God."
d. Previously he knew he was in God’s presence, but now through his journey of faith, he had come to know the God of the House of God.
e. He had developed a personal relationship with Yahweh the way that his grandfather Abraham had done.
6. His life and the lives of his wives and children had been changed because he had been in the presence of the Lord.
B. People Sense When We Have Been with God
1. Illustration: Migratory birds in the U.S. were tagged by the Department of the Interior with metal strips reading “Wash. Biol. Surv.”—for Washington Biological Survey. The code was changed, so the story goes, after a farmer from Arkansas wrote to the department:
“Dear Sirs, I shot one of your crows, My wife followed the cooking instructions attached—she washed it, boiled it and served it. It was the worst thing we ever ate.”
2. When we have been in the presence of the Lord it effects those around us.
3. When we have been in the presence of the Lord, others see the difference it has made in our lives, and it causes them to want what we have.
4. When we have been in the presence of the Lord, others are reminded of their own need for His presence and are convicted by the Holy Spirit.
5. When we have been in the presence of the Lord, it causes others to hunger and thirst for more of the Lord’s presence.
Transition: When you have been in the presence of the Lord, people can see it in your smile, your step, and your character. Because, most importantly, being in the presence of the Lord...
III. Changes Us (9-15)
A. He Called His Name Israel
1. Verse 9 says "And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him."
a. God had already blessed Jacob with wives, children, cattle, and goats, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.
b. Now he was going to bless him with the blessings that he had promised Abraham.
2 He promised him that nations and kings would come from him.
a. Not just sons and daughters, but nations and kings.
b. Most important of all, the King of Kings would come from him.
3. The Lord promised him that the land He had promised to his father and grandfather would be Jacob’s.
a. The promised land would be his.
b. A land flowing with milk and honey would be his.
c. A land belonging to his descendents for generations to come would be his.
4. Another important thing that we must see is that the Lord recognizes the transformation in Jacob. In verse 10 it says "Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name." So He called his name Israel."
a. He had told him in chp. 32 that his name would change, but the Lord never called him by that name.
b. It indicates that there was still more of a transformation to take place.
c. However, here he not only tells him that his name would change, but he actually calls him Israel.
d. He is not only to bury the foreign gods, but also his old nature - his Jacob nature, and from now on he would have the Israel nature (Hamilton, NICOT - Genesis 18-50, 381).
5. Not only did his name change, but his nature changed because he had been in the presence of the Lord.
B. New Creation
1. Illustration: “London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage. ‘Forget about the repairs,’ the buyer said. ‘When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.’”
(Ian L. Wilson.)
2. When we have been in the presence of the Lord, he doesn’t take the old person and make them better, He crucifies the old person and makes a new one.
3. 2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
4. When we have been in the presence of the Lord, we are completely changed.
a. We are changed in our hearts.
b. We are changed in our spirits.
c. We are changed in our minds.
5. When we have been in the presence of the Lord we have no choice but to be transformed into the image of the One and Only Son of God.
Transition: Once you have been with Jesus you will never be the same.
Conclusion
1. Being in the presence of the Lord:
a. Requires Preparation
b. Affects Change in Others
c. Affects Change in Us
2 Have you been in the presence of the Lord?
2 Can anyone tell you have been in the presence of the Lord?
