Understanding That Which Cannot be Understood

Genesis 35:6-8 ESV

6 And 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 there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. 8 And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth.

There was a country music single, released in 1994 by Tim McGraw, named, “Don’t Take the Girl”. And in this song, we see how an eight-year-old boy, named Johnny was going to go fishing with his dad, when all of a sudden, the neighbor girl came through the front gate carrying a fishing pole, saying that she wanted to go fishing too.

Johnny’s dad looked at him with a smile and said, “We can’t leave her behind” but then Johnny said, “Take someone else, anyone else, just don’t take the girl!”

Well, the song progresses, and it says that ten years after this, Johnny and the same girl that he begged to not go fishing with him are now in a relationship and at the movie theater together when a man with a gun grabs the girl by the arm and says that so long as everyone does what he tells them to do, the girl won’t get harmed.

At this, Johnny reaches in his back pocket and grabs his wallet, and he says, “Here’s my wallet, here’s a watch that my grandpa gave me, here’s the keys to my car. Go ahead, take it all, just don’t take the girl.”

Then as the song progresses, it says that five years after the incident in the movie theatre and the man with the gun, that Johnny and the girl are in the delivery room at the hospital because she is bringing a little one into the world.

Right after the baby is born, the doctor looks at Johnny and says, “The baby is going to be fine, but I need you to leave right now, because his momma isn’t doing too well. She’s fading fast and doesn’t have much time.”

At hearing this, Johnny fell to his knees and prayed, “Take my life from me here and now, Lord, just please Lord, don’t take the girl!”

Isn’t that remarkable? Johnny went from saying at eight-years-old that he would rather spend the day with anyone in the world but the girl, to ten years later being so in love with the same girl that he was willing to part with everything that he owned so that the same girl would be kept safe! To five years after that, pleading with the Lord take his life from him instead of the life of that same girl!

Now, how did that happen? How did his feelings about her change so dramatically? And I know, we will say that he changed so dramatically because he fell in love with the girl, but still, how did he go from saying that he would rather spend the day with anyone but the girl to being in love with the same girl that he was willing to give his life for her? How did that transformation take place?

Well, in a similar fashion, as we continue this morning in our series of messages from Genesis, chapter 35, verses 1-15, we arrive at verses 6-8 which describe the transformation of how Jacob, the patriarch looked at God, and of how that transformation took place.

We start off in verse 6 this morning, where we read:

Genesis 35:6 ESV

6 And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him,

So, in our previous two sermons we looked at how God had come to Jacob and commanded he and his household to come to Bethel and worship Him there. And because that was God’s determination, we said that God was sure to make this happen as a terror from God filled the peoples surrounding Jacob to such a degree that they let Jacob and his family travel in peace.

Now, in this 6th verse of chapter 35, we see God fulfilling His end of His command to Jacob. God commanded Jacob to go to Bethel, and here we see that God made that happen as Jacob and his household now arrive at their destination.

But here at the beginning of this verse, it identifies Bethel as “Luz”. Now, the name Luz, means “departure”, signifying that this was the place in which Jacob had departed from God as he was running from his brother Esau over 20 years before.

Thus, the last time that Jacob was in this place, he was alone and on the run. At this time, God had promised Jacob that He would bring him back to this place and Jacob promised that if God did indeed bring him back, that he would worship the Lord at that very place.

Now, as we’ve said before in our two previous sermons, the name Bethel means “House of God”, in other words, it was known by Jacob as a place where God could be found in a peculiar way as he had already encountered God there before.

But the way that Jacob had encountered God before in this place was as he departed from God, hoping that God would keep His promise to him.

Now Luz, the place that Jacob had departed from, he returns to, just as God had promised him, but like I said, the last time that God was in this place, he was alone, and on the run, seeking refuge at his uncle Laban’s home.

But we see that God was with Jacob all this time as he now returns, not alone, but with a huge household, large numbers of livestock, and an abundance of wealth.

And as Jacob sought refuge when he left Bethel years before, he once again seeks refuge as he returns to Bethel, but this time he doesn’t seek refuge with Uncle Laban, but with the God Who had sustained him and had been faithful to him.

You see, the way that Jacob viewed God had changed throughout the years. No longer was God the One Who Jacob was departing from. Rather, Jacob’s relationship with God had taken on a totally new meaning, and that is made apparent by our next verse, verse 7, where we read:

Genesis 35:7 ESV

7 and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.

We see here in this verse Jacob doing two particular things and then the justification as to why he had done these things.

The first thing that we see Jacob doing when he returned to Bethel was build an altar. And when it says that he built an altar there, it means that he worshipped God there. He built an altar for the express purpose of worshipping the Lord.

So, we see here that God not only caused Jacob to come to Bethel, but God also moved Jacob’s heart to such an extent that he placed his worship of God at the forefront of his desires. In this we see God causing Jacob to fulfill his end of the agreement by having him come and worship Him at Bethel.

And so, the first thing that Jacob done was build an altar to worship the Lord as he swore he would do. And the second thing that this verse speaks of Jacob doing was renaming the place. In the previous verse, verse 6, it says that the name of this place is Luz, which signified Jacob’s previous departure from God. But now in this verse we see Jacob renaming this place El-bethel.

Now we’ve already said that Bethel means “House of God” as in the Hebrew beth or, as it is pronounced in the Hebrew bayt means “house” while El in Hebrew means God. So, bayt-El house, God… House of God.

Now, we see in this verse that Jacob has renamed this place again, and now calls it “El-bethel”. Now, we know by now that Bethel means, “House of God” and we said that El specifically means God, so, if we put El, which means God, in front of Bethel, which means “House of God”, then we get El-bethel, “The God of the House of God”.

Now, this isn’t just something that we should skim over as we study the Bible and just keep on reading.

You see, while this place was considered by Jacob beforehand to be the place where he departed from God, hoping that God would keep His word, it is now considered by Jacob to be the place where God had not only promised him, but the place where God had kept His promise to him.

And we see here at the end of this seventh verse the justification that Jacob has for building this altar and worshipping at it and also for giving it the name, El-bethel when it says that Jacob done this, “because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.”

In other words, what Jacob had recognized was that everything that had happened in his life, from the time that he was born, chosen by God over his brother Esau, to his being blessed by his father, to God first appearing to him at Bethel, to Jacob arriving safely at his uncle’s home, growing larger and larger, and now returning to Bethel many years later was a whole lot bigger than him.

What Jacob was realizing now more than ever was that it’s not about him. It’s not about him prospering and advancing and growing, it’s not about that at all. And while these things had all occurred and happened to Jacob, what Jacob realizes here is that these things had happened so that God’s purposes would be accomplished.

You see, just like how Johnny’s feelings about the girl had drastically changed in the Tim McGraw song, so here we see that Jacob’s feelings toward God and his understanding of God has drastically changed since the last time that he was at Bethel.

But that wasn’t the end of the events that had taken place here at Bethel. The last verse of our reading, verse 8 tells us of one other considerable event that took place here when it says:

Genesis 35:8 ESV

8 And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth.

Deborah was Rebekah, Jacob’s mother’s nurse. She was first mentioned back in Genesis 24:59 when it is recorded that she had first traveled with Rebekah from her father’s home so that Rebekak could be married to Isaac, the son of Abraham.

By this time in our narrative, Rebekah, the mother of Jacob had already died, and it appears as though her nurse, Deborah had traveled with Jacob when he first left home and headed to his uncle Laban’s home.

She had been considered to be like a second mother to Jacob and probably like a grandmother to his household and thus was greatly honored by the household of Jacob.

And while the return of Jacob to Bethel meant a fresh start and a new beginning for he and his household, it also meant the end for Deborah as she died at the place that Jacob had met with God.

After she had died, she was buried under an oak tree at Bethel, and given an honorable funeral by the family that she had loved so very much.

And once the funeral had taken place and was now past, we see Jacob rename this place once again, this time, calling it, Allon-bacuth, meaning, “the oak of weeping”.

And so, we see that at the same place where Jacob had experienced much joy from the Lord, he also experiences much sadness from the Lord. But whether Jacob experienced joy from the Lord or sadness from the Lord, what he knew was imperative was that he worshipped the Lord.

But like I said, Jacob had gone from being joyful as a result of his experience with the Lord to now being saddened by his experienced with the Lord, so what happened? What changed? Did God change?

No, God did not change. God never changes. Rather, the circumstances changed. For while it was God’s will for Jacob to be joyful when he reencountered Him at Bethel, it was also God’s will for Jacob to be saddened at the loss of Deborah, also at Bethel.

God never changes, circumstances are what change. And with each different circumstance, it is God’s will that we as Christians experience Him and come to understand Him in a deeper, more meaningful way, a way that is new because of the new circumstance.

And that is how it is when it comes to knowing God more and more.

Sometimes I think that I have it all figured out, but then God will ensure that something happens, whether it be an event in my life, or something new that I learn and suddenly I realize that I really don’t know anything at all, and I’m basically back at square one.

Understanding God is like working tirelessly to find a door and when we find that door, we open it up only to discover 1,000 more doors.

But the wonderful thing about it all is that with each new experience that we have with God, with each new piece of understanding that we gain of Him, the result is beautiful, it’s… amazing.

Sometimes those experiences consist of laughter, joy, and smiles. Sometimes they consist of tears, turmoil, and pain, but for the Christian, no matter what the experience may be in life, what we ought to be able to do is walk away from those experiences recognizing more than ever before how big our God really is, and how small we really are.

And thus, like Jacob, as we continue to experience God, as we continue to discover more and more about Him, the ways that we can experience Him in the different situations and circumstances in life, the one thing that we should always do is worship Him through it all, walk away with a deeper understanding of the God of heaven and earth.

Beloved, may the God of heaven and earth continue to grant us with this understanding.

Amen?