Genesis 35 - Cleanse and Return: A Snapshot of Spiritual Renewal
Genesis: Looking Back in Order to Move Ahead Spiritually • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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1 God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. 3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem. 5 And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 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.
9 God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel. 11 And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. 12 The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.” 13 Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. 14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. 15 So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
16 Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. 17 And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for you have another son.” 18 And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), 20 and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day.
Ben-oni could mean son of my sorrow, or son of my strength
Benjamin means son of the right hand
21 Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. 22 While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. 23 The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. 24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. 25 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant: Dan and Naphtali. 26 The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
27 And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. 28 Now the days of Isaac were 180 years. 29 And Isaac breathed his last, and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Introduction: Genesis 34
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
The evil of men regardless of lineage and culture and location
The spiritual blindness of all people
In Genesis 34 we saw:
God’s Rascal: The Jacob Narrative in Genesis 25–35 (Chapter 12: Covenant in Peril (Genesis 34:1–35:8))
Second, like chapter 27, everyone is in the wrong. One can argue that Jacob was wrong in not proceeding to Bethel and instead settling down close to Shechem. Dinah was unwise in making her debut unattended. Shechem, in spite of his social status, is a scumbag for raping Dinah. Jacob seems bitten with the bug of moral lassitude (cf. v. 5), unable to see beyond pragmatic concerns (v. 30), and apparently functioning in line with his established favoritism (cf. v. 31; see above). Jacob’s sons operate out of a pre-planned, conniving deceit (v. 13) and Simeon and Levi et al. inflict a bloodbath on helpless victims and satisfy their greed with plunder. ‘There is none who does good.’
Third, and once more, we must distinguish between what the Bible reports and what it supports, between what it asserts and what it authorizes.
The glorious and unchanging goodness of God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit
(1) Genesis is a book about theology
A theology of Genesis
In the beginning God - the presence of the eternal and living God
And God said - the God who speaks and controls
And it was very good - the God who’s character is revealed in creation
You shall surely die - the God who offers eternal life
Be fruitful and multiply - the God who blesses His covenant people
A theology of Genesis 35
El-Bethel - the God who is present
God appeared - the God who speaks and controls
A terror from God - the God who protects and preserves
Reuben and Bilhah - all is not good
Deborah died, Rebekah died, Rachel died, Isaac died - the curse of sin is inescapable (oak of weeping)
Her soul was departing - the body dies, but the soul is eternal
(2) Genesis is a book about spiritual living
1 God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. 3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem. 5 And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 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.
The worship of Genesis 35
An altar - a physical place of worship
Purify yourselves - an act of spiritual cleansing
The burying of the foreign gods - the willingness to worship in obedience
God’s Rascal: The Jacob Narrative in Genesis 25–35 Chapter 12: Covenant in Peril (Genesis 34:1–35:8)
Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain world’s golden store,
from each idol that would keep us,
saying, ‘Christian, love me more.’
The Lord’s table should be a time of renewal, renouncing, and re-commitment
El-bethel - the God who reveals his presence and his will
Israel - a new name (he strives with God)
Pilgrims Progress
Hopeful: Now I have showed you the reason of their going back, do you show me the manner thereof. Christian: So I will willingly. 1. They drew off their thoughts, all that they may, from the remembrance of God, Death and Judgment to come. 2. Then they cast off by degrees private Duties, as Closet-prayer, curbing their lusts, Watching, sorrow for Sin, and the like. 3. Then they shun the company of lively and warm Christians. 4. After that, they grow cold to public Duty, as Hearing, Reading, Godly conference, and the like. 5. They then begin to pick holes, as we say, in the coats of some of the Godly, and that devilishly, that they may have a seeming to throw Religion (for the sake of some infirmities they have spied in them) behind their backs. 6. Then they begin to adhere to, and associate themselves with, carnal, loose, and wanton men. 7. Then they give way to carnal and wanton discourses in secret; and glad are they if they can see such things in any that are counted honest, that they may the more boldly do it through their example. 8. After this they begin to play with little sins openly. 9. And then, being hardened, they show themselves as they are. Thus, being launched again into the gulf of misery, unless a miracle of Grace prevent it, they everlastingly perish in their own deceivings.
Grace Be with You: Benedictions from Dale Ralph Davis (9)
You only have to suffer a little while. The God of all grace, who called you to eternal glory in Christ, will see that all is well again. He will comfort, strengthen and support you. His power lasts forever and ever. Amen.