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*Return to Bethel*
*/Genesis 35/*
We are looking at some of the characters who are in the godly line of the people of Israel.
The Bible says that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Tonight I want to look again at the life of Jacob-- in particular at Genesis 35 and the return to Bethel.
Maybe this evening you need to return to Bethel.
Sometimes after we have had a deep experience with the Lord we think that all of our problems from that point on are solved.
But we discover from the life of Jacob that even a totally committed Christian will still have sorrows and heartaches and will still make mistakes.
Not only is that true in the life of Jacob, but that is true in our own heart and life.
There comes those times in our lives when God calls us back to Bethel.
God says to us that it is time for us to return to Bethel.
Notice verse 1 God said to him, /"Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there."
/Bethel was a word that had great meaning.
When the Lord said, */Bethel/*, to Jacob it struck a familiar chord in his heart.
It was a word that was filled with fond memories.
It was there that Jacob came to know the Lord in a personal kind of way.
Bethel means the house of God.
Bethel is the place where Jacob saw the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder connecting heaven and earth.
It was there that Jacob became a new person.
Imagine how it must have been when the Lord said to Jacob, /"Arise and go up to Bethel."/
It must have moved his heart in a very special way.
Is there some special place where you met the Lord or where you had an unusual experience with God?
For some of you that special place may have been at a youth camp you attended.
There around the campfire one evening you had an experience with God and your life was changed.
Maybe it was on a college campus that you came to know the Lord as your Savior and just the mention of that place or to see that place again brings back many fond spiritual memories to your heart and life.
It may be a church.
Many of you have come to know Jesus in this building.
It will forever be a sacred place to you.
Just to mention Towering Oaks Baptist Church, will touch your heart and remind you of spiritual experiences you have had with the Lord.
There is a place in a little country town of Denham Springs, Louisiana, which is sacred to me.
Of course the town is no longer little or in the country.
The place is Amite Baptist Church.
When I was a seven-year-old boy I was sitting down on the second row.
That night as Dad began to preach, I don't remember a great deal of what he had to say, but I remember how God spoke to my heart and let me know that I was a sinner.
He let me know that Jesus loved me so very much that He died on the cross for my sins.
That night when the invitation hymn was given, I walked down from that second row and I gave my hand to the preacher and I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a Bethel experience in my life and just the mention of that name does something to me.
There must be a place like that in your life if you know the Lord.
Notice what the Lord said to Jacob in verse 1. /"Go to Bethel and dwell THERE."/
He says it again, /"And make THERE an altar to the Lord."/
He says it again in verse 3. /"Let us rise up and go to Bethel and I will make THERE an altar unto the Lord."/
THERE is the place of God's will for his life.
It reminds you somewhat of what happened to Elijah.
When God was leading and preparing Elijah for that great experience he would have on Mount Carmel, the Lord said to him, /"Go to the brook Cherith, I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there."/
Then the Lord said to him, /"Go to Zeraphath.
I have commanded a widow to sustain thee there."
/THERE was the place of God's will.
THERE was God's intention for his life.
God may be saying to some of you.
Come back to Bethel.
Come back there.
Come back to the center of God's will for your life.
Come to the place of total surrender of your life.
I want to talk about a return to Bethel.
*I.
The Return to Bethel.*
This is laid before us in the opening verses of this chapter.
Genesis 34 is not a very pleasant chapter.
There are certain sections of 34 I wouldn't even read in public.
It is a story of mistakes and broken vows.
It is a story of heartache and sorrow in the family of Jacob.
We are told about his daughter Dinah.
As sometimes happens to people of God's children, Dinah began to hang out with the wrong crowd.
Before it was over she was raped and her brothers were so infuriated that they vowed revenge against those who had done it.
You have a slaughter in Genesis 34 that would make the gang fights in America look like a Sunday School picnic in comparison.
It is not a happy chapter.
When we come to chapter 35 we read about this journey back to Bethel.
Actually we read earlier that the Lord had already told him to go back to Bethel.
We learn in chapter 33, verse 18 that Jacob had tarried in the city of Shechem.
As best we understand he stayed there for about 10 years.
From Shechem to Bethel is a mere 30 miles; yet for 10 years Jacob prolonged his journey there.
For 10 years he waited and did not fully surrender in response to the Lord.
Now, God speaks to his heart again.
Sometimes God has to speak a little louder, doesn't He? Sometimes God has to give His message a little bit stronger to us, doesn't He? Evidently that is what God did for him right now.
The Lord said, it is time for you, Jacob, to go back to Bethel.
In verse 2 we read that, /"Jacob said unto his household..."/
He gathers his household together and announces what they are going to do.
He doesn't ask them what they would like to do.
He doesn't ask them if they think it would be a good idea to go back to Bethel.
He doesn't check to see if it's going to frustrate junior.
He just announces to his family, "We are going back to Bethel."
I wonder if there are not some Dads who need to make that decision for your family.
Maybe you have wandered away from the Lord and your family has gone a long way from the Lord.
Maybe it is time for you, as the head of your home, to make the announcement, "We are headed back to the things of God.
We are headed back to Bethel.
We are headed back to total surrender to the Lord."
We need more fathers like Jacob who will say, "We are going back to God's house."
I may be speaking to some man whose family has wandered from the Lord and you are the reason.
Your family is away from the things of God and it's because of you.
Let me challenge you, sir, to have the courage of Jacob and gather your family and say to them, "We are gong back to church today.
We are going to stop this spiritual wandering.
We know Christ as our personal Savior.
We have gotten away from the Lord."
I want to challenge you to say what Joshua did.
/"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."/
Wouldn't that be a good decision for some families to make tonight?
Now, there has to be some preparation in going back to Bethel.
In verse 2 he says three things.
/"Put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean, and change your garments."/
Those are the three things that he says they had to do in order to return to Bethel.
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