Untitled Sermon (2)

Announcements:

Hello! My name is Jeannette Dunn. I am one of the substitute teachers here at BSF.

Spring weather has finally arrived and that means spring break! And we do take a spring break in BSF. It is next week. So there will be no bsf March 16-18th. Take the time and rest and come back the week of March 22nd. You only need to come back with one lesson that week. I hope you enjoy your time off!

There is a prayer group that meet every other week. This is an amazing group of women that meet to pray for God to grow BSF in the our city especially in the northern part of Cincinnati. All are welcome. The next one is March 25th at 10:20. It is only for about 20 minutes. So mark your calendar for March 25th to pray.

With that, lets pray.

Intro:

As any little girl, I loved hearing stories of when my parents were little. There is one story about my dad that I will never, ever forget. My dad grew up in a very pristine nice home. In the living room, they had a clean white carpet. Well my dad, for whatever reason was playing with red nail polish on that clean white carpet. I know you can guess where this is going. Yes he spills that red nail polish on the carpet. Well he decides that he is going to clean it up himself. He has seen his mom clean the floor with a broom, so he thought maybe he could sweep it. To his surprise, it does not make the spot go away, he just makes a long trail on nail polish. I know many of you are probably cringing right now and i wish i could have seen my grandma’s face.

This story reminds me of sin. Our lesson today is full of sin on top of sin on top of sin. Its like the red nail polish just keeps getting messier. And when the people from todays lesson, will try to clean it up themselves, its like they are taking that broom and sweeping the red nail polish everywhere. And truth be told, we are guilty of the same thing. We have all given into sin, made a mess of it. Sin is any thought, action or attitude that does not express God’s holy character or conform to His moral law. We try with no avail to fix our sin problem because only God can overcome the power of sin. I hope that is your biggest takeaway today: Only God can overcome the power of sin. We are going to look at our lesson today in three parts. We are going to take the time to look at each chapter.

I. Genesis 34- Falling into sin

II. Genesis 35- Repenting from sin

III. Genesis 36- Separating from sin

Falling into Sin

Okay so i encourage you all to open your Bibles and follow along with me. But before we jump into chapter 34, we need to look at the last couple verses to remember where Jacob’s family is right now. In chapter 33, we learned that Jacob and his family had pitched their tents at Shechem. We do not see Jacob having any conversation with God about where he should be. Was Jacob drawn to the comfort and security of this city? Did Jacob settle for the worldly temptations of the city rather than seek the will of God.

This whole book of Genesis, we see God desiring to draw his people away from the pagan world. God knows the temptation and the destruction these cultures bring. He sees and hears all. Do you remember what happened to Lot and his family when they pitched their tents too close to Sodom? I don’t think we can ever forget the destruction that decision brought on Lot and his family. Its one compromise after compromise and before you know red nail polish everywhere! And this simple compromise of Jacob camping too close to Shechem will just be the start of the sin and heartbreak that will happen in this chapter. And it is important to notice we are going to see God’s name is not mentioned once. Thats the root of the problem when we choose to forget God and choose our own path.

So we need all ask ourselves this tough question: What is your shechem? Where have you pitched a tent where God does not want you to be? This can be a physical place, an emotional place, or a spiritually place. Are you where God wants you to be regarding what you watch, what you read, where you live, where your mind lingers. It is so easy to spiral down and fall into sin. All it takes is one click on a link, one wrong word, one thoughtless text. Any of these things can lead to wrecked marriages, death of reputations, the ending of life long relationships, and frankly the destruction of lives. One small step of man can lead to one giant leap into dark despair and chapter 34 is filled with sin and despair. And it all started with one simple decision: “Lets pitch a tent and stay a while.”

Right away in chapter 34, we see a man named shechem from the town of shechem who is filled with lust who just takes what he wants. Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, was socializing with other women in the city. Well Shechem saw her, wanted her, and then rapes her. This is a hard passage to read. We don’t get to hear how Dinah was feeling in this situation. I can only imagine the heartbreak and the trauma Dinah was dealing with. She had done nothing wrong. It was not her fault. This was an evil sin that was done against her. We do get to see how the men around her reacted to this sin and injustice. Well Shechem seemingly having no remorse over the situation, decides that he wants to marry her. He says now he loves her. Clearly by the way, Shechem speaks to his dad in verse 4, we can easily come to the conclusion that he was a selfish spoiled man who just wanted what he wanted no matter what it took and felt no shame over his sin.

Then we see Jacob’s reaction in verse 5, “Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter, Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent until they returned. I believe his silence should speak volumes to us. For a man of deep emotional intensity, his passivity is shocking to me. The fact that he waited until his sons returned shows that he was motivated by fear. Was he so afraid of losing his comfort and security of the city, that he refused to speak up against sin, even sin against his own daughter? This was an injustice and an attack on his family and he stayed silent.

Then we see how her brothers respond in verse 7, It says “they were deeply grieved and very angry for Shechem has committed an outrage against Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter, and such thing should not be done.” They were angry and rightfully so. It is not a sin to be angry. Jesus who is without sin was angry. But it is how you handle that anger. I am going to be honest, if this happened to one of my daughters, I am going to beyond angry. I am going to be tempted to want to hurt someone. I am going to want to take justice into my own hands. This is how Dinah’s brothers feel and this is where they go astray. Not once, do we see them take this injustice to God, the only perfect and just judge. They want revenge and they are going to do it in their own power.

And so the brothers start plotting. They are presented with an opportunity in verses 8-12, Shechem’s dad has a proposal for them. He wants to make a deal with them. He wants to start intermarrying with each other, starting with Dinah and Shechem. And then Shechem pipes in declaring that he would pay any bride price for Dinah, he just had to have her as his wife.

But this is exactly what Abraham and Isaac had feared. This is God’s chosen family and and if they were to intermarry with people outside of God’s chosen, that would destroy the lineage. This command was to protect the sanctity of God’s people. To protect them from other false gods and practices of the world.

Well instead of declaring no deal to Shechem and his dad or even confronting them and holding them accountable for how horrible they are treating Dinah, the brothers start scheming. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree, did it? Just like how Jacob wouldn’t give a bowl of soup to his brother or put furs on his arms to trick his dad, these brothers are acting in the same deceptive way as their father did.

In verses 13-18 They tell Shechem that he and all the men of the city need to be circumcised in order for them to intermarry with them. We do find out that the brothers had absolutely no intention of letting their sister marry Shechem. They were using circumcision to their advantage. Do you remember circumcision was a special sign of their covenant given to them by God? It was a seal for God’s chosen people, a sacred rite for a sacred people. They were using God’s special sign in a wicked way. God grieves all sin, but He must especially grieve when His name and His gifts are used in a way that dishonors God. While you may have never killed in the name of Jesus, but how have you used God’s ways or truths to hurt others and to sin against God?

Well Shechem and his dad agree to his plan and shockingly so does every man in the city. Shechem must have done a really good job convincing them that this would be profitable for their city. He must be the best sales man in order get grown men to go through such a painful procedure! Even though these men agreed to be circumcised, they had no intent of worshiping God or adapting Jacobs’s worldview. We see in verse 23 that they did it strictly for financial gain- they wanted Jacob’s livestock, possessions, and wealth. They go ahead with the deal, not realizing that would be a very fatal mistake.

Three days after they are circumcised, when they were at their weakest and incapable to defend themselves, two of Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi in their anger take their swords and kill every single male in the city and then took the women and plunder the city. They had the entire city pay for the sin of one man. Anger handled man’s way never ends well. We see no record of them asking God what they should do with this injustice. They are going to handle it their own way in their anger. We have seen the destruction of man’s anger since the beginning of Genesis. Remember when Cain was so angry that he was about to kill his brother, God warned him that sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you but you must master it.” Our anger when not surrendered to God, can only then used by and for God’s greatest enemy.

We finally hear Jacob for the first time in this chapter in verse 30. And this is in response to when he hears what his sons did to the city of shechem. He says this, “You have brought trouble on me, making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and perizzites. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.” Jacob doesn’t rebuke the man that raped his daughter, but he saves it for his sons who took it too far. You can see why in the number of me’s he uses. “Trouble on me, making me, against me and attack me, I will be destroyed.” Clearly he is focused on himself and worried for his safety. He is very afraid and is not trusting in God.

Well what are his son’s responses: “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?” The brothers are right. The violation of Dinah was horrible. Dinah’s reputation and future were gone. It would be as if she was a prostitute. However their reaction was also tragic. They showed no remorse or shame for their revenge on the whole city. There is a reason why God says in Romans 12:19, “Do not avenge yourselves; instead leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. God is the only righteous and perfect judge. That is truth i want you all to remember from this section. God is the only righteous and perfect judge.

God is a holy God who cannot tolerate sin. We can trust in his perfect justice in his perfect timing, even if we don’t see it. God is still in control and He will judge sin one day. So what is your reaction to sin? We saw men today with no remorse and no repentance of sin. Where in your life does the Holy Spirit need to convict you to repent and turn from a sin? We saw Jacob today who was silent about sin. He was caught up in his own fear and selfishness. What sin is God wanting you to speak up against in love? Is there someone in your life you haven’t given God’s truths to because of fear? May you rely on the Holy Spirit to give you His Words in these really hard conversations. We also saw deep anger over a tragedy that led to more tragedy. Sister, where has anger completely taken over in your life? I know there are many of you listening that have had some deep wounds done to you. God sees your pain and sees how wronged you have been. But he also sees how the anger is hurting you. He sees how the bitterness growing in your heart. Jesus taught and lived the power of forgiveness. Even as he was being nailed to the cross unjustly, He prays in Luke 23:34, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I know it is not easy, but can we in the power of the blood of Jesus, forgive those who have wronged us? As believers, we live in the freedom of God’s forgiveness of our sin, may we extend that forgiveness to those who have sinned against us.

Repenting from Sin

Finally in chapter 35, we see God speaking. Verse 1, “God said to Jacob, ‘Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother, Esau.’” Remember Bethel? That is where God showed up for Jacob in the middle of nowhere as he was running away from his brother, Esau. God gave Jacob a dream of a stairway going up to Heaven with angels going up and down. It was there, where God said, “ I am the Lord the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land in which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All people on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Jacob was distressed and living in fear then and he is feeling that again now. So of course he needs to go back to Bethel, which means House of God. Jacob could count on God to never leave him despite what is happening with his family right now. God wanted to remind him of that by taking him back to the where God blessed in him.

Jacob is finally listening to God and he is going to obey. But he needs to do one thing first. It seems that Jacob is convicted of God’s holiness and all that God has done for him, and that is what causes him to want to repent with his family. Verse 2, Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and chang your clothes. We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an alter there to the God who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone.” Were these the same idols that Rachel had stolen from her dad, Laban? Were these gods that they had picked up from living near Shechem? While we don’t know where they came from, i believe we can all testify how easy it is let an idol slip into your heart and your home. Anything that we love more than God, is more a priority over God, is an idol and is a sin against the God who made us, redeemed us and deserves all our praise and worship.

Jacob and his family essentially bury their past. They take all their idols and bury them under the oak tree. They change their clothes as an act of cleansing before they go to worship the true God. It was like they were taking off their old selves and putting on the new just like we are told to do when we start following Christ. Ephesians 4:22-24 says this about coming to know Jesus: “To take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new the self, the ones created according to God;s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.” Sin requires repentance and cleansing. What old ways does God need to help you bury so you can worship Him? I pray the Holy Spirit convicts all of us of anything that hinders our worship of God.

Verse 5, Jacob and this family set off for their journey to Bethel. Immediately God’s promise of protection is confirmed to them. Jacob’s was scared of what men would do to him after his son’s revenge, but he did not need to be afraid of any mere man. This verse says that God placed a terror in all the cities around them and they did not go after them. God’s is showing Jacob his powerful protection and Jacob is learning to trust in His power and promises.

Verse 6, Jacob makes it to Bethel for the first time in about 20 years. This had to have been a special place for Jacob. Have you ever gone back to a special place from your past for the first time in years? Do you know that feeling of all the old memories just come rushing back? Maybe Jacob was feeling that same way. Jacob is quite a different man than he was when he was there before, and maybe coming back to this place, it reminded of him of all things he had done wrong and God’s faithfulness despite it all. However Jacob was feeling, he worshiped God. He built an altar to God in that special place. This is a way to give all the glory and honor and praise to God. As I look back on my life and all the mistakes I have done, I can’t help but worship God all His amazing faithfulness to me.

And then God in his faithfulness comes down again at Bethel and speaks to Jacob. God honors Jacob and renews him after these horrible events. He reminds him of his new name Israel. He is reminded he is no longer the deceiver, he is now Israel and that will become the name of the nation of God’s chosen people. And then in verse 11-12, he reaffirms his promises to Jacob. He says this, “I am the God almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed a nation an assembly of nations, will come from you, and kings will descend from you. I will give to you the land that i gave to Abraham and Isaac. And i will give the land to your future descendants.” God repeats these promises to help Jacob trust him. He wants Jacob to know Who He is and what He is going to do for him. We have the privilege of seeing the bigger picture with Jacob and we know that God is faithful to those promises. We don’t always get to see the bigger picture in our lives, but we can trust in the same powerful, good, promise keeping God of Jacob. Let God show you who He is and what He can do.

So here Jacob has this beautiful moment with God. He worships, God talks to him, and then he builds another stone pillar, poured a drink offering over and anointed it with oil. Jacob has been renewed with God, but it does not mean that Jacob will have a trouble free or pain free life the rest of the way. We learned in verse 8, that Deborah who was his mothers nurse died. While we don’t really know anything about Deborah or how she came to be with Jacob, she was probably a beloved nurse that Jacob knew this entire life. Then In verses 16-20, Jacob’s wife, Rachel died giving birth to his son Benjamin. We know Jacob loved Rachel very much and this must have heartbreaking to lose her so young.

But still the pain keeps coming. In verses 21-26, we see a small genealogy of Jacob’s children. But right before the author lists out his sons, there is a quick line that says Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah and Israel heard about it. This was a sinful power move that Reuben was making against his father. He was asserting his leadership into the family. By defiling Bilhah, he made more certain that the children born of her would not inherit the promise given to a son of Jacob. Perhaps this was a way of protecting Leah, his mother, and her children. Reuben could have been trying to make sure that Jacob did not give Bilhah priority since she was Rachel’s maid servant. Whatever the motive, it was incest and it was a sin that I am sure it hurt Jacob. We do hear Jacob address this incident in his last words in Genesis 49. He curses Reuben for defiling his bed.

Then the chapter closes with the death of Isaac, Jacob’s father. God gave Isaac 180 years on this earth. And for one last time, two very different brothers came together to bury their father. So Jacob experienced death after death. Death has been our realty since sin first came in the garden. Our world is now broken. We are broken, We are full of sin. But God does not want to leave us in our brokenness and sin. And this is the truth that so important to remember:

God is faithful to forgive and restore.

So what current sin are you still carrying around? Or what shame of a past sin are you still holding on to? There is no sin too great or so bad, that God can not help you have victory over. There is is no sin too great that God will not or cannot forgive or restore. He can bury our past present and future sins. And the answer to how lies in the burial place of Rachel, a place called Bethlehem. From there a Savior will be born. God’s son, Jesus, who lived a perfect life, without any sin. Jesus came to earth with the primary purpose for saving us from sins. The Bible tells us that the punishment for our sin is death and separation from God because He is holy and cannot be with sin. So Jesus died for our sins. He took our place on the cross. And if you believe in that the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus, you are set free and forgiven of any sin past, present, and future. For like David wrote in Psalms 103:12 “As far as the east is form the west, so has he removed our transgressions from us.” Thats freedom. That’s new life. Do you live in that freedom?

Separating from Sin

In chapter 36, we see a long genealogy of Esau. It is easy to just want to skip over these verse. To us, it seems like a long list of names that we can’t pronounce and we don’t know anything about. But God included it in His Word and I believe there are nuggets we can find buried in this verses. Are you ready to dig a little bit?

Well if this was my first time reading this passage, I would be overwhelmed by the size of Esau’s clan. It is easy to see how blessed Esau was. And so far in the story, I would only know of the sons of Jacob in the previous chapter listed in only 4 verses. So looking at these two men on paper, i would be tempted to think that God chose the wrong son. It seems that Esau is greater or better. But that is not how God works. God has a greater and higher view than we do. He never makes mistakes. We now know that God would bless Israel and make it a great nation far beyond any man’s imagination.

Also in verse 6-7, we see that Esau took his giant family out of Canaan and moved to the the mountains because it seems that the land could not support both Jacob and his families. To me, knowing Esau and Jacob, it is a miracle that Esau seemed to have peacefully left to make room for Jacob and what would become the nation of Israel in their promised land. God is clearly working and making way to keep His promises to His people.

We see no record of Esau and Jacob crossing paths again. Their descendants, the Israelites and the Edomites will clash later in the story. God made these two very distinct people that come from two very different brothers. We know from Hebrews 12 and Romans 9 that Esau rejected God. And we know that Jacob trusted in God. So it is necessary to keep these two brother and their descendants separate. God is working to protect His people by keeping His people distinct and different.

And as God’s followers, aren’t we set out for the same calling? We are called to be different and distinct from the world. That is the truth from this chapter.

God’s people are called to be different than the world.

So how is God calling you to be different than the world? Is it the way you treat others, the way you spend your money, the way you spend your time? We all called to be different so that the world can see Jesus. That doesn’t mean we are called to be perfect or to hide away from the world. The world needs to see God’s amazing grace working in our lives. This means they need to see how messy our lives can be so they can see the redeeming power of God. They also can’t see God’s grace at work if we are hiding away from the world. Jesus says in Matthew 5; 14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts in under a basket, but rather on a lamp stand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Ladies this is a tough balance, to be in the world but not of the world. This can often feel like walking on a balance beam and feels impossible and overwhelming. But we are not left alone and helpless to walk this hard path. God has given us His helper, the Holy Spirit, to live inside of us to guide us and convict us. Rely on the Holy Spirit as you navigate living in this sinful world. May others see God working in you and May His light shine so bright to others. I think of that song from my Sunday school days, This little light of mine, Im gonna let it shine. Im not gonna hide or let Satan blow it out. Im going to let to shine until Jesus comes so the world can see and be changed by God’s amazing grace.

Let’s pray.