THROUGH THE BIBLE - Genesis..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So if you have your Bibles and you have them open to Genesis chapter 35 Genesis chapter 35 and we'll be reading the whole chapter as we always do Okay Genesis chapter 35 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.

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. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to God, who answers me in the day of my distress, and has been with me wherever I have gone. 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. 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.

And Jacob came to Luz, that is Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. And there he built an altar and called the place El Bethel, because there God has revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. And Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Alon Bakuf. God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan Aram and blessed him.

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. 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. 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. Then God went up from him in that place where he had spoken to him. And Jacob set up a pillar in that place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone.

He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel. Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had a hard labor. And when her labour was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, Do not fear, for you have another son.

And as her soul was departing, for she was dying, she called his name Ben Oni. But his father called him Ben Jamin. So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. And Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel's tomb, which is there to this day.

Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Edo. While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve, the sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, the sons of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, the sons of Bila, Rachel's servant, Dan, and Naphtali, the sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant, Gad, and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram. And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath Arba, that is, Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.

Now the days of Isaac were 180 years. 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. This is the word of the Lord. We've said this before, and it's worth saying again, that if you wanted to summarize the book of Genesis in a question, it would simply be this.

Can God fulfill all His covenant promises? The obvious answer for us Christians would be yes, of course. Of course He can. But how about when you throw in wretched, lying, deceitful sinners into the mix? Will God's covenants now be frustrated or thwarted?

Will His plan now unravel and come undone? Brothers and sisters, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are biblical evidence that that will never happen. God has and always will continue to fulfill His promises no matter what stands in His way because He is ever faithful. And the unworthy sinners He chooses to accomplish His purposes, well, He'll also sanctify. You see, God is in the business not only in keeping promises, but also in making people holy unto himself.

Chapter 35 ends with Jacob finally coming home. Returning back to his kindred was always meant to be the goal for Jacob, the moment he left between 20 and 30 years earlier. And so, we cannot appreciate chapter 35 unless we retrace some of the events that took place in previous chapters. Back in chapter 28, Jacob is on the run to the north towards Paddan Aram. He's fleeing his brother's fury because he duped his father into giving him the blessing that his brother Esau believed was rightfully his.

Now afraid and anxious, not knowing what his future holds, Jacob arrives at a place he would call Bethel. As the name indicates, it means house of God. It's here Jacob encounters God for the first time. And it's in this place that God extends the covenant promise made to Abraham and his father Isaac to Jacob also. It's also at Bethel that Jacob hears the most soul-satisfying words at a time where he needed to hear these words the most.

Behold, I am with you, says the Lord, and I will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised. Jacob receives these words in faith. And he makes a vow, back in 28, he makes a vow that when God has prospered him in the foreign land, he will return and worship Yahweh at his father's house and among his kindred once again, with renewed courage. Jacob's journey or he journeys to Padan Aram where he prospers greatly for 20 years before God calls him and says, now it's time to return to the land of your fathers and your kindred and I will be with you.

So Jacob picks up, and he goes back with his family, with all their possessions and everything he's accumulated over 20 years, and begins to make the journey back home. His uncertainty, though, and the cause of his anxiety was how his brother Esau would react when he arrives. You see, on the way, Jacob wrestles with God. He meets with God and God blesses him in Jabbok. It's there Jacob is given a new name, the name of Israel.

The heel grabber. The one who takes what doesn't belong to him will no longer have the stigma attached to his name, but he will be known as the one who strives with God. Israel. God will make something out of Jacob yet. Then in chapter 33, we see a beautiful display of God's protection when Esau's murderous fury is substituted for an intimate expression of brotherly love upon meeting his brother on the way.

You see, Jacob's anxiety was all uncalled for. But circumstances begin to deteriorate when Jacob, for an unknown reason, decides to settle in Shechem after his 800-kilometer journey south. He doesn't continue another 80-odd kilometers to his father's house in order to fulfill his vow that he made to God in Bethel some 20 years earlier. Now, beloved, this was a bad decision. And this is what brings us to the horrific chapter of 34, chapter 34.

We don't know how long Jacob and his family lived in Shechem, but it's most likely years, as Dina would have been only three to seven years at most when they first arrived. And the context of her being violated that was explained for us by our brother last week would place Dina at least as a young teenager. But the point is that her defilement could have been avoided. Her defilement could have been avoided if Jacob was obedient to God. He had no business to settle in Shechem.

Among his kindred is where God wanted him to go. Now, his defiance wasn't complete desertion of God. No one is saying that at all. We're actually told that he builds an altar in Shechem. But that's not what God wanted.

It's loving obedience that God desires. Now faced with the horrific consequences of his actions, his daughter defiled, and due to his passivity and lack of headship and his inability to restrain his sons, he becomes an accessory to their ruthless murder of the men of Shechem. Now terrified and a likely target of revenge in a foreign land, Jacob is not where he'd like to be. It's a far cry from being the blessing to the nations that God intended for his family to become. In fact, in Jacob's own words, he became a stink to the inhabitants of the land.

But God is faithful and he never forgets his own and he always keeps his promises. God promised he will protect Jacob and his family. That promise will be upheld despite their lack of compliance. So God calls him out of Shechem and sends himself to Bethel. God also supernaturally instills terror in the hearts of the surrounding cities so that they don't pursue or harm His family.

Beloved, you must see that there's something much bigger than the health of an ancient Near Eastern family at stake in this story. You see, chapter 34 is a dark chapter, but it is indeed a chapter that speaks about the consequences of Jacob's own defiant actions. God is not mentioned not even once in chapter 34. But in chapter 5, the focus returns. It returns to God.

God issues a command in verse 1, and 11 times he's mentioned in the first 15 verses. come back to Bethel. Jacob, God says, come back to God. No rebuke, no reprimand, no rejection, just a gracious God who takes the initiative to call his covenant back home, his covenant child back home. Jacob responds with obedience.

You see, at this low point of his life, Jacob acknowledges his error, his spiritual apathy, and the departure of what is right. And for the first time, we see him assume full headship and spiritual accountability for himself as well as his household. Without being told, he commands all the idols and pagan religious ornaments to be removed and to be given to him so that he would bury them. He's cleansing his household from idolatry for good. What were the idols doing among them anyway?

Idols have no place among the people of God. Four burials are noted in this sad chapter. Four. But the bearing of these idols is the only one that's pleasing to the soul. You see, Jacob knows there is but one God, and this God will not contend with rivals.

Knowing idols have a defiling and a staining effect, Jacob also demands his whole household to purify themselves and change their garments as a symbol of spiritual cleansing. God demands purity, and God demands holiness of his people. So now a changed Jacob resolves to obey and fulfill his vow to God, and so he begins his journey south, first to Bethel. And by the end of the chapter, he'll be in his father's house among his kindred. But at Bethel, he builds an altar to God, and he calls the place El Bethel, meaning God of the house of God.

Jacob has come to realize that the treasure is not in a geographical place, but in the God of that place. It's here also that God uses words almost identical to those spoken to Abraham in chapter 17 to remind Jacob of his covenant once again. It's a reminder to Jacob that God will bring all his plans to fruition, and those plans including sanctifying him and making him holy. This is why he reminds Jacob of his new name, Israel. You see, even though Israel is a deceiver, even though he's a man of treachery, God sees beyond that.

To God, Jacob is not a worthless conman, but Israel. Just like God looks upon those in Christ, not as unworthy sinners, but as righteous and holy. Not because we are righteous and holy, but because Christ is righteous and holy. For Jacob, his spiritual renewal is met with great difficulty. And it gives him an opportunity to trust fully in God.

Three bitter deaths are listed. Deborah, the nurse of Rebecca, his mother. By Deborah being among them, we can safely assume that Rebecca had passed away at this point. And the love of his life, Rachel, during her childbirth. What was meant to be a joyous occasion turned into a time of great grief.

Rachel's choice of name, son of my sorrow, would be changed by Jacob to the son of my right hand. Benjamin is considered like a staff in his right hand that he'll be able to lean upon in his old age. And of course, the third death is that of his aging father, Isaac, at the ripe old age of 180. Isaac is buried by his sons who were once enemies, but now reconciled. You see, these deaths are to remind us of the big picture.

And the big picture is not about any individual or a family. The big picture is Christ, beloved. This is why the eldest, Reuben, is mentioned to have sinned against his father in an act of incest. He commits a horrible act of immorality, dishonoring his father, yes, but he's mentioned so that when he's cursed by Jacob in chapter 49 and not given the spiritual blessing to the firstborn, we would come to understand why. Simeon and Levi too would be forbidden the blessing for murdering the men in Shechem.

Fourth in line, Judah becomes the heir of the spiritual blessing. Brothers and sisters, Jesus is from the line of Judah. Jesus is the Lion of Judah, of whom his scepter will have no end. We've seen God's work, and we've seen that He's at work in preserving a family that becomes a nation from which the promised seed would come. That seed is Jesus Christ.

It's not about Abraham, and it's not about Isaac, and it's not about Jacob, nor is it about the 12 tribes. It's much bigger than all that. It's about God's eternal plan of redemption in Christ Jesus, in whom all the promises of God find their yes. and amen. It's all about Jesus Christ.

Amen.