Now after our study last time in the 34th Chapter of the Book of Genesis, I’m sure that many of you came to the conclusion that I had made a “boo-boo” when I said that Jacob’s life changed at Peniel; that when he came there to the Brook Jabbok, actually, we don’t see too much change because of what takes place in the 34th Chapter.  Well, that is quite true, but there was a change that took place.  

I hesitate to call it a crisis because I’m afraid that this matter of a crisis experience has been over-drawn by a great many.  In fact, I find there are some folk that feel like if you don’t have a second experience, that you just haven’t had anything.  Well, the fact of the matter is that’s not true.  Some have a wonderful crisis experience.  Dwight L. Moody did.  And I’m sure that many of us in our lives can turn back to that, but there are those that cannot or do not and have never mentioned it as being something very important in their lives.  

But actually when this man came to Peniel, why a tremendous thing happened to him.  And I think probably as we get into the 35th Chapter, I should mention this.  All the way from the beginning of the life of Jacob until Peniel, the thing that happened in his life was the rise of self; the assertion of the flesh.  That’s Jacob and nothing but that.  What really happened at Peniel was the fall of self – and a tremendous fall of self there.  I tell you, he went down like a deflated tire.  He’d been pumped up like a balloon all of his life until he got to Peniel, and then the Lord put the pin in the balloon and he went down to practically nothing.  But. Actually. there was not faith in his life.  Now that I think is what the 34th Chapter evidences.  Now I think that many folk that have said—there have been expositors say that it was a tragic thing for Jacob to stop in Shelam.  And I must say I have to go along with that partially.  

But I have a question to ask, and the question is this:  Was he ready for Beth-el?  Was he ready for the experiences that God was going to give him?  No, I think that what you see in the 34th Chapter and the tragic things that took place are the result of a man who had been walking by the flesh.  Then there is that fall—the deflation of self, but not faith.  He did not have faith to go on to Bethel—to Beth-el, you can call that either way you want to.  But now he stops at Shelam and the land of Shechem, and these tragic things took place in his life, and it reveals the fact that this man was not actually a leader in his own family.  He was not taking the proper place that he should have.  He was no spiritual giant by any means.  And to have those 12 boys to herd was really a real job.  And I want to say that that would take a real spiritual giant to control them.  But this man, Jacob, was not prepared.  But after that tragic event, this man now is beginning to see the hand of God in his life, and now he makes the decision that he probably should have made beforehand.  

And it reveals that inside this family that there was taking place something that was indeed tragic.  And so the tragedy at Shelam is that as soon as Esau had turned his back and started home, Jacob takes his family down to Shelam.  It’s a tragic move.  Jacob is still depending upon on his own cleverness. Dinah was raped, and Simeon and Levi, her full brothers, went into the city of Shecham through the prince who was responsible, though he wanted to marry her, they murdered him, and the sons of Jacob conducted a slaughter that would make a gang shooting in Chicago look pretty tame.   When they came home, Jacob says, “You’ve made my name to smell among the people of my land.”  And now the fact of the matter is that he wasn’t ready for Bethel.  And my question is where else could he go?  And after all, this man had flocks and herds and there was good pasture land where he stopped at Shelam.  This man now had a great lesson to learn, and he’s beginning to see that chickens do come home to roost and that whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.

Now, I turn to the 35th Chapter of Genesis, and I hope you have your Bible open there and also that you have our Notes and Outlines.  If you do not have them, we do have a set for you and would love to send to you.

CHAPTER 35

JACOB RETURNS TO BETHEL

Now I’m reading at Verse 1, Chapter 35 of Genesis.

And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

Now, God is calling this man back to Bethel.  I have a little book.  The title of it is Back to Beth-el.  I attempt to cover a great deal of the life of Jacob, and especially dealing with this experience that he had at Peniel and then the change that took place when he went there.  Now the fact of the matter is he’s now – after this sad experience, he’s prepared to go.  You see, he didn’t have faith to move out before.  

Now will you notice Verse 2.  Jacob now begins to take the leadership.

Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments….

Now there are several things that they’re told to do here.  They’re, first of all, to put away the strange gods.  And we’re almost shocked at that.  You’ll recall that when Jacob fled with Rachel and Leah that Rachel slipped out the family gods; that is, these little images, she sat on them on the camel.  That luggage that was to go on the camel’s back, she just crawled up on top of it and sat down because underneath were these little images.  Now I would assume, since it was the home of Jacob, he knew of the living and true God.  God had called him.  You would think that he would say that when he did find out—and he did not know at the time she had taken them.  He was very honest when he told Laban that the gods, those little images, weren’t in his entourage at all.  That’s probably the one time up to then he told the truth.  He really didn’t know, but they were there.  Now when they were discovered, I think that probably we’d all assume, well, Jacob got rid of them, but he didn’t get rid of them.  And we find his entire family is worshipping these images.  

This man Jacob now for the first time – and he’s the one to take the leadership, he says, “Now let’s get rid of these false gods; these strange gods.  And they’re false gods.”  That’s the first thing.  You’ve got to put away that which is wrong.  There is today too many folks that six days a week they are serving some other gods and on Sunday they serve the Lord.  We have a lot of fundamental believers like that, Friends.  They have their strange gods, and then they wonder why on Sunday their service in the church and why it’s not a trilling experience.  Well, Friends, you’re going to have to put away your strange gods.  I don’t know what yours might be, but whatever they are – it could be covetousness.  I tell you there’s many a good fundamental businessman today that’s out after every dollar he can get, and I tell you he gives more devotion to getting the dollar than he does in serving the Lord on Sunday.  And he wonders what’s wrong with his spiritual life.  If you’re going to come back to Bethel where you met God at the beginning, then, Friends, you’ve got to put away those things that are wrong.

Then he says here, Jacob says, “And be clean.”  Now that for the believer today means confession of sin.  You have to deal with sin in your life.  You can’t come in on Sunday and ignore the week that’s just passed.  After all, you take a physical bath and use a deodorant, and today we have spiritual “BO” [body odor] in our churches because there’s no confession of the sins, the cleansing.  And that’s the cleansing.  If we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all righteousness.”  That’s I John 1:9.  There must be the confession, and He’ll forgive.  But they must be confessed.

Then, do you notice something else he says here?  “Change your garments.”  Get rid of the old garments.  Now garments speak in Scripture of habits.  In fact, they do today.  We hear of somebody having a riding habit, and football players have a uniform that’s the habit they use, and the child of God’s dress should some way mirror who he is, who he belongs to.  Do you wear the habit of the Lord?  Can you be detected in business or in school or in the neighborhood as being a little different?  Your life is a little different?  You’re wearing a habit.  The day that this man went back to Bethel he started living for God.  And up to then I don’t think so.

He says, “Let’s go back to Bethel.”  And that’s the thing that we must do.  Listen to him now in Verse 3.

And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God  –

Abraham had made the altar; Isaac had, and now Jacob is.  And, thank God for that!  He’ll have a witness now for God.

…who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.  

Now that is the thing that he remembered.  That when he was running away from home as a young man, homesick and lonesome, he’d come to Bethel and God had been faithful to him.  God says, “I will be faithful to you.”  And now the years have gone by, and God had been faithful to him.  Now God says, “You’ve got to go back to Bethel.  You have to go back where you started.  You have to begin there.”

I’m of the opinion that a great many people today need to recognize that the years that we spend in living a shoddy, shabby Christian life is just a waste of time; absolutely waste of time.  You find that the Children of Israel—you will recall, God called them to get out of Egypt and get into the land, and if you’ll notice, God appeared to them and told them to go into the land.  They didn’t go in.  Forty years they wandered around.  God appeared to Joshua; He says, “Now go into the land.”  Picks up right where he left off where He told them.  They’d wasted forty years.  How many people today are wasting their lives as Christians?  

My, the tremendous spiritual lessons that are here for us.  And I think one of the reasons they’re here for us, some of us—now I don’t know about you—but some of us are just like Jacob, you see.  And that’s the reason they’re so applicable to us today.  And, thank God, He says He’s the God of Jacob!  I love that.  If He’ll be the God of Jacob, He’ll be the God of J. Vernon McGee also…and that’s wonderful!  That’s Wonderful!  This chapter’s a great encouragement to us today.

Now will you notice what happened.  He’s taken over in his home, which is interesting!  Verse 4.

And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears… 

And let me pause and say that earrings were associated with worship in that day.  There’s a great deal said in Scripture about that.  I can’t stop to develop that sort of thing, but may I say there’s so many wonderful, precious truths that are in the Word of God that even in a five-year program, Friends, you can’t dig it all out.  After we get through working this mine, there’ll be a great deal of gold and precious stones left here I can assure you.  “…and all their earrings which were in their ears” that identified them as idolaters and they’re going to get rid of them.

…and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

He got rid of them.  They’re not stored away.  They’re buried.  They must be put away, because it’s going to be now a new life.

And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.  So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.  (Genesis 35:5-6)

You remember that place was called Luz before Jacob changed the name to Beth-el, and the people in that day knew it as Luz, not as Beth-el.  We know it today as Bethel.

 And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.  (Genesis 35:7)

You remember that was the name he gave to it before.  

Now here’s a very interesting side-light.

But Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.

(Genesis 35:8)

Now the important thing about this is that we assume, since Deborah was with Jacob at this time, that Rebekah had died.  And it’s not only a natural assumption, it’s a very real thing that she had died.  Poor Jacob never saw his mother again.  That part is not as tragic as she never saw him again.  She just sent him away for a little while, you know; and the burial of this nurse means that when she died, the nurse had apparently brought a message and had come to stay with Jacob.  And now she died.  

GOD RENEWS HIS COVENANT

Verse 9.

And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.

Now you see, all those years God had been trying to deal with this man.  Now He picks up right where He had met him when he came to Bethel as a young man.  Wasted years!  Those years he spent down there with Uncle Laban in many ways were wasted years.  

And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.   And God said unto him, I am God Almighty (That’s what He told Abraham, you remember!): be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.  (Genesis 35:10-12)

The Lord considers that pretty important property, by the way!  Because this now is the third time; first to Abraham, then to Isaac, and then now to Jacob.  And each one of these men the Lord had to tell them about it two or three times.  In fact, Abraham, many times.  Now we’re told, Verse 14:

And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.

Here is the first mention of a drink offering.  Now when we get to the Book of Leviticus, five offerings are given there, but not a drink offering.  In fact, no instruction is given about it at all, but it’s mentioned.  Evidently, this is one of the oldest offerings, and it has a very wonderful meaning for the believer today.  A drink offering was just poured on the other offerings.  It went up in steam, and that’s the way Paul told the Philippians he wanted his life to be; just poured out like a drink offering.  And Verse 15.

And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

RACHEL’S DEATH & BENJAMIN’S BIRTH

Verse 16.

And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.

Now Rachel had one son, but now she has a second son.

And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.  And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.  (Genesis 35:17-18)

What a wonderful thing that is.  That is, not the death of Rachel, but the way this took place.  She says call him “Son of my sorrow” and Jacob looked down at him, and said “I’ve lost my lovely Rachel and this little fellow looks like him, so I’ll just call him Benjamin, son of my right hand.”  And he was partial to the sons of Rachel.  

And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.  (Genesis 35:19)

And she’s buried there today.  The tomb is there.  I have several pictures I took of it.

And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.  (Genesis 35:20)

And that is at the time Moses wrote this.  But it’s there to this very day.  

And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.  (Genesis 35:21)

Now what you have here is just the listing now of the sons of Jacob by these different ones.  Actually, Joseph and Benjamin were the two boys that were outstanding.  The others, I want to tell you, Friends, they just didn’t turn out well.  And again it proves the fact, well, what God had said that the thing that had been done – it was done by Uncle Laban, of course, but Jacob went along with it – that he does not bless plurality of wives.  The family of Jacob ought to illustrate that.  

Now we have this record given here.  Verse 29.

And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

I think this was the only other time these two boys met—at the burial of their father, Isaac, now.  We’ll have to leave off there today, but it brings us to the end of this chapter.  And next time we’re going to take a last look at Esau.