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Genesis 35 now, and as is kind of my way, I'm just going to remind you where we were at Genesis 34. It was a story of Dina and Shechem, how it all started, if you remember, and what a pretty crazy story there really, but it all started because she went out to see the daughters of the land. Although you could argue that maybe it started earlier with the harem, or whatever you want to call it, because it probably wasn't the best example of all this sort of thing, and multiple wives and all that stuff, but she ended up going out to see the daughters of the land and ended up in fornication with this guy Shechem. Here's the thing though, is that whatever mistakes we've made in the past, like I said, you could argue that all the examples she's seen with him, just taking this wife and that wife, and oh, I want to take a concubine wife from this one, a concubine wife from that one, whatever mistakes we've made in the past, we still want to do our best to prevent our kids making similar mistakes, don't we? So many of us here have made errors in many different areas in life, but we want to try our best to avoid our kids making that, and letting them go out unchaperoned to hang around with the worldly girls, and obviously eventually Shechem, in the end, was a bad move. I mean, it wasn't just a bad move, it was a horrendous move really, wasn't it, by Jacob, and you're just thinking, what on earth, why are you letting your daughter go out and hang around with the daughters of the land? But again, what happens, you know, I'll tell you what Jacob would love to come from all of that, even now, would be his spiritual seed, us learning from his mistake, right? Look, he made an error there, Dina made a massive error there, and pretty much, well, let alone the rest of the story afterwards, but what he would love is that for all of us, all of his spiritual seed, reading this and hearing it preached, look at that and go, I'm not going to make that same mistake. And that's ultimately what should come from reading and learning about these things, and that's the idea, because it then went from bad to worse. Dina's then hanging around with the Shechem, he's in love with her, and instead of dealing with it, Jacob lets his sons take charge of the situation, which was a bit odd, wasn't it? It was Levi and Simeon taking the older brother role just slightly too far, didn't it? I mean, it's one thing to be like a tough older brother who people are scared of, it's another to slaughter everyone and everything that has anything to do with a guy that fornicated with their sister. So they kind of went a bit overboard there, didn't they? Tricky all the men of the city to get circumcised, turning up when they all saw, unless they were to fight and kill them all. And they also took their wives and children captive, took all their livestock, and when Jacob criticised them, they kind of acted like it was a no-brainer, didn't they? It was a bit of a kind of, just a reaction to the whole thing. Look from verse 28, it says, They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field, and all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took their captive and sport even all that was in the house. And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me and slay me, and I shall be destroyed, I am my house. And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot? So I mean, the reply is just like, what's the problem? You know, crazy, right? But anyway, like I said last week, you know, that's kind of, that's how probably brothers, a lot of the time at least, brothers who, you know, they're called Israel, right? Israel being, you know, prevailing with God. Christians should look at fornication probably a bit more like they did, maybe not quite so extreme, don't go around killing people and butchering them for it, as opposed to how we look at it now, which is the complete opposite, at least how much the world looks at it like it's just a rite of passage, and you're crazy if you're not. But anyway, Genesis 35 then in verse 1 says, 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 fled us from the face of Esau, I'm going to pray and then we're going to get started with this part of, or this chapter, sorry. Father, thank you for your word, thank you for, well, the many truths we can get out of this chapter, Lord, help me to preach those just clearly and accurately and boldly now, Lord, and fill them with your Spirit, please, help me to just preach, you know, with what you'd want me to preach here and help everyone to have attentive ears, Lord, and just to really pay attention to your word and to take from it, you know, as much as you want them to take to be able to go away and apply it to their lives, Lord. In Jesus' name, I pray all this. Amen. Okay, verse 1 said, 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 fled us from the face of Esau, thy brother. Now, this was back in Genesis 28. Flick back there quickly. When Jacob was on his way originally to Padaneram, which was, by the way, around 30 plus years earlier now, okay, when he was on the way there, we're probably about 30 years down the line from then, and Jacob, it says in verse 10 of Genesis 28, And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran, and he lied upon a certain place and tarried there all night, because the sun was set, and he took up the stones of that place and put them for his pillows and laid down that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac, the Lamb whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south, and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for the pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And of course we looked at Paul referencing this in 1 Timothy 3.15, where he said, But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And we looked at that a few weeks back now. We looked at how the house of God is a dreadful place and needs respecting as such. Okay, dreadful being a kind of fear-inducing place sometimes. Especially, it needs to be respected as such, especially as it is where the Gospel goes out from as well, right? Ultimately, people need to be sent out to preach the Gospel, it's the gate of heaven. Think just how many in this region of Essex have been blessed to have free entry to eternity, thanks to God's house being planted in this area. Just, like, what a gate to heaven it's been, for so many people, just around this area and surrounding towns. I mean, it is, you know, that's what God's house is, really. Because you go, well, they could have found the Gospel anyway. Yeah, from another gate of heaven, from ultimately someone being sent out by a church or something, really, that's pretty much where it all comes from. Yeah, I know, you've got the odd YouTube ministry out there and something else. A lot of the time, a lot of those guys end up being clowns. They're not all of them, right? But a lot of the time, they've kind of been inspired or sent out to some degree by a church. And it really comes from the church, doesn't it? It says in verse 19 where you are, So Jacob promised to tithe, and now, where we are, God's telling him to go to his house, and build an altar there. Sort of, like I said, we're about 30 years down the line here. And it said in verse 1, where we are in Genesis 35, What's an altar for? For sacrifices. For burnt offerings to God. He promised to tithe 30 years earlier. And we see examples of him making altars and making sacrifices, for example, when he has the discussion with Laban, you know, after he chased him, things like that. But ultimately, he's still being told, go back there, there's still something you're meant to be doing, right? Make there an altar, So he's being told by God to get to the house of God. Now, it's not just because of the sacrifice and everything else. This is on the back of a bad time of it. It really is, right? Look, that time he just spent in Shechem, however many years that was, I mean, they had a bad time of it there. His daughter was hanging around with the wrong crowd, she shacked up with some guy that appeared honourable compared with the rest of that lot. It was like, oh, he's more honourable than the rest. But he was a fornicator. OK, he was trying to entice the rest of the city to get involved so they could make some more money by mixing up with them. His wayward sons took over and butchered the lot of them. Do you know where his family needs to be right now? God's house. They need to be in God's house. I mean, they've just had a mess of the last 10 years, right? It's been a mess, an absolute mess. They need to be in God's house. They need to get right. And here's a question. What were they even doing in Shechem? You ever read that or wondered that? What were they even doing there? Why were they there so long? Why were they in Shechem for that many years where Dina's grown up to at least a young lady of some degree? What were they doing there? Yes, he built an altar when he got there, but it makes you think of those people that, you know, because he did, like when he got this, oh, well, he built an altar, right? But it makes you think of those people that kind of play church. They kind of go somewhere lame and they just kind of excuse it. It's like, well, you know, you know, well, they use the NIV and they don't, you know, they preach a Lordship salvation, but, you know, it's OK. And they just dwell there. And they just, they probably do wonder, why is my life just not going anywhere? And you go, well, if they're saved, they could be anywhere. They save people in Catholic churches. They're people you've got saved that are still sitting in the Catholic church. OK, don't, you know, because some people get a bit, like, they get funny about this stuff. They start, like, kind of getting slightly, their head turned by this sort of Calvinist perseverance of the saints type doctrine, which is everywhere. If you're saved, that doesn't mean you're automatically going to end up in church. You're going to automatically going to stop going to the false church and everything else. Do you know what should happen, though? If you're saved and you start reading the Bible regularly and you're reading the Word of God, then, with time, you should. You would be like, well, that's a bit strange. You're reading your Bible, you're reading the Word, especially if you're listening to preaching and you're in a church and everything else, then it's like, well, you should hopefully start to see changes in that person's life, right? Otherwise, well, because that's what the Word of God's for. But salvation doesn't mean, right, right, they're sorted. And that kind of makes me think about these people out here. They're there and they're just kind of justifying being in Shechem, probably, for 10 years. What's he even doing there? You know, there are those that pretend that their quick family chapter of the Bible on a Sunday is cutting it. There are those all over the world, probably. People that are saved, maybe they've been in church for a while, maybe they're not, who are like, well, yeah, on a Sunday, you know, two or three are gathered together in my name, they're mine in the midst of them. So we just sit there and we read a quick chapter of the Bible in our pyjamas or something, you know. It's all churches, isn't it? When really, because I say that because what should he have done? He should have carried on to Bethel, to the house of God. That's where he should have been. He should have already been in Bethel. He shouldn't have been in Shechem. Why did he hang around in Shechem for 10 years? And I reckon that those years in Shechem really were backsliding. That's really what they were. They were backsliding. And it resulted in his daughter shacking up with some worldly guy and his son's ending up slaughtering the whole lot of them. And that's the result of backsliding, really, isn't it? That's what happens. And it didn't just affect him, it affected his family. And that's something that we have to remember as well. All of us, it affects those around us. And it's not necessarily just those who have, like, young children have that sort of family. It's going to affect your chance of maybe getting your family saved, your unsaved family saved. Backsliding doesn't just affect you, it has a knock-on effect to loads of other people. And that's why it's so important not to backslide. And you know what, because we're going to see something here as we go through this. It's going to be one of those messages where you're like, you know, it's about kind of being in church and stuff again. But that's what we're seeing. Who would have thought that going through the Book of Genesis, before there even was a New Testament church, before there even was a temple, and so often you're seeing pictures and symbolism of making sure you're in church in the house of God. And that's what we're seeing again in this chapter. God said to Jacob the same thing, by the way, that he says to all backsliders. He said in verse 1, it says, And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. He said, Get up off your lazy backside and go to God's house and dwell there. He said, Stop hanging around in Shechem with all these wicked... By the way, it's called that after, obviously, named after this guy, OK? But at the time I think it's Salem or something like that. But whatever, he said, Get up out of there and get into God's house. And that's what he's saying to all backsliders out there right now. He's saying, Get up off your lazy backside and get into church. He said, Arise, get up, go up to Bethel, which means the house of God, and dwell there. Stop dwelling in Shechem. 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. Definitely backsliding, right? I mean, he's not backsliding. I mean, what on earth, right? He said, Put away the strange gods that are among you, be clean and change your garments. Now, OK, they had strange gods, the idols that have been put above the true God. But first off, don't miss a picture of salvation here as well. They're putting away the strange gods, for me, picturing the repentance, the turning from a false way to God, being clean, representing our being washed, being sanctified by that faith in Christ. You have to turn to 1 Corinthians 6 and 11, it says, And of such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, that ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God. The changing of garments, picturing the wedding garments, the white robes of the saints, right? The picture is a man of God getting people saved before bringing them to the house of God. That's what we're seeing the picture of there. But it's just a picture. OK, so the picture's there, he's going, right, it's picturing him getting people saved and then bringing them to the house of God. But it's a picture, and I believe many of them were probably saved. I'd be surprised if he hadn't at some point. I mean, especially like during his more spiritual time before when he's about to come across Esau and he's been wrestling with God and he's prevailed with God and all that. If he hadn't got them saved then, then that would be a bit strange, wouldn't it? Or even before that, right? I think it's just a picture. And I believe many were probably saved. But there are many saved people out there when you just go back to then take it at face value, that verse, whose strange gods are preventing them coming to God's house, aren't they? He's saying, put away, he said to them, put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments. And there are many where maybe it's the god of Mammon. It's riches. It's the god of money that prevents them coming to God's house. They've put money above God. That becomes that strange god they need to put away and get into God's house. And there are people all over that need to put away the god of money and get into God's house. Stop trying to chase a fortune. Stop working late on a Wednesday. Stop, oh, well, yeah, but this career would be so much better if something just so happens that I just can't get to church on a Wednesday or on a Sunday. It's like, put that stuff away and get in God's house. Maybe they've put sports above God. There are people that don't turn up to church because it's Super Sunday or because, you know, maybe in the midweek it's some sort of sport they want to do or play or watch or something else. There are people that will put that. That becomes a god then, doesn't it, ultimately, because they're putting that as more important than God. God should be up here. Otherwise, something becomes an idol when it starts becoming more important than God. Maybe they've put family above God. There are people that, because of family, they won't come close to God's house, so they're able to be in God's house because, oh, but, you know, I've got, you know, what about my, whoever it is? But that becomes then someone they're putting above God. Look, I'm not saying you just have to write, ditch them all, that's it, you know, Wednesday next train to London, I'll find somewhere to live. But that should be the goal for all believers, really, shouldn't it? That should be what we, look, at the end of the day, God should be up here. And if you put him first, things will work out, won't they? But somebody won't put him first. But he also told them to be clean, to change their garments. And away from the picture of salvation, like I preached about a few weeks back when we looked at Bethel before, it's treating God's house with respect, isn't it? He didn't just say put away this strange god, he said be clean and change your garments as well. So have some respect when you come into God's house, right? And, you know, look, there's no dress, we don't have a dress code barring just dress decently, right? Okay, and look, you might decide, well, and some people, look, maybe they don't have things in their wardrobe that we would consider as smart as other people, but having a wash first, putting on your Sunday bed, whatever it is, whatever your clothing is that you think is your kind of smart, something that you're trying to at least make an effort with, I'll put that on on a Sunday, right? I've been doing that for years, years and years. In fact, even when I was young and going to a false church on a Sunday in the summer when I wasn't playing rugby, I put on my smartest clothes for it. Because in my mind, it's like, well, I am going to like, even though it wasn't really God's house, but I thought I was going to God's house, and that was just kind of a no-brainer, right? People are weird with that stuff, aren't they? It's kind of like coming to God's house, right? Just, you know, for me, he said here, change your garments. He said put on something clean, at least. Something clean, you know, and again, I'm not really preaching at anyone here because we have a church of people that make an effort to come into God's house, right? I think that's, I just kind of see that as a no-brainer myself and I know obviously you can look at verse, I think it's in James about, you know, having respect to the one in the clothing and not doing that basically, not like putting someone above here. But ultimately, let's talk about riches and stuff, you know, and wealth, and I don't, if someone comes in with an Armani suit or someone comes in with one of my favourite, you know, Marks and Sparks suits or something like that, yeah, I would have more respect for the Marks and Sparks guy, personally. Because I'd be like, why are you spending your money on like some Armani suit or whatever else, you know? You're wasting your cash, man. Because you just, especially if you're part of the street soul, you're just going to wear it out anyway. But point being, look, it's not about the wealth of it and it doesn't have to be a suit or, but just, you know, have a wash and come to the house of God with some respect for God, right? Well, it said in verse 2, then Jacob said unto his house unto all that were with him, put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments, and let us arise a guard to Bethel, and I will make thee an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went. And God also answered us. So he said, make the altar unto God who answered me in the day of my distress. And, you know, look, he's saying come to the house of God, I'm going to make an altar to the God that answered me and God answered us, didn't he? First off, he answered us with salvation. Okay, he answered you with salvation. You called upon his name and he answered you. And you could say in the day of your distress as well, where you're like, I now know I'm going to hell, I need salvation, right? And he answered you, didn't he? But let alone in many other ways, so many ways that God's probably answered you in distress that we just forget, don't we, just quickly put out of our minds so many of the times that he's come through for us. And sometimes it goes to the wire a little bit, you know, but it strengthens your faith in the end, doesn't it, where you're getting towards the wire and you're thinking, is God going to come through? Of course he's going to come, and he comes through, doesn't he? Okay, he answers you in your distress. But the least that we can do is to then go to his house and honour him, you'd think, wouldn't you? I mean, salvation alone, the least we can do is go to his house then and go, okay, well, what do you want from me? Because I could never even attempt to repay that. I mean, you couldn't, it's impossible. But maybe I could come and do something for him, though. I mean, it would be a bad thing to do, wouldn't it? Well, verse 4 says, And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. Now, what were the earrings all about? Well, all we know is that Jacob said to put away the strange gods. He then said, be clean and change your garments. So he didn't say write and jewellery, he didn't say take out the earrings or anything else. He said put away the strange gods, be clean and change your garments. And I believe the earrings were probably some sort of graven image. Because it then says, And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears. It kind of seems to be a bit linked there, doesn't it? There seems to be some sort of connection to the two. And again, we don't know, that might have been, for all we know, that might have just been the ladies amongst the party. Remember there's handmaids there. Remember as well they've also, this is everyone's coming. So this includes the captives that Simeon and Levi have taken from Shechem as well. So whoever it is, whatever, people have got something in their ears which is clearly offensive, right? And I think, considering that they're going hand in hand, I think we're talking about some sort of graven image there in terms of earrings. It then says, 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 remember that they had killed Hamor, Shechem and all the men of the city, okay? But it's not the terror of Levi and Simeon that was upon the surrounding cities, you didn't say it. You didn't say, And the terror of Israel was upon them all. It was the terror of God. God told them to travel, and instead of being ambushed, surrounded, caught unawares, after what had just happened, and probably people think, you know, this lot need dealing with because they're going to become a problem. He protected them, didn't he? He protected them in one way or another, and one of the ways he protected them was that the terror of God was upon the cities. Whatever they were in terror of, now, that might have been unconnected to some degree. So, for example, you know, it could be that those, they had the terror of God, they were just scared about, maybe there was some weather they were all scared about, right? Half the world always has got some fear about something, haven't they? Fearing the latest asteroid that apparently is going to near miss us, which never seems to ever do anything. Fearing the latest, you know, we've got a storm, whatever, and call it like a name, and it's like slight high winds for a few hours, you know? And there's always fear, but maybe some of that stuff, maybe that terror of God, maybe whatever it is that they're scared of at the time, like he can put a fear throughout a whole army, right, and have them turn around and flee, maybe some of that was going on, right? There was some sort of fear, something that they were fearing, the terror of God, maybe God himself, you know, whatever it was that stopped them attacking. And I've said this before, the only way that we're able to serve God how we do, so win and do all the things that we do as his church, is because God protects us. I mean, before you know, when you went down one of these roads earlier, there was probably some absolute raging nutcase who hates everything about God and his people, who's sitting at home, you know, doing weird things with a kitchen knife, and God just put some terror in him to not go out the door or something. I mean, look, there are people that absolutely hate, there are complete nutjobs out there, and we don't really seem to come across with them too much, do we, really? I mean, now and again you get the odd little debate, but it's not like we're just getting hunted down and killed. And I honestly believe it's because, look, there is a spiritual battle going on out there, and God's protecting us, isn't he? I mean, there's ways that you can do that, like putting the terror of God upon people. Well, it said here, so Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him, and he built there an altar and called the place El-Bethel, because there God appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. Now, Bethel meaning the house of God, El-Bethel meaning the God of Bethel. What's an altar for? Like I said, for sacrifices. So, like I said, 30 years down the line, and he's still fulfilling that vow to give the tenth to God. That's what he's doing. That's why he's come there and building an altar. And by the way, the tenth that he's giving to God is literally going up in smoke. It's literally going up in smoke. I mean, it's not like, right, well, I'm just putting it here, and it's going, you know, it's going to go to this, and go to that, and go to soul winning, and go... It's literally just being burnt, and just going up in smoke, and being a nice smell, sweet-smelling savour to the Lord that people are actually sacrificing the tenth to him. Because ultimately, even if that tenth... Look, don't get me wrong, it needs to go to a proper house of God, okay? It needs to go to God. As much as you can be as sure as you can, it's going to God. But ultimately, look, God just wants to see that. He wants to see that sacrifice. He's like, well, you know, I've worked it out. If I give a bit to this one, they'll use it for that, and a bit to this one. He wants to see you sacrifice, right? And all of us, every single one of us here, okay? And it's a sweet-smelling savour to him, even when it's literally just burning and going up in smoke. And, you know, obviously I'm a steward of God's money here. I ain't got no plans to just burn money and find ways of just burning it up into God. But even here, when they're doing that, he's just happy with that sacrifice, right? But Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak, and the name of it was called Ailon Bacuth. So this is an interesting snippet of information here, okay? Because you can read this and go, wait a second, Rebecca? Not Rachel, Rebecca. Rebecca is Jacob's mother. Deborah Lightley, the nurse that accompanied originally from Padanaram. And it's not that he's literally digging under the trunk, by the way, just on a side note here. The oak is a landmark, okay? Remember that some sort of recognition of a burial spot is a sign of respect. We looked at that several weeks back. You know, it's somewhere to just make a point of it. It's not just, oh yeah, they're gone, okay, let's move on. But Ailon Bacuth means oak of weeping. So Deborah was clearly held in high regard here as well, isn't she? They've called the oak the oak of weeping. And I don't know, perhaps Rebecca is still alive at this point. I don't really know. Deborah, Rebecca's nurse. Now, I suppose that doesn't make it clear whether it's current or not. Either way, her nurse is with Jacob in Bethel worshipping God. You notice that. So Rebecca's nurse, she's being buried beneath Bethel under an oak. Now, their family burial place is nowhere near Bethel. And why is she there at the time doing that? It's just an interesting thing here, isn't it? Just in the middle of it, we've suddenly got Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, while there in Bethel being there and being buried beneath Bethel under an oak. And I don't know, I'm not so sure what the deal is there, but that's an interesting little just random verse in there about Deborah. It then says in verse 9, And God appeared unto Jacob again when he came out of Padanaram and blessed him. So this is again along with when he wrestled with him in chapter 32, by the way, around 10 years early. Now, go back to chapter 31. What made him appear 10 years ago? What made God appear to Jacob the first time, you know, where he was literally with him there? Well, it was fervent prayer and supplication on the back of obeying God's command to return to his people. So in Genesis 31 and verse 3, it says, And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee. So he was commanded where to go. He did it. He started making that move to go there. Then in chapter 32, when in fear of coming, you know, he's about to come up against Esau, he calls out to God. Verse 9 says, And Jacob said, chapter 32, verse 9, O God of my father Abraham, O God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said unto me, Return unto thy country, to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou showed unto thy servant. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me and a mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. So soon after, and he's wrestling with God for a blessing, isn't he? And then after the Esau stuff, after it, so I mean, this was like a great point really in his life. He's calling out to him, he's obeyed him, he's calling out to him, he's wrestling with him, he prevails, and then he's backsliding in Shechem. But then eventually he gets up and goes to the house of God like we're seeing here, and that's when God blessed him again, ten years later, when he got right with God again. And look, the point being here, he messed up his Shechem, it affected his family, his daughter was fornicated, his sons were killing a load of people, but he still had a chance to get right with God. And we can all look, we can all mess up, we can all make mistakes, we can all get things wrong, we can all look, maybe not quite go, look, you could mess up in that way as well. And you can get right with God, and there's always a chance to get right with God. And do you know how you get right with God? You do what he tells you to do. And the thing he clearly tells him to do is go to the house of God. Go to the house of God and get right with God. He said, and God appeared unto Jacob again, sorry, back in verse 9 of chapter 35, when he came out of Padan Aram and blessed him. 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. Now, remember this was already commanded in Genesis 32-28. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince, has our power with God, and with men, and has prevailed. This is after the wrestling match. Israel meaning who prevails with God. And it seems to me like Jacob didn't really live up to this over the past decade, but it's not too late. He's kind of reminding him again. He prevailed with God after 10 years of just like, what a mess. It wasn't just the fact, oh well, maybe a mistake was made with Dina, and then it was his sons. I mean, the fact that his sons were in the negotiation, the fact that he waited to even talk to this guy until my sons are there, and then he lets the sons take over, deceive everyone, and then end up going and slaughtering them all. I mean, the whole thing was a mess, and then he tries to reprove them, and they're just, I mean, they're almost showing just disrespect to him, really, aren't they? Should he deal with our sisters with an harlot? Oh, would you know, dad, type thing. And then they just move on. You know, that's that. And then he needs God to say, get out of there, you need to get to the house of God. This was a backslidden guy, a backslidden family there, well out of the things of God. But they were able to get right. They were able to get right. The last time he was blessed by God was 10 years earlier. And we can all look, you might look back and go, man, things have been rough. And maybe not. Look, we've got a load of people here that are generally, you know, some regular church members, everything else. But whatever, maybe this is a time you can look back on, or maybe it'll be a time in the future, or maybe you are. Maybe you're only here kind of in flesh and not really in spirit. And maybe you're going, look, things are a bit hard right now, and I'm not really feeling the blessings of God. It's been a while, but you can get right. You get right by following what he tells you to do. For example, it was humility, his praying, he's giving all the credit to God for everything he'd got, and then he's being blessed then. Then he's gone like completely backslidden again for like 10 years or something, and now God said, go to the house of God, he's gone to the house of God, and now he's being blessed by God again. Verse 11 said, And God said unto him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply. A nation, a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. And the lamb which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. So again, for me, this is another time when it's the Son of God coming and talking face to face with him. Just a little snippet of information there, which shows that he's actually there talking to him. It seems like his presence was there as well. Then he went up from him in the place where he talked with him. Verse 14 says, 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. So it's thought that Jacob was building some upper level to Bethel. The pillar was literally a pile of stones to some degree. I mean, it comes from, I think, pillar, I think the word probably comes from pile or vice versa, right? But it's a pile of stones. It's a monumental landmark, really, here. And having made this pillar of stone, he then pours a drink offering and oil on it as well, though. And the drink offering being something that we see commanded later and foremost in the book of Exodus, so we don't see it until later, but it's basically offering of our substance to God. And that, as mentioned many times, it predates the law. And as you go through Genesis, you're just seeing this time and time again, that it's just a fact of life for the believer, isn't it? He's giving of your substance. And obviously these also seemingly symbolise the Gospel to some degree. So you've got Jesus Christ obviously is the stone which the builders refused. He's made a pillar of stone, it's made a point of it being of stone. The drink picturing his blood shed for the remission of sins, and the oil probably his anointing as the Christ. So, again, I think it's just a picture of the Gospel there as well, in that place where he talked with God. The pillar of stone, he poured a drink offering thereon, he poured oil thereon. It then says in verse 15, And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel. And, like I said, the house of God. And of course, look, God speaks to us through his word. Make no mistake about that. I never think, well, I can only have access to God through being in church. That's nonsense. But there sure is something more personal about how he speaks you through his word in church, isn't there? And if you're in a church, and obviously it's not really going to be a church if it doesn't have a saved man of God preaching the Gospel, preaching the Word of God to you in the church. But when you feel the Holy Spirit and you know that he's preaching something, Man, how does he even know about that? This is going on in my life right now. That's just the Holy Spirit. And there's a big difference to that than your private Bible reading. Now, don't ever stop your private Bible reading. Read the Bible, read the Bible. There should never be a day when you don't read your Bible. However, there is an extra, there's something different. It's a different angle when it's in church and someone's literally preaching something that you need to hear. Now, that doesn't mean you're going to automatically respond. A lot of people will hear something preached and then they won't respond and they'll go the other way and they get angry and they get annoyed and they get upset and they can't take the Word of God being preached. But God wants us to respond the right way, doesn't he? And that's why it's so important. That's why here he's saying, go to the house of God. And we're seeing all these pictures of the house of God and the importance of the house of God and everything else. It said, and Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel, because God speaks to you in a personal way in the house of God, doesn't he? And they journeyed from Bethel and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath and Rachel travailed as she had hard labour. Ephrath is the old name for Bethlehem. And you've got to ask the question, like I said before, why were they in Shechem? And now the question is, why are they leaving Bethel? Anyone looked at this and go, well, why are you leaving Bethel? What did he say in verse one? And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go out to Bethel and dwell there. He said, dwell there, and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fledst from the face of Esau, thy brother. Dwell implies a continuation. He didn't say abide there. He didn't say sojourn there. He didn't say visit, go and visit Bethel and just build an altar, will you? He said unto Jacob, Arise, go out to Bethel and dwell there. He said, go and live in Bethel, go and stay in Bethel. And they got right with God, yeah? They got right, didn't they? They were like, right, put away the strange gods. Why weren't the strange gods put away long before? Like I said, he's clearly backslidden then, right? He's gone to Bethel. He's gone to the house of God. He's dwelt in Bethel, and now they're leaving for no obvious reason. Who's told him to leave? No one's told him to leave. Now, remember that he'd been in Shechem, like I said, for 10 years or so. So they haven't been here for, because we see in a couple of chapters time that Joseph is 17 years old. So what they, this is, they haven't spent long in Bethel. They could spend long in a worldly place where his daughters hang around with the daughters of the land and all of that stuff. But why aren't they spending a long time in Bethel? I believe, looking at it, and as we've been going through Genesis, in Jacob's life, we see the ups and downs that are then repeated by the nation of Israel over many centuries afterwards. And, sorry, at least, sorry, that are repeated centuries later for many centuries. We just see this up and down, up and down, this backsliding, the getting right with God, going away from God, getting right with God. And we're seeing this just in this short period of Jacob's life, aren't we? What was the result of Jacob leaving Bethel? You're going, look, are you sure about this? You know, maybe he had a plan, maybe we just don't know what God said unto him. Well, and they journeyed from Bethel and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath, this is verse 16, and Rachel travailed and she had hard labor, and then we see that she dies. Now I'm not saying that God definitely killed her, I'm not saying that, well, that was a punishment, that's it, they were backsliders, so he killed her. But instead of being settled in their dwellings, where they had been told to be, by the way, he was told to dwell in Bethel, they're journeying. Bethlehem is only 20 miles, by the way, from Bethel. It's less than a day's journey when these guys are putting in hours and hours of walking a day, right? So they're journeying whilst she's heavily pregnant. Now, something that Joseph had to do thousands of years later to be taxed, okay, but not something you do out of choice. Any of the ladies here, you know, who have been heavily pregnant before and you're about to drop, not really a good time to be walking miles and miles, whether you're on the, or on the back of an animal. Not really ideal, is it? And that's what they're doing here, why? Now, maybe she would have died regardless, okay, I don't know, I don't know what would have happened, we can't really, we can't know, can we for sure? However, with the then Reuben and Bill, her situation later on that we're about to get to, I heard when it was read by Adam earlier, it just seems like things are going badly again, doesn't it? It seems like to me, like, things picked up a bit, they're in Bethel, they got right, now they've just left for no reason, now Rachel dies in childbirth, and then his son ends up fordicating, sorry, committing adultery with his concubine wife. I mean, what a mess again, right? And what's it on the back of? All this going badly, leaving the house of God where Jacob was told to dwell. And it always just comes back to the house of God, doesn't it? And look, I'm not reading into this, that's just what we're seeing. Bethel means house of God. And it's not, he's just trying to make people be in church, yeah, you know what? I would love to make everyone be in church, actually. I would love to make every single, maybe not every saved person, because that would be a bit full up and a bit of a mess, but I would love at least all the people that God wants to be in this house of God at this point in time to be here. Not for me, because it makes no difference to me. Probably it's a little bit, you know, there could be a few more distractions and stuff when there's a lot of people in the church, but ultimately because it's for everyone else, that's where they need to be, because when they come out of the house of God, when they don't go to the house of God when they're told to, when they leave the house of God when they're told to be there, life goes downhill. It's a mess. It just goes wrong, doesn't it? You want people to be in the house of God. Now, it could be a hard time sometimes when there are people that you know are bad for the house of God that you've got to get rid of, and that's tough, right? If you're like, yeah, but these are like... especially if you're not for sure these people are bad, bad people, because you know that people need to be in the house of God, and that could be some hard stuff to deal with sometimes, but ultimately you just want people here, don't you? People here, unless they're obviously causing trouble, because then you've got the risk of other people leaving, right? Okay, where are we? Verse 17. I think likely that probably one of the maidservants acted as a midwife. I don't think there was like some uncool woman that turned up, okay? I don't think they kind of put the sound out and then someone turned up. It said when she was in hard labour that the midwife. So this is a person acting as midwife, who I'm sure had some experience. I mean, there have been a lot of babies born and stuff like that. I don't know who in particular that was, but the midwife, who was probably part of their party, said unto her, fear not thou shalt have this son also. So she's saying, look, don't worry, this son's going to be born. She's going to die. But I think a lot of the time you find that when you're in that situation people will just be caring more. Moms are caring more about, well, what about this baby? What's going to happen to this baby, right? And it came to pass as her soul was in departing, for she died, that she called his name Benonai, but his father called him Benjamin. So Benonai meaning the son of my sorrow, Benjamin meaning the son of the right hand. So Rachel was dying and named Benjamin son of my sorrow, but perhaps Jacob thought it would be a bit of a tough reminder all his life. I mean, not the best name to be called, is it? Son of my sorrow. And kind of that would be a pretty kind of sad thing to constantly think about every time someone says your name. So I don't think it's like out of a bitterness thing here, or some anger at her. I think he just kind of makes a sensible decision to change that. And he changes it to Benjamin, so at least he keeps part of what she wanted to call son of, but changed it to the right hand. Because we then see he does still make a point of putting a pillar upon her grave and everything else, because it says in verse 19, And Rachel died and was buried in a way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave, that is, a pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. So this is a marking, like a headstone. And Israel journeyed and spread his tent beyond the Tower of Edah. Now this seems to be close proximity to Bethlehem, this Tower of Edah. And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine, and Israel heard it, now the sons of Jacob were twelve. Now, what on earth are Reuben and Bilhah playing at, right? What on earth is going on here? Like I said, this is on the back of leaving Bethel, and settling near Bethlehem instead. I mean, why are they spreading their tent there? Why have they left Bethel, the house god, where he's told to dwell, and gone sort of 20 miles and then spread his tent at Bethlehem? And just to remind you, okay, that although described as a concubine and clearly of a lesser standing than Rachel, Leah, Genesis 30 verse 4 still refers to her as becoming his wife. It says, And she gave him Bilhah her hand made to wife. And Jacob went in unto her. So Reuben is committing adultery with his father's wife. That is wicked. That's a wicked thing to do by both of them, right? It's not like she's some young impressionable girl. This is, you know, she's a woman of mature age by now. She's had a couple of kids and everything else, and Reuben is committing adultery with her. And I may be reading into it here, okay, but if you look back at chapter 30, if you flip back to chapter 30, Reuben is involved in some degree, sorry, to some degree, with the weird bartering for Jacob. Do you remember that it's Reuben in the middle of those several years of children being born left, right and centre? But it says in verse 14 of chapter 30, Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. These are some kind of aphrodisiac. And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? And wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes. So Jacob's being, like, traded. And Jacob came out of the field an evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, Thou must come in unto me, for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes, and he lay with her that night. The young Reuben must have been at least partly aware of his mandrakes being given away. I mean, they were his mandrakes, weren't they, right? And then Jacob is back having children with his mum after kind of a period of not having that on the back of that, with Isegar, Zebulun and Dina then being born in fairly quick succession after that. And at the least, look, even aside from that incident, and you think that was a weird incident, wasn't it? A weird thing that he's at least aware of something going on there. Being the eldest, he would have at least been a bit more aware of this bizarre family set-up growing up, wouldn't he? I mean, he was kind of in the thick of this as he's growing up, this kind of trading of Jacob and going from one wife to the other and then back to Leah again after kind of she'd stopped bearing for a while and all that weird stuff being given to handmaids and everything else. And I'm not justifying him, OK? I'm not trying to excuse him. But perhaps he was at least partly a product of his upbringing, don't you think? I mean, it was a weird situation. The whole thing was weird, wasn't it? I mean, his dad's kind of got four wives and a couple of handmaids just given to him. The whole thing, then he was at least at a young age kind of at least witness to this whole his dad being traded with some mandrakes, with an aphrodisiac, and probably not surprised he's a bit pervy when he's older. It's a bit weird, isn't it? He's had a weird upbringing and now he's committing adultery with his dad's wife. And just, look, I'm not trying to excuse him. I think the guy, look, that's a wicked thing to do. That was something that was punishable by death as well, by the way, later in the law. But here's a point here, the multiple wives just never seems to work out, does it? Not just the fact that you cause all sorts of trouble between the wives and everything else, but just the fact as well that the result, the children that come from these sort of families, there's just all these problems and all this trouble from that. It's just such a mess, isn't it? Said in verse 22, back in Genesis 35, And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine, and Israel heard it. And just last point on that. Israel heard it, but he doesn't appear to do much about it. And again, we don't know, but we're not told he did anything, so it's not anything of note or anything that was worth telling us. And like I said, it was commonly understood that adultery was serious business. So even before the law, this was just commonly understood amongst people, not even God's people. In Genesis 20 and verse 9, after the whole she's my sister debacle, it said in Genesis 20 and verse 9, And Abimelech called Abraham and said unto him, What has thou done unto us? And what have I offended thee that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin, that thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done? Just the fact that she nearly ended up being laid with. Old Sarah. And he's going, like what? You can see the enormity of it, of lying with another man's wife was a big deal, right? In Genesis 26, 10, when Isaac was doing the same thing as Abraham, it said, and Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? One of the people might likely have lying with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us. So again, he's not just going, oh, yeah, yeah, just a bit of adultery, just a little affair, you know? Who cares? He's going, what have you done to us? Carried the death penalty under the law, yet there's no evidence of Jacob doing much other than reproving him when prophesying before he died, when he kind of just has that little reproof of him about it, when he's kind of prophesying what's going to come of them all, and you just seem like, what's up, Jacob? And again, for me, we're in another backsliding point, another point where he's away from the things he's got, because before, he's going, right, you're all coming to the house of God, like he has a bit of strength, right? He's like, we're going to the house of God, get those earrings. In my mind, he's ripping them out of ears like he should be doing, and to the men at least. And I think they were graven images. I just think they're mentioned the same way, and I think that in case any women here are thinking, are we okay to have, of course, you're fine to have earrings, okay? However, here I think we're talking about some sort of graven image, some sort of idly saying, put away the strange gods, and then he's taking the earrings as well. And then we have all of this, he goes to the house of God, and then suddenly he's left the house of God, and he's like back to this weird pushover again. It's weird, right? But here's the thing, think about this for a bit as well. When you're out of the things of God, when you're a little bit, whether you're backslidden or you're just feeling a little bit kind of guilty of a sin or something else, you're not half as bold, are you? You notice that. You don't have the boldness that you have when you're in the things of God, you're in the Word, you feel like you're upright, you're not in presumptuous sin, you're doing things right, you have some boldness, don't you? You just feel like he's wrong here, he's out of God's will again, and he's not bold and he's got issues again. Okay, let's keep going. Verse 23 said, And the sons of Leah, so it said, Now the sons of Jacob are twelve, and in verse 23, The sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun. Remember, Leah was the wife that he was tricked into being given first. The sons of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, who we've seen was just recently born, and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, Dan, and Naphtali, and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padaniram. And Padaniram, I think it's just signifying whilst he was away from his father, basically, so he's returning with these, because obviously Benjamin wasn't actually born in Padaniram, but I think it's just meaning when he was away with his trip to Padaniram. And Jacob came unto Isaac his father, unto Mamre, unto the city of Arba, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. So he's on the move again, and it's interesting that he didn't seem so interested in seeing his father any earlier, did he? Notice that? I mean, he's been around for years, it seems like, at least having left Padaniram. And now he comes to his father, unto Mamre. Why do you think that is? For me, probably a result of the favouritism. He obviously didn't have a very good relationship with his father, did he? If you remember, his father liked Esau because he cooked nice food. I mean, it was weird, wasn't it? They had a weird set-up. Again, what was the result of that weird favouritism? Well, it seems like it's kind of last thing. It's like, well, I've done ten years in Shechem. I went to the house of God for a bit, but that was a bit boring, you know? So we've kind of moved on a bit, hung around in Bethlehem for a bit. Now we're going to come and see my dad. It wasn't like the longest journey. He'd done most of the journey when he came from Syria in the first place, from Padaniram. So I think probably that. He would have had respect for his dad, but I think there was an issue there from early on. And that's a fallout from favouritism amongst children. And something as parents, we just want to do our utmost to never have favouritism. Because you go, what if you just get on better or you like one more than another? You don't even allow that, is the way I see it. Because ultimately love is something that we choose to give, don't we? So love is an action that we choose to give, and you just give love to your children, don't you? And they all have strengths and weaknesses. They're not all going to be the same. One might be into something that you're not, and one might be more into something you are into. But ultimately we've got to be really careful with that. Because I think that's one of the things there. You just see a son who's not even interested in seeing his elderly dad. And you know what, when I get elderly, I hope my kids are going to help me out a little bit. Because some of those care hos look pretty grim, don't they? So you want some kids that at least want to help you out, right? So we want to make sure we don't show favouritism and stuff. Because it always causes problems. Like we're going to see in a couple of chapters, we're going to see the same thing with Joseph. He repeats it, and a lot of the time sins are repeated, aren't they? Problems like bad parenting is repeated. We kind of grow up seeing that, and then we just kind of a lot of the time do the same thing. And then we see that repeated, and then the result with Joseph isn't a good result until... Well, a lot of years later it works out for good, right? It said, In the days of Isaac were a hundred and fourscore years. A hundred and eighty, that is. Not a bad innings. Abraham, by the way, made a hundred and seventy-five, so he beat his dad. 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. So we looked previously how being gathered to his people is referring to being in heaven, okay? We looked at that in previous chapters. A statement that we only see used for safe people, even going into Moses and Aaron as well. But Ishmael being included in this, okay? So for me it was an evidence that Ishmael was saved. But he was buried, by the way, so Isaac gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered unto his people. But he was buried in the cave in Machpelah, according to Jacob in Genesis 49, where he says in verse 31, There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah. So, talking about that cave in Machpelah. But yeah, Isaac then dies, and at least Esau and Jacob, it wasn't just on the surface at the time, they were obviously able to be around together, they buried him together. So whether or not there was an awkward relationship there or whatever, he still did the right thing. He still respected his dad, he still buried him with his brother as well. And that was Genesis 35. And like I said, a lot of that for me is just seeing that up and down, and really ultimately it comes back to just being right with God, doesn't it? And we see times in Jacob's life where he's not. And I think if you kind of looked over a bird's eye view, in all of our lives you're going to see times like that as well. But we want to do our utmost to make sure that we're just as right with God as we possibly can for as much of our life as we possibly can as well, right? On that, we're going to finish in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for the lessons, for the examples, the examples that we're not to follow, and the examples too follow as well. When you tell us to be somewhere to do it, Lord, when you tell us to go to the house of God, to go to the house of God, and when you tell us, Lord, to go somewhere to do that, Lord, and we know that another place you tell us to go is into all the world of preaching the gospel to every creature, that's the command of yours, Lord, and without that we're in opposition, we're in defiance. Help us to all just be right, to know there are just clear commands in the Bible that we're to follow, Lord, when it's clear we need to just clearly follow. And help us to all be right in those areas of our life, Lord, where maybe we have struggles and troubles with that. Help us, Lord, to just get back home safe tonight and to make sure that we're able to get here on Sunday, to be able to get out and preach the gospel as well, and if anyone's able to make Thursday so willing to make that as well, and help these things to be done in Jesus Christ's holy name. Amen.