Sermon Tone Analysis
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1
Always Guiding
Genesis 35:1 – 36:42
20220116
With destruc=on all around recognize the outstretched protec=ve hand of God
Introduc)on
In July of 2018 my family made a trip to Colorado Springs to unwind and spend some =me together.
One of the ou=ngs
we did as a family was drive up to the top of Pike’s Peak, which is 3000 feet higher than Mt.
Hood.
We drove to the top
and did some exploring, ate some donuts from the summit house, and took in the vistas.
This was the first =me the rest
of my family had been there but it wasn’t the first =me I had been there.
Years before I had been in the area with my
military unit and took a trip with my commanding officer to Pike’s Peak for some mountain running and then later a train
ride up to the top – where I also ate some donuts.
So, I was able to think back on that previous trip when I was there
with my family.
I had an earlier experience and now a later experience in the same place with many years in between.
Have you ever had a similar opportunity to compare a place that you had been years before, as a younger you or with
different circumstances, with a later visit to the same place?
It can bring back all kinds of memories when this happens.
Our minds try to bring the events together in some way melding the old with the new.
This is the type of situa=on we will see in the text with Jacob – many years before he had passed through a place he
called Bethel.
It was as he was fleeing his brother Esau.
He le\ the land of his up brining in a hurry because his brother
was so upset with him that he would have likely killed him if he remained.
Jacob didn’t have much to his name, he had
only his staff the Bible says (Gen. 32:10).
Yet, when he went through Bethel, though he was fleeing death and an ugly
situa=on, I believe, he was content.
He had what he wanted even if he wasn’t sure how it would all work out.
Then the
most amazing thing happened to him.
God revealed himself to Jacob!
He called out to him and showed him a beau=ful
vision of the heavens opened and angels ascending and descending.
The LORD made promises to Jacob – as is usually
the case – he made those promises based on his own sovereign choice and nothing par=cularly that would give any
credit to Jacob.
God was showing Jacob undeserved favor.
Much, in the way of life, happened between that first =me passing through Bethel and the journey we will cover in
today’s passage.
Just like going back to a place years later can bring about a whole slew of memories for us this is
something Jacob is going to have to deal with in a manner that is commensurate with is calling.
As we recently finished
up Genesis 34, Jacob is once again in a place where he is afraid of what others will do to him.
His sons have decimated
the people of Shechem and now he believes he will be destroyed.
He needs an interven=on.
Maybe you have had this
same concern?
You’ve been running a\er everything else but what you should be running a\er and it is catching up to
you.
Your fear is rising higher and higher and it seems as if peace will never be obtainable.
And I have to say apart from
God doing a work on your behalf you are right about that.
For that reason, even with destruc=on all around, you have to
recognize the protec=ve and outstretched hand of God.
He wants to shelter you from the destruc=on, calm your fears,
and give you a las=ng peace.
Let us now look together at how we can recognize the protec=ve and outstretched hand of
God – so that we may receive the wonderful working of God in our life.
Recognize and Respond (vv1-8)
1. v1 “God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there.
Make an altar there to the God who appeared...””
a.
I know I’m star=ng us out with this point of recognize and respond and in v1 we read “God said to Jacob” and
you’re thinking well of course I would recognize something as obvious as God talking to me!
b.
S=ck with me, CH Spurgeon said, “God will give us no new promise, but He will make the old promises look
wondrously new.”
i.
As a church we hold to the complete sufficiency of Scripture, believing that the 66 books of the Bible
are the inspired word of God.
In it contains God’s special revela=on about himself to us and
numerous promises.
1.
So, though I don’t expect you to come up to me and say, God said to me __________ in a
God said to Jacob sort of way.
2. I do fully expect you to be able to say God was speaking to me through his word as you
spend =me taking it in, reading the Scriptures, medita=ng upon what God has revealed to us
2
in his word.
And like Jacob when this happens you have an opportunity to make a choice as
to what you will do.
a. Recognize – this is the word of God
b.
Respond – to what he is saying,
3. Now look at how Jacob responds.
2. v2 “So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you...”
a.
In the face of God’s call upon Jacob’s life – even when he is afraid of the people all around him, even when
he has no peace, even when his family seems to be barely hanging together.
He knows with clarity what
needs to be done.
As the head of his household, he doesn’t hesitate to speak into the situa=on that he is
well aware of.
b.
With God’s call upon his life, he responds with an immediate spiritual house cleaning.
This has to happen
from =me to =me in our own lives.
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