Genesis: Back to Bethel
Genesis • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 9 viewsThe narrative of Jacob returning to Bethel and hearing from the Lord there.
Notes
Transcript
Main Point
Main Point
Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob have all been blessed by El-Shaddai (God Almighty) as his chosen scaffolding to build his mighty work.
Introduction
Introduction
God uses different means to accomplish his purposes. He manipulates the hearts of men (mankind) (verse 5) and he uses men to glorify his name among men. It pleases God to glorify himself through means. Means, in this case, of blessing and calling people to himself.
Jacob Came to Bethel & Built an Altar
Jacob Came to Bethel & Built an Altar
This is the place where it all started (Genesis 28:10-22)
El-Bethel: Jacob has now learned that it is not the place that is awesome, but the God he met here.
“Not the house of God as much as the God of the house.” -Matthew Henry
App: God is not bound to the places and situations we attach him to
God has been faithful through it all
App: From El-Elohe-Israel to El-bethel, God reigns over Jacob.
Jacob’s trust in God was important, but it was also certain.
Long before his birth, God purposed this for Jacob (Gen 25:23 & Rom 9:10-13)
God’s providence is the thrust of the narrative here, in the whole Bible, and ultimately in our lives today.
To understand what God is doing with Jacob, we must zoom out.
App: Habakkuk 2:13-14 (The mission of God)
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, The God of Bethel, and it keeps going because he is the God of all the redeemed.
He will not stop until every knee bows and tongue confesses that Jesus is LORD!
God’s pursuit of Jacob is God’s pursuit to glorify his own name, filling the earth with his glory as the waters cover the sea.
Catechism: How and why did God create us? God created us male and female, in his own image, to glorify him.
Deborah Dies
Deborah Dies
Rebekah had probably died already.
Deborah would have been a mother figure to Jacob (Gen 24:59)
Allon-bacuth, oak of weeping
App: Even in all the blessing, Jacob was not spared form suffering and sorrow. There will be sorrow in this life, and we must remember God.
Suffering is not, nor has it ever been avoidable for the people of God.
The absence of it is not necessarily a sign of blessing, nor is the presence of it necessarily a sign of punishment.
Suffering is a given, but who is your God in the midst of it?
El-Shaddai Speaks Again
El-Shaddai Speaks Again
God appears again to speak to Jacob
He reminds him of his new name, Israel
He renews and ratifies the covenant given to Abraham, with the name God Almighty (El-Shaddai)
App: “I am El-Shaddai” was a reminder/declaration to Jacob that all the things that have happened are his doing, not Jacob’s
Even Jacob’s new name was due to his wrestling with God, which was providential.
God is proclaiming to him, “this is who you are, but this is who I am.”
“I am not like those pieces of wood, stone, or metal that you buried back in Shechem, who could do nothing. I am God ALMIGHTY!”
Do you see acknowledge that he is Almighty, or are their foreign gods in the way keeping you from doing so.
Only the “Almighty” could make such promises and keep them.
The Place (Bethel) He Had Spoken
The Place (Bethel) He Had Spoken
Jacob set up a pillar for remembrance
Bethel, the place where God had spoken.
Jacob has learned that it is not the place, where God is confined.
He honors God here because it is where God first spoke to him.
Closing (Hebrews 1:1-3)
Closing (Hebrews 1:1-3)
App: We, now have a place where God speaks to us, and it is far better.
Jesus is our place where God has spoken, and he still speaks to us today.
He speaks to us many things.
Come ye sinners
I have come, not for those under the delusion that they are well, but for those who are sick and know it.
Before Abraham was, I am
No one comes to the Father except through me
You without sin can throw the first stone at her
Woe to you who clean the outside of the dish, but are filthy on the inside
My sheep hear my voice, and no one can take them from me
(Of his atoning work he says to us) IT IS FINISHED!
Put your hand in my side and feel the nail holes in my hands, do not disbelieve, but believe I have risen.
I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end
Surely I am coming soon!
This is not the house of God, but he is the God of the house.
Christ speaks, and he beckons you to come to him and find rest for your soul.