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Genesis 33:12-35 Key verse 35:3 Jacob Returns to His Personal God in Bethel Finally Jacob reconciles with his brother and it seemes that lifelong conflict is over. He wants to settle down in a place and wants to enjoy his blessing peacefully. However, he finally realizes and remembers God's grace and comes back to God. May God help us today to meet God of Jacob. May God help us to come back to God with all our hearts. ¥°. Jacob Settled In Succoth near Shechem(33:12-34:31) Now Jacob met his brother Esau. Jacob had been very afraid that Esau might kill him. His fear toward his brother had never disappeared during the last 20 years. However, God miraculously softened Esau's heart to welcome Jacob. Jacob was afraid, but in reality he was very safe. It was because God promised that he would bring Jacob back to his father's house. Even his greatest fear Esau was safe. Look at verse 13. "Let us be on our way; I'll accompany you." Esau wanted to go back and live together with Jacob again. Esau full of anger towards his brother, was now full of brotherhood. God really changed his heart! God restored the broken relationship between Esau and Jacob. We can also come to God to restore our broken relationships. God restores us. God is our peace-maker. Then what was Jacob's response? Look at verses 13-14. Jacob said that he would follow Esau afterwards because of his young children and animals. Look at verse 17. Esau went back to Seir, but Jacob did not keep his word to follow Esau. Instead, he went to Succoth and built a place to live. Jacob did not want to live with his brother. Esau forgave Jacob. However, Jacob's deep fear still remained in his heart, and he could not go to Esau. He just settled in the place Succoth meaning shelters. Jacob hoped Succoth would be his shelter. Anyhow, he made peace with his brother. And he had a big family and became rich. It seemed enough. He wanted to find his peace and security in this place. Succoth was not Jacob's secure shelter. A great tragedy happened in the place. Look at verses 34:1-4. "Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her. His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her. And Shechem said to his father Hamor, "Get me this girl as my wife."" Jacob must have had a hard feeling for this event. It was a great tragedy to see his daughter being violated. However, Jacob wanted to settle down in this place in peace. Look at verses 5-6. Jacob kept quiet and just talked with Hamor. Then Hamor suggested to intermarry with them. Look at verses 9-10. "Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it." Jacob could not make a decision over his daughter's tragedy, because Hamor's suggestion fit to his plan to settle down. However, his sons Simeon and Levi were different. Look at verse 7. "They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter--a thing that should not be done." Simeon and Levi tricked the men of Shechem. They pretended to make a treaty with them on condition that they become circumcised. The Shechemites liked and respected Shechem, the son of the ruler and they agreed. But as soon as they had done it, while they were still lying with pains from the circumcision, Simeon and Levi attacked and looted the city, putting all the men to the sword. Look at verse 30. "You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed." Jacob felt a great danger that all he has might be destroyed. Jacob's efforts to settle down in Succoth came into nothing. His loving daughter Dinah was violated, and his sons killed all men in Shechem. Upon the allied attack of Canaanites and Perizzites, Jacob woulld lose everything. It was an irrevocable tragedy. Jacob wanted to settle down and become an ordinary man. Many people become nominal Christians when they receive God's blessings. They want to sit down and enjoy their peaceful, blessed lives. However, God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others. He calls us into his redemptive history. He wants us to remember his promises and keep them. This makes us influential to others. We must not stop and settle down. We must travel the pilgrim road by faith from first to last. May we live as pilgrims to the end. May God of Jacob help us our lives of pilgrimage. ¥±. Jacob Returns to Bethel(35:1-15) Look at verse 1. "Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau."" Jacob was afraid of being attacked and losing all his household. At this urgent time, God wanted Jacob to go up to Bethel and settle there instead of Succoth. Then why is Bethel the place Jacob should go? In Bethel, Jacob met his God for the first time. At that time, Jacob had nothing. He was fleeing from his brother Esau and his future seemed so insecure. He was full of fear and merely prayed for food and clothes. Then God promised to be with him and bring him back to the land again. It had been more than 20 years since God gave his promise to Jacob. God had provided much more than Jacob had prayed for. God had not only given food and clothes, but also a big family and great wealth. God protected him from his uncle Laban and restored relationship between his brother. The creator God who was with his father Abraham, and Issac became Jacob's personal God. All this started from Bethel, where God appeared to him for the first time. Now God wanted Jacob to come to Bethel and meet God again and renew his faith at this dangerous time. Jacob thought Succoth would be his shelter. But it was not the matter of place. Without God, there was no place on earth that was perfectly secure. When we are with God, that is the safest place. God is our shelter, not Succoth. For God, to come to Bethel and meet his God personally was the best way. We also face many dangers like Jacob did. Sometimes our problem seems too big for us. However, there is no problem too difficult for God. At any time, we should come back to God who is our true shelter. Look at verse 2. "So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes."" This time, Jacob changed from his heart and took God's word seriously. Before the big trouble that might destroy all he had, Jacob realized that God was the only one to depend on. He really wanted to meet God again who was his only savior. And he said to all his household to get rid of all foreign gods. There were many of them, but Jacob's personal God was the only God who was superior than any other false god. Secondly, Jacob told to purify and change clothes. Jacob¡¯s sons had greatly sinned by killing every men in Shechem. More than that, Jacob himself was double-minded that he wanted to serve God but at the same time he wanted to settle down and enjoy his blessing. Taking revenge and enjoying one's life is not a such bad or weird thing in this world. However, Jacob thought if there were anything impure before God and remove them. He wanted to come before God with pure heart. Look at verse 3. "Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone." Finally, Jacob remembered God's grace. It seemed that it was him who worked hard to get his wives, and have big family and become rich. But it was not him. It was God who had been with Jacob all the time and blessed him. Jacob was now confident to meet this God with all his household. Look at verse 4. "So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem." Before Jacob's firm decision to meet God, they brought all the foreign gods. They even brought earrings which they thought impure before God. They have put down every little thing that kept them from coming to God. And Jacob buried them. Shechem was Jacob¡¯s home of sin and compromise. His compromising lifestyle brought big trouble to his whole family. In Shechem he put to death his sin and compromise by burying all the foreign gods and earrings. Look at verse 5. "Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them." This time he did not calculate and made up plans to protect his family. Jacob simply set out to Bethel to meet God. He left all the worries behind. Then God protected him in his perfect way. It was evident that the towns around him would soon attack, but the terror of God fell upon them. God was the perfect savior and protector. Look at verse 7. "There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother" Jacob remembered the saving grace of God. God had been his personal savior. Then God blessed Jacob again with his great vision. Look at verse 10. God changed his name to Israel, a man struggles with God. God had a vision that Jacob would be Israel, a history-maker in God's redemptive history. Jacob was planning to enjoy his life, but God was looking for the day that selfish Jacob would turn to Israel and lay down a foundation for God's redemptive history. God's great vision can change anyone. Look at verses 11, 12. "And God said to him, "I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you."" Jacob only thought about himself and his family. But God saw that nations and kings come from Jacob. Jacob would grow as forefather of faith. God's vision surely comes true! While preparing today's message, I found that I am very much like Jacob who tried to settle down in Succoth. Now I had a decent job, a wife, and a daughter to be born. I had a small but cute house to live happily with my family. However, I felt I was becoming an ordinary man, not a man of faith. I thought it was because of daily stress from my workplace. I had too many works and responsibilities that made me not sleep well. However, I once had a dream to be the greatest man in history. I wanted to be like the forefathers of faith. Even when I was praying for my job, I made a vow to God that if he grants me a job, I would live as a missionary. Right at the moment I made a vow to God, I got my job notice from my sms text message, and got my current job. I realize that I should go back to my personal God who saved me, was with me, and led all my way. I have a vision to live as a father of faith, not as an ordinary man. I pray that I come back to my personal God and renew my faith. May God renew his vision for me. May God lead my way again to grow as a father of faith! For 20 years, God had been with Jacob to bless him and train him and bring him back to that place. Now Jacob who left with nothing had become a new man. He became Israel, a father of faith. His life and faith had been self-centered. Now he worshipped the God of Bethel. He had become a God-centered man. May God of Jacob draw us close to him. May God of Bethel meet us and give his vision to us! |