August 25, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: 1 Timothy 4-6

Weekly Memory Verse: John 1:12

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Genesis 35:1-8 (NASB95)
¹ Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ² So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments; ³ and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” ⁴ So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which they had and the rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem. ⁵ As they journeyed, there was a great terror upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. ⁶ So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. ⁷ He built an altar there, and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled from his brother. ⁸ Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; it was named Allon-bacuth.

Genesis 33:18-20 (NASB95)
¹⁸ Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped before the city. ¹⁹ He bought the piece of land where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money. ²⁰ Then he erected there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.^[1]

On the first reading, I was hit by some interesting thoughts.  First, why didn't God send Jacob to the last altar that he had built?  That was in Genesis 33:18-20, we covered his return to the land when God called him back, and the inconsistency of his actions compared to Esau's actions.  But we really did not know the reason for Jacob's reaction to Esau's welcome.  I think that now we do, there were idols in the house of Jacob. 

Exodus 21:23-25 (NASB95)
²³ “But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, ²⁴ eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. ^[2]

After returning to the land, Dinah was raped, then his sons, all of them were party to entirely wiping out two cities of people and enslaving the women and children.  This was an act which was inconsistent with the crime that was committed.  The question I asked yesterday was why didn't they seek God before pursuing their mission?  In this chapter, we see a clear reason why they didn't seek God.  They had allowed false gods to enter their houses. 

Genesis 31:33-35 (NASB95)
³³ So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel’s saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them. ³⁵ She said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the household idols. ^[3]

They were not in a position to talk with God simply because they were not worshipping God, they were worshipping and paying homage to false gods.  Their spiritual lives were in the gutter, they didn't remember how to reach out to God to speak to Him about the situation.  If you remember, Rachel had hidden the gods of Laban in her saddle, and had deceived him and her husband Jacob.  The false gods were allowed to enter the house at that point.  What seemed to be an act of hanging on to worthless idols in the beginning of his relationship with Rachel, turned out to be the seeds of a spiritually weakening experience that drove all of Jacobs family away from God to the point to where they were acting and reacting just like the world around them.  Jacob was blinded to the forgiving heart of his brother as a result of this, and as a result of that, did more damage to the relationship when returning than he did when fleeing for his life earlier.  This was followed by a display of worldly actions in the last chapter that are clearly contrary to the nature of God's people.

I wonder if God called him to Bethel because the altar at El-Elohe-Israel was in reality an altar that was based upon false pretenses, and rooted in a mixture of idol worship and an attempt to follow Gods leading.  It wasn't a pure altar, it was one which was laced with humanism and sin.

Continuing with the text, Jacob gathered all the foreign gods and things that symbolized the old life, and "hid them under the oak which was near Shechem".  Why did he hide them?  How come he did not destroy them completely?  Could it be that Jacob entertained the idea of returning for them later?  Notice from the text that Jacob did not have to go into much detail to tell the people how that they were in violation of God's will.  All he said was to "Put away the foreign gods which are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments..."  The people knew what they were doing wrong, they knew what constituted a false god and impure things.  The earrings probably were associated with the idols in some way, either as charms or something of that nature.  This is not the only time in the Bible that God called for spiritual cleansing, here are a few verses:

Joshua 24:14 (NASB95)
¹⁴ “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

Joshua 24:23-24 (NASB95)
²³ “Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” ²⁴ The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice.”

Judges 10:16 (NASB95)
¹⁶ So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord; and He could bear the misery of Israel no longer.

1 Samuel 7:3-4 (NASB95)
³ Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁴ So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the Lord alone. ^[4]

Look now at the reaction of the people when Jacob and his people cleaned house.  The cities that were around them had a great terror placed upon them because they were walking in the power of God.  The NASB footnotes indicate that "a great terror" could also be translated as "a terror of God".  Jacob still did not get it though, when he returned to Bethel and built an altar there, he named it "El-bethel", which means "God of Bethel".  A few verses later we will see God correct him by referring to Himself as "God Almighty", which transliterated is "El Shaddai", (Gen 35:11).  Jacob had been allowing false gods into his house for so long that he forgot that God was the Almighty God that rules over all the earth.  By naming the new altar the "God of Bethel", he was indicating that he did not understand that his God was much different than his false gods.

Commercial break for a moment.  Today I hear a lot of Christians wondering why God does not display power in their lives.  They wonder why their marriages are splitting up, their children are rebelling and their expenses are exceeding their income.  Suppose that we have allowed idols to enter the Christian church, and more importantly our homes.  An idol is not always a block of wood that is shaped to form an image.  It includes obsessions, desires and interests that draw a person away from God.  An idol is anything that takes the place that God should have in our lives.  Whatever it is that keeps you away from the house of God, whatever it is that keeps you from opening your Bible during the week, whatever it is that keeps you from praying, could be an idol in your life.  Our idols today form the shape of sports, computers, cars, ATV's, boats, houses, and vacation homes, only to mention a few.  We will work our lives away to pour every last cent into making sure that our toys and our comforts are kept intact.  In the end, we then retire from our jobs and die, with nothing of spiritual significance in our lives.  It's kind of funny, we won't think twice to put 20 to 40 percent of our income toward credit cards and toy payments, yet refuse to put a measly ten percent into the offering plate. Each person has their own idols, it is time that we purify our homes, change our lifestyles and allow God to show us what the idols are in our lives.  Then we will experience the power of God because then we will be in touch with the God that saved us.  It's time to remove the clutter and return to God.  Enough of the commercial break, back to the study.

Genesis 35:9-15 (NASB95)
⁹ Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. ¹⁰ God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name.” Thus He called him Israel. ¹¹ God also said to him, “I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from you. ¹² “The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, And I will give the land to your descendants after you.” ¹³ Then God went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him. ¹⁴ Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. ¹⁵ So Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel.

Genesis 32:28 (NASB95)
²⁸ He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” ^[5]

Doesn't it make you wonder why God named Jacob, Israel a second time?  I wonder if it did not sink in the first time, or if after the reactions to Esau and the actions of himself and his sons in the last chapter that he had felt that he did not deserve the new name God gave him.  God made sure that the blessing from Abraham and Isaac was passed down to Israel, because Israel was now in a place to receive the blessing.  Israel had purified his tribe and had returned to God. 

This demonstrates something about God that we don't often recognize.  God forgives us when we walk away from Him.  He is waiting for us to return to Him and is more than willing to wipe the slate clean in order to start over.  What if God did not forgive him for the attitudes and actions that were discussed in the past two chapters, if that were the case, God would have zapped him and started over with someone else.  When we blow it and walk from God, He is ready to wipe away the violations, and to start where we left off previously.  God's call in our lives is for life, all we have to do is stay in touch with God.  If we walk away, God is patient to wait for our return. 

Jacob built another altar, this one was focused upon El Shaddai, the true God that had called him.  He renamed the place to be "Bethel", which means "House of God". 

Genesis 35:16-29 (NASB95)
¹⁶ Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe labor. ¹⁷ When she was in severe labor the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for now you have another son.” ¹⁸ It came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. ¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). ²⁰ Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. ²¹ Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. ²² It came about while Israel was dwelling in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. ²³ the sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, then Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun; ²⁴ the sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin; ²⁵ and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan and Naphtali; ²⁶ and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram. ²⁷ Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre of Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. ²⁸ Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. ²⁹ Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, an old man of ripe age; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Genesis 30:24 (NASB95)
²⁴ She named him Joseph, saying, “May the Lord give me another son.”^[6]

Rachel bore her last son and died during the childbirth process.  God took the one person that Jacob loved out of his life entirely.  She qualified to have a pillar mounted over her grave as compared to Deborah having an Oak tree as a covering.  I wonder if God removed her because of her tendency to hold on to the idols, (just a passing thought).  She bore the last son for Israel.  The name game is a little interesting, She named him "Ben-oni" which means "the son of my sorrow", Isaac renamed him as "Benjamin", which means "the son of my right hand".  This was only fitting since she had prayed earlier for another son, and that prayer was answered at her death.

Genesis 49:3-4 (NASB95)
³ “Reuben, you are my firstborn; My might and the beginning of my strength, Preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. ⁴ “Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence, Because you went up to your father’s bed; Then you defiled it—he went up to my couch. ^[7]

One tragedy is noted with Rachel's death, another is noted with Reuben defiling Israel's concubine.  It is interesting that little is said about it, Israel remembered at his last blessing though.  Notice the inconsistent behavior between the defiling of Dinah and the defiling of Bilhah.  Either the lesson was learned, or the concubine was not considered important enough to take issue.  She was Dan and Naphtali's mother, and the maid of Rachel, she was a significant person in the tribe.  It is noted that this was common among the pagans that the eldest son would take over the duties of the father in order to replace him.  By emulating his pagan neighbors, Reuben lost his birthright.

Jacob finally returned home after being gone for many years and having the opportunity to grow from nothing into a great tribe.  Isaac saw that the son that he rejected was the son of promise, and he died at 180 years old. 

In summary, this chapter covered spiritual cleansing to spiritual awakening.  Our job is to apply it to our lives and learn important lessons from it.  If you see something that you would like to add, be sure to write in.

Questions for thought:

Israel was called upon to clear the idols from his life, what effect did the idols have in his life?

What happened after they were removed from his house?

What can we learn from this chapter?

Father, as we consider Your word today, open our eyes to see the idols in our lives and give us the strength to destroy them completely.  Don't allow us just to hide our idols, but give us the strength to do away with them completely.

In Him,

Joe Turner.