[00:00:00] Welcome to Gracious Words. Gracious Words is taken from the Weekly Women's Bible Study
[00:00:14] taught by Cheryl Brodersen at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
[00:00:18] We're behold to glory God in the face of Christ. It shows us who you are. We're feeling who you are.
[00:00:34] At a time when Jacob needed his strength the most, God allowed him to be weak.
[00:00:39] Esau was waiting with 400 men to meet him.
[00:00:42] Sometimes God will allow deficits so that we can see areas of our life that need his strength.
[00:01:13] And now here is part two of Cheryl's message titled, Back to Bethel.
[00:01:19] I was so dense, I was like, gosh that's weird how that eye has the same schedule as me.
[00:01:23] And he's kind of strange but, oh that's interesting. Until he showed up at my college.
[00:01:28] And I was at UCI and it came out of a class. And he's there and standing like,
[00:01:33] Hi Cheryl, this says the Lord you will be my wife.
[00:01:39] Really loudly in front of all these people I've been sharing Jesus with
[00:01:42] and telling him, no, being a Christian is not weird at all.
[00:01:46] And there he is. And I'm just like, what in the world are you doing here?
[00:01:52] And he grabbed my arm and he said, you're going to be my wife.
[00:01:56] And I was saying, let go of my arm. Let go of my arm.
[00:02:00] And then I had this tall guy, he wasn't a Christian, his name was J.
[00:02:04] I was sharing Jesus with him and I worked with him at a shoe store
[00:02:08] and he was like, what could I do? What could I do?
[00:02:12] Now let me tell you this. J was a nice guy. He was probably about 6 feet tall
[00:02:17] and 120 pounds. It was not much J could do.
[00:02:20] This guy was big and I said to him, J just go get campus police.
[00:02:24] I was so calm, get campus police. Go get campus police.
[00:02:27] The guy still got my arm. Go get campus police right now.
[00:02:30] And now there's a crowd around me.
[00:02:33] And they're all like, and he's going, thus says the Lord.
[00:02:37] And you know, you're just like, this is so humiliating.
[00:02:41] But he's so strong I can't get my arm loose.
[00:02:44] And the next thing I know here at campus police,
[00:02:47] they've got their whistle and they're running towards me.
[00:02:50] And he sees them and he takes off running.
[00:02:54] And I got to my car and I locked the doors and I said, God thank you.
[00:03:00] Thank you for saving me. I get home and the minute I walked through
[00:03:04] the back gate of our house and around and I saw my dog, I fell apart.
[00:03:11] I started sobbing convulsively. I fell on my knees.
[00:03:15] I couldn't move. I was going, I guess because I felt safe
[00:03:20] and there's my dog like, you'll beat him up right.
[00:03:23] And my mom, she's upstairs. She's like, what's that rocket?
[00:03:27] What are you telling? You know, what's wrong with you?
[00:03:31] You're like the neighbors. We do have neighbors.
[00:03:35] And I come running into the house and she looks at me and she's like,
[00:03:39] what's wrong? What happened? And I tell her and she's like,
[00:03:43] give me a minute. She runs in. She calls my dad.
[00:03:46] My dad rushes home. There's more to that story.
[00:03:49] But that's another day. I just want to tell you that the fear hit me afterwards.
[00:03:55] Not at the moment that it happened when he had my arm.
[00:03:59] I was like, the Lord in Kepa security will deal with you.
[00:04:04] And then when I saw my dog, it was when it hit me so hard.
[00:04:12] Sometimes that's how furious isn't it?
[00:04:14] And I, until that day, I wasn't afraid of men or people
[00:04:18] that showed up at markets and places that I was.
[00:04:21] But after that it was like I was on high alert.
[00:04:25] I found this fear and this sense of vulnerability entered into my life.
[00:04:34] Now, Jacob has no sooner left the land of promise when he hears his brother is on his way with 400 men.
[00:04:43] Why would Esau come with 400 men if his intentions were friendly or good?
[00:04:50] I think his intention was to drive Jacob out of the land to say no.
[00:04:57] And he was bringing a show of force.
[00:05:01] And this word strikes fear into Jacob.
[00:05:06] To make matters worse, Jacob has wrestled all night with a heavenly personage
[00:05:11] and his hip is disjointed. He's in tremendous pain.
[00:05:16] Walking is agony.
[00:05:20] But we read about his encounter with Esau in Genesis 33.
[00:05:25] Perhaps Jacob, when God said he would take care of it, perhaps Jacob hoped that Esau would not find him.
[00:05:32] That God would divinely hide Jacob and his company.
[00:05:35] Or that Esau would be distracted and turned back.
[00:05:38] Or that Esau would be divinely defeated or weakened as he was.
[00:05:43] It's like, Lord, why do I have to have the hip out of joint?
[00:05:46] Don't you think you should have given that disjointed hip to Esau?
[00:05:50] Isn't that just the way of God?
[00:05:52] Why are my enemies so strong?
[00:05:54] Why do I have to be the weak one?
[00:05:57] Did Jacob expect a positive reception?
[00:06:05] Jacob begins to bow before his brother once, twice, three times, four times, five, six, seven.
[00:06:15] He's apologizing. With every bow he's apologizing.
[00:06:20] You see, Jacob had been the one and the wrong.
[00:06:24] Jacob deserved that type of reception.
[00:06:28] It's one thing to get together with someone like, oh, we're going to get together.
[00:06:33] When they're the one who has done you wrong, you could say, you know what?
[00:06:36] My heart is clean. I forgive you.
[00:06:39] But you've got the advantage.
[00:06:41] What about when you're the one who done somebody wrong song?
[00:06:46] What about when it's you and you're the one, you're in the wrong and you need mercy.
[00:06:56] And you don't even know if that person has the ability to give mercy.
[00:07:00] This is Jacob. He needs Esau's mercy.
[00:07:06] What he did was absolutely wrong. He deceived his brother.
[00:07:10] He took his birthright and his blessing and he did it by deception.
[00:07:18] What is he going to expect?
[00:07:21] Then Jacob's wives and children come before and they bow.
[00:07:27] And Esau begins to run towards Jacob.
[00:07:37] Esau is barreling toward him.
[00:07:40] The hunter is coming at him full speed.
[00:07:47] And Jacob can't run. His hip is out of joint.
[00:07:52] This must be probably one of the most frightening moments of Jacob's life.
[00:07:57] Because he has no idea what Esau is going to do when he meets him.
[00:08:03] He is coming at him full force.
[00:08:06] But suddenly as he gets close, his arms open wide and he embraces his brother.
[00:08:15] Falls on his neck and weeps.
[00:08:19] Can you imagine Jacob?
[00:08:21] Can you imagine the courtesel in his system?
[00:08:24] Can you imagine the fight or flight but he can't do either on these there?
[00:08:31] And now an embrace.
[00:08:35] And they weep together.
[00:08:40] Then Jacob has to press Esau into accepting his gift of all the livestock.
[00:08:47] Esau volunteers to accompany Jacob into the land.
[00:08:52] But Jacob obviously did not want to chant upsetting or offending his brother again.
[00:08:59] He said, good we got peace now. This is good.
[00:09:03] How about if we just well you know I'll go a little slow.
[00:09:07] You go ahead. If someone said see her later.
[00:09:11] You go to see her. I'll go to check them and we'll see her later.
[00:09:15] No doubt the fear came after this encounter.
[00:09:24] The fear often operates this way.
[00:09:28] We can be brave and calm even filled with faith in the moment.
[00:09:32] Then when it is over we think I never ever want to go through something like that again.
[00:09:40] And we kind of have a fear of the very thing that God just brought us through.
[00:09:45] We never want to repeat that.
[00:09:48] This is when fear grips us and begins to attach itself to our thoughts.
[00:09:53] Lord, I know you're going to bring me through but I just don't even want to go through something like this again.
[00:10:01] But Jacob also picked up hostility and enemies.
[00:10:05] Not only is Laban hostile to Jacob, but there is a boundary that is set up just right at the base of the mountains of Gilead that say Jacob not allowed.
[00:10:18] No crossing back for Jacob.
[00:10:21] He is never allowed to pass that barrier again.
[00:10:27] Jacob also now has hostilities in Shechem.
[00:10:31] That's where his daughter Dinah had been raped by Shechem, who is the son of Hamar but also a prince, a Hivite prince and the prince of the Hivites.
[00:10:43] A town is named after this young man that shows his importance and his authority.
[00:10:51] Jacob's son, Simeon and Levi have been outraged at the defilement of their sister.
[00:10:58] Shechem had assaulted their sister.
[00:11:03] And when you find out in Genesis 34-25 that Simeon and Levi deceived the men of Shechem.
[00:11:15] Tell them that they're willing to negotiate, enter into a covenant.
[00:11:20] And then they go through and they slay all the men of Shechem while they're in recovery.
[00:11:27] Jacob is worried about retribution because there are Hivite settlements all over Israel.
[00:11:39] Perhaps you remember that the Gideonites when you come to the book of Joshua, that they're Hivites.
[00:11:46] So there were Hivite clans all over Israel and Shechem had been where the royalty and the leadership of the Hivites had been.
[00:11:58] Jacob is right to know that this is a dangerous situation because he is dwelling there as a nomad, as a sojourner.
[00:12:12] Jacob's family had picked up bad habits, the habits of the Canaanites.
[00:12:17] Dianne had gone out to meet the daughters of the land.
[00:12:21] She had gone out to make an acquaintance, to make friendships, alliances.
[00:12:27] No doubt to see how they dressed, how they looked, how they acted.
[00:12:32] This was dangerous. She was curious.
[00:12:36] And when she had been out there among the daughters of the land, she had been seduced and raped.
[00:12:43] And that was common in the culture of the Hivites.
[00:12:48] Hamar, who was the father of Shechem, had then negotiated with Jacob to get Dianne as a wife for Shechem.
[00:12:55] Hamar hoped to have Jacob assimilate into the Hivite culture.
[00:13:02] He said to the men of Shechem, look, if we cooperate with Jacob and his sons, if we allow ourselves to be circumcised, all their goods, all they own,
[00:13:15] all their daughters can become our wives.
[00:13:19] They'll lose their identity. They'll just become one of us and we'll get everything they own, we'll be enriched.
[00:13:28] In so doing, if Jacob allowed this, he would soon lose the distinction of being Israel.
[00:13:38] Yet Jacob did not protest. He was seemingly at a loss.
[00:13:43] Dianne had even been taken into the ungodly Hivite house of Hamar.
[00:13:50] Dianne was the first of Jacob's children in danger of being assimilated into the Hivite culture.
[00:14:03] Simeon and Levi were grieved and very angry because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel, a thing which ought not to be done.
[00:14:15] Verse 37 of chapter 34.
[00:14:17] But Simeon and Levi acted deceitfully.
[00:14:22] They faked an agreement and a willingness to assimilate with the Hivites if the men of Shechem would be circumcised.
[00:14:32] Shechem is so desperate to have Dianne in his harem, not wife in his harem, that he tells his father,
[00:14:44] convince the men of this city, let's do whatever it takes.
[00:14:50] When the men of Shechem were in recovery, Simeon and Levi fell on these men and slaughtered them,
[00:14:57] taking all the goods that belonged to the citizens and they took all the women as captives.
[00:15:03] In other words, Simeon and Levi acted just like a Hivite.
[00:15:10] Remember, they were angry because Shechem stole Dianne. But what did they do?
[00:15:18] They went a step further. They slaughtered the men and they took their wives.
[00:15:23] They took their daughters. They acted like the Hivite men.
[00:15:28] They hadn't assimilated into Shechem, but they had acted just like the men of Shechem.
[00:15:36] They had used deceit. They had feigned acceptance.
[00:15:41] They had acted violently and they had taken the Hivite women as captives.
[00:15:47] But Jacob's family had also picked up idols along the way.
[00:15:52] We read in Genesis 35, 2 that Jacob ordered his family to put away the foreign gods that are among you.
[00:15:59] And there were foreign gods, so many that Jacob had to dig a hole by a terra binth tree and bury them.
[00:16:06] In Jacob's family and among his sons and wives were foreign gods in this little enclave,
[00:16:14] this little hope for the salvation of all the world, this little company, there are already pollutions and pollutants of idolatry.
[00:16:28] Rachel has stolen her father's idols, you remember, Genesis 31, 19,
[00:16:33] and perhaps Levi and Simeon had stolen the household gods when they plundered Shechem.
[00:16:38] Gods were usually made out of silver and gold. They were the treasures.
[00:16:42] They were what was of most value in a person's house.
[00:16:46] Or perhaps they had accumulated these foreign gods by other means, just along the way back to Israel.
[00:16:54] Whatever the case, these were the foreign gods among the sons of Jacob.
[00:17:00] These gods needed to be removed. These idols represented faith in other powers, in other sources, in other persons, and in gold and silver.
[00:17:16] These gods were in competition and opposition to the only true God.
[00:17:23] These gods needed to be brought out into the open. Look at them.
[00:17:28] Look at what you've been serving, recognize that you are wrong in doing that.
[00:17:34] Renounce these gods, surrender these gods and bury these gods forever.
[00:17:44] Jacob's family had begun to look like the Canaanites.
[00:17:51] A visitation to Bethel, to the house of God was needed.
[00:17:59] They had to surrender their earrings. Scholars say that the earrings were attached to the worship of the gods,
[00:18:07] like having an eyewatch and an iPod or an eyewatch to your iPhone. It was a connection.
[00:18:17] Your earring signaled the God that you served. It was emblematic, it would have an emblem of that God.
[00:18:26] The people of Jacob might have wanted these simply because they liked the way they looked on the Hivites or the Canaanites.
[00:18:35] But somewhere along the way, they had picked up these earrings that made them look like the people who worshiped the gods of the Canaanites.
[00:18:48] Jacob tells his household that they must purify themselves and change their garments.
[00:18:55] Here is yet another requirement.
[00:18:59] Living and journeying among the polytheistic cultures had gotten the count of Jacob dirty.
[00:19:08] And the change of clothes, the washing, the new clothes would signify the change of attitude, the change of lifestyle.
[00:19:20] No longer looking like the Hivites and the people among them.
[00:19:26] Not looking like them in habit or form or dressing like them.
[00:19:34] It signaled purification, expectation and cleansing at Bethel.
[00:19:42] There at Bethel it is time for a thorough cleansing.
[00:19:46] God protects Jacob and his company by putting the tear of God on the cities that they passed by.
[00:19:52] Chapter 35 verse 5, Jacob plans to build an altar to God.
[00:19:59] He plans to go to Bethel and there I'm going to honor the God that met me.
[00:20:03] I'm going to honor the God that gave me the promises.
[00:20:06] I'm going to honor the God that has been with me and protecting me.
[00:20:10] I saw a different scenario but God has intruded.
[00:20:14] God has intervened.
[00:20:16] God has protected and he's going to build this altar in the sight of his sons and his wives and his servants.
[00:20:25] No doubt he has rehearsed the story of his own life again and again because the last time he was there,
[00:20:35] he was afraid, he was alone, he was impoverished, he was unsure of where to go and his future was unknown.
[00:20:46] He called it the day of his distress.
[00:20:51] There in the day of his distress at the lowest point of his life God had met him personally
[00:20:59] and with his presence and with the promises of God.
[00:21:04] There at Bethel he had encountered God, received the promises of God and entered into a covenant with God.
[00:21:15] When Jacob comes to Bethel, God is faithful to meet Jacob there.
[00:21:24] In verses 10 through 11 of chapter 35 God says your name is Jacob.
[00:21:30] Your name shall not be called Jacob anymore but Israel shall be your name.
[00:21:36] I am God Almighty.
[00:21:40] Be fruitful and multiply.
[00:21:43] A nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you and kings shall come from your body.
[00:21:49] The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I give to you into your descendants after you.
[00:21:54] I give this land and Jacob sets up another pile of rocks.
[00:22:00] This is an altar but this is not like an altar where sacrifice is offered.
[00:22:05] This is an altar more akin to an Ebenezer.
[00:22:09] It's a memorial altar.
[00:22:12] It's a monument to commemorate his encounter with God, God's faithfulness, God's promises.
[00:22:20] Jacob does not sacrifice but he pours out a drink offering and oil on this altar.
[00:22:27] He's saying this altar itself is sanctified.
[00:22:31] It didn't cost me a debt to get to this altar.
[00:22:36] It was God who paid the price.
[00:22:40] Jacob calls this place again the house of God.
[00:22:47] Even as God faithfully met Jacob there the first time, God faithfully met Jacob there a second time.
[00:22:57] When Jacob returned to Bethel, God met with him.
[00:23:01] God ratified the change of nature or the name of Jacob to Israel.
[00:23:07] God reiterated the promises and God redirected Israel, Jacob, to dwell in the land that had begun it to Abraham, Isaac and now to Israel.
[00:23:23] Jacob desperately needed this moment at Bethel.
[00:23:31] Desperately needed. This is not the end of hard times.
[00:23:35] This is not like, oh now everything's going to go so wonderful. He went back to Bethel. Yay!
[00:23:42] No, don't we want that? Don't we want like, now everything's going to be so good. No more trials. I'm a Christian.
[00:23:51] I fasted for three days. It's all over. Everything's good. No. No.
[00:23:57] Think about it. After this time Deborah, the beloved nurse of Rachel would die and be mourned. Rachel would die and be buried in Bethlehem.
[00:24:07] Reuben would defile his father's bed. I mean there are so many problems up ahead for Jacob.
[00:24:13] This Bethel is not to alleviate the problems, but they are there to cleanse Jacob, prepare and strengthen him for all that life will bring. All the opposition, all the doubts.
[00:24:35] Jacob was a man that learned things the hard way. There is nothing more dangerous than to stay anywhere short of the place to which God is calling.
[00:24:44] Jacob was tempted by the lean pastures of Shechem without thought or care of the character of its people and he lived to regret his choices.
[00:24:54] On the outside it looked like a good place to be, but it was an ungodly city and its influence brought much harm and lasting sorrow to Jacob's family.
[00:25:03] We hope you have been blessed by today's Bible study. For more information about the Gracious Words Radio program and the teaching ministry of Cheryl Brodersen, please visit our website at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:15] Coming up next time on the Gracious Words program will follow Jacob as he returns to Bethel as we continue our series, Our Great Creator in the book of Genesis with Cheryl Brodersen.
[00:25:26] We do hope you make plans to join us. Again for more information please visit our website at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:33] We will come for you Lord and wonder, wonder. We will fall on our knees and surrender. We surrender to you.
[00:25:52] This program is sponsored by Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
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