[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.
[00:00:36] In today's program, we'll see how Jacob's family settled in Shechem and became deceitful,
[00:00:42] violent and worshipers of other gods. But God still had a plan to bring them back to Bethel,
[00:00:48] to remind them of His covenant and promises.
[00:01:06] And now, here is part 3 of Cheryl's message titled, Back to Bethel.
[00:01:19] They had acted violently and they had taken the hivite women as captives. But Jacob's family
[00:01:27] had also picked up idols along the way. We read in Genesis 35-2 that Jacob ordered
[00:01:34] his family to put away the foreign gods that are among you. And there were foreign gods,
[00:01:39] so many that Jacob had to dig a hole by a terribent tree and bury them. In Jacob's family and
[00:01:46] among his sons and wives were foreign gods in this little enclave, this little hope
[00:01:55] for the salvation of all the world, this little company, there are already pollutants
[00:02:04] of idolatry. Rachel has stolen her father's idols, you remember, Genesis 31-19, and perhaps
[00:02:12] Levi and Simeon had stolen the household gods when they plundered Shechem. Gods were
[00:02:16] usually made out of silver and gold. They were the treasures. They were what was of
[00:02:21] most value in a person's house. Or perhaps they had accumulated these foreign gods by
[00:02:28] other means just along the way back to Israel. Whatever the case, these were the foreign gods
[00:02:35] among the sons of Jacob. These gods needed to be removed. These idols represented faith in
[00:02:45] other powers, in other sources, in other persons, and in gold and silver. These gods
[00:02:55] were in competition and opposition to the only true God. These gods needed to be brought out into
[00:03:04] the open. Look at them. Look at what you've been serving. Recognize that you are wrong in doing
[00:03:12] that. Renounce these gods, surrender these gods, and bury these gods forever.
[00:03:21] Jacob's family had begun to look like the Canaanites. A visitation to Bethel, to the house of God,
[00:03:35] was needed. They had to surrender their earrings. Scholars say that the earrings were attached
[00:03:43] to the worship of the gods. Like having an eyewatch and an iPod, or an eyewatch to your iPhone,
[00:03:53] it was a connection. Your earring signaled the God that you served. It was emblematic.
[00:04:01] It would have an emblem of that God. The people of Jacob might have wanted these simply
[00:04:08] because they liked the way they looked on the Hivites or the Canaanites. But somewhere along
[00:04:15] the way, they had picked up these earrings that made them look like the people who were
[00:04:22] shipped the gods of the Canaanites. Jacob tells his household that they must purify themselves
[00:04:32] and change their garments. Here is yet another requirement. Living and journeying among the
[00:04:39] polytheistic cultures had gotten the count of Jacob dirty. And the change of clothes,
[00:04:48] the washing, the new clothes would signify the change of attitude, the change of lifestyle.
[00:04:59] No longer looking like the Hivites and the people among them. Not looking like them in
[00:05:07] habit or form or dressing like them. It signaled purification, expectation and cleansing at Bethel.
[00:05:20] There at Bethel it is time for a thorough cleansing. God protects Jacob and his company
[00:05:27] by putting the tear of God on the cities that they passed by. Chapter 35 verse 5,
[00:05:32] Jacob plans to build an altar to God. He plans to go to Bethel and there I'm going to honor the
[00:05:40] God that met me. I'm going to honor the God that gave me the promises. I'm going to honor
[00:05:45] the God that has been with me and protecting me. I saw a different scenario but God has
[00:05:51] intruded. God has intervened. God has protected and he's going to build this altar in the sight
[00:06:00] of his sons and his wives and his servants. No doubt he has rehearsed the story of his own
[00:06:08] life again and again because the last time he was there, he was afraid, he was alone,
[00:06:15] he was impoverished, he was unsure of where to go and his future was unknown. He called it the day
[00:06:26] of his distress. There in the day of his distress at the lowest point of his life, God had met him
[00:06:36] personally and with his presence and with the promises of God. There at Bethel he had
[00:06:43] encountered God, received the promises of God and entered into a covenant with God.
[00:06:53] When Jacob comes to Bethel, God is faithful to meet Jacob there. In verses 10 through 11 of
[00:07:04] chapter 35, God says your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be called Jacob anymore but
[00:07:12] Israel shall be your name. I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company
[00:07:23] of nations shall proceed from you and kings shall come from your body. The land which I gave to
[00:07:28] Abraham and Isaac, I give to you into your descendants after you. I give this land and
[00:07:34] Jacob sets up another pile of rocks. This is an altar but this is not like an altar where
[00:07:41] sacrifice is offered. This is an altar more akin to an Ebenezer. It's a memorial altar.
[00:07:50] It's a monument to commemorate his encounter with God, God's faithfulness, God's promises.
[00:07:58] Jacob does not sacrifice but he pours out a drink offering and oil on this altar. He's saying
[00:08:06] this altar itself is sanctified. It didn't cost me a death to get to this altar. It was God who paid
[00:08:16] the price. Jacob calls this place again the house of God. Even as God faithfully met Jacob there
[00:08:29] the first time, God faithfully met Jacob there a second time. When Jacob returned to Bethel,
[00:08:38] God met with him. God ratified the change of nature or the name of Jacob to Israel. God
[00:08:46] reiterated the promises and God redirected Israel, Jacob, to dwell in the land that had begun
[00:08:56] to Abraham, Isaac and now to Israel. Jacob desperately needed this moment at Bethel. Desperately
[00:09:09] needed. This is not the end of hard times. This is not like oh now everything's going to go so
[00:09:16] wonderful. He went back to Bethel. Yay. No. Don't we want that? Don't we want like
[00:09:23] now everything's going to be so good. No more trials. I'm a Christian. I fasted for three days.
[00:09:30] It's all over. Everything's good. No. No. Think about it. After this time Deborah, the beloved
[00:09:37] nurse of Rachel would die and be mourned. Rachel would die and be buried in Bethlehem.
[00:09:44] Reuben would defile his father's bed. I mean there are so many problems up ahead for Jacob.
[00:09:50] This Bethel is not to alleviate the problems, but they are there to cleanse Jacob,
[00:10:02] prepare and strengthen him for all that life will bring. All the opposition, all the doubts.
[00:10:12] He needs this time at Bethel. Jacob's father, Isaac would die and
[00:10:25] Jacob would once again have to meet with Esa, his brother and work cooperatively
[00:10:32] to bury their father. Now remember the schism had been about who gets the blessing,
[00:10:38] who gets the inheritance of our father. Now they're going to meet together and bury Isaac.
[00:10:44] Are those same issues going to come back? Remember Esa had said the days of my father's death
[00:10:53] are, are, it's not that far away and when my father dies I'll murder, I'll murder my brother
[00:11:00] Jacob. So now Isaac dies and Jacob has to work cooperatively with Esa. Yes there would be
[00:11:13] challenges ahead, different than the ones he'd faced thus far, greater in some ways and yet not
[00:11:22] one of these threats, not one of these issues would ever, ever be a threat to the promises of God.
[00:11:32] Bethel was not an option for Jacob. It was a necessity. Jacob needed realignment. He needed
[00:11:42] to be reacquainted with his God and redirected and renewed in the presence, promises and purposes
[00:11:48] of God. We all need a Bethel, not the place in Northern California. We all need to come to the house
[00:12:00] of God because we like Jacob collect pathogens every place we go. We collect fears. We collect
[00:12:11] hostilities. Do you ever feel feelings just pop up in you and you're like I didn't know I felt
[00:12:16] that way? You know someone says I'm going to put raisins in the bread. I hate raisins, but I didn't
[00:12:22] know wherever you are Kathy Gilbert you hated raisins. These these these feelings just all of us
[00:12:29] and pop up and we didn't even know we felt that way before. You know he says that he's so strong
[00:12:36] and you're like whoa I'm scaring myself right now where did that come from? We need a Bethel.
[00:12:45] We need a Bethel. We've collected hostilities, bad feelings that we didn't know we had.
[00:12:52] We we've collected enemies as you go through life they're going to be people that just don't like you.
[00:13:00] They just don't like you recently someone says I don't like Brian. They said that
[00:13:05] and somebody said why? I just don't. I hate him. I just don't like him. Great I'm married to
[00:13:13] him. I like him. I like him a lot. After 40 years I super like him.
[00:13:21] But we collect enemies. We don't mean to. I mean just something that we do offend somebody. I mean
[00:13:27] you can't drive home from this study without making an enemy. I'm just saying.
[00:13:33] We pick up bad habits and the ways of the culture. We pick up their fears. We pick up these
[00:13:40] fears. They fear that way because they don't have a Heavenly Father who protects them.
[00:13:45] We do not want to act or think or dress like people who do not have the promises of God.
[00:13:51] We do not want to dress or think or act like people who do not walk in the presence of God.
[00:13:57] We walk in the presence of God. We walk under the covering and protection of God.
[00:14:08] We walk with the promises of God. We don't want to act like them. We don't need deceit.
[00:14:19] We don't need trickery. We don't need to follow them and kill them. That is not the way of Jesus.
[00:14:26] We do not fight fire with fire. We fight fire with the love of Jesus Christ.
[00:14:36] When your enemy offends you, we don't answer in kind. We do unto others what we want done to us.
[00:14:48] That is how we are to act and behave. But to get back there, to get back there,
[00:14:55] we need a Bethel. We need to go to the house of God because we do pick up these things.
[00:15:02] We start just doing what they are doing. We pick up their habits.
[00:15:07] It just happens because we live in this life and we begin to look to the sources that they look to.
[00:15:18] We begin to look for our help, our protection, our success, our health to the same gods
[00:15:28] that they look to. We need a Bethel. I'm not condemning you. I'm not like shame on you.
[00:15:35] No, because I do it too. I know you do it because I do it. I know you do it because you are women
[00:15:44] and I'm a woman. I know it. I know my species. I know you. I know how you think because
[00:15:52] it's how I think. I know you. We know each other, don't we? Like I know what you are. I know.
[00:16:00] I don't know because the Holy Spirit is telling me no, I know because I did it.
[00:16:04] I know because this is my nature. We're all in the girlfriend club together and we all need
[00:16:12] the house of God, not once, not twice, but we need the house of God again and again.
[00:16:23] And let me say this for some of you, your place of Bethel is a scripture or a Bible story.
[00:16:32] It's a place where God really met you. He met you there and you need to go back
[00:16:40] to that very place, it's scripture because when you were reading it, one time it all just came
[00:16:46] together and everything became clear. And you said, Lord, I see what you're doing. The promises are
[00:16:52] mine. It just all became clear. Go back. Go back to that scripture. Go back to that place where
[00:16:58] when you read it, you covenant with God and all the promises were real. Brian, I remember years
[00:17:05] ago we were living in Vista. He came to me and he said, Cheryl, I got this scripture from God.
[00:17:13] I was so excited till he read to me, I will make you a new threshing sledge. I'm like, that's not
[00:17:19] like a happy scripture, happy promise. Mine's a little later in Isaiah 41. Funny how the Lord
[00:17:25] gave us both Isaiah 41. He's at the beginning, the threshing sledge. I'm at the part where
[00:17:30] God's holding my right hand saying, don't worry that you're married to a threshing sledge.
[00:17:34] Everything's going to be all right. I've got your right hand. You know those times that God
[00:17:42] meets you and says this is for you. You might not understand it right now, but someday you will.
[00:17:49] For others, it might be a physical place. Samuel, I love this, had to go back to bed.
[00:17:55] Samuel 3. It was in bed where he first heard the voice of the Lord saying, Samuel,
[00:18:00] Samuel, he got up, he ran to Eli. Eli said, no, I'm not calling you. He goes back to bed.
[00:18:05] Samuel, Samuel. He gets up, he goes to Eli again. I'm not calling you. He goes back,
[00:18:11] Samuel, Samuel. He goes back to Eli and Eli then realizes it must be the voice of the Lord. And
[00:18:16] he says, Samuel, go back to that place. And when you hear that voice say, speak, Lord,
[00:18:21] for your servant hears. And so Samuel goes back to bed and he hears, Samuel, Samuel.
[00:18:30] And he says, speak, Lord, for your servant hears. And God speaks to him. Samuel had to go back to
[00:18:38] that place where he first heard the voice of the Lord. You might have to go back to a certain place
[00:18:44] where you first heard the voice of the Lord. It might be this church where you first heard
[00:18:51] the voice of the Lord. It might be a camp. It might be, for me, there's a place at the
[00:18:58] beach that I go when I'm overwhelmed. And I remember the presence and the promises
[00:19:05] of the Lord. It might be a location, a place that you were desperate, empty when you were there before.
[00:19:12] It's time to step down, purify and go back to that place. Perhaps it was an emotional state
[00:19:18] that you were at in Revelation two, five. Jesus tells the church of Ephesus,
[00:19:24] go back to the place when I was your first love, when I was your first waking thought.
[00:19:32] Go back to that place of passion. Get along with the Lord and say, Lord, until I'm not that passionate
[00:19:37] place for you again, you need to go back to that first love, passion, that place when Jesus
[00:19:46] was all you had of any worth. For some Bethel will be a practice or a discipline,
[00:19:53] something that you left off. So they're like, you know when I read my Bible first thing in the morning
[00:19:58] or when I used to read my Bible at lunch or when I used to read my Bible at three o'clock in the
[00:20:03] afternoon or when I read my Bible before I went to bed or when I used to go on Wednesday nights
[00:20:10] to church or when I used to meet on Sunday mornings or when I used to, it might be a
[00:20:17] practice. It might be a discipline. When I used to get together with my friends and pray and
[00:20:22] now we just get together and eat or talk recipes or talk fashion. But when we used to meet and pray,
[00:20:30] things happened. It was different then. It might be a practice or discipline. It's time to go back
[00:20:38] to the house of God. In Psalm 73, Asaph needed to go to the house of God. This is the only
[00:20:48] Psalm written by Asaph. But he said, you know, I was stumbling. I was losing my granddine.
[00:20:57] Everything seemed distorted to me. It looked like it didn't wasn't worth it to serve the Lord.
[00:21:04] It looked like wicked people had all the advantages on. I was wondering what am I doing?
[00:21:13] What is life all about? He said, until I went to the house of the Lord. Verse 17,
[00:21:24] until I went to the sanctuary of God there at the sanctuary of God, everything was realigned.
[00:21:33] His perspective was changed. And in verse 23 of Psalm 73, Asaph writes,
[00:21:41] nevertheless I am continually with you. It was the presence of the Lord. You hold me by my right
[00:21:50] hand. It was the protection of the Lord. You will guide me with your counsel.
[00:22:00] It was the promises of the Lord. And afterward received me to glory. It was the purposes of
[00:22:11] He needed the house of Bethel. We all get dirty. Don't you try to tell me you don't got no fears.
[00:22:22] Don't try to tell me you don't have some hostilities, some jealousies,
[00:22:27] some little naughtiness, little gossip sneaking back in. Don't try to tell me I know you. I told
[00:22:36] you I know you. We all get dirty. What's the remedy? What's the remedy? Go back to Bethel.
[00:22:47] Go back to Bethel. Get your feet washed. Just get your feet washed. Get those pollutants,
[00:22:53] whether they're fears, anxieties, whether they're hostilities, whether they're enemies,
[00:23:03] whether they're just other pollutants taking on the ways and the bad habits of this world.
[00:23:13] Get washed again at Bethel. Isn't it wondrous that we can serve a God that offers
[00:23:20] free foot washings over and over again that invites us to arise and go to Bethel,
[00:23:29] to meet with us again and again to be cleansed, not to be condemned, but simply to bury it,
[00:23:39] change our clothes, use luster cream, and have that fresh cleansing again and again
[00:23:51] and again and as often as we get our feet dirty. Here at Bethel is the opportunity to shed your fears,
[00:24:01] remove those hostilities, give the enemies to God, recognize the ungodly habits that have crept into
[00:24:09] your life and simply take it off. Take it off, surrender the idols that you've been carrying
[00:24:14] around, purify yourself and change your garments. Bethel is waiting for each of us.
[00:24:26] Jacob was far from perfect and made many mistakes, yet despite that God chose to work
[00:24:31] his plan through him. Bethel was a special place for Jacob. It was where he met God and
[00:24:37] received his promises in covenant. When Jacob strayed far from God, God brought him back to
[00:24:44] Bethel to remind him and give him the opportunity to walk right with him again. We all need
[00:24:50] a Bethel in our lives, a place or time where we can go and remember how we encountered God
[00:24:56] and experienced his presence. May we thank God for his faithfulness to us to lead us back to him.
[00:25:03] We hope you have been blessed by today's Bible study. For more information about the
[00:25:08] Gracious Words radio program and the teaching ministry of Cheryl Brodersen,
[00:25:12] please visit our website at graciouswords.com. Coming up next time on the Gracious Words
[00:25:17] program we'll look at the process of sanctification as we continue our series,
[00:25:22] Our Great Creator in the Book of Genesis with Cheryl Brodersen. We do hope you make plans to
[00:25:28] join us. Again for more information please visit our website at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:47] This program is sponsored by Calvary Chapel, Coast Amesa, California.
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