This week,
we have been looking at a train wreck of an event from history that is recorded
for us in a letter in the Bible called the book of Genesis. Wednesday, we
discovered that a wrong response to what is wrong does
not right the wrong, but makes us wrong. Throughout this story, we see the
timeless reality that a wrong response to what is wrong does not right the
wrong, but makes us wrong.
Jacob’s
silent detachment was a wrong response that did not right the wrong, but
revealed he was wrong. Jacob’s son’s plan of deception was a wrong response
that did not right the wrong, but revealed they were wrong. Hamor and Shechem’s
plan of deception was a wrong response that did not right the wrong, but
revealed they were wrong. Simeon and Levi’s desire for vengeance
was a wrong response that did not right the wrong, but revealed they were
wrong.
And
Jacob’s response to his son’s wrong response was a wrong response that did not
right the wrong, but revealed he was wrong. And now their wrong responses that
did not right the wrong, but revealed that they were wrong were now threatening
God’s promises and plan. That is, until God enters into this story in a
powerful way in Genesis 35:1:
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."
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;
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." 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.
God enters
into this train wreck of a situation and commands Jacob to leave Shechem and
travel to Bethel. As we discovered a few weeks ago, Bethel was the place where
God appeared to Jacob as he was fleeing from Esau to go find a wife from his
relatives. Bethel is where God made known that His presence, protection, and provision would be with Jacob.
Jacob responds to God’s command by giving a command to his sons: “Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and
change your garments; and let us arise and go up to Bethel."
In other
words Jacob is commanding his sons to get up and get ready to relocate by
getting rid of the gods that they had been worshipping and by getting right
with the one true God that they should be worshipping. Moses tells us that
Jacob received all the idols and earrings, which were worn as ornaments to
honor their false gods, and buried them under the tree that they were using to
worship their false gods.
By burying
them, Jacob is giving his sons a word picture that says, you are leaving these
gods behind and we are moving forward to a new location to start over with the
Lord. But not only does God enter into this train wreck of a story to command
them to repent and relocate. God does something else for this family in verse
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. So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan,
he and all the people who were with him. 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. Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried below
Bethel under the oak; it was named Allon-bacuth.
Moses tells
us that as the family traveled toward Bethel, God provided protection for the
family. The great terror that Moses refers to here literally is the terror of
God. The terror of God entered into the hearts of those who might have
considered attacking the family, which provided the protection that the family
needed to make it safely to Bethel.
Jacob then followed God’s command by building an altar, which he named el-bethel,
which means the God of Bethel. We then see how God responded to Jacob’s
obedience in verse 9:
Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came
from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. 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. 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. "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." Then God went up from him in the place where He
had spoken with him.
Moses tells us that the Lord visibly appeared to Jacob
and blessed him. As we have discovered, this word blessing means to declare a
person to be endowed with power for success, prosperity, and fertility. The
Lord reminds Jacob of his new name, Israel, which means to strive and persist
with God and the new character, conduct, and destiny that should mark his life.
The Lord also reminds Jacob of his promise that his
family would have a family tree that would reach across continents and
centuries. And from that family tree there would arise nations and rulers of
nations. The Lord promises Jacob that the land in which he found himself would
become his very own possession.
And the Lord reminds Jacob that in what God was going to
do through Jacob and Jacob’s descendants, all humanity would have the
opportunity to find blessing as Jacob would have the opportunity to find
blessing. Moses then concludes this section of this letter by revealing Jacob’s
response to God’s reminded in verse 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. So Jacob named the place where God had spoken
with him, Bethel.
Jacob responded to God’s reminded of His promises to him
by creating a memorial that would remind him of his encounter with God and
God’s promises to him. And Jacob responded to God’s reminded of His promises to
him by worshipping him. Jacob worshipped God because he recognized the reality
of God’s gracious activity in his life. Jacob worshipped God because God had
entered into his life in spite of his wrong response to the wrong that occurred
in his life.
Jacob worshipped God because Jacob recognized that God’s presence, protection, and provision had been with him.
Jacob worshipped God because he recognized that while his
wrong response to what was wrong did not right the wrong, but made him wrong,
God extended grace and forgiveness in order to fulfill His plans and promises.
So here is the question to consider: How do you
respond when you are wronged? Do you respond to wrong with wrong? Do you
respond with a detached silence that does not seek to protect those who are
being wronged? Do you respond with deception and deceit that is driven by a
desire to get revenge? Do you seek vengeance upon everyone associated with the
one who has wronged you?
Because a wrong response to what is wrong does not
right the wrong, but makes us wrong…
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