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Get Back to Bethel

 January 10, 2007

 Bob Bradley

 Genesis 35

 

1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

 

Jacob was a deceiver.  He learned to do that from his parents.  A lot of times we wonder where kids get things from; they get it from their parents.  However, that's not true in all cases.  Kids learn a lot of things from their parents that we don't think we teach them.  If we could talk to Isaac and Rebecca; they probably would have never thought that they were teaching Jacob to be a deceiver.

 

Jacob wrestled with an angel and after his encounter; he was left with a limp.  He had a different walk.  It's great when we meet with the Lord and consecrate our life totally to Him; we walk differently.  We might not get our hips out of joint, but we walk different lives. 

 

There is so much that we can say about Jacob.  There were times in Jacob's life the he was probably the greatest guy in the Old Testament and there were times in Jacob's life that he was probably the worst guy in the Old Testament. 

 

I read to you; “And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.” 

 

We know that when we read Genesis 25:26, we can read about Jacob and Esau.  We know that they were twins.  We know that Esau was the oldest and we know that Jacob was his younger brother.  We also know that Isaac and Rebekah were their parents.  We know that even before they were born, when the boys were in Rebekah's womb; God spoke and said that the elder would serve the younger.  That was contrary to their way of doing things back then but yet that's what God said and that's what it turned out. 

 

Esau was a cunning man, a hunter, and outdoorsman.  If you looked at Esau, the Bible says that he was a very hairy fellow. 

 

Jacob was a home boy.  He was probably a mommy's boy.  When you read the scriptures, we can see how that Isaac dealt with Esau and how that Rebekah dealt with Jacob; that caused a lot of problems in the family.  You can read that Isaac loved Esau because he liked to hunt.  He would go out and kill things and he would bring it in then they would eat it.  When you read about Rebekah, she had a greater fondness for Jacob because he liked to do things around the house. 

 

We know that in the process of time that these boys grew and Jacob stole Esau's birthright.  Esau had been in out in the field when he come in and he was about to starve to death.  Jacob had made some soup.  Esau wanted something to eat so Jacob said, “Give me your birthright and I'll give you something to eat.”  That's what Jacob did.  He gave Esau something to eat.  Esau forfeited his birthright.  He didn't care anything about spiritual things.  He loved material things.  He wasn't concerned about being the head of the family or being the head of the spiritual family.  He wasn't worried about those things.  That's what the birthright was all about.  It had to do with inheritance and he may have received a little more, but he sold his birthright for something to eat.  That shows us a lot of things about him.

 

If you read down through the scriptures in chapter 27, verse 4; you will find that Isaac planned on blessing Esau.  I don't know how old the boys were here, but they probably were well up in years.  When we read this passage, we think that they must have been teenagers or young.  If I have all the numbers right, these were what we call old people.  They weren't young people during this time.  Isaac had planned on blessing Esau.  When you read that portion of scripture, the Bible talks about Isaac being old and his eyes were dim and he was about blind. 

 

Isaac, even though it says here that he was old, well stricken in years, he could hardly see and no doubt he thought that he was going to die; but yet if you read the scriptures you will find out that he probably lived forty years after this incident took place. 

 

In our lives a lot of times, we get to the place that we just give up and we think that we are going to die, that's its all over, or what's the use to go on.  Do you know what happens?  We waste forty years of living because we thought we were over, we thought we were dead.  We thought that things were never going to change and we just throw up our hands and quit.  There is never a time to do that.  Life is too precious to lose one minute of it.  Life is too precious to throw up our hands and say, “What's the use.”  Life is too short for that.

 

The Bible tells us here that when Rebekah hears about what Isaac is about to do, that he has sent Esau out to get some venison and he is going to come back in and fix the venison.  Then Isaac is going to eat it and Isaac is going to bless Esau.  When Rebekah hears what is going to happen, she gets Jacob and tells him we got a plan here that we have to do.  Go get a goat and bring it here.  I'll fix it for you.  She must have been a good cook to make goat taste like venison.  Isaac ate a lot of that so he would know what goat was and what deer meat was; therefore, she must have been a great cook.  She laid the plan.  She is scheming and plotting to deceive her own husband. 

 

When husbands deceive wives there is not a relationship there.  When wives deceive husbands then there is no relationship there.  They may live in the same house, but they don't have a home there.  When we deceive one another as husbands and wives then there is something bad wrong in our relationship with God. 

 

The Bible tells that when she hears what is going on; she tells him to bring a goat and she kills it.  Jacob asks a question, “When I take this to my dad, he is going to feel my hands and the smooth of my neck; he knows that Esau is a hairy fellow and how that he smells.  It's going to be hard to deceive him.”  Rebekah takes some of the skin and hair from the goat and places it on his hands and the smooth of his neck, she puts Esau's clothes on him, and she fixes the goat.  He takes the goat to his dad and his dad eats.  Isaac said, “Are you Esau?”  Jacob said, “Yeah, I'm Esau.”  He lied.  They deceived him.  After he eats, he lays his hand upon Jacob and he blesses him.  He gave Jacob the blessing that should have went to the first born.  That is what Isaac was doing unto Jacob. 

 

When Esau comes, he fixes the venison and takes it in and then Isaac knows that he has been deceived.  Isaac knows that its Jacob that had came in and when Esau finds out what has happened, how that Jacob has deceived his dad; the Bible says that he hates Jacob.  He's mad and he makes the statement, when the morning is over, when dad is gone; I'm going to kill Jacob.  I'm going to get rid of him.  The Bible says that Rebekah gets word of that and she makes a plan to get Jacob away from Esau until Esau calms down. 

 

As you read down through here you will find in Genesis chapter 27, verse 44; Rebekah thinks that Jacob is only going to have to be gone just a few days.  The Bible says that in that verse.  You will just be gone a few days or a short while.  Esau will calm down.  He'll get over his mad spell; then I'll send for you and you can come back.  Everything will be fine.

 

Rebekah was sending him down to her brother's house, down to Laban's house.  She was sending him down there under the pretense to go down there and get a bride, that's what they told Isaac.  Don't forget this.  This is something in the story that if you don't read it and look at it; you will never see.  She is only planning on Jacob being gone for a few days.  The day that she kissed him on this particular day was the last day that she ever saw her son Jacob.  It matters a whole lot.  If we could talk to Rebekah tonight, she would probably tell us, “I'd never dreamed that what I did, how I deceived my husband, taught my son to be a deceiver and a liar; I never dreamed that would be the last day that I would see my son.” 

 

Sin is a horrible thing.  When I participate in it or when you participate in it or when we teach our kids to do it; it's a horrible thing.  I used to be around people before that when their kids were small they would teach them to say some bathroom words, filthy stuff.  They would teach their kids to say little words then they would just laugh about it.  They would teach their kids to do little mean things when they were real small and they thought it was real funny, but when the kids got up to 8 or 10 years old and the little words that mommy and daddy taught them when they were babies wasn't so cute anymore.  When they were out in public, when they would go to school, when they would come to church and their kids would use the language that they had been taught at home; it wasn't funny anymore. 

 

What our kids hear from us, and how we train our kids; it’s not so much what I say, but it’s the steps that I walk.  It's how that I live.  Your kids will live like that.  You don't have to teach them very much spitefulness because they will get that on their own. 

 

He is going to leave on this day and he is never going to see his mother again.  The Bible says in chapter 28, verse 7; “And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;” We know that Jacob leaves and he travels sixty or seventy miles to a place called Bethel.  In the first verse of chapter 35 where God tells him to go back to, this is where Jacob is going to spend his first night on his journey away from home.  The Bible says that he is out there under the stars and he takes a rock and uses it for a pillow.  While he is there, God appears unto him.  He tells him who He is: that He is the God of Abraham, and Isaac.  He's telling him here that He is going to give unto him and his seed the land of Canaan.  He was renewing the covenant that He had given to Abraham and to Isaac.  He was confirming this covenant right on down with Jacob.  He was telling him about the land of Canaan and all that he was going to have.  He was going to bless them that blessed him and curse those that cursed him.  He was going to do great things for Jacob.  Do you know what Jacob said?  The Bible says in verse 20:

 

20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,

 

The word “if” means “since.” 

 

21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:

22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

 

Here God meets with Jacob in this vision that Jacob has and it was no doubt an awesome thing.  Jacob hears the voice of God and knows that it is God that is speaking.  Jacob says, “Lord, you have given me all this, I believe you, I trust you, you are going to be my God and out of everything that I have, I am going to give You a tenth.”  This was before Law. 

 

Jacob is dedicating himself to God here.  Jacob was hearing the voice of God.  Jacob was right where God could speak to him.  He was right here where he said, “Lord, you are going to be my God.  I'm going to surrender unto you.”  There is no doubt in my mind that when Jacob made this statement that he happy as a lark.  Even though that he had made some mistakes and did some things wrong; here on this particular day he's dedicating himself solely and totally unto the God of heaven.  He says all that You have given me, I'm going to give you back a tenth. 

 

I want you to remember something.  If you remember when you got saved, do you know what you did?  You made some vows too.  It may not have been a vow like Jacob made here, but I would say that most of us said Lord, if you will save me I will do whatever you want me to do.  Lord, if you will save me from a life of sin and a lake of fire, I'll serve you all of my life.  I'll do whatever you want me to do and I'll go wherever you want me to go.  When most of us said that, we meant it because it was a great time.  We were experiencing the presence of God.  Our life was changed.  Our sin was gone.  We felt clean on the inside.  The weights from the sin that we were carrying were gone.  We made that commitment to God.  Do you know what God did?  God forgave us.  It was an awesome time.  Do remember when you first got saved? 

 

He is going to leave here on this day and for the next 20 to 30 years of his life; you are not going to read about any altars, you are not going to read about any praying, you are not going to read about him doing any great work for God.  You are not going to read about him doing much at all, except living for self.  He leaves Bethel and he goes down to where Laban is living.    We know that he meets Rachael and she had an older sister named Leah.  Jacob, when he saw Rachael that she was beautiful, his heart just turned flip flops.  He agreed with Laban to for Rachael for seven years.  God never intended for Jacob to be a servant.  That wasn't the plan.  He was going to be the leader of the nation.  He should have been the spiritual leader to do some great things for God.  Yet, here he is now, a long way from home being a servant to someone he should have never been. 

 

Every one of us, if we are saved, there has been a Bethel for us.  There has been a place and a time that we have surrendered our hearts completely and totally unto God and God has saved us; He has born us into His family and we know that we were saved. 

 

However, you couldn't have taken a club and beat it out of Jacob's head that it wasn't God that was speaking unto him.  Jacob knew that God was going to do what God said that He was going to do.  Yet, Jacob walked in life for self.  He walked for many years never thinking about God.  He never considered God.  You will not find where he built any altars.  He didn't have any relationships with God until he leaves Laban’s house 20 something years later. 

 

He makes the agreement that he is going to work seven years for Rachael.  Then it comes time that they were going to be married and we know that Laban deceives Jacob.  On the night that they were to be married, instead of giving him Rachael, he takes Leah in and Jacob lies with Leah thinking that it’s Rachael.  Then the next morning that he wakes up, he's in bed with the wrong woman.  That would have been terrifying.  He goes to Laban and says what have you done?  You have deceived me. 

 

Here's the law of sowing and reaping again.  He sowed the seed deceiving many years before but now it was coming home to him.  He sowed the seed of deceit and now he was reaping the seed of deceit; reaping the harvest.  We know that he agrees to work seven more years for Rachael.  Laban agrees to that.  In this time frame of the next fourteen or fifteen years; not only does he get Rachael and he's got Leah, but he becomes very wealthy in cattle, sheep and all kinds of things.  Some things he did to Laban and some things Laban did to him; they deceived each other and they didn't treat each other right. 

 

When I leave Bethel, when I forget about the commitment that I made to God; then I start down a road where I go a long way from God.  I'm not going to be happy.  I'm going to do a lot of things that I would never dreamed that I would do.  There is going to be a lot things that going to happen to me that I'm going to be able to look back upon many years later and say Hey, I would have never dreamed that my life would have took me this far away from God. 

 

When we forget about our dedication, when we forget about the time that we spent with God at Bethel, when we forget about the time that God came in and saved us, regenerated us, and born us into the family of God; when I put that out of my mind and I don't ever remember it; when I walk to suit this flesh, when I walk to be wealthy, when I walk to try to gain the worldly pleasures and worldly goods; I'm going to have a very miserable life. 

 

There are a lot of folks in our church world today that are there.  They had a great experience with God when they got saved.  They had a great experience with God maybe for awhile, maybe for a long time, maybe they taught Sunday school, maybe they was pastor, maybe they were deacons, trustees, elders and musicians; but for some reason they forgot about their commitment, their dedication, and their vow that they made at Bethel.

 

Jacob is going to leave Laban and he is going to start traveling back.  God says Jacob get back to Bethel; get back to the place where I met with you.  Get back to the place where you were at when you dedicated your life unto me.  Get back to that place.  That's where God was saying that he needed to go back to. 

 

There are times in our lives that we need to go back to Bethel.  We need to go back there and we need to start all over again.  You might say, “I'm too old to do that.”  No.  You are not.  I don't care how old you are, if you forgot about the place of your dedication, the vows that you made to God, I don't care if you have been gone for twenty years or thirty years; its time tonight that you come back to Bethel.  The reason why is because there is no happiness apart from living for God. 

 

Jacob became wealthy in the twenty or thirty years that he was gone, He had all kinds of children with the wives that he had.  Yet, Jacob never said anything about God.  God appears unto him and says, “Jacob, get back to Bethel.” 

 

What does that mean to you?  What do you think that God is really telling Jacob?  Do you think that He is telling him, “Jacob, you need to change directions?”  He needs to change directions.

 

Do you know what we need to do?  A lot of us here today, a lot of us listening today; we may need to go back to Bethel.  Going back to Bethel means to remember how much that we use to love God, and how much that God did for us.  Do you remember when you first got saved? God moves in and He floods our lives with His love and how happy we were and how much we loved Him and cared about Him.  We wanted to tell other people about Him.  Getting back to Bethel means getting back to where we remember who our first love really is. 

 

If I'm going to go to heaven, it’s got to be Jesus Christ.  It can't be the world.  It can't be my wife.  It can't be my possessions.  It can't be my children.  My first love has got to be Jesus Christ.  If it’s not Him then I have no commitment.

 

It says here, “Go back to Bethel.”  Going back to Bethel is going to bring Jacob right back to the place that he can remember twenty or thirty years before where God spoke to him.  There was a lot of water that had gone under the bridge.  A lot of sin committed by Jacob, but God was willing to wipe the slate clean and God was going to do that if Jacob would just go back to Bethel and simply remember what God had done for him--repent of his sin.  God was going to do some great things for Jacob. 

 

Sin blinds us.  Sin blinds us to the fact of the love of God.  Sin blinds us to that fact.  If you have ever been saved, you may not remember the day or the time; you will remember the day that our sins were washed away.  That's a day that we cannot forget.  That's a time that will be and was the greatest day of your life; the day that you got saved. 

 

God is saying to Jacob, “Get back to Bethel.  Remember the love that you use to have for me.”  Has your love for God grown cold?  Have you and the Lord drifted apart?  He hasn't gone anywhere.  He hasn't moved.  If there has been any moving, it's on our part. 

 

Even though Jacob was a long way from where he should have been, God still loved him.  God still cared about him.  God still had a plan for his life if Jacob would just come back to Bethel and remember the commitment that he made to God on that day.  When we are hurting, when we are in danger, when we are scared, we make God a lot of promises and God comes and rescues us; gets us out of trouble.  A lot of times we forget our vows.  However, God does not forget them.  God didn't forget one thing that Jacob vowed to him. 

 

We have got to come back to the place that we remember that Jesus Christ is our first love.  It can't be anybody else.  It can't be anything else.  It has got to be Jesus Christ.   I have got to be totally and completely in love with Him and if I will do that then that is one thing here that He is trying to tell Jacob that he needs to remember.

 

Before he gets back to Bethel, in chapter 35:2, “Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:”  Jacob said that God has appeared unto me and He is telling me that I need to get back to Bethel where He appeared unto me, where we had that great time, where I know that God spoke to me, and where I made the vow that I made.  God says that I need to get back there; and He says to get rid of all the strange gods that you got while we were down there; gather them all together, clean yourself up and change clothes.  Jacob knew that when he got to Bethel that if God was going to receive him there couldn't be any false gods there.  You can’t bring a bunch of dead gods with you and expect God to bless you.

 

God will forgive you, but you are going to have to get rid of your strange gods.  All those things that you have picked up while you have been walking contrary to the Will of God, you're going to have to lay them all aside.  You are going to have to get rid of them because you have to be clean; if God is going to forgive us, if we are going to get back to the place of our first love; then we have to clean ourselves up.  That was the commandment that Jacob made.  Bring me your strange gods, your trinkets, earrings and little things that you have hanging around your neck and all of the idols that you have brought with you. 

 

Look what happens:

 

3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

 

They brought all their strange gods and all the idols that they had acquired and were carrying around.  Jacob dug a hole in the ground under an oak tree and he buried them.

 

The things that we are trying to bring back to Bethel with us, you can bring them back to Bethel, but there is not going to be no forgiveness until those things that you have picked up while you have been walking away from God; you need to burry them.  You need to dig hole in the ground, you need to bury them, you need to cover them up and you need to walk away from them.  God will not accept us carrying our strange gods around--that's idolatry--and absolutely God will not accept that.  God must be my first love or God will not be no love to me at all.  He doesn’t play second love to anybody.  He doesn't play fiddle to anybody.  Either God will be my first love or God is not in my life.  I can't have God in my life and have the idols of a sinful world carrying them around in my possession.

 

Getting back to Bethel, means getting back to the place that we remember our first love. 

 

Jacob digs a hole, he buries their idols, they clean themselves up, they change their clothes; that's getting in a good place to be forgiven. 

 

It's back to a right way of life.  It's back to a right way to live and a right way to act.  That's what back to Bethel means.  That means when I come back to Bethel, and come to the relationship that I use to have with God; then I'm going to have to act right, live right and do right.  That's what it means.  It is back to where God is greater and more important to me than all the other idols that are out there.  That's what getting back to Bethel means.  That's one thing that it means.  Also, it means back to a better life that we once knew--back to praying. 

 

I was reading a little story about a little boy, just a small kid who come to his dad and he said, “Dad, is God dead?  Did God die?”  Then his father said, “Well, son why would you make a statement like that?”  The little guy said, “Dad, you use to talk to Him all the time, but you don't talk to Him anymore.  You use to pray and talk to God everyday; two or three times a day, but you don't talk to Him anymore so He must have died.”  God's not dead, but He might as well be to some of us because of how we live sometimes.  Because we have quit praying, we have quit talking to Him. 

 

Coming back to Bethel means, coming back to a right way to live.  Coming back to Bethel means, we are going to have to start talking to God again.  Bethel is a great place of wonderful joy.  Bethel is a place of security, harmony.  Bethel is a great place, but Bethel is place that we have got to live right.  We have got to talk to God.  We have to have a prayer life if we are going to do anything for God.  Going back to Bethel means going back to this book (holding the Bible up); back to living by what's in the Bible.  A lot of us have forsaken that. 

 

A lot of people in our church world know that we need to come to church.  They know that we need to support God's work with our finances.  We could mention a tithe or a tenth to the people and many people will say, “What's mine is mine and I'll give God what I want to give.”  You can go ahead and do that if you want to, but you may wake up in a soup line somewhere.  Don't think that what you have got is yours.  What you've got is God's.  You wouldn't have anything if God didn't give it to you.  If you don't honor God with what you have got then don't come crying to me when it's all gone.  It's serious stuff.

 

Getting back to Bethel means; getting back to praying, getting back to God. 

 

Jacob said, “I'll vow a vow, You are going to be my God and this is what I am going to do.”  We need to get back to the place that we live what the Bible says.  The big problem is that Jacob thought that he would have conflict with Esau – and we know that they meet – time had healed a lot of wounds that they had.  Even though Jacob was scared and thought that Esau was going to kill him, but when they met they hugged one another.  They said that everything is fine. 

 

The years that Jacob had spent a long way from where he should have been his thought was always in the back of his mind, “Esau is going to get me.”  If you are living in sin, there is an Esau out there but his name is not Esau.  His name is lucifer.  The scripture calls him a dragon, a lion, and a lot of different things.  He’s going to get you, if you don’t straighten up. 

 

They make up and everything is fine. 

 

Jacob came back to Bethel, right where he started, where he had his experience with God many years before this.  A lot of things had happened in those many years.  However, he comes right back to Bethel and he starts all over again. 

 

I can’t make up for lost time and neither can you.  It’s time that we come back to Bethel, come back to our first love, come back to a right way of living, come back to living our lives according to the Word of God, come back to live, pray and seek the face of God.  It’s time that we get back there.  We don’t have much time. 

 

There is a lot of “has been(s)” in the sports world today.  We can talk about Michael Jordan.  He’s a “has been” today.  He use to be a great basketball player, but his day is over and done.  We could talk about the golfers of the past.  Some of them use to be great golfers.  They are great people, but they are just “has been(s)” today. 

 

We have got a lot folk sitting in pews today that are “has been(s).”  They use to be dedicated to God.  They use to live by the Bible.  They made vows to God and they kept their vows.  They use to teach, they use to sing, they use to testify, they use to love the presence of God; but it’s gone now.  They are “has been(s).”  They use to be but they are not that anymore.  It’s not God’s fault. 

 

It’s not God’s fault that you are miserable.  It’s not God’s fault that you have left Bethel and the joy that you had at Bethel.  It’s not God’s fault, it’s your fault.  Remember this; God still yet loves you.  God still yet wants you to come back to Bethel and start all over again. 

 

I’d rather start all over again every day of my life than I would end up being lost forever. 

 

I had read something about Billy Graham.  Before he got saved, he went to the altar about sixteen or seventeen times before he ever got up and said, “Hey, the Lord saved me.”  Finally, Billy Graham found what he was looking for and we all know Billy Graham today.  His name is a household word all across the world today as being a great man of God. Had Billy Graham quit on the thirteenth, or fifteenth time; we wouldn’t know who Billy Graham was and he wouldn’t have led millions of people to the Lord. 

 

If you have left Bethel, you have no joy, you have no experience with God today, you have made all kinds of vows and you have not kept any of them; today would be a great day to come back to Bethel. 

 

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