This morning, I have several passages of scripture
that will be the foundation for our message
today, and they are each found in the
book of Genesis.
You may turn in your Bibles there now,
for we will begin in Genesis chapter 35,
in verses 1-3.
Our subject this morning is Jacob, and God's
dealing with him, and my message is entitled,
Getting Back to Bethel.
Here now is the word of God.
Now this was said to Jacob after his
wrestling with the angel of God at the
fort Jabbok.
This was said to Jacob after his daughter
Dinah had been raped by Shechem.
So a series of very trying events had
already transpired in the life of Jacob when
God meets him in the midst of yet
another trial.
This time, the rape of his daughter, and
the subsequent slaughter of the men of Shechem
by Jacob's two sons, Simeon and Levi, who
take revenge on the males of that town
for the rape of their sister, they cut
their throats.
The two preceding verses to our text today
read, Should
he deal with our sister as with a
harlot?
Now you can just picture Jacob in the
midst of yet another trial.
He's standing there with his blood pressure rising,
probably shaking his arms over his head in
anger at his two sons who have placed
him in yet another storm.
He just got out of the storm of
meeting his brother Esau, who was coming with
300 men to do him hurt.
Jacob was shut up to God at the
fort Jabbok, and it was there he wrestled
with the angel of the Lord until he
obtained a blessing.
There was Jacob, the supplanter, the cheat.
Jacob was so crooked he could hide behind
a corkscrew.
There he wrestles with God, and he prevails,
and God changes his name from supplanter to
Israel, a prince with God.
And he makes amends with his brother Esau
and puts that behind him, and soon his
daughters raped by Shechem, and now his two
sons take revenge on the males of the
town and slay them and make a troublesome
situation more volatile.
Here's Jacob again fearing for his life, and
he's overwhelmed.
And it is at this juncture that God
comes to Jacob and tells him to return
to Bethel, to the place of Jacob's first
encounter with God.
For God had made some promises to his
servant Jacob at Bethel, and Jacob had made
a promise to God there as well.
Let's turn back to that passage in Genesis
chapter 28.
I want to read it to you, for
it will set the stage for what I
wish to relate to you this morning on
this topic of getting back to Bethel.
I will begin in verse 10.
And behold, the Lord stood above it and
said, I am the Lord God of Abraham,
thy father, and the God of Isaac, the
land whereon thou liest.
To thee will I give it, and to
thy seed, and thy seed shall be as
the dust of the earth, and thou shalt
spread abroad to the west, and to the
east, and to the north, and to the
south.
And in thee and in thy seed shall
all the families of the earth be blessed.
And behold, I am with thee, and will
keep thee in all places whither thou goest,
and will bring thee again into this land.
For I will not leave thee until I
have done that which I have spoken to
thee of.
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and
he said, Surely the Lord is in this
place, and I knew it not.
And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful
is this place!
This is none other but the house of
God, and this is the gate of heaven.
And Jacob rose up early in the morning,
and took the stone that he had put
for his pillows, and set it up for
a pillar, and poured oil upon the top
of it.
And he called the name of that place
Bethel, but the name of that city was
called Luz at the first.
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God
will be with me, and will keep me
in the way that I go, and will
give me bread to eat, and raiment to
put on, so that I come again to
my father's house in peace, then shall the
Lord be my God.
Now notice, friends, two important aspects of this
vital passage in the life of Jacob.
It was at Bethel that Jacob first encounters
God.
Many Bible scholars have looked upon this passage
as the time of Jacob's conversion.
So it is an extremely important event in
the life of Jacob.
And it was at Bethel that God promised
two things to Jacob.
Number one, God assured Jacob that he was
the promised carrier of both the seed and
the covenant of Abraham.
And number two, God assured Jacob of his
personal safety and blessing.
And although Jacob was at first fearful at
the poor Jabbok, as Esau was approaching with
a band of men, Jacob knew that in
his desperation, he could turn to God and
seek his face and obtain deliverance from him.
For it was in the desperate night of
prayer, of wrestling with God, that he gained
the victory and altered his very steps, even
physically, with a limp that would be with
him for the rest of his life.
And it is in the time of desperation,
after his two sons cause a commotion with
their slaughter of the men of Shechem, that
once more Jacob is in hot water and
dire straits and needs help from on high.
God intervenes and tells Jacob to return to
Bethel, to go back and revisit the place
of their encounter and the place of promises,
both made by God and by Jacob.
For Jacob had made a promise to God
at Bethel, a vow that God would be
his Lord if God performed what he said
he would do.
God tells Jacob to go back to Bethel
and reflect on what has transpired and to
worship him there.
And there are times in our own lives
when this is greatly needed, seasons when we
are either in a dire strait or trial,
an adversity, or perhaps it's a dry season
where we are not walking in a close
walk with God, or perhaps prayers seem unanswered
and we're getting desperate because we see no
answer to the promises God had made to
us.
And God calls us back.
He calls us back to that place of
encounter with Him, to our own personal Bethel.
And God wants us to rebuild our altar
to Him, to remember our vows to Him,
to reflect on what He has accomplished in
our lives and to worship Him there.
It's a getting back to God.
It's a getting back to our Bethel.
I was having lunch with a man who
was a complete failure in business.
It seemed everything this man attempted to do
in the business world backfired on him.
He kept getting fired from one company from
the other.
I looked him in the eye and I
asked him, what did he originally plan to
do with his life?
His eyes filled with sadness as he said,
years ago God called me to the ministry,
but I never pursued it because I didn't
want to be poor.
Here was a man with a call of
God on his life to ministry who disobeyed
that call and his life was a disaster
because of it.
I was counseling with a man who was
successful in business, but his personal life was
falling apart.
I asked him if he'd ever disobeyed a
call from God on his life.
He looked startled, tears began to stream down
his face as he related to me that
early, as soon as he got out of
school, he'd been a pastor of a country
church, but he left the church to enter
the business world because he wanted to make
a lot of money.
And although he was a success in business
and he had a lot of money, his
marriage ended up failing, ending up in divorce,
and his own children turned against him.
Listen friends, has there ever been a time
in your life where God called you to
a thing and you turned your back on
it?
Did you ever make a vow to God
and not keep it?
It's time to get back to your Bethel
and get with God.
I was counseling a college student who said
that she felt called to be a foreign
missionary, but she looked into it and realized
she could not support herself financially, so now
she was pursuing a secular career that could
support her.
I wonder how many of us here have
not followed through with God and what he
called us to do.
Get back to your Bethel friend and get
back to God.
Has there been a place in your life
where you had an unusual encounter with God
and perhaps God spoke to you there?
He made some promise to you and it
has not been realized yet, and now you
doubt whether it will ever materialize.
Get back to your Bethel and reflect on
all the things God has already done for
you and have your faith strengthened to count
on him to perform what he said he
would do.
God told Jacob at Bethel, And behold, I
am with thee, and will keep thee in
all places, whither thou goest, and will bring
thee again into this land.
For I will not leave thee until I
have done that which I have spoken to
thee of.
Listen, friend, if God has made a promise
to you, he will keep it.
God is not a liar.
God is able to perform anything in your
life.
Is there anything too hard for God?
It is your own little faith that needs
strengthening.
Get back to your Bethel and meet your
God there, and he will renew in you
a deeper faith.
I know that God has made some promises
to me, and he is always faithful in
keeping those promises.
There are some promises to me that he
has yet to carry out, and there are
times when I cry out to him and
I remind him of his promises to me,
but I have to return to my Bethel
and set up my altar there and worship
him and thank him for what he has
already performed on my behalf.
And then to trust him to do what
he says he will do on his timetable.
And that's often the problem.
Our timetable is not God's timetable.
Our vantage point is not God's vantage point.
He will perform what he has promised us
when it will best benefit us.
Do you believe that?
Do you believe that God has your best
intentions at heart?
He surely does.
Can you count on God to keep his
word?
Listen to what he says in Isaiah.
I have spoken it.
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it.
I will also do it.
Perhaps God told you that he would save
a loved one, but as of yet that
loved one is still unsaved, and you have
begun to doubt God in saving that person.
Listen, friend.
If God has spoken it, he will perform
it.
Amen?
We must get back to our Bethel, back
to the place where we have encountered the
Almighty and heard from him.
We must get back to our Bethel and
renew our vows to him.
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 so that I come again to
my father's house in peace, then shall the
Lord be my God.
God performed all that and more for Jacob.
God always gives us much more than we
deserve.
God told Jacob to get back to Bethel
and contemplate on all that God had done
for him and to set up an altar
there and worship him.
Jacob had left his father's house with nothing
but a staff.
God enriched him with a large family and
estate.
God delivered him from the hand of Esau.
God did all that Jacob asked him to
do and more.
Now it was time for Jacob to get
back to Bethel, back to the first place
where he had encountered God and where God
had spoken to him.
There he must go and set up an
altar and worship God in thanksgiving and praise
and wait on him for further guidance.
Isn't that what we need to do, friends?
Dear friend, have your eyes been dry?
Do the heavens seem as brass in unseemly,
unanswered prayers?
Then get back to your Bethel and repair
your altar and worship your God there.
Meet him afresh for this hour.
Revisit the promises of God to you and
remind him of them.
Sue him for them with his written word.
Get back to Bethel and set up your
altar of thanksgiving for all he has done
for you.
Get back to Bethel and find the place
of obedience for that call of God on
your life.
For years, I fought the call of preaching
all my life.
I just did not want to surrender to
it, and my life was miserable until I
did.
Now that I am a preacher, I have
more problems than I ever had before, but
I have peace in that I am in
the will of God for my life.
God never promised us a bed of roses,
but he will grant us grace to live
with our thorns.
Get back to Bethel, friend.
Get back to Bethel and meet your God.
He has something wonderful for you there.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for being a God
we can count on.
Thank you for your faithfulness even in times
when we are unfaithful.
Thank you, great God, for your long-suffering,
for your love toward us.
Thank you, almighty God, for the divine place
of meeting that you have for each of
us, our own personal Bethel.
Renew us again, we pray, as we revisit
you there and reflect on your promises to
us and reflect on our vows to you
and contemplate the great things you have already
done on our behalf and grant us the
grace to lift up our hearts and worship
you there and increase our faith.
We pray these things in the strong name
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.