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Bob Davis: If we aren't raptured by the Lord—if he doesn't come to take the church out one at a time, or two or three, or however it works for us—we're going to die. Sin in the garden, before that sin, there was no death. But sin brought death, and from then on Adam died, and Eve died, and her sons died, and her daughters died, and they've been dying ever since. And we're going to die.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply what's within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible, continuing in Genesis chapter 35, verse 6. Jacob builds the altar to Bethel, and God affirms Jacob's new name. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: So we take up in verse 6 of Genesis chapter 35. Jacob came to Luz, which we would spell in our language L-O-O-Z, Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel. He and all the people that were with him, and he built an altar there. And he called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled or when he ran away from the face of his brother. That was 30 years ago.

But Deborah, Rebecca's nurse—Rebecca is Jacob's mama, remember—Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died. And she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak. And the name of it was called Allon Bachuth. They safely arrived in the area that Jacob named Bethel. It was known to the surrounding neighbors and all as Luz. Luz means basically almond, or almond tree, I think, is the full word. But Jacob changed it to Bethel. Bethel means "House of God" or "God's House."

Then something that you think comes out of nowhere, and it really doesn't because it fills in some gaps that we haven't gotten. Deborah was Rebecca's nurse. Today we use the term maid. She was a beloved maid, and she died. And she was buried under a huge oak tree called Allon Bachuth, "the Oak Tree of Weeping" or crying. She was loved.

Well, here the fact that Deborah was there with Jacob and his family lets us know something that we haven't been told yet, and that's that Rebecca is dead. If Rebecca were still alive, that nurse, that maid, that lady that was really more of a friend, obviously, would have stayed with Rebecca. But Rebecca is gone. So Rebecca, Jacob's mother, has died. And this nurse who took care of Jacob growing up when he was a little boy took care of Jacob, now she's with Jacob and his family to take care of them as well.

That's what you would call—that's what I would call, what the Bible is showing us is—a faithful nurse. Some might even say nannies. It's kind of interchangeable. She was Rebecca's nurse. Once the kids were born, she was helping Rebecca with the kids, Isaac and Esau. So she raised those boys. That was Deborah. We read that she died, and it's like a verse, it's there, it's gone. If you speed read through the Bible, you might miss it. But God doesn't miss it; he includes her in there in his word.

And so we go to verse 9. And there in Bethel, God appeared to Jacob again. He appeared to him before in a dream. Now God's appearing right there. God appeared to Jacob again when he came out of Padan Aram and blessed him. And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you shall not be called anymore Jacob." In American, "I'm not calling you Jacob any longer. You'll be Israel. Israel shall be thy name." And he called his name Israel.

We saw it earlier, so this is not that God is confused and repeating himself. This is something because they want us to grasp what's going on. It is a reminder to Jacob. And once it becomes a reminder to Jacob, it becomes a reminder to me. All the promises that God has promised me and you, he reminds us quite often. But you know what? We shouldn't be forgetting them anyway.

But he says, God said to him in verse 10, "Thy name is Jacob, thy name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be thy name," and he called his name Israel. And verse 11 says, God said to him, "I am God Almighty." If you're a Bible underliner, that's a great thing to have underlined. It says a lot. "I am God Almighty." He said that to Father Abraham, as you recall. He said, "I am God Almighty."

So here's what I'm telling you to do. This is what's going to happen. "Be fruitful and multiply, you and your family. A nation and a company of nations, multiple nations, shall be of thee or come from you and your family. And kings shall come out of thy loins." You're going to have some of your descendants will actually be kings. Jacob is like a nobody, he's just a guy.

And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac—this is verse 12—the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, I give to you. Or to you, I will give it. And to your family, your posterity, to your seed after you, I will give this land. And God went up from him in the place where he talked with Jacob. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him—verse 14—even a pillar of stone. And he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.

Bethel once again, back in Bethel, where he should have been 10 years ago when he got into the land. And now he's back because God brought him back. And God appears to Jacob, and he says, "I am God Almighty." In the Hebrew, El Shaddai. It means the all-powerful, all-knowing, almighty God. Now, if he says, "I'm with you," you've got some pretty good company. And that's amazing protection, if you just think about it. "I'm El Shaddai."

Using the name El Shaddai was one of God's ways of reminding about his promises and who he was. It's one of God's ways of saying, "All the promises that I've ever given you, I will keep. I am the almighty, all-powerful God. Everything I promised you, you will have." Jesus promised—Jesus, God Almighty in human flesh—he promised he would never leave you, never leave me, he would never forsake us.

So when we start sitting down and saying it seems like God's far away, well, God is not far away. If you're far away from God, guess who moved? It wasn't God. God's not that way. That's just a silly way to put it, because you know God is never going to leave you, never going to forsake you. If you try to run, he's going to be right there waiting for you. "Oh, it's you, God. Sorry."

"All of the promises I've given you, I will keep. All you have to do is trust." That doesn't mean you'll never get sick and never be poor. That's not what it means at all. What it means is God is with you all the way. So if you're a little short on cash, you don't rob a bank or do something silly. What do you do? "Lord, I need some help." And then he'll work it out. You watch him work it out. Sometimes he gets you a job. Yuck, I know.

And he says, "I'm going to multiply Jacob's descendants, and your descendants will possess the land." In the long run, Israel will be in the land to stay for good. He also reminded Jacob that kings would be among his descendants. He promised that to Isaac, Jacob's dad. He promised that to Abraham, Isaac's dad, Jacob's granddad. So what's Jacob's response? We just read it. What's his response? He worshipped.

Notice that you don't work yourself into worship. It comes out. You don't make it happen. And I don't think that many of us understand that. And I know so many in the church try to work it up, build it up, and make it happen. "Come on, everybody, this side of the room, that side of the room. Okay, men that are over 200 pounds, you sing. Let's go!" And it's a cheerleader trying to build up some kind of worship.

And you notice where it comes from? It comes right straight from a heart that believes and takes God at his word, that trusts in the Lord. And his response is worship. What did he do? He did what he does a lot of times: he set up another pillar. And he anointed it with oil, making it special. And now this time, he offers a drink offering to the Lord.

He confirmed this place to be called Bethel, House of God, or God's House. This is where God is. And you say, "Drink offering, what's that?" Yeah, that's why we have the Old Testament and the New, so we can learn these things and then understand how they apply to us today. Because being a drink offering applies to you and me as a Christian today right now.

We know that because we've read the New Testament, and the Old Testament comes in, and Paul helps us to see it and Peter, etc. But listen to this. A drink offering was a symbol of dedication, the idea that the worshipper's life is poured out for the Lord. That's basically what the priests would do in the sacrifice we go through into Leviticus. If you go through in the law, Deuteronomy and Leviticus, you'll see they offer these drink offerings, and it's just symbolic of dedication.

The worshipper's life is poured out for the Lord. We could say that in American: you're living for the Lord now. Romans chapter 12: "I beseech you by the mercy of God that you offer your bodies, give your bodies, a living sacrifice, being poured out for the Lord, being used for the Lord's work." All of us that belong to the Lord—I pray that you do too—we find something simple that we can serve and do, and we do that.

And we love people, and we try to help them, and we do the things that let them see that God is still on the throne and that the Lord loves them. And he hasn't forgotten them, because a lot of unbelievers say, "There is no God. I used to think there was, but he's forgotten me. He hasn't answered any of my prayers." And you say, "Well, you know what? Let's pray to him now. Let's ask him."

Look at verse 16 now. And they journeyed, they traveled from Bethel, and there was but a little way to Ephrath. Ephrath is what you and I call Bethlehem. New Testament Bethlehem Ephrathah. So Ephrath is right there, just almost in Bethel. And Rachel went into labor, child labor. She travailed, and she had difficult, very difficult labor. And it came to pass when she was in hard labor, her midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, you're going to have this son." So she's just about to have the baby. She's just about to do it.

Verse 18, though, it says it came to pass as her soul was departing—she died, in other words—that she called the baby's name Ben-oni. But his father Jacob changed his name to Benjamin. And Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, in other words, just not quite in town, just outside of Bethlehem a little bit. She's buried—Ephrath which is Bethlehem. And Jacob, he set up a pillar for his wife Rachel. He gave her a grave, he marked her grave with that. And that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day, Moses writes.

People say, "Why did she die?" I don't know. I don't know. But I know this: she trusted in God enough to ask him for another baby boy, and she had a baby boy. We're all going to die someday. Who wants to talk about that? I know I don't mean to offend you, especially now, but we are all going to die someday. If we aren't raptured by the Lord—if he doesn't come to take the church out one at a time, or two or three, or however it works for us—we're going to die.

You say that's a negative thought. It's not a negative thought. I mean, that's basically what it is. You know, sin in the garden, sin before that, sin there was no death. But sin brought death, and from then on Adam died, and Eve died, and her sons died, and her daughters died, and they've been dying ever since. And we're going to die. Rachel died because that was what God had planned for her. Why? I don't know. But I can read it to you.

Sin brought death into the world. Sin brought it, and death turns out to be a blessing. By that, I mean God was wise. He always understands, and he thinks—you can't outthink him, he knows everything. He is almighty, all-powerful. You see, what if they had in the garden eaten of the Tree of Life and lived for eternity in a sin nature? And your body breaking down and you're getting older, you can't see, you can't walk, you can't function—who wants to be laying around that way? Nobody. So in his mercy, these bodies get old and break down and finally stop.

But listen to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Probably you're familiar with these scriptures. I'm just going to read verses 1 through 4. You can read them all when you get some time. "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. There's a time to be born and a time to die." Boom, there it is. A time to be born, a time to die. "A time to plant, there's a time to pluck up that which was planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up—or tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance."

That's the way it goes. In every life, there's joy. And in every life that I've ever met and every life according to God's Word, in every life, there are trials and there are heartaches and there are troubles because of sin—not just yours, but sin in the world. I mean, ours too, but you can see that's how it works. Rachel died, and it was sad. And you know that Jacob did love her.

So Jacob changes that little boy's name. Not Ben-oni, son of my sorrow, but Benjamin. Benjamin, "son of my right hand." What does that mean? That means the son of his right hand would be the honored son. He's the youngest now. Rachel had Joseph, now she's had Benjamin, and she's now buried. And by the way, if you would go to Israel today...

So verse 21 now. And Israel, Jacob, journeyed and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar. And it came to pass when Israel, Jacob, dwelt in the land that Reuben went and lay—had sexual relations—with Bilhah, his father's concubine. And Jacob, Israel, heard it. And the sons of Jacob now were 12.

That is put in there, and you think, "Wow, that comes out of nowhere too." At a place called Migdal-Eder or Edar, between Bethlehem and Hebron, he's on his way down. Reuben, Leah's firstborn son—Rachel's sister Leah—he takes one of his father's concubines. He's the oldest son. Bilhah, Rachel's servant. Remember Bilhah was a concubine, a second-class wife. She had two sons of Jacob: Dan and Naphtali.

And there you go. What's going on here? Well, it's only because I've read other parts of the Bible that I can kind of get a grasp of this. We're reading our Bibles, and we're learning as we grow. So here's what's going on. Because Jacob is getting older—you'll see in a moment he's older than you think he is—because Jacob is getting older, scholars believe that, and this is probably what happened, that Reuben, who is the oldest son, he is to take the birthright. He is to take over the family. The oldest son always takes the leadership of the family.

Well, Jacob is getting old. So it's believed that Reuben was trying to replace his father as the patriarch, or if you will, the head of the clan. But it didn't work out there. He should not have done that. His dad was still alive and kicking. And Reuben is the oldest, but he won't get the birthright because of that very issue that we see right here. So what they're doing is they're helping us to set up for what's coming.

And now Jacob had 12 sons. And you want to see the list? Here we go. Verses 23, starting in 23. The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's firstborn), Simeon, Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun. Sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. Sons of Bilhah (Rachel's handmaid): Dan and Naphtali. Sons of Zilpah (Leah's handmaid): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, Israel, which were born to him in Padan Aram. But that just amazes me, the 12 tribes of Israel. The only one born in Israel would be Benjamin.

And verse 27. Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to the city of Arba, which is Hebron. That's what we call it, where Abraham and Isaac were living. Now Abraham's gone, Isaac is there. And the days of Isaac were 180 years old. Isaac was 180. Abraham was 175 when he died. Isaac is 180. And Isaac gave up the ghost—in other words, he died—and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

And you think, "Okay, well, that's nice. What do you do with that?" Thank you for asking. Isaac is still living in the same place we left him 30 years ago in Hebron. And remember when Jacob had to run away from his brother, run from his family, and run to his uncle Laban almost 500 miles away to save his own life? Now we're told about Isaac's death. Isaac was 180 years old when he died, and his sons, his twin sons, Esau and Jacob, buried their father. I'm sure it was a hard day for them.

We covered a lot of stuff, but it all fits together. Trusting God, listening to the Lord. When things go wrong—and things do go wrong, you see it—Rachel died. Yet she asked the Lord, he answered. Rachel died. That faithful servant, that faithful maid, she died. She was probably pretty elderly also. She was probably a little bit older than Rebecca, so Rebecca's already gone.

And you're thinking, we're getting all these details, and it shows us how to walk with God. It shows me, this is how you do it. Day by day, life is full of ups and downs and twists and turns, and you don't know if it's going to rain or snow, or you don't know if the wind's going to blow. And there are diseases, and there are threats from enemies abroad, and there are things going on. Sometimes the economy's this, sometimes the economy is that. But what do we do? We trust. We walk and we trust. We listen to the Lord our God, and our lives are poured out as an offering to the Lord.

So I pray, if you've never given your heart to Jesus Christ, you can. But you must believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, just like the scriptures teach. That he became flesh and dwelt among us, God himself miraculously born. Lived a perfectly sinless life. He healed, he did things only God could do. He said things only God had the authority to say. He walked on water, and you probably haven't yet.

He healed the sick, the lepers. He still heals today. If you're afraid, you cry out to him. He still heals today. He raised the dead. He gave the blind their sight. He gave those who couldn't speak their tongues back and they could speak. Those who couldn't hear, those who were lame and could not walk, he healed them. And he never asked them for anything except just to trust him.

And so if you've never given your heart to Jesus, this is a good time to do that. With all the stress and the trouble and the everything, Jesus says, "You come to me, all of you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." You'll find rest to your souls—not your feet necessarily, but the real you in your heart. There'll be a peace and a rest.

You say, "What do I pray?" Jesus says, "Come to me." And also, he tells us, "Turn around." You've been running, you've been walking away, you've been headed the wrong direction, and God says, "Repent. Turn around to me. Come back. I will give you, freely give you, eternal life." He's not going to charge you, you don't have to be good enough. Some have asked me, "Do I have to clean up my language before I come to Jesus?" No. No, you don't have to take a bath before you take a shower. You come to Jesus and let him do it.

All he's asking you to do is trust him. So you could pray, "Lord, I believe it. I don't understand it, but I believe it, and I need you. I need a savior. I am a sinner. I need your help. I'm hurting, I'm losing. I can't get back up out of the hole that I'm in, and I don't know what to do. Save me, Lord." You say that sincerely from your heart, and you are saved immediately. But it's got to be real from your heart.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM.

You can download today's message in its entirety at NorthCountryChapel.com/studies. That's NorthCountryChapel.com/studies. If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho 83854, or call us at 1-800-572-8851. That number again, 1-800-572-8851.

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