Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: If you want to have a close relationship with God, you have to deal honestly with what stands in the way of it. And that's sin. It's not a message talked about much these days, is it? But it may be the most hopeful hard truth that we can face. Welcome to Thru the Bible. I'm your host, Steve Schwetz, and we're continuing our journey through the book of Genesis.

In our previous studies, we've watched Jacob learn, often the hard way, that sin has consequences, sometimes subtle and sometimes painfully clear. As the story unfolds, Dr. J. Vernon McGee shares three life-giving principles for returning to God and leaving wasted years behind. You're going to love this message. So, please turn in Genesis 35. And as you find your place in God's Word and your seat on the Bible Bus, let's pause to praise God for the work that he's doing in lives around the world, specifically in the African country of Burundi, which is where all of these letters that I'm going to read today are from.

Our first note comes from Pierre, who tells us this: "I follow you, and the teachings on Jesus' disciples practicing forgiveness as a way of life has truly transformed me and opened my soul. I used to hold grudges and struggle to forgive, not realizing its power and importance. But now, I have a renewed heart, freely forgiving others in Jesus' name, experiencing peace, joy, and Christ's love in my life. I wish everyone could receive this message so that the world could be filled with understanding." God's peace, joy, and love. That's what the world needs more of, isn't it?

And then Ervarste writes this: "Praise to the Lord Jesus Christ for his transforming power in my life. This program deeply stirred my heart with the truth of the gospel. A friend also began sending me the same messages through WhatsApp, and I listened to them regularly. Over a period of three months, the Word of God began to convict me and reveal my need for Jesus Christ. I realized I could no longer find peace in the things of this world as I was under the control of earthly desires. Previously, I was strongly opposed to Christianity and often found myself in conflict with Christians. However, through the grace of God, I came to repentance and surrendered my life to Jesus. I'm now living as an active follower of Christ. My heart, once filled with hatred and resistance, is now filled with praise and thanksgiving to God. I give all glory to the Lord for his mercy, salvation, and the new life that he's given me."

And then our last note comes from Emmy, and she shares this: "Thank you so much for this program. It helped me come to know Jesus Christ. Before listening, I followed other beliefs and felt unsure about God. Through this teaching, I began to understand what salvation means, and that truth has changed my life. I also didn't know how to pray or how to live in a way that honors God. The teaching helped me understand who to pray to and how to speak to God honestly about my life and my needs. I truly appreciate you and the guidance you have given me."

For those of you on the World Prayer Team, keep praying because God is answering those prayers. The changes in the lives of these people are evidence of our Lord's faithfulness and his power to transform us. And if you'd like to come along as we ask God to take his whole Word to the whole world, sign up at TTB.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE for more information. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace that welcomes us back when we've wandered. Open our hearts to your truth and teach us what it means to walk closely with you again. Restore what has been broken and use your Word to shape our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. Here's our study of Genesis 35 on Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, after our study last time in the 34th chapter of the book of Genesis, I'm sure that many of you came to the conclusion that I had made a boo-boo when I said that Jacob's life changed at Peniel, that when he came there to the brook Jabbok, actually we don't see too much change because of what takes place in the 34th chapter. Well, that is quite true, but there was a change that took place.

I hesitate to call it a crisis because I'm afraid that this matter of a crisis experience has been overdrawn by a great many. In fact, I find there are some folks that feel like if you don't have a second experience, you just haven't had anything. Well, the fact of the matter is that's not true. Some have a wonderful crisis experience—Dwight L. Moody did, and I'm sure that many of us in our lives can turn back to that. But there are those that cannot or do not and have never mentioned it as being something very important in their lives.

But actually, when this man came to Peniel, a tremendous thing happened to him. I think probably as we get into the 35th chapter, I should mention this. All the way from the beginning of the life of Jacob until Peniel, the thing that happened in his life was the rise of self, the assertion of the flesh. That's Jacob and nothing but that. What really happened at Peniel was the fall of self, and a tremendous fall of self there. I tell you, he went down like a deflated tire. He'd been pumped up like a balloon all of his life until he got to Peniel, and then the Lord put the pin in the balloon and he went down to practically nothing.

But actually, there was not faith in his life. Now, that I think is what the 34th chapter evidences. Now, I think that many folk that have said, there've been many expositors who say it was a tragic thing for Jacob to stop in Shalem. I must say that I have to go along with that partially, but I have a question to ask. And the question is this: was he ready for Bethel? Was he ready for the experiences that God was going to give him? No, I think that what you see in the 34th chapter and the tragic things that took place are the result of a man who'd been walking by the flesh. Then there is that fall, the deflation of self, but not faith. He did not have faith to go on to Bethel, to Bethel, you can call that either way you want to, but now he stops at Shalem in the land of Shechem and these tragic things took place in his life, and it reveals the fact that this man was not actually a leader in his own family. He was not taking the proper place that he should have. He was no spiritual giant by any means. And to have those 12 boys to herd was really a real job, and I want to say that that would take a real spiritual giant to control them.

But this man Jacob was not prepared. But after that tragic event, this man now is beginning to see the hand of God in his life, and now he makes the decision that he probably should have made beforehand. And it reveals that inside this family, there was taking place something that was indeed tragic indeed. And so the tragedy at Shechem is that as soon as Esau turned his back and started home, Jacob takes his family down to Shechem. It's a tragic move. Jacob is still depending upon his own cleverness. Dinah was raped, and Simeon and Levi, her full brothers, went into the city of Shechem to the prince who was responsible. Though he wanted to marry her, they murdered him, and the sons of Jacob conducted a slaughter that would make a gang shooting in Chicago look pretty tame. When they came home, Jacob says, "You've made my name to smell among the people of my land." And now, the fact of the matter is, he wasn't ready for Bethel. My question is, where else could he go? And after all, this man had flocks and herds, and there was good pastureland where he stopped at Shalem. This man now had a great lesson to learn, and he's beginning to see that chickens do come home to roost and that whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.

Now, I turn to the 35th chapter of Genesis, and I hope you have your Bible open there and also that you have our notes and outlines. If you do not have them, we do have a set for you and would love to send them to you. Now, I'm reading verse 1, chapter 35 of Genesis: "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." Now God is calling this man back to Bethel. Now, the fact of the matter is he's now, after this sad experience, he's prepared to go. You see, he didn't have faith to move out before.

Now will you notice verse 2: "Jacob now begins to take the leadership. 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." Now there are several things that they are told to do here. They're first of all to put away the strange gods, and we are almost shocked at that. You'll recall that when Jacob fled with Rachel and Leah, that Rachel slipped out the family gods, that is, these little images. She sat on them on the camel that luggage that was to go on the camel's back. She just crawled up on top of it and sat down because underneath were these little images.

Now I would assume since it was the home of Jacob, he knew of the living and true God, God had called him. You would think that he would say that when he did find out, and he did not know at the time she had taken them. He was very honest when he told Laban that the gods, those little images, weren't in his entourage at all. That's probably the one time up to then he told the truth. He really didn't know, but they were there. Now when they were discovered, I think that probably we'd all assume, well, Jacob got rid of them, but he didn't get rid of them. And we find this entire family are worshipping these images. This man Jacob now for the first time, and he's the one to take the leadership, he says, "Now let's get rid of these false gods, these strange gods." And they're false gods. That's the first thing you've got to put away: that which is wrong.

There is today too many folk that six days a week they are serving some other god, and on Sunday they serve the Lord. We have a lot of fundamental believers like that, friends. They have their strange god, and then they wonder why on Sunday their service in the church, and why it's not a thrilling experience. Well, friend, you're going to have to put away your strange gods. Now I don't know what yours might be, but whatever they are, it could be covetousness. I tell you, there's many a good fundamental businessman today that's out after every dollar he can get. And I tell you, he gives more devotion to getting the dollar than he does to serving the Lord on Sunday. Then he wonders what's wrong with his spiritual life. If you're going to come back to Bethel, where you met God at the beginning, then friends, you've got to put away those things that are wrong.

Then he says here, Jacob says, "And be clean." Now that for the believer today means confession of sins. You have to deal with sin in your life. You can't come in on Sunday and ignore the week that's just passed. After all, you take a physical bath and use a deodorant, and today we have spiritual BO in our churches because there's no confession of the sin. The cleansing, and that's the cleansing, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That's 1 John 1:9. There must be the confession, and he'll forgive, but they must be confessed.

Then do you notice something else he says here? "Change your garments." Get rid of the old garments. Now garments speak in Scripture of habits. In fact, they do today. We hear of somebody having a riding habit, and football players have a uniform—that's the habit they use. And a child of God's dress should some way mirror who he is, who he belongs to. Do you wear the habits of the Lord? Can you be detected in business, or in school, or in the neighborhood as being a little different? Your life is a little different; you're wearing a habit. The day that this man went back to Bethel, he started living for God. And up to then, I don't think so.

He says, "Let's go back to Bethel." And that's the thing that we must do. Listen to him now in verse 3: "And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God." Abraham had made the altar, Isaac had, now Jacob is. And thank God for that. He'll have a witness now for God. "Who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went." Now that is the thing that he remembered, that when he was running away from home as a young man, homesick and lonesome, he came to Bethel, and God had been faithful to him. God says, "I will be faithful to you."

Now the years have gone by, and God had been faithful to him. Now God says you've got to go back to Bethel. You have to go back where you started. You have to begin there. I'm of the opinion that a great many people today need to recognize that the years that we spend in living a shoddy, shabby Christian life are just waste of time, absolute waste of time. You find that the children of Israel, you'll recall God called them to get out of Egypt and get into the land. And if you'll notice, God appeared to them and told them to go into the land. They didn't go. In 40 years, they wandered around. God appeared to Joshua and he says, "Now go into the land." Picks up right where he left off, where he told them. They'd wasted 40 years. How many people today are wasting their lives as Christians? My, the tremendous spiritual lessons that are here for us! And I think one of the reasons they're here for us, some of us now—I don't know about you, but some of us are just like Jacob, you see, and that's the reason they're so applicable to us today. And thank God he says he's the God of Jacob. I love that. If he'll be the God of Jacob, he'll be the God of J. Vernon McGee also, and that's wonderful. That's wonderful. This chapter is a great encouragement to us today.

Now will you notice what happened? He's taken over in his home, which is interesting. Verse 4: "They gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears." And let me pause and say that earrings were associated with worship in that day. There's a great deal said in Scripture about that. I can't stop to develop that sort of thing, but may I say there's so many wonderful, precious truths that are in the Word of God that even in a five-year program, friends, you can't dig it all out. After we get through working this mine, there'll be a great deal of gold and precious stones left here, I can assure you. And all their earrings which were in their ears, that identified them as idolaters and they're going to get rid of them. And Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. He got rid of them. They're not stored away; they're buried. They must be put away because it's going to be now a new life.

"And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him." You remember that place was called Luz before Jacob changed the name to Bethel, and the people in that day knew it as Luz, not as Bethel. We know it today as Bethel. "And he built there an altar, and called the place El-bethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother." You remember that was the name he gave to it before.

Now here's a very interesting sidelight. "But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth." Now the important thing about this is that we assume, since Deborah was with Jacob at this time, that Rebekah had died. And it's not only a natural assumption, it's a very real thing that she had died. Poor Jacob never saw his mother again. That part is not as tragic as she never saw him again. She just sent him away for a little while, you know, and the burial of this nurse means that when she died, the nurse had apparently brought a message and had come to stay with Jacob, and now she dies.

Verse 9: "And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him." Now you see, all those years, God had been trying to deal with this man. Now he picks up right where he had met him when he came to Bethel as a young man. Wasted years. Those years he spent down there with Uncle Laban in many ways were wasted years. "And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty." It's what he'd told Abraham, you remember. "Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land." The Lord considers that pretty important property, by the way, because this now is the third time: first Abraham, then to Isaac, and then now to Jacob. And to each one of these men, the Lord had to tell them about it two or three times. In fact, Abraham many times.

Now we are told, verse 14: "And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon." Here is the first mention of a drink offering. Now when we get to the book of Leviticus, five offerings are given there, but not a drink offering. In fact, no instructions given about it at all, but it's mentioned. Evidently this is one of the oldest offerings, and it has a very wonderful meaning for the believer today. A drink offering was just poured on the other offerings. It went up in steam, and that's the way Paul told the Philippians he wanted his life to be just poured out like a drink offering.

And verse 15, "Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel." Verse 16: "And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor." Now Rachel had one son, but now she has a second son. "It came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin." What a wonderful thing that is, that is, not the death of Rachel, but the way this took place. She says, "Call him son of my sorrow." And Jacob looked down at him and said, "I've lost my lovely Rachel, and this little fellow looks like him. So I'll just call him Benjamin, son of my right hand." And he was partial to the sons of Rachel. Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And she's buried there today; the tomb is there. I have several pictures I took of it. "And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day." And that is at the time Moses wrote this, but it's there to this very day. "And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar."

Now what you have here is just the listing now of the sons of Jacob by these different ones. Actually, Joseph and Benjamin were the two boys that were outstanding. The others, I want to tell you, friends, they just didn't turn out well. And again, it proves the fact of what God had said, that the thing that had been done, it was done by Uncle Laban, of course, but Jacob went along with it, that he does not bless plurality of wives. The family of Jacob ought to illustrate that.

Now we have this record given here, verse 29: "And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him." I think this was the only other time these two boys met at the burial of their father. Isaac now, we'll have to leave off there today, but it brings us to the end of this chapter, and next time we're going to take a last look at Esau. Until then, may God richly bless you, I beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Well, as you look ahead to our next study, take a few minutes to read Genesis 36. You know, reading the chapter ahead of time gives the Holy Spirit space to begin working in your heart before we ever sit down together. I highly recommend you do it regularly. Follow along with our reading schedule in our app at TTB.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE, and we'll be glad to send you a copy by mail.

Now, as you study, don't forget how helpful Dr. McGee's notes and outlines can be in giving structure and clarity to Genesis. One of the easiest ways to access them is by downloading our free digital booklet, Briefing the Bible, available in our app and at TTB.org. If you prefer a printed copy, just call 1-800-65-BIBLE, and we'll send you an abridged version by mail. Thanks for listening, thanks for praying, and thanks for going through God's Word with us. I'm Steve Schwetz, grateful for your partnership as we take the whole Word to the whole world on Thru the Bible.

Our journey on the Bible Bus today is supported by the prayers and gifts of fellow passengers as we travel through the Bible.