9/4/22 - Full Obedience - Genesis 35 - Pastor Jason Fritz

Finally! We get to the part where Jacob is in full surrender to God!

In Genesis chapter 35 God tells Jacob to go back to the very spot where he first spoke to him 30 years earlier. If you remember from Chapter 28, Bethel is the place where God began speaking to him through a vision of a stairway extending from earth to heaven. It symbolized God’s ongoing presence in his life. Like many of us, it took Jacob several years to live fully in God’s presence. God was always with Jacob, but Jacob wasn’t always with God. After Jacob receives the vision he proclaims this in chapter 28:20-22.

“If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

He is returning to his father’s house. For the last ten years, he’s been doing whatever he wants. As a result, he has the drama of multiple wives, his daughter is sexually assaulted, his boys murder an entire tribe and no one seems to respect Jacob. The family is fragmented. Earlier, God told him to go to Bethel but instead, he went halfway and stopped. Partial obedience made his life a living hell. But God did not abandon Jacob. Good said again, “Go back to Bethel” and this time Jacob obeys fully. Now you need to know this is a religious pilgrimage. Bethel was in the heart of Canaanite country. The intent here is to drive a stake in the heartland of idolatrous Canaanite worship and to establish Yahweh as the one true and living God.

Jacob is proving to be the leader his family needs. His boys massacred the people of Shechem and took all their stuff including their idols. So Jacob says, “It’s time this family does what is right. Get rid of the idols!” He steps up as a father and leads well. His boys are grown men but it will always be a parent’s right to instruct their kids between what is good and evil. They may or may not listen, but it is mom and dad’s obligation. Jacob tells his household to put away the foreign gods and to cleanse themselves and put on new garments. This purification ritual symbolized the turning of a new page. It’s the transition from one state to another. This reminds me of Christian baptism. Burying the old life with the death of Christ and raised to a new life through his resurrection.

Along the journey to Bethel God protects Jacob from his enemies. Jacob is wealthy and owns a lot of livestock. He travels with a massive entourage and people can’t help but pay attention. He is a foreigner surrounded by hostiles. Easy for him to draw heavy fire. But God causes the Canaanites to fear him. This is supernatural terror that falls on those who might want to do him harm. I like to say, “The man or the woman of God doing the will of God is invincible until God calls him or her home.” Jacob is doing the will of God and God has his back. The same is true for you and me. This is why we want to be obedient in whatever God asks us to do and be. If God is for us, who can be against us?