Sermon Nuggets Tues Oct 30
Gen 35 & 36
Genealogies
I was in
one computer store one day when they were trying to get rid of software that
wasn’t selling very well. Each program was $10 so I bought a computer program
that helps put together my family tree. I come from a relatively small family.
I have one brother. My Father had one sister. My mother had two sisters. So as
far as Aunts and Uncles I only had to look at three families. All my first
cousins I count on my one hand. My sons have only one cousin on my side of the
family. We can have family reunions in our living room.
Judi on the
other hand almost needs two hands just to count herself and brothers and
sisters. Just their offspring, nieces and nephews number 17. To have a family reunion
requires an outdoor party. Now annually that number increases as nieces and
nephews get married and have the third generation of kids. I think that number
is 33!
But after I
started putting together the family tree I was very surprised at some things.
First, if you go back far enough and look at the different branches of the tree
there are lots and lots of leaves. My parents had first cousins who had kids
who had kids. Some of those folks like Judi’s parents knew how to have kids. So
when I get to second and third cousins calculators are needed. It doesn’t take
long for me to realize that my great great grandparents on both sides had lots
of descendants. And of course, if you go back far enough to Adam and Eve- or
make it simpler, to Noah and his wife everyone is kin.
We believe each child is hand picked
by God. As Psalm 139 tells us He knew us while we were still in our mother’s
womb. Although there are various circumstances regarding births, life is
valuable to God. For a number of reasons
a child may not be best cared for in their birth home, but the value of
adoptions is that for the most part children can be brought up in a loving
home.
The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote
that there is a time to born and a time to die. And then next verses talk about
the various times in our lives. That is what we see in these next two chapters, as we reflect on our life
on this earth graciously given to us by God.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Weds Oct 31
Gen 35:1-14 35 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to
Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who
appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”
2 So Jacob said to his
household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign
gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your
clothes. 3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where
I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my
distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So
they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their
ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. 5 Then
they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so
that no one pursued them.
6 Jacob and all the people with him
came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 7 There
he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was
there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his
brother.
8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s
nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was
named Allon Bacuth.
9 After Jacob returned from Paddan
Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. 10 God
said to him, “Your name is Jacob,but you will no longer be called Jacob; your
name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.
11 And God said to him, “I am God
Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a
community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your
body. 12 The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I
also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after
you.” 13 Then God went up from him at the
place where he had talked with him.
14 Jacob set up a stone
pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a
drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. 15 Jacob
called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.
A Time to Return
Last week we saw what resembles many
of our lives. Jacob begins by walking in the light as he lets God lead and
direct. Then continues to worship and relate to God on one side while making
some decisions that are contrary to God’s will on the others. I called that
walking in the shadows. In Chapter 34 we see the results of living lives
without the light and walking in the darkness and the results that sin has on
innocent people as well as others that are not so innocent. There are
consequences that happen sooner or later when God is ignored.
Now we
begin chapter 35 will the direct command of God again to Jacob. Why did God
wait so long to instruct Jacob to get on with the matter of returning to Bethel,
as He had clearly commanded him earlier?” To me, the answer is quite
simple—until now Jacob wasn’t listening.
Do you wonder why some people have
to have God smack in the head before He gets their attention? That seemed to be
Jacobs experience too. Now he was willing to listen. The
tragic and painful events of chapter 34 greatly improved Jacob’s ability to
hear and obey God. His daughter had been raped, his sons had put the men of
Shechem to death, and it appeared that neither he nor his family could live
safely in that region any longer. You see, while all of the men of the city of
Shechem had been put to the sword, the women, children, and cattle had been
taken as slaves. Jacob was fearful in staying in the area due to retribution by
the neighboring towns. Now he was willing to listen to the voice of God. And he
obeys fully.
In this chapter the name God
appears 11 times and is also present in the names Israel, Bethel and El Bethel; and another time in the name
El-Shaddi (God Almighty” in contrast with the last chapter where his name isn’t
mentioned at all.
Jacob was
told to go to Bethel. Don’t you wish God would direct you that way? “Hey, I
want you and your family to go move to Rochester Minnesota. After 7 years I
want you to take a job in Minneapolis and then retire in Stanchfield and buy a
house.” Sometimes I wish God would lead that way. There aren’t many who get
that style of communication with God, but Jacob did. Of course he didn’t have a
Bible either. He was to return to the place where he met God in a personal way.
Maybe for
some people we come back to the place of our conversion and say it was shortly
after that meeting with God I went my own way and now later in life and because
of some of the circumstances I need to return back to God. Not talking about
the physical place, but rather the spiritual place.
For Jacob
it was both. It was at Bethel God appeared to him and gave him a vision of a
ladder stretching form heaven to earth. He was so impressed he looked up to
heaven and said, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey
I am talking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return
safely to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I
have set up as a pillar will be God’ house, and all that you give me I will
give you a tenth.”
I wonder if you have been living your
life apart from God if you don’t need to remember the day you met Christ and
remember how your life changed. Are things better now with God or not? Maybe
you need to recount the circumstances and people that God used to lead you to Him.
Maybe you need to re-read a book that stirred your soul. Sometimes people will
return to their home church, or camp, or place of some personal spiritual
decision or experience and in their hearts repent of the sin in their lives and
seek renewal of heart to God. In a spiritual sense that is going back to
Bethel, or the meeting place with God.
Jacob
wanted to purify himself and his family. It was time for dedication. Returning
to God was demonstrated by getting rid of foreign gods and idols. That was
something God hated. It is an offense to the Lord to think that all his mighty
works and deeds, his power and love, his involvement in lives, is to be
replaced with a chunk of wood or stone. How offensive!
Returning to God is turning from
those things and going to God in obedience and worshipping him out of love and
commitment to faithfulness. You might remember that when Laban pursued Rachel
his, daughter, she had stolen the household idols. It seemed others had idols
as well. While all of the men of Shechem had been put to the sword, the women
and children were taken alive. These Canaanites undoubtedly kept their gods
with them (or made new ones) when they were taken captive. Finally this
idolatry had to be reckoned with. Even the earrings had to go. Now I am not
thinking this has to do with common jewelry but rather outward adornment for
their gods.
Hindus in India wear marks on their
foreheads to indicate which gods they worship. Many of the decorations in
houses weren’t just cute little carvings of the culture as art, but as part of
their religion. That had to go. Even when we went to other Christian homes in
India sometimes the owner had something outside to ward off evil spirits. We
asked our translators why Christians have that. We were informed that they were
really nominal Christians. They said they believed in Christ, but just in case
they’ll use other things to scare the evil spirits away.
Where might we be nominal
Christians? Following horoscopes, fortune telling, knocking on wood? Or
following other superstitions that replace the glory of the power and work of
God in our lives?
Jacob knew that there could be no approach to
God in an impure condition. There is a song which says, “… whatever it takes to
be closer to Thee, Lord, that’s what I’ll be willing to do.” Anything that
takes our attention away from God, Anything that causes us to give less
devotion and worship to God, Anything that has more influence in our life than
God does is an idol!
There are many kinds of things that
stand between us and the Lord. Idols of personal power (obsession with work,
advancement, making money, being controlled by issues of material gain) Idols
of pleasure (governing our life by "what is enjoyable, pleasurable, or
feels good". It is allowing our feelings and emotions override God's
direction; it can be a habit, a recreational activity, a relationship) Idols of
undue influence (giving the television, a personality, a philosophy the
position of influence that belongs only to God in our lives.)
In our lives we need times of review
and returning back to where God wants us to be.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Thurs Nov 1
Genesis 35:16-29
16 Then they moved on from Bethel.
While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to
give birth and had great difficulty. 17 And as she
was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, “Don’t
be afraid, for you have another son.” 18 As she
breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni. But his
father named him Benjamin.
19 So Rachel died and was buried on
the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 Over
her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s
tomb.
21 Israel moved on again and pitched
his tent beyond Migdal Eder. 22 While Israel was
living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and
Israel heard of it.
Jacob had twelve sons:
27 Jacob came home to his father
Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where
Abraham and Isaac had stayed.28 Isaac lived a hundred
and eighty years. 29 Then he breathed his last and
died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his
sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
A Time to Remember
There are
three deaths recorded in this chapter: Deborah (vs.8), Rachel and Isaac.
Deborah was one of the women who left Haran with Rebekah, Jacob’s mother. There wasn’t much detail given to us
regarding her so frankly we have to surmise. When Jacob returned to the area of
his father and mother nothing is said of his mother, Rebekah, so we must
presume she is dead. However, her special attendant for years was Deborah. It
could have been she was the nursemaid for the twins when they were growing up.
She might have been the one who cooked and clothed them, as his parents had
servants. She was valued by the family and thought well of. Now at Jacob’s
return he honors her and brings her with him, probably to take care of as an
older woman. The epitath on her grave by the big oak tree was “Allon Becuth”
meaning “Oak of weeping” There was great sorrow at the loss. He didn’t want
people to forget.
But as we read on v. 16 we see more
sorrow. His favorite beloved Rachael is going to have another baby. While in
route in their travels again she starts to deliver and it is a hard delivery.
The baby is born and the midwife informs her she is blessed with a son, but she
knew she was dying and called him Ben Oni meaning son of my trouble.
She named her first son Joseph,
which meant, literally, “add to me”, expressing her desire for yet another son.
The mid-wife wanted her to know that God answered the prayer of her heart, but
it also was her death. When she died. Jacob renamed him Benjamin meaning, son
of my right hand. This was his way of saying Rachael was like his right hand to
him. This is the son and he is the memory of her.
And at Bethlehem, which also has
the name Ephrath, Jacob buried her and set up a pillar in her remembrance. And
there was a marker for generations to follow to know of the love Jacob had for
Rachael, which is still identified today to visitors.
Moses wrote these first five books
while the people were wandering in the wilderness. Can you imagine how they
must have anticipated seeing these things when they were to enter into the
Promised Land? They probably couldn’t wait to see some of these historical
markers as tombs of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah and Rachel.
The events of the past were
intended to be remembered and commemorated. Visual reminders had a great place
in Old Testament times, not to mention the present.
Rachel’s death could be viewed with two previous events in
mind: When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of
her sister, Leah; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die”
(Genesis 30:1). Out of jealousy she said she would die if she could not bear
children. In truth, she did die in the bearing of children.
A second event was when her father
approached the family while they were trying to run away from him and return to
Canaan. Laban, not knowing that Rachel has stolen her father’s household gods
thought it was Jacob. In response to this charge Jacob hotly retorted: The one
with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our kinsmen
point out what is yours among my belongings and take it for yourself
Could this be one of the reasons she died
early? We don’t know.
But thirdly there was another death and person to
remember. Perhaps the most difficult
thing in the world for Jacob to do was to stand before his father, whom he had
deceived in order to obtain the blessing. Personally, wonder if Jacob’s
reluctance to return to Bethel stemming from his sense of guilt and shame
before Isaac. But reconciliation with God and the renewal at Bethel
necessitated the reconciliation described in verses 27-29.
As funerals
sometimes do, they bring families together again, even if siblings don’t get
along. Ishmael and Isaac together buried their father Abraham. Now Esau and
Jacob though different find the one thing that united them and together
remember Dad.
Funerals are time for remembering.
Cemeteries are places where the dead are buried and many will bring flowers, or
set up stones as memorial to remember the loved ones who walked this earth.
This also is a Biblical example that the death of people are far different that
the death of any other type of life on this earth. Why? Because God is the
author of life and life is not to be taken lightly.
In our community at the Union
Cemetery in Cambridge a memorial site is erected to help remember the unborn
children aborted or miscarried. Even though their remains may not be there, it
was placed to honor the life that God created.
Maybe if you are woman who has had
an abortion this is a wonderful place to go for healing and prayer and making
it a place like Bethel to meet God and remember and be made whole, or to grieve
over this particular loss. Or maybe God’s spirit moves you to just want to go
there and pray for the many who have yet to understand God’s work in conception
that we will see the day these atrocities will stop.
This is as much an honor to god’s
work as it is to the events and circumstances of ones life while on the earth.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Fri Nov 2
Gen 36
A Time to Reproduce
We have already gone through the
genealogy of Jacob and now we have recorded the genealogy of Esau his brother.
The reasons that this is put in the Bible are, first to show how the prophecy
to Abraham was being fulfilled. He would have descendants as numerous as the
sand and the stars. And secondly, to show the blessing of God by beginning the
two nations, as God both commanded them to do and revealed this is what would
happen.
Each birth
is of God. If a man tries to forget God, as Esau did, you would think that God
would forget him. But that was not the case. Edom was the nation that came from
Esau. He married the daughter to Ishmael the son of Abraham. So one of his
wives was his cousin and a direct line of Abraham on both sides Isaac and
Ishmael, Hagar and Sarah. Even though Esau was not interested in spiritual things,
God nevertheless honored His promises concerning Esau. Human sin does not
change God’s ultimate plan. He had a plan for Esau’s family and before Esau’s
birth when the twin sons were struggling within Rebekah. “Two nations are in
your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will
be stronger, and the older will serve the younger”.
You might ask
if God’s blessings are so abundant to those who are not chosen, like Esau, what
is the magnitude of His blessings for those who are chosen?
The list gives the history of Esau
when he was in Canaan, the land of promise while in the second list we are
given is the history of Esau when he was living in the land of Seir. In Canaan,
Esau had married three wives and from these had fathered five sons. The wives
names in Gen 27 are different form Gen 36 and it is believed the same women,
but more than one name perhaps for living in Canaan and other in the Hittite
cultures.
Two of
Esau’s sons had 10 sons between them. All these sons became chiefs or leaders
of influence in Edom.
When God gave the prophecy to
Ishmael he said he would be the father of 12 rulers and make him into a great
nation. This is what happened. The sons of Ishmael became the rulers of twelve
peoples who settle in northern Arabia and spread out along the main caravan
route between Egypt and Assyria.
Edom was
the territory bordering Judah to the east and south. It was situated along the
trade routes between Syria and Egypt and was in a position to profit from this
trade. It brought business and inhabitants grew rich from the caravans.
If we were to jump to the Exodus
story about when the Moses led the people out of the wilderness you would find
they wanted to pass through Edom, but the Edomites, descendants of Esau,
refused to let them pass through. Moses even promised to harm nothing and even
pay for whatever water they drank. They still refused.
Later God judged this nation by
having King David conquer the Edomites in a great battle and the reign of
Solomon had them subjected to him. Now the region has been virtually unoccupied
except for the Bedouins; and in recent history military outposts of the modern
state of Jordan. Indeed it has been brought to nothing, as the minor prophet,
Obadiah, foretold.
The later
part of the chapter lists names of rulers of Sier, and Edom. Important
historical references to marking history from the time Joseph was in Egypt
until Moses led the people out of the wilderness 400 years later. Time was kept
by marking off reigns of kings, chiefs and rulers.
If your
name were in the Bible you would look very proudly chapter and verse and say,
see, there I am- That’s me. But what list is important for your name to be on.
Certainly there is a list of those planned of God to be born. But there is even
a more important list of descendants.
I went
through an exhibit of relics from the Titanic that brought to life images of
that disaster. Pieces of china from the dining room, silver dinner service
pieces, neatly folded pair of pajamas. You know the story of how people were
partying the night away they were interrupted by the announcement that his
unsinkable ship was in fact sinking.
There was
another more elaborate exhibit which toured our nation where visitors receive a
replica ticket. On the ticket was the name of an actual passenger or crew
member. As you made your way through the display the ticket served as a
constant reminder that this exhibit is about real people whose lives were no
different from ours. The ultimate impact awaits at the end of the tour. There
is a large board were the names of all the people who were aboard was listed.
Life is a lot like a voyage on the
Titanic. It offers all the glitter and excitement of that we’re expecting to be
a safe ride all the way to the end. A few people cruise through life with first
class accommodations, while the rest of us are divided into a variety of other
classes and rankings based on birth, skill, education, and income. We all feel
invincible. We dance our lives away forgetting there is an ultimate reckoning
that indeed may come sooner than we think.
As people
looked at the ticket of the name of the person whose ticket they held there was
a line across the board dividing the names of those who were SAVED and those
were LOST at sea.
The impact
of that exhibit lingered with people for awhile when most identified a bit with
their imaginations as to what it might be like to be in the shoes of the passenger
whose name the visit held. When some saw the person perished, they cried,
thinking more of what that person experienced those last hours on the ship for
his was a life giving for a short time by God and ended in the chilly waters of
that ocean.
Does it really make
any difference whether you are first class, second class, or crew? The only thing that ultimately matters at the
end of the voyage is whether you are saved or lost.
Does it matter if your name is in the Bible? Whose
descendant you are? Who your great great-grandpa is? Not if you are on the lost
list.
There is another list of descendants
of Jesus Christ. If you place your faith in him you can be sure you are
saved. Jesus came to seek and save what
is lost. The book of life have you name written on it, planned your birth and
purchased your second birth. That the place to have your name listed? Is yours
there?
Pastor Dale
