Sermon Nuggets Mon Oct 22 Walking in Light and Darkness
Gen 33, 34
There was an interesting news item in the Readers digest of the U.S. Space Command, which has millions of dollar’s worth of the latest computers and other electronic gear with highly trained employees. There was a problem that stumped them at the missile-warning center. To connect new computers at the center, wires had to be threaded through 40 food long narrow conduits. They tried different approaches and nothing worked. Finally, Lt. Col Randy Blaisdell had an idea. He tied a piece of yarn around Misty, his pet ferret. Misty dashed through the conduit, towing the yarn, and the yarn was then used to pull a wire. The cost was a Strawberry Pop-Tart.
Sometimes solutions to problems are far different and in fact simpler than what we might expect. There is a proverb that teaches us, “unless the Lord builds the house, the Labors work in vain that build it.” So often we seek to do God’s work with our wisdom. That seems to be a prevent theme in the Old Testament stories doesn’t it. God had a plan for Jacob and Jacob tried to do it his way. That was why he had a wrestling match with God as we talked about last week. He needed to face his fears and frailty. He needed a new found faith and be given the hope of a future, not based on anything but Gods’ way of doing things.
We have been talking about the Proverbs in our Sunday School classes. That is the book with wise sayings pertaining to life. Wisdom is found in the fear of the Lord. Obeying God is wise. Going our own way is unwise.
There is an important bible verse in the Proverbs. 3:5,6 “Trust in the Lord with all you heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”
As we look at these next two chapters from Genesis these truths become even for evident. The ups and downs of our lives are often related to who’s in charge and making the decisions. It is important where and how we walk and where we dwell.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Tues Oct 23 Light
Gen 33: 1-12 Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men; so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two maidservants. 2 He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear. 3 He himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
4 But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept. 5 Then Esau looked up and saw the women and children.
“Who are these with you?” he asked.
Jacob answered, “They are the children God has graciously given your servant.”
6 Then the maidservants and their children approached and bowed down. 7 Next, Leah and her children came and bowed down.Last of all came Joseph and Rachel, and they too bowed down.
8 Esau asked, “What do you mean by all these droves I met?”
“To find favor in your eyes, my lord,” he said.
9 But Esau said, “I already have plenty, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself.”
10 “No, please!” said Jacob. “If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift from me. For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably. 11 Please accept the present that was brought to you, for God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.” And because Jacob insisted, Esau accepted it.
12 Then Esau said, “Let us be on our way; I’ll accompany you.”
Walking in the Light
The problem that confronted Jacob was really Jacob. He was fearful God’s promise would not come about and his brother Esau was out to kill him and maybe his family. God had protected Jacob had blessed Jacob in his whole life, why couldn’t he be trusted now? The solution was so simple, but he made it so difficult. The solution was to trust in the Lord with all your heart. When you do you walk in the light as he is in the light and he takes care of the situation by changing us, changing others, or teaching us important lessons.
The messenger of God blessed Jacob at the end of the chapter. Now Jacob was crossing the stream as the sun began to rise. At that very moment, Jacob looked up and saw Esau and his 400 men appear on the horizon. Jacob divided his wives and children into groups, beginning with the maids and ending with Rachel and Joseph. Instead of being in the back like before, now Jacob went to the head of the group so that any harm done would be inflicted on him first. That was a change. As Jacob went out to meet his brother, he bowed repeatedly to the ground, a token of his newly found humility.
In the previous chapter Jacob had been taught that to prevail with God was to prevail with men as well. Now that Esau had welcomed him with open arms, Jacob saw that looking on the face of his brother was like looking on the face of God. (10) God was not only changing the heart of Jacob, but it was apparent to him that God was also working on the heard of Esau and showing Jacob the source of his new attitude. Esau was no longer a foe, but a friend.
Esau now is also a magnificent picture of graciousness and forgiveness. His words of greeting to Jacob are remarkably similar to those of the father of the prodigal son at his return. The past sins are forgive and forgotten. There is no reason to have bitterness between them.
Jacob introduces his family, which is a wonderful surprise to Esau. Then he gives gifts to him, which Esau says are not needed, but Jacob wants to anyway. He sold his birthright and blessing. God marvelously blessed him with riches and now he wants to show his humility by being generous with his brother, as a means of restitution. Gift giving without strings attached is a form of expression of love.
What we see is that Esau is blessed as well. Now the prophecies also tell us that Esau was to be the father of a nation as well, which will be Edom.
When you walk with God you walk in the light and good things happen. I am not saying you won’t have temptations and struggles and problems, but when you trust in God you marvel at how he works things together for good. Time and again you learn that when we trust him there isn’t anything to worry about. It is a marvel to see how God works out problems and situations when we yield them over to him and let him be glorified. Now sometimes the consequences are for our learning or for our strengthened of faith. Sometimes we might not understand now why certain things are the way they are, but faith also trusts that in time God’s good and perfect will results in our awesome gratefulness and appreciation of what a great God we have. That is walking in the Light. It is trusting God to work out the details while we trust and obey.
Trusting in God naturally keeps you from sin if you really trust him. Gwen Shamblin asks “Why would you ever steal or cheat or lie if you believed in God? Don’t you believe that God will provide what you need, so you don’t have to be dishonest about anything? Do you take time to ask or wait? If someone did something against you don’t you know that God would make him miserable and there is terrible judgment now and later? You don’t have to hate if you really trusting and believed in God. Your job description is to love God and stay focused on Him. Watch how he brings about conclusions to difficult situations.
Why would you ever want someone else’s spouse if we believed in God? When David sinned with Bathsheba he didn’t believe God could satisfy him in purity, so he took matters into his own hands and sought what he thought he wanted, and paid the consequences, It was a lack of faith and trust and patience. Why have a lust for money? Don’t you believe God will provide for you in various remarkable ways if you focus on his will for your life. Maybe he knows you can’t handle much money and has saved you from all kinds of worse hardships that you can imagine.”
Walking with God is going in His power and obedience and letting him work out the details or give you the wisdom or strength to face what needs to be faced.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Weds Oct 24 Shadows
Gen 33: 13 But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender and that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard just one day, all the animals will die. 14 So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move along slowly at the pace of the droves before me and that of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”
15 Esau said, “Then let me leave some of my men with you.”
“But why do that?” Jacob asked. “Just let me find favor in the eyes of my lord.”
16 So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir. 17 Jacob, however, went to Succoth, where he built a place for himself and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place is called Succoth.
18 After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city.19 For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent. 20 There he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel.
Walking in the Shadows
When we look at this next portion it doesn’t appear that Jacob is being completely honest with Esau because he comes up with excuses not wanting to go with his brother. His family can’t take the trip. It would be too hard on the young ones and the young stock He tells Esau to go on and he’ll catch up. He doesn’t have to have escorts, they’ll be just fine.
Jacob is walking in the shadows by compromise. He does not reject Got, but he doesn’t completely obey him either. According to an earlier chapter the Lord instructs him to go to Bethel. But instead he returns back over Jabbok and sets off in a different direction than with his brother. He is on the outskirts of where God wanted him to go.
It is Derek Kidner in his commentary talks about Jacob’s journey to Succoth: “Succoth was a backward step, spiritually as well as geographically God had first appeared to Jacob at Bethel, and it was there that Jacob vowed to someday return to build an altar and give a tithe to God (28:20-22). When God instructed Jacob to return to Canaan, He identified Himself as the “God of Bethel” (31:13). Jacob was instructed to return “to the land of your fathers and to your relatives” (31:3). Succoth was in the opposite direction of Seir where Jacob had told Esau he was coming.
It seems that once this danger passes, Jacob becomes forgetful of the divine command and of his own vow to return to Bethel. A false sense of security made Jacob careless in his actions.
Walking in the shadows is having God in your life. Worshiping him, going to church, praying and reading the Bible, but not careful to obey and walk in faith. Walking in the shadows is going on your own power and wisdom. That happens when things are going as well. As Proverb says, “Do not rely on your own understanding, In all your ways acknowledge Him.”
I venture to say there are most things in our daily lives we do not pray for. Although he was teasing, Bruce Fleming talked about going to his first church which didn’t pay much at all. He and Astrid were barely making it when he got a call to go to Kiron, Iowa. They said what they could afford to pay him. He rushed back from the mail box and excitedly showed Astrid the letter. She wisely said, “But Bruce, shouldn’t we pray about this first?” His answer, “I don’t want to chance it”.
Well we know Bruce and his humor. He did pray about it and had a wonderful time in Iowa before coming to Stanchfield. (You must have paid him a little more.) The more we continue without personal prayer the more we rely on our own wisdom and ways of doing things.
Jacob certainly continued to be religious. He continued to seek to serve God in many ways. He built an altar and before all the foreigners worshipped God. We do that as well. But even though there are many good things he is doing, he is not doing the best things. And when that happens in our lives we walk in the shadows.
It is easy to forget that God commanded that we are to "love the Lord our God with ALL our heart, soul, mind and strength." God does not ask us to serve Him at a level that we find comfortable and acceptable . . . He calls us to follow fully.
It is essential that we take time to evaluate our own commitment level? How do we do that? We need to examine our priorities. How do we do this? Look at your calendar, look at your checkbook; look at what you want to do when you have free time. These are the things that show you what is really important to you.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Thurs Oct 25 Dark
Gen 34:
Walking in the Dark
From time to time we run across a passage in the Bible that when you read it you immediately say, "what in the world am I supposed to learn from this? Why would God put this in the Bible? Shouldn’t this be R rated?”
This chapter records a sordid account of sinful humanity. But like every other passage in the Bible we need to remember Paul's words, "ALL scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, correction, and for training in righteousness." In other words, there are some things we can learn from this passage.
This passage is unique in the Bible because the name of God is not mentioned at all in this chapter. Look at what happens- Dinah was the seventh and final child and only daughter of Leah and Jacob. Dinah was probably around 14 or 15 years old in this chapter. She goes to have a ladies day out when Shechem raped and also apparently kidnapped Dinah. In verse 26 we read that Dinah was taken from Shechem's house. We do not know if Dinah was held against her will or not.
When Jacob heard about the situation he did nothing. It may have been because he didn't care enough or it could have been that he didn't know what to do. Shechem did want to make Dinah his wife. We are told that he "loved" Dinah. So Shechem and Hamor approached Jacob to arrange a marriage. They were willing to pay any bridal price and to welcome the family as part of their community.
The brothers of Dinah were shocked to know what happened with they returned from their work. They had to think about this when they were aware that this scoundrel raped their sister and now wanted to marry her. They came up with a horrible plan for revenge. They set up the people of Shechem telling them that they could not possibly allow their sister to marry into an uncircumcised people on religious grounds. Either out of love, fear or out of a desire for the economic benefit imagined by the joining of the two families, the men of Shechem all were circumcised. While in the pain and immobility following their circumcisions, the brothers of Dinah killed all the men of Shechem and then looted the town and took the women and children.
This is one of the passages pointed to when some of your critics to censorship point to the Bible and say, look at what an x-rated stories you have there. We are not showing or writing about anything you can’t read in the bible, maybe you should ban the Bible from the library or bookstore because of the horrible things in there.
Well this is not set up for entertainment, nor for people to emulate, but information and education. The Bible is an accurate record of what people are really like. But God also wants us to learn the lessons of what happens when we walk in the dark. There is the dark when the spirit of God is not shining in our lives or around us. Satan is the father of lies and darkness and to the world there is lots of darkness, evil and sin. If Jacobs would have gone to Bethel I don’t think there would have been innocent victims terrorized like they are. Tragedies happen and unjust war, prejudice and evil that man does to mankind is sometimes unimaginable. Sometimes God leaves people experience the consequences of disobedience and sometimes our loved ones experience the consequences of our sins or lack of faith.
The pagans of Seir live in lusts and see nothing wrong with taking what is yours and making in mine. They were in favor of intermixing marriages of different faiths for economic gain and engage in business more freely (vs 10). This again is something God forbids. So stories like this are for our leaning as well. The Bible wants to teach us from the negative example. God wants us to see the results when we go in our own wisdom.
Notice in our text how evil becomes attractive. Dinah longs to visit the women of the land. Shechem seems to see nothing wrong with "taking" Dinah. The sons of Jacob think nothing of destroying an entire community for the sin of the one man. Look at the common denominator here: One constant is that these people are being led by passion.
It doesn't take a brilliant brain to see that same thing taking place today.-people are angry because someone cut them off on the highway so they kill the other driver;. a person lusts for someone other than their husband or wife and call their actions justified because they have "fallen out of love"; we want what we want when we want it so we live under a mountain of financial debt; students get mad because they are excluded from a group so they kill their classmates. a pregnancy is inconvenient, so we terminate it someone makes an honest mistake and we take legal action to close their business. Leaders in our country and state tells us what they do in their private business is no one else’s concern. Live and act however you want as long as you do a good job.
Now, here's the baffling question: "Why are we surprised at the disregard for human life and the lack of control in the people around us?" Evil has become attractive to much of our society. When God is absent it is not surprising that the world goes the way of the Devil. But don't miss something here! These are not just pagans that are being sucked into the Devil's playground, these are also God's children! When we walk in the shadows long enough we don’t notice it gradually getting darker and darker until it is too late. We may not even see it happening. But before long, we no longer see anything wrong with "sex outside of marriage" or people living together, or people cheating on their spouses. "Oh, it's probably not the best way but that's the way it is." we find ourselves agreeing that what the Bible calls sin may be better viewed as simply an alternate lifestyle.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Fri Oct 26 Dwelling
Gen 33 16 So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir. 17 Jacob, however, went to Succoth, where he built a place for himself and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place is called Succoth.
18 After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city.19 For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent. 20 There he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel.
34: Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son of Hamorthe Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her. 3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her. 4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”
34: 20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to their fellow townsmen. 21 “These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours.22 But the men will consent to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. 23 Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us.”
Dwelling in the Land.
More distressing than the direction of Jacob’s travels was the duration of his stay at Succoth. We know that Dinah could not have been older than 6 or 7 when Jacob left Paddan-aram, for she was seemingly born later to Leah. But by the time Jacob is at Shechem, she is of marriageable age, which would have been at least 12 or 13. Several years must, therefore, have passed between the meeting of Jacob and Esau and the events of chapter 34. This is further confirmed by the fact that Jacob built a house there rather than to dwell in a tent. He was not a sojourner here, but a settler. There is every indication that Jacob intended to “settle down” for some time. He purchased a piece of property from a man whose name he would some day like to forget.
Before we highlighted Jacob’s walk from light to darkness, from being in the will of God to compromising it, to the darkness. Now he dwells there. Although they keep their distinctions dwelling involves all the influences around them. It has spiritual implications. What does it mean to be in the world but not of it?
I wrote a letter to a secular counselor from 5 County Mental Health who told one from our church that a marriage license is just a piece of paper. If you love someone there is no problem expressing that by means of sexual intimacy like since 80% are doing it anyway. After dwelling in the land of political correctness we are affected in thought and action. We no longer notice the way the constant exposure to sin and impurity in the media is numbing our hearts and minds. We find ourselves "enjoying" shows that promote godlessness.
I keep thinking TV cannot get worse, but unless you love violence and dead bodies most other shows are promoting immoral behavior. We are dwelling in the land. - Normally we would call improper behavior prostitution and voyeurism, but now it is acceptable Television in our society on reality shows. All the messages is that sex is good, anything goes and one can disregard engagement (not to mention marriage) as fast food containers. In a world already filled with dishonest, adultery, betrayal, fornication, broken families why do networks feel it needs to add to our nations misery. Answer: Money, profits and ratings.
Jacob is dwelling in the dark when as the spiritual head of the family he says nothing when Dinah is violated. He lets his sons handle King Hamor. He does nothing to reign in the violence in the heart of his sons. When the events are all over Jacob wrings his hands and bemoans what his sons have done to him.
Today Christians do not find it easy to live in a dark world. We are attacked as narrow minded, judgmental, and arrogant, because we claim that there is a standard of truth that does not change and is not subject to public opinion. Which choice will you make?
Closing our eyes to the problems will not make them go away. This is the common approach today. Christians are notorious for sticking their heads in the sand. Many will not go the polls in a week to vote. When you do not have the candidate you want then vote for the lesser of two evils. Be informed of where people stand on the issues.
The key to overcoming cancer (or any disease) is early detection. If we ignore the warning signs the problem grows and eventually can rob us of our lives. The same is true here. Address the problems early and fully or our society will disintegrate into an even more barbaric society.
The Proverb says do not trust in your own understanding, but in all things acknowledge God. We must make time for prayer, Bible Study and worship We must make Christ, not the television, the center of our home. We must be disciplined in every area of our living because we realize that every Satan attacks us as soon as we let our guard down..
I don’t want to end this chapter without giving an ad for what is coming up next week. It is astounding isn't it that God takes this family of Jacob and turns them in to the heads of the twelve tribes who ultimately became the nation of Israel? The God who took this group of rebellious misfits and turned them into His agents can do the same for you. Just a sneak preview, Look at 35:1. Notice that after this chapter God tells Jacob to "Go up to Bethel and settle there." And Jacob makes an about face and goes back to obey God
God can, if you ask Him, turn your life around. He can guide you, protect you, and lead you to eternal life. And God can change our country. In fact, it is only God that can change our country. He brings about that change one heart at a time. The real issue today is not what God is going to do about the world around us. The question is personal. The real issue then is this: What will you allow God to do in you?
Pastor Dale
