“Jacob” – Genesis 35:1-7

How many of you like to go fishing? How many of you are good at fishing? There is a difference. I love to fish but I can’t catch a fish to save my life. I fish quite a bit but all I have learned so far is what not to do. The problem is that everything is a factor. It matters what rod you use, what reel you use, what line you use. It matters what the wind is doing, what the moon is doing, what the barometric pressure is doing. It matters what lure you use and even what knot you tie the lure on with. It’s just too much.

On top of that, I’m a total klutz with a fishing pole. Every time I go out, the words, “How is that even possible?” come out of my mouth. If the lure can possibly get stuck in something (besides a fish) it will. I pick up the pole and realize the lure is wrapped around the line and so I try to get it fixed and one of the hooks gets stuck in my hand. So, in trying to get it out another hook sticks my shirt. In trying to get that out, the first hook snags my pants. So, I sit down to get that one and sit on another lure which is another big problem and it’s just too much!

Sometimes I wonder what God is trying to teach me through fishing. Is it patience? Is it attention to detail? The other day after I lost one lure to an electrical line that was 30 feet behind me (How is that even possible? Right?) and then another lure got eaten by a tree on the bank and then another lure just went sailing half way across the lake because it wasn’t tied on right. I thought maybe God was trying to teach me that fishing just isn’t for me. I don’t know but it was just too much!

Life is like that sometimes, isn’t it? It’s just too much! You get in trouble over here so you try to fix it but make it worse and then something else happens before that problem is solved and then the wind blows and causes twelve other problems and pretty soon you find yourself in a tangled mess and you are frustrated and you want to just give up when all you really wanted was to just have a little fun. But now life’s not fun and it’s a big mess and it’s just too much. Have you ever been there?

We have probably all been there. I see people in that spot lots of times and it looks like to me it must be rock bottom for them but they keep on digging. They are determined that they can fix it. Years of making messes on top of messes and yet they think they if they just had a little help or if they could just catch a little break…and then they catch a break and they still can’t fix the problems they have. It happens all the time because life is too much and too hard for us to do all alone. I hear people say sometimes that God will never give you more than you can handle. That sounds good. That sounds biblical but it’s just not true. We need help and it has always been that way.

Jacob lived nearly 4,000 years ago and even he wasn’t the first to make his life a mess but his is a fascinating story that we see as we continue our study of Genesis with a focus on knowing God better. Turn to Genesis chapter 35. This is a little-known chapter and could easily be skipped over without much thought but it actually tells us a lot about Jacob and a lot about God and a lot about ourselves. Last week we looked at a much more famous passage where Jacob’s father, Isaac, was almost sacrificed by his father, Abraham. That obviously worked out to where nobody got killed and now Isaac’s son, Jacob has his own family but it’s not working out too well for him right now.

All of Jacob’s life, he has lived up to his name which means “deceiver.” You remember he deceived his father, Isaac, and stole his brother’s blessing. He deceived his brother, his father, and his uncle. Then his uncle deceived him so he then deceived his uncle again and then deceived his brother one more time years later. Now, all that deception is catching up to him.

While you turn to Genesis 35, let me give you a brief run down on what has happened to Jacob so far. Early on, Jacob manages to cheat his older brother out of his birthright and his blessing. And obviously Esau wasn’t too happy about that so in Genesis 27, we read that “Esau hated Jacob” and planned to kill him as soon as his father Isaac died. So, his mom tells Jacob to go to Paddan-aram to the home of Laban, her brother, to find a wife.

On his trip, Jacob stops in Luz, where he falls asleep and has a dream in which God repeats the promise He had made to Abraham and Isaac to bless all the families of the earth through Jacob’s offspring. When Jacob wakes up, he is afraid and makes a vow to God: “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.” (Genesis 28:18-22 ESV)

On the surface, it looks like Jacob makes a sincere vow to God, but Jacob is actually doing the same thing many of us do when we find ourselves in a tight spot – he plays “Let’s Make a Deal” with God. He knows that his brother Esau has promised to kill him as soon as Isaac dies, so he makes a deal with God – “God if you’ll protect me, then this place will be your house and I will give you a tenth of everything I have”. But for the next 30 years of his life, even though God keeps his part of the bargain, Jacob pretty much forgets his promise.

At the beginning of chapter 31, God comes to Jacob and tells him to return to the land of his fathers and promises to be with him. So, Jacob takes his family and livestock and leaves Paddan-aran. But instead of going home to the land of his people as God had commanded, Jacob stops in the city of Shechem and buys a piece of land there and pitches his tent. That is like God telling you to move out of Oklahoma and go to Bridgeport. So, you pack up your family and move to…Decatur. Close but not obedience.

That turns out to be a poor decision because there in Shechem, Jacob’s daughter is violated by the son of the prince of the land. And in his usual “hands off” approach to life, Jacob hears about this atrocity, but really doesn’t do anything to address it. But his sons devise a plan to seek revenge and Jacob’s sons kill all the males in the city. Now Jacob is afraid that the Canaanites and Perizzites are going to come and attack him for what his sons did. That brings us to this morning’s passage in Genesis 35. So, finally, let’s read Genesis 35:1-7.

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." 2So 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. 3Then 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." 4So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. 5Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. 6Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 7There 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.

If you didn’t know anything else about Jacob, you might read this and think he was being obedient to God’s call just like his old granddad, Abraham, did. God told Abe to get up and go and immediately he got up and went. Can you imagine coming from that kind of heritage? Can you imagine being the grandson of Abraham, the father of their religion and ours? He was also the son of the great Isaac who also showed great faith and through whom God’s plan and promise was being carried out. Then…there’s Jacob…the deceiver.

Jacob’s kids were acting like out-of-control hoodlums. He had been in trouble himself many times and still had people that wanted to kill him. He had made so many bad choices he didn’t know what consequences he was suffering from what choices anymore. His life was a mess. But God wasn’t through with Jacob yet. God called Jacob and Jacob heard. But this time is different. I’m sure God had spoken to him before and I’m sure Jacob was sensitive to it. He heard God speak and he knew he needed to get right with God but sometimes that’s scary and so Jacob would vow to himself to try harder. He’s gonna turn over a new leaf. He will be better and try harder and really do right this time. But it never worked. It only got worse.

But this time it was different. This time he decided to just be obedient. He had tried everything else. He had tried to be good and tried to make wise choices but it was just too much. He needed help. He had not been a very good father or husband in the past but this time he was obedient to what God called him to do and to go where God called him to go. Before, he had tried to do it all himself. This time, with God’s help, he is leading his family in the way of the Lord.

But notice what he tells them to do in verse 2. Okay family, time to go but before we do, I want everything that you value more than Jehovah God. Give it to me right now. Put it in my hand. Every idol, every statue, every trinket that represents something not of God has to go. Give me those earrings with the cute little popular designs on them that represent other gods. Give me the jewelry with false gods represented on there. We’re getting rid of all that stuff once and for all.

For once, Jacob stands up like a man and becomes the spiritual leader of his household like God intended for all men. 2 Corinthians 11:3 says, “Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.” That’s not Todd talking. That is God because God is a God of order and that is to be the order in a home. God the Father is over Christ. Christ is over the man and the man is over the woman. We have talked about this before. It has nothing to do with who is better or who is more worthy or more talented. It’s just God’s order of things and when it is followed, it works well.

Men, it’s time to take your place. Your wife needs you. Your kids need you. Your country needs you now more than ever. What we are seeing in the news today and for the past couple of months especially is what happens when the men of this country don’t follow God’s rules of order in the family. When mothers have to raise the kids by themselves because the man is always at work and only comes home to relax and sleep, you can expect the family to suffer and that’s bad.

What’s worse is when the father has no presence in the child’s home at all. Now the woman has to raise the kids and work full time which means the babysitter and the TV are really raising the kids. I’m going to say something that is very unpopular right now but it is truth. Everybody is on the news crying about racism. Everybody wants their rights. The LGBT community is upset because they don’t have the rights they think they deserve. Let’s pull down statues and paint graffiti on the streets and loot the stores we used to shop in. All of this is the result of the so-called sexual revolution.

With the sexual revolution that started in the sixties and seventies, we started to glorify sex outside of marriage. It became cool for men to have multiple partners. It was how they showed their manliness and it was a lie of Satan. It led to men having children with any number of women but marrying none of them. It was all about the chase not about the consequences. Well, now the consequences are burning down our country and blaming it on everybody and everything except where the blame belongs.

The black community is disproportionately affected by this. According to the U.S Census Bureau, “the percentage of White children under 18 who live with both parents almost doubles that of Black children, according to the data. While 74.3 percent of all White children below the age of 18 live with both parents, only 38.7 percent of African American minors can say the same.”

“Instead, more than one-third of all Black children in the United States under the age of 18 live with unmarried mothers—compared to 6.5 percent of White children. The figures reflect a general trend: During the 1960-2016 period, the percentage of children living with only their mother nearly tripled from 8 to 23 percent.”

For all races, when there is no father in the house the CDC and the US Department of Health statistics show that 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (US Dept. Of Health/Census) – 5 times the average. 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes – 32 times the average. 85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average.  (Center for Disease Control) 80% of rapists come from fatherless homes.

Whether or not you have a father present in the home is the greatest determiner for whether you commit crime, smoke, drink, do drugs and have sex before marriage. It is the greatest predictor of whether kids will stay in school, go to college or run away. I can bore you for hours with statistics if you want. (I have read them.) But this country has turned away from God’s plan for the family and we are paying the price.

Jacob finally stood up and I am sure that it was a hard decision. But he stood up and told his family basically what was said later in Joshua 24:15. “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

God had revealed Himself before to Jacob. Look at verse 6 again. He called the place Bethel which means house of God but in verse 7 he slightly changes the name to El-Bethel which literally means God of the house of God. He called it Bethel because he was impressed with the place. Later on he called it El-Bethel because he was impressed with the God of the place. God had revealed Himself to Jacob before but this time it was after so many mess-ups. He had failed so many times. His kids were adults now and he had never really done what he was supposed to do but now God is giving him a second chance. Or maybe more like a 200^th chance.

We didn’t read it before but I want to read verses 11-13 to you now. Genesis 35:11-13 says, “11And 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 be among your descendants. 12The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you." 13Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him.”

God called him out of a dangerous place where he never should have been and God called him because He wanted to bless him. God wanted to reveal Himself to Jacob so He could bless Jacob but Jacob had to be obedient and had to do exactly what God said, leaving anything and anyone behind that was going to hinder that from happening. Hebrews 12:1 says, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

Throw off that sin that tangles us up like a fishing lure. Throw off the idols. Throw off the remembrances. Throw off the way of life that we used to live. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” You have tried what seems right and best and wise to you. Now, just stop and let God guide you. Do what He has been telling you to do all along.

This is truth for everybody but I am speaking, or rather God is speaking mainly to men today. Guys, all you have to do is turn on the news for five minutes. That’s about all you’ll be able to handle anyway. But what you’ll see is what Paul told Timothy 2,000 years ago and it is more true than ever before. He said in 2 Timothy 3, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”

If that’s not 2020 I don’t know what is. Paul said that’s what the end times are going to be like. I wake up every day surprised that Jesus hasn’t come back yet. I don’t know when that will be but I guarantee it won’t be long. Men, you don’t have much longer to get your life straight and then lead your family in the way of the Lord. It is show and tell time for your kids and grandkids. You need to tell them the Gospel and show them the Gospel. You need to tell it – often – and live it – always! If you don’t, who will???

I’m out of time. There is so much more to say. What are your idols? What way is God calling you out of and what way is He calling you into? We will talk more about that tonight. Let me just say that I don’t know how people get through this life without a relationship with God. At some point in everybody’s life, you realize this life is just too much and you need help. Where do you turn if you don’t have Jesus?

I want to encourage you this morning that it is not too late. It is not too late to start leading your family in the way of the Lord. It is not too late to be obedient to God and if you don’t truly know God and have a relationship with Him, it’s not too late to do that.

Jesus was asked what a person had to do to get to Heaven and Jesus said all you have to do is believe. That is all you have to do but so many people misunderstand what that word “believe” means. It means to truly devote your life to God. It means to be obedient to what scripture says. It means to have a life-changing relationship with God through His Son Jesus.

This morning right where you are, whether you are here in person, watching on Facebook or reading this in print, go to God in prayer and start by asking Him for forgiveness of all your many sins. He knows what you have done but you need to admit it and own it. Then ask Him to come into your life in a way that changes you from the inside out. I would love to talk with you more about this and pray with you. Do it right now. We aren’t guaranteed another breath.