Getting Back to Bethel

This morning, I have several passages of scripture that will be the foundation for our message today, and they are each found in the book of Genesis. You may turn in your Bibles there now, for we will begin in Genesis chapter 35, in verses 1-3. Our subject this morning is Jacob, and God's dealing with him, and my message is entitled, Getting Back to Bethel.

Here now is the word of God. Now this was said to Jacob after his wrestling with the angel of God at the fort Jabbok. This was said to Jacob after his daughter Dinah had been raped by Shechem.

So a series of very trying events had already transpired in the life of Jacob when God meets him in the midst of yet another trial. This time, the rape of his daughter, and the subsequent slaughter of the men of Shechem by Jacob's two sons, Simeon and Levi, who take revenge on the males of that town for the rape of their sister, they cut their throats. The two preceding verses to our text today read, Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot? Now you can just picture Jacob in the midst of yet another trial.

He's standing there with his blood pressure rising, probably shaking his arms over his head in anger at his two sons who have placed him in yet another storm. He just got out of the storm of meeting his brother Esau, who was coming with 300 men to do him hurt. Jacob was shut up to God at the fort Jabbok, and it was there he wrestled with the angel of the Lord until he obtained a blessing.

There was Jacob, the supplanter, the cheat. Jacob was so crooked he could hide behind a corkscrew. There he wrestles with God, and he prevails, and God changes his name from supplanter to Israel, a prince with God.

And he makes amends with his brother Esau and puts that behind him, and soon his daughters raped by Shechem, and now his two sons take revenge on the males of the town and slay them and make a troublesome situation more volatile. Here's Jacob again fearing for his life, and he's overwhelmed. And it is at this juncture that God comes to Jacob and tells him to return to Bethel, to the place of Jacob's first encounter with God.

For God had made some promises to his servant Jacob at Bethel, and Jacob had made a promise to God there as well. Let's turn back to that passage in Genesis chapter 28. I want to read it to you, for it will set the stage for what I wish to relate to you this morning on this topic of getting back to Bethel.

I will begin in verse 10. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest. To thee will I give it, and to thy seed, and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south.

And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

And he called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. Now notice, friends, two important aspects of this vital passage in the life of Jacob.

It was at Bethel that Jacob first encounters God. Many Bible scholars have looked upon this passage as the time of Jacob's conversion. So it is an extremely important event in the life of Jacob.

And it was at Bethel that God promised two things to Jacob. Number one, God assured Jacob that he was the promised carrier of both the seed and the covenant of Abraham. And number two, God assured Jacob of his personal safety and blessing.

And although Jacob was at first fearful at the poor Jabbok, as Esau was approaching with a band of men, Jacob knew that in his desperation, he could turn to God and seek his face and obtain deliverance from him. For it was in the desperate night of prayer, of wrestling with God, that he gained the victory and altered his very steps, even physically, with a limp that would be with him for the rest of his life. And it is in the time of desperation, after his two sons cause a commotion with their slaughter of the men of Shechem, that once more Jacob is in hot water and dire straits and needs help from on high.

God intervenes and tells Jacob to return to Bethel, to go back and revisit the place of their encounter and the place of promises, both made by God and by Jacob. For Jacob had made a promise to God at Bethel, a vow that God would be his Lord if God performed what he said he would do. God tells Jacob to go back to Bethel and reflect on what has transpired and to worship him there.

And there are times in our own lives when this is greatly needed, seasons when we are either in a dire strait or trial, an adversity, or perhaps it's a dry season where we are not walking in a close walk with God, or perhaps prayers seem unanswered and we're getting desperate because we see no answer to the promises God had made to us. And God calls us back. He calls us back to that place of encounter with Him, to our own personal Bethel.

And God wants us to rebuild our altar to Him, to remember our vows to Him, to reflect on what He has accomplished in our lives and to worship Him there. It's a getting back to God. It's a getting back to our Bethel.

I was having lunch with a man who was a complete failure in business. It seemed everything this man attempted to do in the business world backfired on him. He kept getting fired from one company from the other.

I looked him in the eye and I asked him, what did he originally plan to do with his life? His eyes filled with sadness as he said, years ago God called me to the ministry, but I never pursued it because I didn't want to be poor. Here was a man with a call of God on his life to ministry who disobeyed that call and his life was a disaster because of it. I was counseling with a man who was successful in business, but his personal life was falling apart.

I asked him if he'd ever disobeyed a call from God on his life. He looked startled, tears began to stream down his face as he related to me that early, as soon as he got out of school, he'd been a pastor of a country church, but he left the church to enter the business world because he wanted to make a lot of money. And although he was a success in business and he had a lot of money, his marriage ended up failing, ending up in divorce, and his own children turned against him.

Listen friends, has there ever been a time in your life where God called you to a thing and you turned your back on it? Did you ever make a vow to God and not keep it? It's time to get back to your Bethel and get with God. I was counseling a college student who said that she felt called to be a foreign missionary, but she looked into it and realized she could not support herself financially, so now she was pursuing a secular career that could support her. I wonder how many of us here have not followed through with God and what he called us to do.

Get back to your Bethel friend and get back to God. Has there been a place in your life where you had an unusual encounter with God and perhaps God spoke to you there? He made some promise to you and it has not been realized yet, and now you doubt whether it will ever materialize. Get back to your Bethel and reflect on all the things God has already done for you and have your faith strengthened to count on him to perform what he said he would do.

God told Jacob at Bethel, And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places, whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. Listen, friend, if God has made a promise to you, he will keep it.

God is not a liar. God is able to perform anything in your life. Is there anything too hard for God? It is your own little faith that needs strengthening.

Get back to your Bethel and meet your God there, and he will renew in you a deeper faith. I know that God has made some promises to me, and he is always faithful in keeping those promises. There are some promises to me that he has yet to carry out, and there are times when I cry out to him and I remind him of his promises to me, but I have to return to my Bethel and set up my altar there and worship him and thank him for what he has already performed on my behalf.

And then to trust him to do what he says he will do on his timetable. And that's often the problem. Our timetable is not God's timetable.

Our vantage point is not God's vantage point. He will perform what he has promised us when it will best benefit us. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God has your best intentions at heart? He surely does.

Can you count on God to keep his word? Listen to what he says in Isaiah. I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.

I have purposed it. I will also do it. Perhaps God told you that he would save a loved one, but as of yet that loved one is still unsaved, and you have begun to doubt God in saving that person.

Listen, friend. If God has spoken it, he will perform it. Amen? We must get back to our Bethel, back to the place where we have encountered the Almighty and heard from him.

We must get back to our Bethel and renew our vows to him. And Jacob vowed a vow saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. God performed all that and more for Jacob.

God always gives us much more than we deserve. God told Jacob to get back to Bethel and contemplate on all that God had done for him and to set up an altar there and worship him. Jacob had left his father's house with nothing but a staff.

God enriched him with a large family and estate. God delivered him from the hand of Esau. God did all that Jacob asked him to do and more.

Now it was time for Jacob to get back to Bethel, back to the first place where he had encountered God and where God had spoken to him. There he must go and set up an altar and worship God in thanksgiving and praise and wait on him for further guidance. Isn't that what we need to do, friends? Dear friend, have your eyes been dry? Do the heavens seem as brass in unseemly, unanswered prayers? Then get back to your Bethel and repair your altar and worship your God there.

Meet him afresh for this hour. Revisit the promises of God to you and remind him of them. Sue him for them with his written word.

Get back to Bethel and set up your altar of thanksgiving for all he has done for you. Get back to Bethel and find the place of obedience for that call of God on your life. For years, I fought the call of preaching all my life.

I just did not want to surrender to it, and my life was miserable until I did. Now that I am a preacher, I have more problems than I ever had before, but I have peace in that I am in the will of God for my life. God never promised us a bed of roses, but he will grant us grace to live with our thorns.

Get back to Bethel, friend. Get back to Bethel and meet your God. He has something wonderful for you there.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for being a God we can count on. Thank you for your faithfulness even in times when we are unfaithful.

Thank you, great God, for your long-suffering, for your love toward us. Thank you, almighty God, for the divine place of meeting that you have for each of us, our own personal Bethel. Renew us again, we pray, as we revisit you there and reflect on your promises to us and reflect on our vows to you and contemplate the great things you have already done on our behalf and grant us the grace to lift up our hearts and worship you there and increase our faith.

We pray these things in the strong name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.