Pain in the Promise

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Alright, open up your Bibles.
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Genesis 35.
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We are going to read the whole chapter.
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It is only 29 verses, so it won't take too much time.
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It wouldn't matter though, it's the Word of God.
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It's the only part of the sermon that's perfect, so we can spend all of our time on that.
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But I do want to make a few mentions of a few things before we read.
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First, when we first started going through Genesis, I talked about the fact that Genesis is broken up in Hebrew in 10 sections.
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Now, they are not 10 equal sections, but each one of the sections begins with something called a Toledot.
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A Toledot is the Hebrew word for these are the generations of.
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We saw this in chapter 2.
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These are the generations of the heaven and earth.
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We see this later.
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These are the generations of Adam.
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We see later these are the generations of Noah.
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These are the generations of the sons of Noah.
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These are the generations of Shem.
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These are the generations of Terah.
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These are the generations of Ishmael.
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And each time we see that, that begins a new portion of the narrative.
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Well, we're coming to the end of this current portion because this current portion actually began back in chapter 25 when it says these are the generations of Isaac.
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Now, we have been talking not about Isaac for the last few weeks, but we've been talking about his son Jacob.
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But what we're going to see at the end of this chapter is that it's going to bring Isaac's story to a close because at the end of chapter 35, we're going to come to the death of Isaac.
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And then the very next thing, and we're going to see this next week, it's going to say these are the generations of Esau.
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A new Toledot will begin.
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That one will only last one chapter.
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And then we will get to chapter 37.
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These are the generations of Jacob.
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And it begins a new section of the book.
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So really what we are seeing at this portion in chapter 35 is we're actually seeing the close of Isaac's story.
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And what we're going to see is we're going to see a powerful reaffirmation of the covenant that God has made with Isaac and his son Jacob, which of course first came through Abraham.
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Then we're going to see some strange events.
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We're going to see Rachel's passing.
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We're going to see the passing of the nurse of Rebekah.
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We're going to see a very interesting situation with his son Reuben.
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And then it closes, seemingly out of nowhere, with the death of Isaac.
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So this chapter, I almost called it completing the circle because this chapter is really bringing a lot of stories to a close and beginning us on a new venture through the book.
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And my hope is that we will see through this chapter how it brings several things to a close and prepares us for our next step.
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So let's stand and read.
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We're going to read Genesis 35, beginning at verse 1.
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We'll read down to 29.
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God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there.
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Make an altar there to God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.
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So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.
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Then let us arise and go up to Bethel so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.
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So they gave to Jacob all of the foreign gods that they had and the rings that were in their ears.
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Jacob hid them under the terabith tree that was near Shechem.
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And as they journeyed to terror from God, fell upon the cities that were around them so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
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Jacob came to Luz, that is Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan.
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He and all the people who were with him.
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And there he built an altar and called the place El Bethel because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.
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And Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died and she was buried under an oak below Bethel.
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So he called his name, so he called its name, Alon Bakuth.
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God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan Aram and blessed him.
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And God said to him, Your name is Jacob.
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No longer shall you be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.
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So he called his name Israel.
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And God said to him, I am God Almighty.
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Be fruitful and multiply a nation and a company of nations shall come from you and kings shall come from your own body.
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The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you and I will give the land to your offspring after you.
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Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him and Jacob set up a pillar in that place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone.
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He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.
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So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel.
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Then they journeyed from Bethel.
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When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor and she had hard labor.
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And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, Do not fear for you have another son.
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And as her soul was departing, for she was dying, she called his name Denoni, but his father called his name Benjamin.
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So Rachel died.
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And she was buried on the way to Ephrath.
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That is Bethlehem.
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And Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb.
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It is the pillar of Rachel's tomb where it is to this day.
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Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder.
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While Israel lived in the land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine.
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And Israel heard of it.
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Now the sons of Jacob were twelve, the sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.
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The sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin.
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The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant, Dan and Naphtali.
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The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant, Gad and Asher.
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These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.
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And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre or Kiriathreba.
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That is Hebron.
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He where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.
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Now the days of Isaac were 180 years.
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Isaac breathed his last and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days.
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And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I pray that you will keep me from error as I preach.
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I pray that you will open up the hearts of your people to believe and Lord, that they would be moved by this, this passage Lord toward greater conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And for those who are here who do not know Christ.
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Lord, that today might be the day.
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That you would do the work that only you can do.
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The work of regeneration whereby you change the heart and give the gift of faith.
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In Jesus name.
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Amen.
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The title of today's message.
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Is pain in the promise.
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Pain in the promise.
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What I want to point out as we begin to walk through the text and seek to understand it.
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Is I want to point out that what we have here is actually.
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A series of stories that by themselves may seem to be somewhat disconnected.
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In fact, a few of the passages are just one verse that seemed to come out of nowhere.
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But actually what we have is not a disconnected series of stories.
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But what we have is a set of very specifically placed stories.
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Each one of them that culminates in a death.
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Nate, if you'll bring up the outline for me or whoever's back there, I guess it's Mo.
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Thanks, Mo.
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What we have is we have six points, but really it's three stories.
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And each one of those stories is punctuated by death.
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We first have the return to Bethel.
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That's verses one to seven.
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God calls Jacob back to Bethel.
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And then as soon as that monumentous moment is concluded, there's a death.
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The death of Deborah.
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We'll talk about who that is in a moment.
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Then we have this wonderful reminder of the covenant that God has made with Abraham, Isaac, and now with Jacob.
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And it's a wonderful reminder of the promise of God.
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And then immediately the death of Jacob's favored bride.
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And then we have a one verse story that is actually a could be a whole sermon about Reuben and his father's concubine.
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And after that, that is punctuated.
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By the death of Isaac.
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So this is the structure of the chapter.
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It's narrative death, narrative death, narrative death.
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And as I said, what I want us to see today is in the midst of God's wonderful promise, there is pain in the promise.
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Because with every moment that is happening in the life of Jacob, there is a punctuated moment of grief.
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Whether it's a positive moment.
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Or negative moment.
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It's punctuated by a moment of grief.
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So let's begin back at verse one.
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The return to Bethel.
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God said to Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there.
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Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.
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Remember, this happened several chapters back.
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Esau was going to kill Jacob.
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He said, as soon as my father dies, I'm going to kill him.
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So Jacob's mother, Rebecca, said, go to my uncle's house and find a wife.
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And in doing so, she was sending him away for his own safety.
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And as he was traveling back to his uncle's house or traveling to his uncle's house, he found a place where he could lay down and rest.
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He put a stone under his head.
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And the Bible says that he had a vision and a dream of the Lord.
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He actually had a vision of a staircase going up into heaven.
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And on that staircase, there were angels ascending and descending upon the staircase.
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And the Bible says God spoke to him from the staircase and he told him the wonderful promises that he had for him.
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Well, that was at this same location that was here at Bethel.
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In fact, that's where the name comes from.
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The name Bethel means house of God.
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The the the suffix EL is is the word for God and the word Beth, just like in Bethlehem means house of bread.
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Well, Bethel means house of God.
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And so we have this place where he says this is God's place.
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This is God's house.
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And you might say, well, God is everywhere.
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And that is true.
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God is everywhere in his omnipresence.
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But as we have talked about previously, God is specially present with his people at certain times and in certain places.
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And he is especially present with Jacob in this place called Bethel.
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So verse two, Jacob said to his household and all who were with him, put away your foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.
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Now, right away, this should bother you because it bothers me.
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And maybe I think you should think like I do.
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So I'm going to tell you it bothers me.
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And let me explain to you why it bothers me.
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It bothers me that there are still false gods in the camp.
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You would think that by now those things would have been purged.
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You would think that by now the idols would have been put away, but they were still present among the people of Israel.
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And by the way, this is not something that will be unique throughout the history of Israel.
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There will be idols that come up and a purging will take place.
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Read the Old Testament history books.
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Read through the prophets.
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What is the prophets often calling them to do? To abandon their idols.
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In fact, I heard a great term this week.
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I'm teaching tonight on the five major prophets.
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And I heard a great term as I was studying this week.
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It said, we often think of prophets as fortune tellers.
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But prophets were not fortune tellers.
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Prophets were covenant enforcers.
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I had never heard that term covenant enforcer, but I like that.
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Because I think about it as they were enforcing God's covenant by calling them out for their sin.
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And what was the sin often? The sin of idolatry.
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That God's people who knew that there was only one God who was to be worshipped allowed within the camp other gods.
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So Jacob said, take your false gods and bring them in and we will get rid of them.
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He says, put away your foreign gods.
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Oh, by the way, this actually caught me on the drive in this morning.
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I was driving in, I often listen to the texts as I'm driving.
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I'm thinking, imagining.
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And as I was listening this morning, I had a moment of clarity as I was driving.
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So I was paying attention to the road too.
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But as I was driving, I thought, because what's going to happen is Jacob's going to take these false gods, he's going to take the rings out of their ears, which probably had pagan symbols and things on them.
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He's going to take all of these false gods, everything that represents false gods, he's going to bury them in a hole underneath this tree.
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He's going to put them...
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The idea of the Hebrew word, hid them.
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He's going to hide them away.
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He doesn't want to sell these for what money they might be worth.
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He doesn't want someone else to happen upon them and use them for their own worship.
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He wants these to be done, dead, and buried.
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You've got to imagine Rachel with Laban's gods.
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Because remember, she lied and said she didn't have them, but she had them hidden in that camel's saddle.
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And as everybody else is coming up...
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Now again, the text doesn't say, I'm using a little fanciful imagination here, you can get on to me if you want to.
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But I imagine when she handed them over to Jacob, he went, mm-hmm, okay.
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Because some people say this, some commentators say that the gods that he is calling them to give up are the gods that they would have collected whenever they went in and took over Shechem.
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And I don't doubt that that's true.
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The Bible says that when they killed...
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Remember last week, they killed the men of Shechem and they plundered the whole area, probably coming out with many false gods that would have had worth like gold and silver and things like that.
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So they probably did have those.
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But understand that, that's not all they had.
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They had their idols as well.
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And Jacob is calling them, in a sense, I want you to think of it this way, he's calling them to repentance.
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And in fact, I can show you this in two ways.
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Because what he says, he says, put away your foreign gods, purify yourself, change your garments.
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Putting away your foreign gods, that is an act of repentance, of turning away from false gods to the true God.
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Purifying yourself is a picture of what we do when we turn from the false to the true.
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Isn't that what we saw this morning? What is baptism a picture of? It's a picture of dying and raising.
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But we don't put them in a tomb.
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We put them in water.
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Why? Because the Bible talks about water as a picture of washing our sins away.
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It's a picture of purification.
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And it's a picture of going from life to death.
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It's a picture of repentance.
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He says, put away your foreign gods, purify yourselves and change your clothes.
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Now that last one may seem a little weird.
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But understand this.
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If you look through the history of the Bible, clothes were often representative of someone's spiritual or even emotional condition.
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You say, what do you mean? Think about the times when someone sinned or someone sinned against them.
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What would they do? They would tear their clothes.
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So the clothes had a picture of their spiritual condition.
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And Jacob says, put away your foreign gods, purify yourselves and put on new clothes.
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Because we're going to the house of God.
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We're going to meet with God.
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Let us arise, verse three, and go up to Bethel so that I may make an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress.
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So it says in verse four, they gave him the foreign gods, the rings that were in their ears.
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He hid them or buried them under the terebinth tree.
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And as they journeyed, verse five, I love verse five, as they journeyed, a terror from God fell among the cities.
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You might say, well, what in the world's verse five about? Here's what it's about.
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Very simple.
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Last chapter, Jacob's two sons, Simeon and Levi, went into the city of Shechem while the men were still dealing with their soreness from their circumcision.
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And they slaughtered every man in that town and they took their women and children captive.
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And what was Jacob's concern? It wasn't that they had killed the men, but that now we have to be afraid of everybody else.
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Now we will be a stench in the nostrils of everybody else.
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We are going to live in fear.
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Verse five says, as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities.
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So as they were going to Bethel, God put a holy fear.
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And by the way, it does say it was from God.
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Some people say the reason why they were afraid is they were afraid of the violent men in the camp.
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And that may be true.
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They may have been afraid of Simeon and Levi.
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They were pretty violent guys.
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But that's not the fear that this text tells us.
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This fear tells us that God put a holy fear in them that they would not lift their hands against Israel.
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By the way, sometimes I hear people who want to tout the blessings of free will.
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Well, this is one of those times where we see God overcoming man's supposed freedom by putting within his heart fear.
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It's a powerful thought.
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And so.
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Jacob came to Luz, that is Bethel.
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And you remember if you go back to when he first came through here, it was called Luz at first and he called it Bethel.
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He built an altar and he called the place Elbethel.
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Elbethel is God.
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The God of Bethel is the way that is to be translated.
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So he's not referring specifically to the place anymore, but to the God of the place.
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Like if I said this is God's house, but if I said the God of this house, the difference, right? That's the difference.
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He's not saying he's not calling the altar Bethel, house of God.
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He's calling the altar the altar of the God of Bethel, the God of the house.
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So this is a powerful moment.
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God has called the people to repent or rather, Jacob is called the people to repentance.
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They are going to the house of God.
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As they go, God puts a holy fear in their enemies so that they are able to walk boldly to the house of God.
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There's a picture here and they go with that boldness to the house of God.
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And everything looks great.
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Our enemies fear us.
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Our God loves us and is protecting us.
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We've built an altar to him and we've come back to the house of God.
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Everything is great.
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And then Mama dies.
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So what are you talking about? Well, look with me.
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Verse 8.
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And Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died and she was buried under an oak below Bethel.
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So he called its name Alon Bakuth.
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And the word Alon Bakuth is in the ESV, but some of your translations translate it directly as the Oak of Weeping.
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That's what that means.
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You say, well, how does this fit into the story? Well.
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We've not heard about this woman since Chapter 24.
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So some of you might be saying, who is this Deborah and why does she matter? Well, Deborah was actually the nurse of Rebecca who was Jacob's mother.
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She came with her.
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You remember when Abraham sent for Isaac to get a wife and Isaac's wife, Rebecca, came back? Deborah came with her.
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So this woman has been part of Jacob's house since before he was born and likely had even been a I think the term is wet nurse, but a nursing mother to Jacob himself.
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Which is very common.
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That's why I said Mama died.
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This woman would have had a motherly place in Jacob's life.
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And here's the part that gets my heart.
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You remember who his mother is.
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Rebecca.
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She is not mentioned.
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The last time we heard about Rebecca was when she.
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Used Jacob to fool her husband.
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And then she sent her son to get a wife.
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She is not mentioned anymore.
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And that's unique because the other wives of the patriarchs deaths are all mentioned.
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All of the other wives, their death place and their burial is mentioned.
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Rebecca, no.
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Her name is not mentioned.
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Her death is not recorded.
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And she is not given a place at the end of the story.
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Remember, I told you, this is the end of Jacob's story.
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I'm sorry, this is the end of Isaac's story.
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And you would think it would say Isaac died and Rebecca also died.
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Doesn't say that.
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But we give a hit.
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We're giving a hit.
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But her nurse died.
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So this is a call back to Rebecca.
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And I think it's possible that it's an intentional call back to remind us of the fact that we're not hearing about Rebecca.
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Because what she has done in the fooling of her husband or actually the mistreatment of her husband has caused her name to be left out of the book.
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I'll read to you from Bruce Walkie.
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The mention of the death and burial of Deborah, Rebecca's nurse is truly remarkable.
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The unique obituary immediately follows the notice when he was fleeing from his brother Esau.
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That's verse seven.
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Reminding the audience of Rebecca's last and seemingly unfulfilled words at the time of his flight.
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I will send word for you.
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Remember, she said that when he left.
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She said, I'll send for you when he's no longer angry.
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Rebecca never did that.
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Her story ended before that happened.
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The narrator records the death of each of the patriarchs and their favorite wives, except Rebecca.
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Clearly, the narrator has intentionally gapped her death, leaving the audience to surmise that he omitted her obituary in order not to honor her after she had deceived her husband.
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It's a powerful thought.
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Deborah's name is included.
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Rebecca's name is not.
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And by the way, I have a big question and I don't have an answer, but I'll throw the question out because you can tell me the answer because you're all good Bible students.
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Maybe you'll have the answer.
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I don't know where she comes back into the story because this is the first time she's mentioned since she came from Paddan Aram with Rebecca.
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And now she seems to be with Jacob.
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And we know this when Jacob went to Laban's house, he went on his own.
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He says, I went with a staff in my hand.
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So she didn't go then.
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And my only way that I've been able to figure this out in my mind is that when they were coming back into the land of Israel, there was some kind of interaction with the house of Jacob and the fact that Jacob or with the house of Isaac.
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And now that she sees that Jacob's got 12 little rugrats, excuse the expression.
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She's going to go and use her skills as a maid with his family.
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Text didn't tell us that.
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We don't know when she came back into the story.
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We know at some point she comes back into the story.
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Doing that job that she was called to do being a nurse, being a maid, being a person who helps the children.
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She comes in to serve.
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And now she's died.
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So that's a lot, a lot out of one verse.
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I know.
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But there's there's where ends that part of the story.
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Is the death of Deborah.
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Now we get to verse nine.
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And we see the reminder.
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And actually the renewal of the covenant.
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Says God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Padana Ram and blessed him.
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And God said to him, your name is Jacob.
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No longer, no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.
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So he called his name Israel.
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And God said to him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply a nation and a company of nations shall come from you and kings shall come from your own body.
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The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you and I will give the land to your offspring after you.
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Notice what is happening here.
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The Bible.
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Has one key figure and that is Jesus Christ.
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All of the Old Testament points to him.
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But the structure of the Bible to build to Christ is the structure of covenant.
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The covenants structure the Bible to help us to understand what Christ is coming to do.
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Christ is coming to fulfill the promises that were given in these covenants.
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OK.
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The covenant that God initially gave to Abraham is renewed in his son Isaac and reminded to Isaac that he is given the same promises his father and it is renewed and reminded in the life of Jacob that he is going to get the same promises as his father.
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Now I want to point out something to you.
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Please don't lose me.
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I know I'm giving you a lot of facts and figures and information but please don't lose it.
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This is important.
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Because what we are seeing here is actually a repeating of something that happened in the life of Abraham.
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Abraham was called by God in Genesis chapter 12.
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He was given a covenant in Genesis chapter 15 and that covenant was affirmed by a new name in circumcision in Genesis 17.
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Now Jacob's life.
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He's called before he was even born.
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Right? From the womb his mother was told.
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The older was told the younger.
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Right? He's called from the womb.
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He's given a reminder of the covenant that he has on his way to Paddan Aram when he saw the angels going up and down on the stairwell.
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And now he's back in Bethel and the covenant is reaffirmed with him and he receives as Abraham and Genesis 17 went from Abram to Abraham.
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Now Jacob is going from Jacob to Israel.
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And you say now wait a minute that already happened.
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That already happened a few chapters.
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Didn't we already read when he was wrestling with God that it was the wrestler who gave him the new name? Yes it is.
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This is simply reconfirming something that he had already been given.
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It's reconfirming on him this new name.
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Abraham was given a new name.
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Jacob was given a new name.
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Abraham was told you're going to be fruitful and kings are going to come from you.
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Jacob.
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This is Chapter 17.
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This chapter Jacob is told you're going to be fruitful and kings are going to come from you.
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Abraham was told the land is yours and it will be yours by promise.
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Jacob is told the land is yours and it will be yours by promise.
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And at the very end of both chapters or not both chapters, but the scene of God in both chapters, they both end with this phrase and God went up from him.
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That's in Chapter 17 verse 22.
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And here it's in verse 15.
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So we see a parallel between what happened in the life of Abraham and what is here happening in the life of Jacob.
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Now you say, what's all this about? This is a moment of genuine worship.
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This is a moment of genuine interaction with God who is renewing his promise to Jacob, the promised seed.
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He is giving him a reminder of the truths that he's already been told.
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Do you think reminders are important? I take a quick aside.
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Do you think reminders are important? I hope you do because the Bible is filled with them.
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Over and over and over the Bible tells us to remember, to remember, set for yourself memorial stones, do these things, to remember these things.
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Why? Because we are so apt to forget the promises of God.
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If you don't think that's true, then what are you struggling with? Because whatever it is you're struggling with is because you've forgotten the promise of God.
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And we're all struggling with something.
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At whatever moment we are in our life, we have forgotten that God is sovereign, that God is working this out, that he works all things together for the good of those who love him, and that he will be glorified in every moment of our life, whether we see it as good or bad, God will be glorified through it.
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Everything that happens is for his purpose.
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You know, that's why coming to church every week is so important and why when you miss a week or you miss two weeks or you miss a month, you are doing yourselves no good.
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Because the reasons you come here is not to satisfy me or to satisfy Mike or to satisfy Andy or to be seen or to see, but to be reminded of the promises of God which you forget every day.
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It does your soul and your children's soul no good for them to be out of worship two, three, four times a month or even once.
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There's nothing more important than being here and being reminded of the things of God.
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Let me tell you this.
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There's nothing more important.
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Church should be your excuse to miss other things.
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Not other things be your excuse to miss this.
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We need reminders.
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Desperately.
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That's why we do communion every week.
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What is that? It's a reminder of the body and blood of Christ.
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People ask, y'all don't do an invitation.
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Why don't y'all do an invitation? We do.
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Every week.
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We invite you to remember the body and blood of Christ.
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And you'll either remember it in partaking or you'll remember it in not partaking.
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Because in partaking, you remember what Christ has done for you.
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And if it passes you by because you're either an unbeliever or you're in willful sin, then that's a reminder as well of your condition and your need to repent.
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But this is the invitation.
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No, we don't have benches up here for you to come cry on.
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We don't have tissue boxes up here for you to come snot all over.
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We got a plate and we got a cup.
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And on that plate is a reminder of Christ's body.
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And in that cup is a reminder of His blood.
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And that ought to be all you need.
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Because that's a picture of the gospel.
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Now, I'm going to stop.
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No, I've got plenty of time.
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I'm going to keep going.
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That clock messed me up.
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I don't know.
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Y'all want me to stop? I'm going to stop.
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I ain't going to ask y'all.
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I'm going to go.
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Because I could stop here because honestly, there's there's a lot more.
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And I don't want to give it.
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I don't want to give it a fast, like run through.
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This is where it's hard to be a preacher.
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Because honestly, what we're fixing to get into the death of Rachel, this is this is heartbreaking stuff.
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But it's all tied to what we just saw.
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The reminder of the covenant is the great promise and the great moment of worship.
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And that is followed by what? The death of his favorite wife.
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And by the way, you only have one.
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So the idea of favorites should sound kind of weird.
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But it's the death of the wife.
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The only one he wanted.
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I tell you, I've seen my wife give birth three times and every time I thought I was going to die.
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Is this a scary moment? And we were in a room that was hermetically sealed.
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Everything was, you know, clean.
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Covers were all perfect.
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These guys are in the dusty desert about to give birth with a midwife.
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No surgical tools, no gloves.
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Scary thought to begin with.
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And.
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Apparently, there's something wrong with her health wise.
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Because it says.
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When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, do not fear.
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Why did she say don't fear? Because something bad had happened.
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Maybe she was bleeding out.
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Maybe there was something that had happened, but there was something physical and visible that was showing that her life was leaving her body.
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In fact, there's an important term here.
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It says as her soul was departing.
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First, she was dying.
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Now understand this.
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That is what death is.
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You ain't dead until the soul departs from the body.
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And by the way, there are some people out there that believe the soul dies with the body.
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Like the Seventh Day Adventists and others, they believe the soul goes into the ground with the body.
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That's called psychopenia or the idea that the soul dies.
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There's a Greek word for that.
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What is it? Baloney.
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That ain't true.
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The soul leaves the body and that's the definition of death.
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James tells us that as the body without the soul is dead, so faith without works is dead.
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That's the way he defines it.
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So the soul leaves the body and either is with the Lord or is awaiting punishment in Hades.
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But her soul is leaving her body.
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And so she cries out to name her child Ben-O-Ni.
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Ben-O-Ni means son of my suffering or son of my sorrow.
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And by the way, all of the other boys were named by their mothers and all of the names were given because of their rivalries with one another.
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Remember that? When we went through each one of the names and each one said, I have another son and I'm winning and all that.
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That was what their names mean.
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So at this moment, she wants to name her son again.
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Something that relates to her.
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I'm dying.
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I'm suffering.
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He shall be called son of my suffering.
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But Jacob steps in for the first time that we know of and he changes it.
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You might get offended, ladies, but this is his prerogative as a father.
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And he's doing so because he does not want this child's name to be the reminder of the most heartbreaking moment of his life.
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Because this son coming into the world marks the passing of his beloved wife out of the world.
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And so he calls him Ben-Yamin, or we would say Benjamin, which means son of my right hand, where the right hand was a symbol of strength.
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Not sorrow, but strength.
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Son of my strength.
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And Rachel died.
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After this, we have the story of the wrongdoing of Reuben.
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And the wrongdoing of Reuben, well, it was wrong.
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But it's often misunderstood.
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Because everybody thinks what Reuben was doing was that Reuben was engaging in a lustful engagement with his father's concubine.
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And there may have been some lust involved.
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We don't know what she looked like.
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We don't know what kind of temptation she may have been.
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But understand this, that is not the whole story.
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The desire of Reuben to take his father's concubine was more political than it was physical.
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Because the favored wife has now died.
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And who is Reuben's mother? The unfavored wife.
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And so Reuben steps in and he takes the concubine that was Rachel's to ensure that that woman would not take the place of his mother.
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And by doing so, according to ancient custom, he was usurping the authority of his father.
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Because by taking his concubine, he was taking the position as leader of the home.
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See, mom's death was an opportunity.
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Not mom's, but Rachel's death is an opportunity for political power.
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It's an opportunity to step into this role.
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It's an opportunity to be the man.
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So, did he have lust for her? Maybe.
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But he had lust for something else more.
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He had lust for power and position for his mom.
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And by the way, he loses his position as a result.
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Turn in your Bibles real quick.
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Turn to Genesis 49.
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Genesis 49 verse 3.
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I want you to see what happens.
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Jacob is speaking to his sons and he starts with Reuben, his firstborn.
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He says, Reuben, you are my firstborn.
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My strength.
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The firstfruits of my strength.
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Preeminent in dignity.
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Preeminent in power.
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But you are unstable as water.
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And you shall not have preeminence.
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Because you went up to your father's bed and you defiled it.
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You went up to my couch.
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And you say, wait a minute.
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What's happening here? Who was the person who was supposed to take the next in line of authority? Reuben.
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He's the firstborn.
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And even though he's the firstborn to the unfavored wife, according to the law, he was still the firstborn.
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He was still supposed to have a position of preeminence.
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And he does not have that position of preeminence.
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You say, now wait a minute.
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Well, what happened? Jacob said, no.
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You have defiled your father's bed.
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And you will not have that position.
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Now, real quick.
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And I know I don't usually ask you to go here.
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Go to 1 Chronicles.
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Just come on.
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Turn on.
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It's a little further back.
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Still the Old Testament.
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1 Chronicles 5.
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Now, the Chronicles are recounting Israel's history.
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Notice what it says in verse 1.
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The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the eldest son.
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Though Judah became strong among his brothers and a chief among from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph.
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Isn't that powerful and thoughtful? Reuben should have been the firstborn.
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Should have received the benefits.
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He didn't.
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Then there's two more after him.
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Simeon and Levi.
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They're men of violence.
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The next one is Judah.
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And it even says here in the Chronicles, he becomes a man of power.
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And what do we learn about Judah? Scepter shall not depart from him and he will be the one in line for Jesus Christ.
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The point of all this is Reuben lusted for power.
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Not only did he lose the power that he wanted, he lost the birthright that he was supposed to have.
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And finally, back to Genesis.
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Finally, we have the end of the story of Isaac.
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Isaac dies and he is buried by his two sons.
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This is again a picture of Abraham.
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Abraham died and he was buried by who? Ishmael and Isaac.
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Ishmael, the unchosen one.
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Isaac, the chosen one.
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Here, Jacob and Esau come together to bury their father Isaac, the chosen and the unchosen, together to bury their father.
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They've come together again to do the work of grieving and to tend to his body.
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And it tells us Isaac died old and full of days.
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So we come to the conclusion of Isaac's story.
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We come full circle, beginning back in 25, now here in 35, the end of this very long chapter in the book of Genesis.
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Now with all this in mind, I want to draw to a close by giving you a point of application.
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This chapter lays out before us, as I've already shown you, six parts.
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Jacob returns in repentance to Bethel, immediately loses servant Deborah.
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He receives a reminder of God's promise.
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He loses the wife that he loved.
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He realizes his son has invaded his bedroom and taken his concubine.
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And then he loses his father.
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But he and his brother are at peace.
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So what do we see? We see pain and promise.
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We see this, that as people of God, we are not always going to have an easy road.
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But that even in the midst of the good in our lives, that is going to be punctuated by moments and seasons of genuine darkness and grief.
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And I truly believe that this passage, when looked at as a whole, reminds us of the two things that God uses to conform us to Christ the most.
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Because understand this, you are not as you should be.
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You go to a lot of churches, they're going to tell you you're great just the way you are.
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You're not.
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And neither am I.
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I'm not a pep talker.
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I'm not Tony Robbins with a Bible.
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I'm here to tell you, you ain't enough.
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Christ is enough.
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And our goal is to be conformed to the image of Christ.
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Now that ain't what saves us.
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Christ saves us.
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He's enough.
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But the goal of the Christian life is not to wallow in sin and call it faith, but to be changed by God through the circumstances of life which are intended to point us to Him.
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And the two things in life that are intended to change us the most are both in this chapter.
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Worship and suffering.
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Worship should push us to our knees in dependence to God every time we come together and every time we worship.
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It should be a moment that drives us to grand humility before our God.
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You should never worship in pride.
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You should never be saying, hey, look at me.
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But worship is about God.
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This is why when you come to me after church, I didn't enjoy worship.
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Well, it wasn't for you.
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We weren't worshiping you, and I don't really care.
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Because I didn't bring you here for your enjoyment.
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God calls us here to be changed.
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Worship is meant to change us.
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When Jacob went before God at Bethel, he called the people to repentance.
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He called the people to change and prepare to meet their God.
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Worship changes us, but also suffering changes us.
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Suffering causes us to have to look to God when we know we can't look to anybody else.
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We are so desperately desirous to be independent.
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We want to have the attitude, I don't need nobody.
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Yes, you do.
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More than you ever knew.
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You're not independent.
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The very heart that beats in your chest beats at the command of Almighty God.
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You are absolutely dependent upon Him.
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And every time you go through suffering, the goal of your suffering is that you would look to the Lord Jesus Christ and cling to Him ever more tightly.
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God, why am I going through this? We always say that, don't we? Here's the thing.
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We're going to learn this next week.
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I'm going to go ahead and get you prepared.
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Next week, we're going to read the generations of Esau.
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And it's one long chapter of hard names after another.
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But one thing we're going to notice.
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Esau had a lot of prosperity.
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And nothing in that chapter mentions anything difficult.
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Esau was not the chosen line.
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And he's got all this prosperity and seemingly no difficulty.
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And you say, well, isn't that what the people of God need? No.
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The people of God need pain in the promise because it causes us to look to Christ.
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God uses our pain to cause us to hold tighter to Him.
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So whatever you're going through today, know that it is ordained by God for this purpose that you might lay hold of Christ and hold ever more tightly to Him.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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I thank You for Your truth.
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I thank You that You have allowed us to get through this text.
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And I pray, God, that this would be to us a moment in time where we are reminded to hold fast to Christ knowing that ultimately He is the one who holds us.
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Lord, may our worship change us.
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And may our circumstances draw us closer to You, whatever they may be.
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And Lord, for those who are here who maybe don't know Christ, maybe their lives are good like Esau.
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Maybe they're prospering.
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Maybe all things are great.
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But Lord, I pray today that they would see that without Christ, this world has nothing to offer.
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Apart from Christ, there is nothing but an eternity of hell to look forward to.
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And I pray that they would turn from their unbelief to belief, that they would repent of sin and that they would trust in the Savior.
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I pray in Jesus' name.
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Amen.