Abrahams' Journey — Jacob Prasch

Open with me please to the book of Genesis chapter 13 and he will recall Genesis in the beginning. Genesis chapter 13. Genesis 12 beginning in verse one. From your father's house to the land which I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless and make your name great and so you shall be a blessing.

And I will bless those who bless you. And the one who curses you I will curse and in you all of the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went with him.

Now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran and Abram took Sarai. Sarai in Hebrew means my princess Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew and all their possessions which they had accumulated and the persons which they had acquired in Haran.

And they set out for the land of Canaan. Thus they came to the land of Canaan and Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shem to the oak of Borei. Now the Canaanite was then the land and the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your descendants I will give this land.

So he built an altar there for the Lord who appeared to him. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and I on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

And Abram journeyed on continuing towards the Negev. Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there. For the famine was critical in the land. And it came about when he came near to Egypt that he said to Sarai his wife see now I know that you are a beautiful woman and it will come about when the Egyptians see you that they will say this is his wife and they will kill me but they will allow you to live.

Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you and that I might live on account of you. And it came about when Abram came into Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful and Pharaoh's officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels no zebras. But the Lord struck Pharaoh.

In his house with great praise because of Sarai. Abram's wife and Pharaoh's managers made good service to him and they had squirted him away with his wife and all that he wrote to him. So Abram went up to Egypt the next day he and his wife and all that they wrote.

To him and he went on his journey from Egypt as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Isis to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord as we can just skip down to verse 18 of chapter 13.

Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the Oaks of Mamre which are in Hadron and there he built an altar to the Lord. Heavenly Father we come before you now and we ask you in the name of your son Jesus the one who saved us that you would open our eyes our minds and above all our hearts to the glory and meaning of your word in his name Jesus.

Abraham as the Father of Faith and the Pattern of Exodus

We ask these things. Amen. His name was Abram but changed to Abraham. Now when the Bible was told there's something called the book of life and people will have a new name if the name is going to be in the book of life.

But there are a few people this side of eternity who seem to have some kind of a revelation of what that is. Abraham was one. Peter was another. Jacob was another. The father of all who believe he's the father of the three monotheistic states.

Jews, Arabs and Christians all look to Abraham as a patriarch. To Jewish people he is Ab-Abraham. To Muslims he is Ibrahim Abu Isik. To Christians of course he's simply Abraham the father of all who believe.

Now the Semitic idea of father does not simply mean progeny or a biological father. It means he's the archetype or the prototype the first of a kind. What happens to him happens to his descendants. Abraham goes into Egypt in a famine.

Doesn't he in that famine situation he goes to Egypt for refuge. God judges Pharaoh. Pharaoh gives him riches. When God's judgment comes on Pharaoh Abraham takes his family and flees from Egypt into the promised land.

What happened to Abraham later happens to his physical descendants. The Jews the sons of Jacob in a famine. They also go into Egypt. Don't they once more when they come out of Egypt they take the treasures of Egypt with them and God judges Pharaoh once more a wicked Pharaoh.

And then they leave Egypt and they go into the promised land. In 1st Corinthians chapter 10 we come out of Egypt. Egypt in the Bible is a symbol or a figure of the world. Pharaoh who the Egyptians deified is a figure of the devil the god of the world.

Jesus said Satan's the god of this world. That's why it's illegal. Moses is a type or a foreshadow of Jesus. Moses makes a covenant with blood sprinkles it on the people. So the Lord Jesus makes a covenant with blood and sprinkles it on the people.

And as Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt through the water into the promised land. That's the picture of Jesus leading us out of the world through baptism into heaven. Okay one is a picture of the other.

Ultimately coming out of Egypt has to do with the rapture and resurrection. But first let's look at Jesus. Jesus comes out of Egypt. In Matthew chapter 2 when King Herod dies it says out of Egypt I called my son.

And it quotes from Hosea chapter 11. It takes something that happened to the Jewish people in the exodus and applies it to Jesus once more. God judges a wicked king this time as Pharaoh. And then Jesus comes out of Egypt.

So Abraham comes out of Egypt when God judges Pharaoh his descendants the Jews come out of Egypt when God judges a king Pharaoh. Jesus the Messiah the seed of Abraham comes out of Egypt when God judges Pharaoh.

And then we get saved and we're born again. We come out of Egypt and God's judgment will come on Pharaoh. There is a future exodus to come. They brought Joseph's bones with them out of Egypt in the book of Exodus.

Because it's a type of the rapture and resurrection. The dead in Christ rise first. We come out together. Those same judgments that you see on Egypt in the book of Exodus. The darkness and the blood. For those things come back in the book of Revelation.

Don't they those same judgments. The way that Pharaoh's magicians counterfeited the miracles of Moses and Aaron. That's the way the Antichrist and false prophet are going to counterfeit the miracles of Jesus and his witnesses.

These are future events. We all come out of Egypt. Or else you perish in Egypt. But it all begins with Abraham the father of all who believe. And this chapter 12 God gives him five promises. He tells him he makes his name great which it is.

All these monotheistic faiths look to him. He tells him that I will bless the ones who bless you and curse the ones who curse you now. That has certainly happened historically. You know my family were originally from Britain.

If you told my grandparents the time would come when the sun would set on the British Empire every 24 hours they would have laughed at you. But something happened. Great Britain revoked the Bellflower Declaration after promising to let the Jews return to Israel.

They revoked it. So the Jews went to Auschwitz. The Jews burned. So did Coventry. So did London. So did Plymouth. Britain has never been a world empire since then. So were the Germans. Until Dwight Schindler's rescue saw the Germans built the wall around the shtetl the Jewish ghetto.

And any Jew who tried to climb over that wall was machine gunned. So what happened. A wall was built around the once glorious capital of the Reich. And any German who climbed over that wall was machine gunned.

Not until Hesiod and Sandau prison. And the last German of that generation responsible for the Holocaust was dead. Did that wall come down. God does this not for the sake of Israel but for the sake of his covenant with Abraham.

Most importantly however I'll bless them that bless me. You know I have no doubt whatsoever that the judgment of God would have come on America a long time ago. Except for two things. The United States still sends the most missionaries and gives the most money for Christian charity.

But it also treats the Jews in Israel better than other countries. Similarly Holland. Holland is a wicked wicked country. If God does not destroy Amsterdam he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology. Yet they treated the Jews well.

They protected the Jews in the Holocaust. I'll bless them that bless me. I will curse them. That curse me. Not for the sake of the Jews but for the sake of God's covenant with Abraham. But finally through him all the tribes and all the people of the earth will be blessed.

Abraham's Calling Through Crisis and the Journey to Shechem

Through him would come the Messiah to bring salvation to all people. It all begins with Abraham. Now something happens in the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis tells us the following. The book of Genesis tells us that the father of Abraham begins in Haran which is a modern Syria very top Haran.

That's when his father Pera dies. In the book of Acts chapter 7 in Stephen's apology when St. Stephen is going to be martyred St. Stephen tells us something different. And he said hear me brethren and fathers the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran.

So Genesis tells us it begins up here. But the New Testament tells us it begins here where the Tower of Babel had been that area also where the Babylonian Empire would eventually arise in modern Iraq.

You see it was not until a crisis point in Abraham's life when his father dies at Haran that he comes to his first response to God. He doesn't respond to God until a crisis point in his life. That is so common of people in times of bereavement, family death, crisis, business setback, career setback, financial setback everything going wrong.

When people are on the skin so often that's what it takes to cause people to turn to God. That's why it's easier for poor people to go to heaven than rich people. Why? Because of the crisis, the death of his father.

We have a term in Hebrew the Lord is near to those who mourn. When people see the death of a loved one they are more aware of their own mortality. But God first begins calling him an heir of the Calvary.

You see when somebody gives their life to Jesus when they are born again and they become a new creation. Not only does their presence make sense not only does their future make sense but even their past begins to make sense when you get saved.

When you first are born again when you first come to your true knowledge of Jesus your past makes sense. You realize it was God calling you to himself all along even from the earliest days of your childhood.

Things that happened to you impressions. You have things you can't quantify the kind of thoughts that went through your head before you fell asleep that night as a child that all clicked. That was Jesus.

When somebody gets saved not only does their future make sense. Not only does their presence make sense but even their God was calling him from the earliest days of his youth. We read in the scriptures I knew you from your mother's womb.

The scriptures tell us those before you from before the foundation of the world. God only knew but it doesn't click until we have our first personal responsibility with Abraham. It takes place at Haran when his father dies.

God was calling him all along this land. I'll show you this is the journey I'm going to put you on. But it takes the death of his father and he comes to a place called Shem. Shem is near the modern city of Nablus.

And Shem in Hebrew means shoulder. Not shoulder in the anatomical sense but shoulder in the sense of carrying a burden. If you were to go to Jerusalem and stand outside of Damascus blind beggars, religious hypocrites, oriental merchants, the lot looks like a scene out of the New Testament.

But you'll also see people carrying trapped burdens on their shoulders and he comes to Shem and he lays his burden down and he builds an altar under the oak of Moray. Now I have to explain something about trees in the Bible.

Trees are figures or symbols of different things in the Bible. So let's talk about when someone dwells under a tree. Whenever you see somebody dwelling under a tree in the Bible it alludes in Jewish Midrash to a statement about their spiritual state.

For instance when Elijah was in a state of despair he was under a juniper tree. When King Saul was going to be destroyed he was under a tamarisk tree. But here Abraham is under the oak of Moray after acacia wood which the Ark of the Covenant was made out of oak, we quote Elon in Hebrew, is the hardest kind of wood known in the Middle East.

The only acacia wood was harder and there's not much of that. Oak is the strongest tree. Oak is a hard wood, it's a very strong tree. Now, dwelling under a tree. If a Jewish Christian, a Messianic Jew at the end of the first century was reading John's Gospel John 1, John 2, John 3 the story of the new creation he would have said this Gospel of John which he would have called Habesor Abel Teh Yochanan, that's what he would have called the Gospel.

He would have said this story or this narrative of the new creation and John chapter 1, John 2 and John 3 is a Jewish Midrash on Genesis chapter 1, chapter 2 and chapter 3 the book of Genesis is the story of the creation but the Gospel of John is the story of the new creation.

And he would have said, well God comes to separate the light from dark in the creation in the book of Genesis remember? Now God comes to separate the light from dark in the new creation in John's Gospel and Arkei Kaihologos in the beginning was the word Genesis in the beginning was God and the darkness does not overcome the light in Greek.

So God separates the light from dark in the creation in Genesis. But now he separates the light from dark in the new creation. This Jewish Christian would have said, well the spirit moves on the water and brings forth the creation in Genesis.

But now in John chapter 3, born of water and the spirit God's spirit moves on the water and brings forth the new creation in John. He would have said, well you have the small light and the great light in the creation in Genesis.

But now you have Yohanan HaMatzion and Yeshua HaMashiach John the Baptist, the little light and Jesus the Messiah, the great light in the new creation he would have said, the word became flesh. God walked the earth in the creation in Genesis.

Remember Adam heard God walking in the garden and now God walked the earth in the new creation in John. He would have said, well God began human creation with the marriage of Adam and Eve. And on the third day, God did a miracle with water.

Well, Jesus begins his public ministry at a wedding and it's on the third day he does a miracle with water. The rabbis tell us that the tree of life that was in the garden. That appears again in some context in Ezekiel 47.

And it's at the book of Revelation at the very end the tree of life is represented by the fig tree. When you need the gospel of Saint John. And Nathaniel says to Jesus, how did you know me? And Jesus says, because I saw you under the fig tree.

We tend to think that just means Jesus saw him under some literal fig tree which he did. But midrashically, in Jewish metaphor Jesus was saying to Nathaniel, I knew you from the garden. I knew you from the creation, from the foundation of the world.

That's what he was really saying. He was under the tree of life. But here it is the oak of Moray. When somebody is under a tree in the Bible it means something about their spiritual state. Moray is the modern Hebrew word for teacher but it is the biblical Hebrew word for knowledge particularly spiritual knowledge or knowledge of God.

When his father dies, Abraham comes to Shem weighs down his burden and comes to his first knowledge of God and there he builds an altar. In Hebrew we call an altar a Meshabeach. We know from the epistle to the Hebrew that the altar is a type or an Old Testament picture of the cross.

The Altar, the Cross, and the Call to Sacrificial Discipleship

For instance, when Jesus was hanging on the cross he was the high priest making atonement for our sins on the altar. You see, Jesus never said I'm going to go to a cross and die for you and that's all there is to it.

When Jesus went to a cross God took my sin and your sin and put it on Jesus and took his righteousness and put it on us the just for the unjust. That's true, he took our sin when he went to that cross but he never said I'm going to die for you.

Full stop he said pick up your cross and follow me, you die with me. The old creation must be put to death. The way he gets rid of sin is he gets rid of the sinner. Build an altar at no turning point in your Christian life.

And at no turning point in my Christian life can there be any progress without an altar. No altar, no progress. Something is going to have to go on the cross. Whenever you are going to come to a point in your life as a Christian point of growth there has to be a decision the altar God will require you to build an altar.

Something is going to have to go on. No altar, no progress. To me it was money. That was my problem. I made a lot of money when I was a kid when the Lord called me to leave my money and go into the mission field.

I didn't want to do it. I was a nice guy, I was very generous but the Lord didn't want my money, he wanted my heart. There was a famous Rabbi who said where your heart is, there your treasure will be.

Also maybe someday the Lord will restore the fortunes of Judah. Maybe he won't but all the money in the world couldn't bring me eternal life. Couldn't buy me a ticket out of hell. Jesus is that, the altar.

But then after Shem, he comes to his next stop. His next stop is Bethel. Bethel in Hebrew means the house of God. He comes as it were to church to a place like this Bethel east of Bethel is a place called Ai.

Ai means a heap of ruins a heap of ruins. And Abraham must turn his back on Ai and take Bethel and build an altar. No sacrifice, no progress. Ai is to the east. Where you come from becomes a heap of ruins.

Your attitude towards these things changes your association with your old friends. Your old friends now are people who need to get saved. Your whole reason for associating with them is to give them the gospel to add company to up to good morals.

You wind up making new friends. Either you're going to be used by God to drag them up or they're going to drag you down. Now there's some people who come to Shem but go no further. They're Shem dwellers.

I once knew a guy I used to preach when I lived in London, England. I used to go to Hyde Park Corner Jesus Corner in Hyde Park. And there was this guy one of the street preachers who had a big sign a sandwich boy they call it in England on the front or on the back and it said Christ died for our sins and his name was Robert.

He was a nice guy and I said look I've got to get going. Now it's time for the evening service in my church. He said what church do you go to. And I told him what church I was going to which was a Baptist church at the time even though I'm a Pentecostal.

I went to a Baptist church and I asked him what church do you go to. And he said he went to a high Anglican church. And I said well why do you go to a church that's high Anglican. Why don't you go to an Evangelical church.

A Pentecostal church a Baptist church a Brethren church. Why do you go to a church where the people are not born again. And he said well I went to an Evangelical church once but everybody was already saved.

There was nobody to preach to. He was totally sincere. He was God for the gospel. But the gospel is the beginning it's not the end. Jesus said to make disciples not convicts. He wasn't an Evangelist. He was a Shambler.

Backsliding from Bethel to Egypt

You have to come to Bethel. But if you come to Bethel have you turned your back on. I there's people who come to church on Sunday. Then they walk out the door and light a cigarette. Then they go out with their unsaved girlfriend or their unsaved boyfriend.

They live with a foot in the world. And on Sunday they get religious about it. You see there's two kinds of backsliders. People who fall away. There's two kinds. There's the obvious kind who go down to Egypt.

But then there's the kind who come to church but they haven't turned their back on. I backslider of heart will be filled with his own ways. When you see people whose lives are filled with their ways instead of the ways of the Lord.

That is a backslider of heart. The epistle of Jude deals very sensibly with that subject. Oh they come to church. They sing the hymn but that's it. They get no further. But then there's another kind of backslider.

They're the ones who leave the church. They go back out into the world. They go down to Egypt. Satan and the refuge of Pharaoh. Now Pharaoh is a type of the Antichrist but he's also a metaphor for Satan the Egyptian deified one.

They look to the things the world considers strong. If Satan cannot get a Christian to fall away because of the lust of the flesh or the passions of youth or something like that he'll try to get to you the way he got to Abraham and make you think God has abandoned you in a crisis.

And you have to look to the things the world considers strong. Come with me to the book of Isaiah chapter 30. Woe to those, I'm sorry. Woe to those rebellious children in verse 1 declares the Lord who execute a plan but not mine.

King Hezekiah was under a lot of pressure strategically. He was being threatened by the Etherians and the rise of Babylon and he was being pressured to make a plan. But it was not God's plan. When we're in trouble.

When we're facing a crisis. Health, finance, business, career, marriage. It's a combination of things, it doesn't matter. When we face a crisis we need God's plan, not man's rebellious children who execute a plan but not mine.

They make an alliance but not of my spirit in order to add sin to sin to proceed down to Egypt, the world without consulting me. Whenever Christians get involved with the secular world you need to have God's guidance in it.

I don't care if it's legal system it's school system, it's health system. Whenever we get involved with the world be careful. Shelter in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore, the safety of Pharaoh will be to your disgrace.

And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt. Your humiliation. Backsliding will lead people to open humiliation. What happened to Abraham in Egypt? He wound up in a state of total humiliation. What happened to the prodigal son?

He wound up groveling with the swine in a state of total humiliation. There is no such thing as a successful backslider. No such thing. You cannot meet Jesus Christ and be the same you're gonna be better.

Or you're gonna be worse. Look at Abraham. He became depraved. He was actually able, willing.

To give his wife over to another man sexually nobody will go as low as a backslider. You cannot meet the Lord Jesus and be the same thing. And he winds up being abused by Pharaoh. You know, there's always some specificity that was trying to get him back to Jesus.

He even speaks to unfaithful people. I don't say Christ is right. Not for what they're saying. But that's what it was. The two kinds of Christians who have the most in common are very good Christians, very godly people with a very close relationship with Jesus and backsliders.

You know why? Because they're both hugely aware of their own sins. The closer you get to the right of the Lord you see the better. Very good Christians have a role to do with themselves. Jesus and them.

It's like when Moses came down from Nazareth and Shekinah reflected on the faith. Backsliders of the faith they're always being convicted by the Lord Jesus to repent. When Jesus made the last supper which two apostles were invited to the last supper?

John was the one who loved him most and Judas was the one who didn't. So that's always the closest to Jesus. The one who loved him the most and the one who loved him the least are the ones who are always closest to him he doesn't give up.

Unfortunately, he does look at chapter 31 of Isaiah. Jesus could help him. They ride on horses, they trust in God because they are men. And they have horses because they are very strong. But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel verse 3.

The assistants of men are not God. Their horses are flesh and not the pure. The Lord will stretch out his hand. He who helps will follow and he who is helpful for all. They all come to an end together.

There's no safety in Pharaoh. How can you go to your enemy for protection from your enemy? But the flesh will always look to the things the world considers strong. The world is there and the flesh will always look to the things the world considers strong.

The all creation will look to horses and chariots. It'll look to Mercedes limos and bank accounts. It'll look to the things the world looks to for security. That's how it looks. Abraham winds up like all backsliders as it were in a state of humiliation and he has to come all the way back.

Where does he come back to in chapter 13 verse 1? Bethel you kick up where you're left off. I've known people that have wasted years of their lives. That's for them. Oh God can forgive them. Compared to eternity the 80 years or whatever we have in this fallen world that most if Jesus doesn't come back that's nothing but compared to what we have wasting 3 years of your life 4 years of your life 5 years.

That's a lot of time to waste. Waste your youth. If you go back to Egypt you actually waste your youth. You waste your life. You wind up in a state of humiliation and you come crawling back like Abraham or like the prodigal son.

That's the best you can hope for. At worst you're dying in Egypt. But Abraham comes back all the way back then he continues his journey. His journey next comes to Hebron. Hebron. Hebron comes from the Hebrew word for fellowship meaning Ki Tchabrut.

Ki Tchabrut Hebron comes from Ki Tchabrut. There's a lot of trouble there today. You see about Hebron in the news all the time. Ki Tchabrut or fellowship in Hebrew means cemented together. Bricks cemented together.

That's what fellowship means in Hebrew. There's another word Ki Tchabrut. But the main word is Ki Tchabrut. Bricks cemented together. Look at 1 Peter 2 .5. It says you are the living stones of the holy house.

The holy house or the temple is the church. We are the stones. A church is not a building. It's Christian understand cemented together. Now I have to tell you another Jewish Midrash. OK. The stones of the temple are huge.

Herodian stones. The biggest one is 44 times heavier than the largest stone of the pyramid of the great pyramid of of Cheops in Giza. That's how big these stones are. And when Jesus comes into the temple mount on Palm Sunday the people are singing out to him from the Halleluah Bar.

In Psalm 118 they're singing to him in Hebrew Hoshana. Hoshana. Baruch Haba. B'Shem Adonai.

Barach Nuhem Mi Bet Adonai Hodu La 'Adonai Tipov.

Ki Le 'Olam Havdo Hoshana Hoshana Le 'Ben David Hosana Hosana to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Understand. He's been becoming bigots. And they say tell these people to be quiet.

But Rabbi Yeshua Bar Yosef better known to some people as Jesus Christ but his real name was Rabbi Yeshua Bar Yosef and he never said it. He says if these remain silent the stones will cry out. If the Jews don't proclaim me the Gentiles will understand.

And most Christians are Gentiles. Although the first Christians were Jews John the Baptist was up against a similar problem. They fought because they were circumcised as Jews. That meant they were cut above the rest.

Hmm. In a matter of speaking they got me when I was a kid. They wouldn't get me now. John the Baptist Yohanan Amadil said God could raise up Abraham's children out of the stones. Wood stones. Christians are the stones not on the basis of race but on the basis of faith in the Jewish Messiah.

Stones cemented together.

Bricks cemented together for both. I visited your church for the first time as I've done. And I came in and I said to the pastor. Pastor this is a nice looking church you have. But I notice there's bricks missing here.

There's bricks missing there. There's bricks missing there. There's bricks missing. Where are these missing bricks. And he says well here they are stacked up in the middle of the floor. You see it's one thing to come to church.

It's something very different to come to fellowship. You want to come to fellowship. You have to build an altar. It's going to cost you nothing wrong with coming to church. That was the right place to be at a certain time in our Christian sojourn.

It's the right place to be but it's a place to fish a tent not to build your dream house. There's a lot more. We can say how Abraham lives as a sojourner in a land promising that makes sure we inherit the earth.

Right? We will get this in the millennium. Or have we bought the wealth of Egypt out with him? Right? We will inherit it. But he comes to Hebron and it's at Hebron he dwells under the Oaks of Mamre. Mamre.

Mamre in Hebrew means firmness or vigor. A place of strength. Real strength. Now not just knowledge but power. Firmness vigor. And it is when he is under the Oaks of Mamre as we read on in the subsequent chapters that he is able to rescue his kinsmen from the wicked king.

You see the Canaanite is in the land. All the Canaanites are in the land. Muti is growing. Islam is growing. New Age is growing. The cults are growing. And your kinsmen are in bondage. Let me tell you something.

I lived in the Middle East for years. There is not a church in the world that can take on a mosque and win. See what I said. There is not a church in the world that can take on a mosque and win. If you want to beat Islam you take the fellowship.

There is not a church in the world that can take on the woman. They have a strong sense of community a lot of money and they are very well organized. You want to take on the Mormon cult that takes the fellowship.

What is it for you to rescue your kinsmen. But let us understand something it is going to cost. Let us talk about Beth El dwellers. I would say most Christians I know are Beth El dwellers. Some of them have not even turned their back on I they will be off with their unsaved girlfriend or whatever.

It is a relatively easy journey and a close journey from Shem to Beth El. But it is a longer more arduous journey from Beth El to Hadan. Not as bad as going all the way through the Negev and the Sinai to Egypt.

But it is a longer more arduous journey through the hills of Judah. It is easy to come to church. Not so easy to come to fellowship. Let us pick out a Beth El dweller. Somebody will come to church once a week and do their bit.

They won't witness to somebody unless they are asked. They won't go to a mid-week Bible study or a prayer meeting. They just do their bit. Look at the book of Amos chapter 4 chapter 4 verse 4 of the prophet Amos.