Genesis 35 Back to Bethel

Back to Bethel in Times of Distress

Alright, Tim, would you open us in a word prayer? Sure. Father God, thank you that we can come and study your Word. I pray that you would speak to our hearts and that you would speak through Jeff, that he would be able to communicate the Word of God to us, and that we would not just be hearers of the Word, but we would learn some applications so that we can go out and be doers of your Word.

So we thank you for your Word, and we pray that you would be with us here as we study together. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. So the Christian life is not always a smooth upward trajectory, all sunshine and roses, always relating to God as well as we would want to.

There are times of backsliding, there are times of pain and suffering, and in the times when we feel distant from God, we need to go back to Bethel. Do you remember that when Jacob was fleeing from his brother Esau, he stopped at Bethel and he had an encounter with the Lord on the way to the to the land?

He would then receive wives, not just one, which is a whole other story, but he ends up taking four wives and then heads back to the promised land on the way to reunite with his father Isaac. So much of what happens to him on this journey is instructive to us.

Last week in Genesis 34, we learned about a horrible incident, a sin with a high hand. First there was a gross immorality, the rape of one of Jacob's daughters. Now imagine the father of this daughter, how deeply painful that would have been for Jacob.

And not only so, in response to that, his son's sin with a high hand. Do you remember what a sin with a high hand is Tim? A sin with a high hand. I forget what definition you had for it, but it's a really bad sin.

Really bad, it's egregious sin, but it's it's almost like right in the face of God, shaking your hand, your fists in the face of God. It's a sin against a holy thing, like in the Old Covenant, in this case it's circumcision.

In the New Covenant, it might be baptism or the Lord's table. Something that's sacred and holy to God and to sin against that very thing is a sin with a high hand, right? Comes from the book of Numbers.

In this case, the brothers sin with a high hand, meaning they use circumcision as a way to weaken their enemies and make them susceptible to the slaughter. And this is a horrible thing. At the end of Genesis 34 verses 30 and 31, it says, you have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land.

So, Jacob realizes that the slaughter of the people of Shechem is going to result in a lot of trouble for him and all of the clans of Israel. So, there's trouble in the camp. The sin is not just out there with Shechem, it's right in the home with Simeon and Levi sinning with a high hand.

So, how do you think Jacob felt right now in his walk with God? High or low? This is the doldrums. This is the bottom of the barrel. He is hitting rock bottom because his own daughter has been raped. Now, his sons have abused the covenant sign and made them odious to all the surrounding peoples.

It looks from the outside like they might just get wiped out now by all the surrounding peoples. Because if they're a raiding band that slaughters tribes, everybody will band against them for their own safety.

Who are these Israelites that are coming against us, right? So, things could not look more bleak right now for the people of Israel. Now, in this chapter we're about to read, it's going to go not from better from okay to worse.

It's going to go from bad to worse. He is going to experience the death of his beloved wife. Other painful things happen. Yet, this chapter is uniquely in the life of Isaac, a story of hope and relating to God.

God will be with Isaac in this. I call the message back to Bethel. There are times in our life when going through something, we need to go back to Bethel. Back to the place where we've met with God before and meet with him anew.

Go back to Bethel. God calls us back to Bethel from time to time that we would remember who he is, whose we are, and what that means for the future, okay? So, all of us as Christians from time to time need to go back to Bethel.

So, Tim's going to be our reader today, and we'll just read in parts here. Could you take us from Genesis 35 verses 1 to 4, please? Sure. God said to Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.

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. 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.

So, they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the tebernant tree that was near Shechem. Okay, so here you have Jacob in his distress.

It's possible that he's going to get destroyed. What do you do? Where do you run? Where do you hide? His mind goes back to where he met with God, back to Bethel, okay? So, he decides he's going to take his people to Bethel, but to really go meet with God again, to go encounter God, to run to the arms into that rock from which he was hewn.

There are two things that need to happen. One, getting rid of something and two, remembering something. The thing that you need to do and what Jacob does here to go back to Bethel is to get rid of false gods, idols.

The things in life. It would be servants. So, even Bilhah, the servant of Rachel, was a housemaid and she became like a wife, more like a concubine to Jacob. She didn't have the full rights that Rachel would have had as a wife, but there would be others.

There would be other men, women, children that are kind of under his tent. We don't know the exact number of this moving party, but Jacob is the head of the household. He has four wives and there are other servants, workers, people who are kind of under Jacob's headship in this group.

So, I don't know the number. We don't know exactly how many, but there are others. And some of them have idols. And so, what Jacob first realizes is if he's going to run to God in his distress, he has to get rid of idols.

How does that apply to us? There comes a time in your life where you realize you haven't been praying like you used to. You haven't been reading the Word. Maybe you stop going to church. Maybe you just feel distant from God and you say, how can I get back to Bethel?

That's a common question for people. They don't phrase it that way. But how do I get back to that place of my first love? And the answer is number one, get rid of the idols. What has become an idol in your life that has taken your worship off of where it belongs and onto this other thing?

Get rid of the idols. For some, it might be a sexual sin. It might be some practice that goes on in their life. For others, it could be something just like football. Football has become what they do every Sunday.

You may have to cut the cable. You know, my wife and I, we just cut Comcast. Not because it had become an idol, but because Comcast was going to be $310 a month to have cable. That's not good stewardship.

It's just, it's getting outrageous. Cut the cord. For some men who are addicted to football and basketball, maybe they need to cut the cable. Hey, good to see you guys. Any of us can become addicted to anything and make an idol.

An idol is really just something that we put in the place of God, right? So the first thing is get rid of idols. The second is remember the God who answered you in your distress. Look at verse three, that I may go make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I go.

He remembers the fact that this is not the first time in his life he's been through something. How many in this room have been through something many times over? You've been through three trials in your life.

That's how many times you need to be corrected before you get it. Yeah. All of us can testify. We've been through the ringer again and again and again. Sometimes it takes a year or a couple of years for something really difficult to come up, but here's what we know.

There will come struggles, right? Jesus said in this life you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. So we will have these struggles, but we remember the God who answers in the day of distress.

Get rid of idols and remember who's been with you everywhere you've went before. And so that's the first step. Next, Tim, would you read Genesis 35, five to eight? Sure. And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

And Jacob came to Luz, that is Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan. He and all the people who were with him, and there he built an altar and called the place Elbethel, because their God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.

And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Elan Okay. So he's into burying stuff under trees. He takes all the idols and he puts them under a terebinth tree.

And here he's, he's burying underneath a tree. But the idea here is Elbethel. Who is Elbethel? El, that pronoun El, which is short for Elohim, it's God, right? We see that as Genesis chapter one, that's God's name, El.

Now he is the God of Bethel. That is, he is the one who will meet them at Bethel. So here you have Jacob determined to go meet with God. He puts away the idols and he travels towards Bethel. What happens to the enemies that he's fully expecting are going to band together and destroy his little traveling party.

Do they attack? No. God is so powerful that when he decides to restrain the wickedness of the things that we fear, he is able to do that. Look what it says. A terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them.

So they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. He simply neutered the threat. He rendered it neutral. He made it unimpressive and not formidable and he brought it to nothing before they ever had to fight. Now, does that mean that in this life, you'll never have to fight?

No. Sometimes he allows weapons to form against you. But Isaiah 54, 14 to 17, it's in your notes if you want to read along. I'm going to read this one. It says, in righteousness you shall be established.

You shall be far from oppression for you shall not fear and from terror for it shall not come near you. Okay? That's what we just saw in the text. The God who protects his own children won't even allow the oppressor to come.

He'll hold them at bay. He'll keep the dog from biting. It might bark, but it's not going to bite. But notice what it says. If anyone stirs up strife, so here God might not restrain that part of it from happening.

But he says, it is not from me. Does that mean that God has nothing to do with it and he couldn't stop it if he wanted to? No. God could have restrained the terror from coming. Sometimes he'll let that strife come, but he says, whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you.

Then he says, behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy. No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me declares the Lord. So it's possible that God will prevent any attack from happening at all. He'll cause a terror to fall on the enemies and they won't even attack.

That's what happens in Genesis 35. But even if someone rises against you, that comes from them. It's not from God, meaning it's not God's heart and design, but God is allowing that in order that you triumph over it, that no weapon formed against you will prosper, that you would cling to Yahweh, to El Bethel, the God of Bethel.

If you hold on to God, you have nothing to fear. As terrifying as it might look on the outside, you have nothing to fear. All right, Tim, would you read for us verses 9 to 15? Sure. God appeared to Jacob again, and when he came from Padam Haram and blessed him, and God said to him, your name is Jacob.

No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. So he called his name Israel, 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.

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. Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him, and Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone.

He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it. So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel. Very good. So there's a lot of naming going on here. At first, God appears to Jacob and says to him, your name is Jacob.

What does Jacob mean? Deceiver. Deceiver. Heel grabber. Remember, he was holding on to the heel of his brother in the womb. So from the womb, he was a deceiver, trying to switch things up and take the firstborn spot.

Pull him back into the womb and get himself out there first. He was always angling for his own advantage. He's an angler, right? So this is Jacob, who he was by sin nature, but God does not identify him that way.

Yes, that's his name, rightly given. We still talk of him as Jacob, but here, what does it say? No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, I am God Almighty.

Now, before we go on to God Almighty, why do you think the naming is important? What does a name indicate about a person? Identity. Identity. Identity. Are you sinner or saint? I like to think saint. Yes.

You are a saint who is still prone to sin. You are not sinner by identity, who sometimes saints, right? In Philippians chapter one, it says, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to the saints at Philippi.

Why would he call them saints? Because they are regarded and known as holy ones. How are they holy when they're born sinners like anyone else? The righteousness, the holiness of Christ is imputed to them, credited to them on account of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Jacob doesn't know it yet, but there is a savior for him who would bleed and die in his place. And God is regarding Jacob by faith in Yahweh as being righteous, not heel grabber. He's changing the way Jacob thinks about himself.

Notice though, he also needs to realize who God is. Verse 11, and God said to him, I am God Almighty. Anybody know the Hebrew of that? God Almighty. Very good, Rick. Oh, it's in your notes. Well, I thought it might be.

One time Rick did a study of the names, especially the appearance of Jesus or the name all throughout scripture. I think you did the whole Bible, right? Or was it just New Testament? The whole Bible. And, but that's so important.

Naming is so important because it indicates identity. And the name of God, when we call him El Shaddai, we are saying he is God Almighty. Almighty means absolutely powerful, all powerful, lacking in nothing, unable to do nothing.

With God, all things are possible. So to call him El Shaddai is to be reminded who he is, just as he reminds us who we are in him. Right now, Jacob is just going through it. He is in a very low place.

His second born and his third born have sinned in egregious ways with a high hand. God would have been justified to strike them dead for violating the sign of the covenant, circumcision, right? And he's devastated by the rape of his daughter.

He's a broken man. He's trying to get to Bethel because he needs to meet with God. He needs some renewal of his heart and spirit. And God meets him on the way. And he appears to him again in Padam Aram.

He blesses him, reminds him of who he is and who God is, and then reasserts what's been said over and over again. Verse 11, be fruitful and multiply. Sound familiar? Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 to 28 from the very creation of man.

That's a creation mandate. But then specifically to this tribe, Abraham and the patriarchs are going to become like what? Sand on the seashore or the stars in the sky. Fruitful, multiply. And here's what he says, a nation and a company of nations shall come from you and kings shall come from your own body.

What's he reminding him of? The covenant promise, covenant made with Abraham and specifically of a particular seed that David foreshadows. David, King David would come from this line as with Solomon, Rehoboam, all the kings of the Southern line, whereas the Northern kingdom was breakaway apostate.

And from that Southern line of kings would come one named Jesus. King, he's telling him about the future and reminding him the good things he has planned. I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

Plans to prosper you, to give you hope and a future, not to harm you. He's reminding him of the future and what was already stated. The land, verse 12, that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you.

Remember that the land promise is part of that Abrahamic covenant. It's a nation, it's a people, a seed, kings, and it's land. Does the land in Israel today still belong to Israel? Yes, it was taken and was out of their possession because they were driven out of it, but God still regarded it as theirs and they're rightfully in their promised land.

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. This doesn't end. Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him and Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone.

He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. So he's giving some offering. Paul will say in Philippians, even if I myself am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad.

Paul makes the application of this drink offering where you would pour oil on the rock as a sign of pouring out your abundant blessing given to you, giving it back to God. Kind of like the woman who broke her alabaster jar and supposedly wasted it on Jesus's feet.

She was adoring him, giving it the best use possible. And yet she poured out her wealth. Paul says, I pour myself out. I give my life. And truly Paul would give his blood. He would be beheaded. He would bleed out.

He would be poured out like a drink offering, but it was all in for Jesus, willing to give his all. And in the same way here, what Jacob is demonstrating in the drink offering is that he is poured out.

He's, he's sacrificing to God, giving this, this valuable oil, probably olive oil, which would have value for trading and all manner of things. It was one of the most important commodities in, in that culture, but he's pouring it out on the rock.

So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel. This is where we need to go. We've got to go meet with God at Bethel. Now you don't need to go to the promised land and find Bethel to meet there.

You also don't even need to go to California, to Reading, to Bethel church, where the presence of God supposedly meets and heaven and earth are connected by Jacob's ladder. No, you can go and meet with God like that in your own closet, where it's you and him alone close the door.

So nobody sees what's done in secret and you pour out your heart to him. You relate to him. You call on the name of the Lord. Don't you know, he'll meet you like he did Jacob. Tim 16 through 21, please.

Then they journeyed from Bethel when they were still some distance from Ephrath. Rachel went into labor and she had hard labor. And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, Do not fear, for you have another son.

And as her soul was departing, for she was dying, she called his name Ben-Onoi, but his father called him Benjamin. So Rachel died and she was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. And Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb.

It is the pillar of Rachel's tomb, which is there to this day. Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. Pain. Some have experienced this pain of losing a spouse. There's probably few wounds as deep as that.

Those who have buried a child probably have experienced a similar kind of pain. It's one thing to bury a parent. And we're going to see that at the end of this chapter, another to bury a child, but to bury a spouse, to say goodbye, when the two have become one flesh.

And the breaking of that with death is a wound. It tears at the heart. Jacob met with God before experiencing that. We grieve in this world. We suffer pain, but not like those who have no hope. He had God.

See the important lesson today is that El Shaddai, God Almighty, is with you in every suffering, in every pain. He was right there. He's not saying here that you're not going to suffer the death of a spouse or of a child or of a parent.

The does not end at Bethel. Right after Bethel, the deepest wound of all, his beloved Rachel. Do you know that he loved Rachel more than Leah? I think that's pretty clear from the text. No, it wasn't rightfully so, but we're talking about Jacob's heart, right?

It was uniquely bound to Rachel, not to Bilhah or, you know, the other Leah or the other handmaiden. What was her name? Don't even know her name. I'm not sure he did. Was it Bildad? No, I don't know. Zilpah?

Zillah? I think it's Zilpah. Yeah. Yeah. Verse 26. In any case, this is a deep, deep wound, but El Shaddai is with him. Now in our future, should we expect that it's going to be without pain? No, there will be pain, but pain will not characterize our future.

These are moments of grief and sometimes a grief that will carry all the way to the end, but not as fully as when it first happens. These are the griefs of this life that ultimately achieve an eternal weight of glory.

They have a purpose. We pass through them. Remember the valley of the shadow of death of Psalm 23? Is that where the shepherd keeps the sheep forever? Does he keep the sheep in the valley of the shadow of death?

No. No. No. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Here, that's where Jacob is. He's in the valley of the shadow of death, but where is the shepherd? Right there with him. He didn't stay back in Bethel at the rock altar with the oil on it.

He's with Jacob. And in the same way, in our pain, he does not leave us as orphans. He says, I will come to you. And by that, he meant in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is with us inside of us as a comforter, a paraclete, a helper in our time of need.

Tim, could you read for us verses 22 to 26? Sure. While Israel lived in the land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve, the sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, the sons of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant, Dan, and Neptali, the sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant, Gad, and Asher.

These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram. Moses likely wrote this. What is Moses doing in recording this here? For what reason does he recite this? I think it's this. Simeon and Levi are the second and the third son, right?

And in the previous chapter, they sin with a high hand against the covenant. They disappoint their father in such a way that's almost irredeemable. Of course, through Christ, everything is redeemable for those who confess, but it's a devastating sin with a high hand.

Remarkable that God didn't just strike them dead, but the relationship with them is now broken. You've made me odious in the eyes of all the surrounding people. And their answer is not, dad, we're sorry.

We were passionate. It was self-justifying. We would not let our sister be treated like a prostitute. So, you picture Jacob against his own second and third born son. Where do you think Jacob found his comfort in that moment?

Especially in his first born son. Reuben didn't do that. Reuben wasn't part of the massacre and the sons that had come from him and this newborn baby named Benjamin. His wife was going to call him Ben-Oni, meaning what?

Son of my pain. But Jacob said, no, he's son of my strength, son of my right hand. He's Benjamin. He's comforting himself in these sons and now as if the hits hadn't come. Have you ever noticed that when you start getting hit in the back of the head, boom, boom, boom, they just keep coming?

It's like it's coordinated or something. And it probably is because there's an enemy in heavenly places, right? And when he creates a spiritual attack, there will be many fronts of that. Jacob had the violation of his daughter, Dinah.

And then he had Simeon and Levi sin with the high hand against the very covenant of God, circumcision. Then his wife died, his beloved Rachel. And now his oldest son goes to one of his wives because Bilhah in a sense is a wife.

Concubine is the word used here, but she has born him children and sleeps with her. While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine. Now what Moses does with that little sentence is intentionally understated and not explained.

Meaning you're supposed to fill in the blank. This kind of pain doesn't need to be spelled out. All that Moses wants to tell you is Israel heard of it. In other words, put yourself in Israel's shoes. You get news that your oldest son has slept with your wife.

Talk about devastating news. Talk about pain of the first order. Israel heard of it. That's all Moses says there, but it communicates, I think that sin within a family like this causes extraordinary pain.

We're not even told Israel heard of it and he was plunged into the depths of depression. What we're being shown here is the idea of hits that just keep coming. These sons, my daughter, now my wife died and now my oldest son.

If you are ever reduced to the place that Job was, you have one hope. El Shaddai, El Bethel, the God of Bethel, the God that Jacob met at Bethel, the Almighty One becomes Jacob's only hope in this moment.

There will come times in every person's life, maybe it's just their own deathbed if they've lived pretty smoothly until then. When you're reduced to absolute nothing, you have nothing else but God Himself.

When you're at the peak of your life and your family is all in order and you got a house and you got your cars paid for, you got no debt and you're going on vacations and life is great and you're just filled with joy, how hard is it to worship God?

But when you're Job and Satan is saying, see he's going to curse you if you took all that stuff away. Curse God and die, says Job's wife. And ultimately, Job is reduced to this puddle and still he blesses God.

Ultimately, even though it's a struggle, all he had left was God and then God restored him. In the end, we have that restoration, that heaven to come. But there will be moments in this life where we are like Jacob.

We hear the worst news of all. We can't even believe it. Our ears are bleeding when we hear it. Our hearts are broken. Some crushing news that you never thought you would get about a family member. Couldn't get any worse.

Tim, will you finish 27 to 29? Sure. And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre or Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. Now the days of Isaac were 180 years and Isaac breathed his last and he died and was gathered to his people old and full of days and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

The death of a parent. Even if that parent is old and full of days, that's the best case scenario that a parent reaches old and full of days, right? That's every hope is that our parents could live as long as possible.

No matter, even if it is Jimmy Carter reached a hundred, right? It is a very deep wound, but the death of a saint, notice I didn't say sinner in the notes, the death of a saint, a saint who still sins, all of us still sin, first John, but the identity of a saint is also precious in God's sight.

Psalm 116 verse 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. First Thessalonians 4 .13, but we do not want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

The good news is we grieve, but not like those who have no hope. Paul will go on to say in first Thessalonians 4, that those who have died in the Lord will be called up and caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so be with him forever.

This is the death of a saint. This is the death of Isaac. And it's just, isn't it just fitting to the story? After all this sojourning, meeting with God at Bethel, all the pain he's endured, he finally makes it back in God's grace, he gets to see him again, but only for a very short amount of time because the text says, and Isaac breathed his last.

In verse 27, he came to his father, Isaac at Mamre or Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. He's 180 years old, verse 29, and Isaac breathed his last. Can you imagine going through what this man went through in these two chapters?

The death of his wife, the death of his dad, the pain of the family dysfunction, sexual sin in the family, the rejection of the covenant in a sense with Simeon and Levi. I think later they're converted, but right now they're showing, they're sitting with a high hand against God.

Everything is falling apart. What does Jacob have? He has the God of his father, Isaac's God. As God was there, as El Shaddai was there for Isaac, he's right here with Jacob. Isn't that good news for us?

I want to tell you guys, Revelation 2 .17 says, I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. Jacob was given the name Israel in this chapter.

You have a name that God alone knows. I actually think it's going to happen like physically. That's how I read Revelation. I don't think it's, we don't just default to symbolism, although there is symbolism in Revelation, but I think when we get to heaven, we're going to get a white stone with a name that God has for us, how he has always regarded us, our true identity in Christ.

I don't know what that name is. I don't even want to start guessing what it could possibly be, but I think it would have something to do with the unique way that God built Tim or Jeff or Barbara, Rick, right?

The way he built us, Bob, Francis, you're built in a certain way and the part that is made in the image of God fashioned after the image of Christ is your unique identity that God made you for a purpose.

You had a purpose on this earth and that name corresponds to that. Jacob would be the father of this nation, Israel, name him Israel. What an identity, what an inheritance, but sure wasn't easy, was it?

In this road, when you're walking this road and everything's falling apart, people hitting you in the back of the head, he's getting beat up badly, but he knows his God. He knows El Bethel. He knows El Shaddai.

Do you know him? If you know El Shaddai, what can man do to you? What can the sufferings of this life do to you? Yes, you'll grieve, but not like those who have no hope. You'll continue to get up and keep walking.

You'll still have the joy of the Lord. It's not that you're made of Teflon that you won't feel, right? Can you imagine the pain? I've never experienced any of these things. It's beyond my comprehension, the loss of a spouse or the death of a parent.

That's not too far off for some of us, right? That kind of pain though is, it's hard to imagine. The sexual sin of this nature, that a son sleeps with a wife, with his wife, the violation against the covenant, the sin with the high hand, the rape of a daughter.

He did all, he endured this in two chapters. That's mind blowing to me, that God would allow his beloved son, Jacob, to go through that. That's how this world is. In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, Christ has overcome the world.

It's part of this plan. So just keep hanging on, keep looking at El Shaddai. And what do you do in the midst of this kind of thing? You go back to Bethel. You get rid of any idols in your life, anything that might be causing discipline in your life, right?