(Genesis) Genesis 35-37:11 — Joe Focht

Jacob’s Return to Bethel and the Danger of Partial Obedience

Now, we are in chapter 35. We are at the end of a long journey. Jacob is returning to Bethel. And he hasn't been there for 30 years as he had deceived his father and received the blessing from Isaac and then fled from Esau, his brother, under Rebekah's instruction and gone to Paddan Aram.

And then all those years, 20 years, he had returned and come back to the land, wrestled with God. You know the story. And then had gone to Sukkoth and was there it seems about eight years or so and then came to Shechem.

However, those years fell out. He's about ten years back in the area, but hasn't come back to Bethel. And that is the place that God called him to. He's kind of come halfway. He's come to Shechem and he's building an altar there.

This is what God said. God called him back to Bethel. He called him back to where he first appeared to him. God identified himself in Paddan Aram as the God of Bethel. And Jacob had kind of shown a half-hearted obedience, you know, partial submission, as it were.

And that's like a half-truth. The half-truth is a regular old lie. And partial obedience is not obedience. Not if Jesus is to be the Lord of our lives. And again, you know Christians like that. So do I.

They happen just to be somewhere they shouldn't be. They happen to be in a place they should not be. And then sometimes pandemonium breaks place. They are either spiritually or emotionally or sexually or one way or another in a place they just should not be in.

And God begins to allow things to fall apart. And sure enough for Jacob, his daughter is raped there in Shechem and Simeon and Levi end up in a bloodbath in the town. And now finally Jacob is coming back to his senses.

He is desperate. He feels at this point in time those in the land of Canaan will pursue him and kill him. And all of this has brought back to his mind when he had fled from Esau. And he remembered in his fear that God had met him there at Bethel.

And when God had met him there, he had put his heart to rest. And how often it seems that you and I get in a situation where we are being called back to our first love. And here the Bible says to us, he who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

God saying, I have someone against you that you've left your first love. Remember the first works. And from whence thou art fallen, repent. And Jacob now is at that place. He's coming back to Bethel. And you know, it's because God is faithful.

God will not allow us. If we take a detour or we go AWOL for a while and then we're coming back to the Lord, he will never let us settle for something less than we've already had. He's calling Jacob back to Bethel.

That is the highest experience that Jacob has had so far in his relationship with the Lord is the most wonderful experience. It's a place of dream and a place of reality. A place where God had revealed himself to Jacob and pronounced the blessing that he had made to Abraham upon him.

And God is not content to let Jacob settle for some other thing, though Jacob probably would. No, God now is drawing him back to the highest place that he's known, that he might take him on from there.

And he's bringing him back to Bethel. And that is where we pick up the story. And it says here, God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau, thy brother.

Now, there's an interesting thing in the grammar here. It tells us first that God spoke to Jacob. So he's initiating. The Lord is initiating. But then as we read the verse, it seems to be interpreted to us as a thought that Jacob's having.

Arise, go up to Bethel and build an altar there to the God who appeared to you at the first. And we almost get Jacob's thought, you know, it's God that's prompting his heart and it's God that's drawing him.

But it appears then that Jacob has this thought. Let's go back to Bethel and build there an altar to the God who appeared to me when I was fleeing from Esau, the God who covered me and cared for me when I was fleeing from my life in the past, the same God.

So, God initiating Jacob now, having in his heart to come back to Bethel. And Jacob said unto his household, to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that are among you. Be clean and change your garments and let us arise and go up to Bethel.

And I will make there an altar unto God who answered me in the day of my distress. Jacob remembering. And was with me in the way which I went. So, good advice, I think. Sometimes when we find ourselves in a situation where we feel, and I say we feel because we base so much of our faith on feelings.

Faith is not a feeling. But sometimes we feel far away from the Lord. We feel that we're in a dry place. We feel that we're far from Him. And we ask, how do I get back? How do I get back? It's almost as though God has moved from Philmont Avenue down to Bybury Road and we've lost track of Him.

And how do I find Him again? And it really again is not a geographical problem at all. It isn't that really that's put a distance between Jacob and God. The reason that he has not come back to Bethel is the same reason that he feels a distance from God.

And it's because in his heart, he had put other things above the Word of God in his life. And that's idolatry. And not only that, no doubt Rachel who stole the gods from Laban has been that kind of an influence on the family because it says, put away the strange gods, plural, from among you, plural.

And it's going to tell us they took their gods. So, idolatry has crept into Jacob's family though he had built an altar there in Shechem. His own sons and daughters and possibly still Rachel involved with idolatry.

And God now challenging him. The way back is threefold. First, and it is for us too by the way, if you feel at a distance. First of all, get rid of all the strange gods. Be clean and change your garments.

And the same thing can happen to us. Many of the marriages that come in and are struggling that we counsel, really the baseline of the problem is idolatry. It's because the husband is saying, well, I'm not going to act like a Christian man unless this woman that God gave me and can take if he wants to, straightens up and submits to me the way, you know, the church has submitted to.

You know, and the problem is he's responding on the horizontal instead of the vertical. He's not saying, Lord, how do I love this unlovable woman? Lord, how do I be an encouragement? Lord, how do I stop being the Holy Spirit and be who you want me to be?

He's responding this way instead of responding this way. And then it becomes idolatry. It becomes a false altar, a false idol. I'm not going to act like a Christian man unless circumstances, that's the idol, work out the way I want them to.

Instead of acting the way that Jesus wants us to act regardless of the circumstances around us in our life. And the same thing goes on the part of the wife. Or the same thing goes on the part of a single person.

You know, they've been in love with someone. They've been dating something. And all of a sudden they find out that person is dating somebody else. And that's it. They're ready to get a hammer and sneak up behind them and let them have it on the Maxwell silver hammer.

Bang, bang, you know, on the back of the head. And that's it, Lord. You know, I'm back like a Christian long and all. And I stayed pure. And I did this. Now they ran off with this floozy. And I've had it.

You know, if I catch them in a dark alley, their name is mud. And besides that, Lord, don't talk to me till this is all straightened out. If you really love me, you told me. You told me this was going to be the one.

You Indian giver. You know, I think we hear God saying things sometimes that we want to hear Him say. Or it can be a job or it can be some other thing. It becomes so important in our life that when that particular circumstance doesn't work out this way, we find ourselves acting in a way that is contrary to scripture.

Idolatry, Abortion, and the Call to Put Away False Gods

Now, of course, see, we don't worship little statues anymore. We don't we don't have the gods of Molech and Baal and those kind of things. But certainly our society is an idolatrous society. We don't worship Molech.

They sacrifice their children in the fire. But again, we sacrificed 34 million babies in the last 20 years to abortion, to to lust many of them. And we don't worship Baal, the god of fire and lightning and water, but we watch the Discovery Channel and a lot of people in our country are tree huggers and they worship the creation more than the creator.

Like it says in Romans chapter one, how many of us worship Mammon? Not any of these, the little I little statue. But if we want to come back to the Lord, put away the strange gods. What has been the thing that has kept you from open fellowship with them or has taken you into rebellion or made you go AWOL or made you be somewhere where you shouldn't be?

Get rid of that. When he says I am the Lord thy God, I will have no other gods before me. It doesn't mean I want to be number one. God is if you have number two, God, number three, God, number four. God, that's up to you.

But I want any other gods before me in line. That's not what it says. He says I will have no other gods. The Hebrew phrase before me means in my presence there will be no other gods before me. As in all the place that I can see in my presence and within my vision, I will have no other gods before me.

So put away the strange gods. Be clean. And the Bible says that you are clean through the word that I have spoken to you. Remember, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed unto thy word, O Lord.

Come back to God's word and change your garments. You know, remember that Jesus Christ has paid the price. He's given us righteousness. He has. We are clothed with Christ. And the Bible says put on the Lord Jesus Christ, that there is a righteousness that is imputed to us, that we are clothed with, you know, and all of that had to do with our first love.

I mean, when we first got saved, that was the simple thing that blew our mind, that we were forgiven. We're tired of carrying our burden of sin. We're tired of whatever we had in the world that was our God.

And then Christ saved us. And it was a wonder to get rid of that weight. And it seems somehow as Christians as the years go on, we kind of pick up little weights and put them back on our back again. And then sometimes we're saying, Lord, how do I get back?

Well, this is not a franchise here. We don't want to patent this and write a book and send it out. But I think there's some good, simple advice here. Get rid of your strange gods. Be clean. Change your garments.

And Jacob says, let's go up to Bethel. Verse 4 says, They gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand and all their earrings. The idea is there are amulets. God is not opposed to earrings which were in their ears.

And Jacob hid them or buried them under the oak, which is by Shechem. And they journeyed. And the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them. They did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

Now, how remarkable. You know, here's Jacob. The very thing he's terrified of is the Canaanites are going to pursue him. But as soon as he gets rid of the strange gods, as soon as he brings his life back in line with God, God puts his terror on his enemies and no one pursues after them.

You know, the Bible tells us that when a man's ways please the Lord, he can make even his enemies to be at peace with him. The Bible says that. And so many times we get in a situation where we've got to face the boss on Monday.

I've got to face my wife. I've got to face my husband. I've got to face my aunt or my grandmother, you know. And we find that if we just get on our knees and say, oh, Lord, please, just calm this person down.

I can already hear the speech I'm going to get. I know what they're going to say, Lord. Just give me favor, Lord. And how many times we find it rolls out in such a smooth way because when our ways please Him, how He's able to do that.

And now He's able to keep the enemy away from us. And again, so many Christians act like, you know, the devil is some kind of boogeyman. You know, he's getting me. Oh, I decide to serve Christ and now things are so hard.

Now he's jumping on me. Now he's doing this. Now he's got my wife. He's got my kids. Now, look, there is warfare. And the Bible is clear about it. There's much to say about it in the Scripture. And there are forces of darkness.

But all of that is under the government of God. We are blood-bought, sealed with the Spirit. The evil one comes. He touches us not. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Almighty.

And let's not give the enemy more press than he deserves. Is he involved in our lives? Yes. Not him personally, but one of his minions. When I'm having a difficult time in my life or again, I'm on the way to children's hospital with one of my kids.

I'm sure that the devil doesn't say, oh, you know, the foetuses are having a really hard time. You know, let's just kind of leave off of them till they get over this. You know, I enjoy a fair fight and they've been having a hard time lately.

You know, the enemy doesn't do that. He keeps it on when things are tough. But for me to understand what percentage of any situation is warfare is ridiculous. I don't know. The important thing I do know is who my Lord and Savior is, who my Shepherd is, who my King is.

It doesn't matter anymore who my enemy is. It matters who my King is and who my Lord is. And He will only allow that which I'm able to bear to come. And that to perfect us, to mature us. Jacob now sees the hand of God.

The very thing he was afraid of. The enemies are now pushed aside and Jacob is moving through the midst and the fear of God is upon them. And Jacob came to Luz. Interesting, that was the original name of this area, Bethel.

Luz means departure. And that's where he had journeyed from. Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan. That is Bethel. He and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar and called the place El Bethel because there God appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his brother.

Now, there's an interesting thing that's taking place here. Jacob is not just returning to Bethel, which is the house of God. Jacob now returns, builds an altar, and calls it El Bethel or the God of the house of God.

He isn't just returning to a sacred place or a sacred monument. And how many people on Sunday come to the house of God? They don't come to the God of the house of God. They come to the house of God. They come there because it feels good.

Or they come there to get a blessing. Or maybe they go to a dead church because it's a routine. And my grandmother did it, my mother did it, and I'm going to do it. You know, they go to the house of God for years.

I went to the house of God. I didn't go to the God of the house of God. But I went to the house of God. And Jacob now has realized something. Not just coming to Bethel, but to El Bethel, to the God of the house of God.

It's the same thing with reading the Scripture. It isn't just the Word of God. It's the God of the Word also. We come to the Word of God so that we might walk with the God of the Word. In my own life, sometimes I get so involved with the work of God, I lose track of the God of the work.

And there's a point here. Jacob's heart now is being warmed and renewed and strengthened in a way that he hadn't realized. He's learned an incredible lesson. Now, it's been a 30 year trial. Those are two phrases I do not like to put together.

Thirty years and trial. Jacob now is realizing something. Building an altar to the God of Bethel. Now, it inserts this interesting note. We can speculate why. It just says, Deborah, Rebekah's nurse. Now, Rebekah died while Jacob was in Padnerim.

He would never see her again. And he was, remember, his mother's son. Evidently, when Jacob left for Padnerim, Rebekah sent her nurse that Laban had given to her. Back in chapter 24, I believe it says that Laban gave to her maids and a nurse.

Now, it's telling us she must be ancient by now. This woman, Deborah, who had been Rebekah's nurse, no doubt had gone with Jacob. And when he went to Padnerim, Rebekah giving her to him to help care for him.

Or somehow, she's hooked up with him. I don't know. It's a mystery to me. All of a sudden, this note is inserted that Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died. Why? How? And it is really interesting. I don't know.

She was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak. And the name of it was called Alan Bakuth. That is, the Oak of Weeping. So certainly there is a breaking with the past in the life of Jacob. We can at least see that.

Things that have been part of his past now are falling away as he is rediscovering his God. And it says, God appeared unto Jacob again when he came out of Padnerim and blessed him. Isn't this interesting?

Jacob's been back in the area for 10 years, in Sukkoth and in Shechem. And God has not considered him back from Padnerim until he comes to Bethel. Because God spoke to him over 10 years before this when he was in Padnerim and said to Jacob, I'm the God of Bethel, and called him to return to him.

And in all those years, Jacob had not returned to Bethel. Now finally, he gets to Bethel. And then it says, God appeared to him when he had returned then out of Padnerim. Interesting. All those years.

10 years. Again, I'm reminded in the book of Hebrews 11, as you're reading there the Hall of Faith and you read the life of Moses, it says, by faith they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land. The next verse says, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down.

And I think, what happened to the 40 years between those verses? You know, by faith they passed through the Red Sea. By faith the walls of Jericho. Meantime, a whole generation passed away. Meantime, they wandered in the wilderness.

Meantime, 40 years, God doesn't bother to remember between the verses. And I think, you know, when we get to heaven and we get there for our rewards, what kind of gaps will there be? You know, Jophos, here's the day you got saved.

Here's the day you got here. You know, what happened, you know? Now, I'm sure the children of Israel, we're gonna be glad that there are some gaps in our life. You know what I mean? I mean, when we read about Abraham in Hebrews 11, God doesn't bother to tell us.

Oh yeah, he went down to Egypt, told his wife, Telferi, or my sister. None of that's there. Those gaps are erased. I appreciate that greatly. So I'd rather have big gaps than complete information when I show up in heaven.

You know what I mean? I'm glad Jesus has taken all of that away. But it's interesting, God doesn't consider him back from Padnerim until he gets to Bethel. Doesn't recognize those 10 years. And God said unto him, you're still Jacob.

Thy name shall not be called anymore Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And God called his name Israel. Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee and kings shall come out of thee.

There is no word of rebuke here. There is no, Jacob, now you're going to have to take a second seat to some of the other saints we're gonna write about in Scripture. There is no, Jacob, you're gonna have to settle for second best.

There's none of that even indicated here. Because God had made the covenant and God had called him and God had been faithful and God had really shepherded him at the end of Jacob's life. When we see him getting ready to prophesy over his sons in the end of the book of Genesis, Jacob will talk about the Lord that fed him.

And the Hebrew is, the Lord who shepherded me. And as he looks back over his life, he realizes in all his hardheadedness and all his wanderings in Padnerim and his fleeing from Esau and his mistakes at Sukkoth and Eshechem and finally coming up in all of those years, God had been faithful to him.

And the 12 tribes of Israel had been produced in his hardheadedness and in his rebellion. And God took advantage of the difficult years that he went through to work out his own plan for the nation of Israel, for the history of the world.

God took advantage of the fact that he had worked seven years for Rachel and he woke up in the morning after his wedding night and Leah was laying next to him. And she was the mother of Judah, the Messiah would come from.

She was the mother of Levi, that the Levites and Aaron would come from. And all that seemed turmoil and all that seemed mistakes, there comes a point of hindsight in the life of Jacob where he looks back and he says, the Lord that shepherded me.

And I think David in his old age picks up on the same idea. The Lord is my shepherd. And I believe he wrote that in his old age. I shall lack no good thing. And you know, the longer I go on with Christ again, the more I appreciate that.

I read that psalm and it's probably my favorite psalm. And you get excited about it, you know, and you teach it to the little kids in Sunday school in their garden, don't worry, I can't bear it, I can't, I'm not wanting to be, and you know, they don't have any idea what they're talking about.

And it's wonderful to you because He has shepherded you and led you beside the still water and He's been with you in the valley of deepest darkness, you know, and all of a sudden, this is filled with wonder in hindsight and we teach it to the little kids and they really don't know.

It's like, again, it's like the wedding day when I have the bride and groom in front of me and they say richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse. I'm glad we have it on video now.

We have proof that they said those things because as the years go by, those terms all of a sudden start to define themselves. And they're saying, did I say that? Richer and poorer, better and worse, you know, in sickness and in health.

And all of a sudden those words begin to define themselves. And I think the shepherd psalm is like that. And I think for Jacob in his old age, as he looked back, he saw the wonder of the tapestry of God in his life and God's faithfulness and God's weaving and shepherding and God's care.

And at this point, there is no rebuke from God. There is no calling Jacob a second class citizen. I am the God Almighty. That's El Shaddai, the God that appeared to Abraham. He's bringing the fullness of the blessing like he said he would.

Be fruitful and multiply a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee and kings shall come out of thy loins and the land which I gave unto Abraham and to Isaac, to thee I will give it. To thy seed after thee will I give the land.

And God went up from him. Imagine that. God's talking to him all of a sudden. God goes, that's what it means. He ascends out of his sight. God went up from him in the place where he, God, talked with him.

What a wonder. I mean, just imagine this. And this guy's been a swindler. You know, we love Jacob because we think, boy, if God will talk to him, he'll talk to me too. You know, God will talk to David and he committed adultery and committed murder and God loved him.

God can love me too. If God loves Peter who had foot and mouth disease his whole life, God can love me too. Chop people's ears off. And you know, it's remarkable to see and think what it's saying here.

God Almighty, Yahweh God appears, appears to him and talks to him. And has a conversation. And when he's done, he goes up. He goes up. When he was done talking, Jacob set up a pillar in that place where he talked with him.

Even a pillar of stone. And he poured a drink offering thereon and he poured oil thereon. Now this is consecration. Jacob is coming to the point where his life is becoming consecrated to the purposes of God.

How wonderful God's faithfulness is. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel. And they journeyed from Bethel. There was but a little way to come to Ephrath or Ephrathah which is Bethlehem, the house of bread.

Rachel’s Death, Reuben’s Sin, and the Legacy of Jacob

And Rachel travailed and had hard labor. Now, Jacob is 105 years old at this point in time. Which means that Rachel got pregnant when he was 104. She is in hard labor, travailing. No OBGYN, no nurses on the side of the road.

And it came to pass when she was in hard labor that the midwife said under her, fear not, thou shalt have this son also. Now, no doubt she's hemorrhaging on the side of the road. She's bleeding. And she is in hard labor.

The nursemaid trying to encourage her. No medical help. It came to pass as her soul was departing, Rachel's, for she died. That she called his name Ben-Onai, the son of my sorrow. What his father, Jacob, called him Benjamin, the twelfth son now, the twelfth tribe.

Son of my right hand. And Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrathah which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave. That is the pillar of Rachel's grave and Moses says unto this day.

Unto the day that he was writing. And notice this now. Israel, no longer Jacob. Israel journeyed and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar which is the tower of the flock down below Bethlehem. And it came to pass when Israel dwelled in the land that Reuben, his oldest son, went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine.

And Israel, Jacob, Israel heard it. Now, the sons of Jacob were twelve. Now, Reuben forfeiting the birthright and the blessing going into his father's concubine. The sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin. And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, were Dan and Naphtali. And the sons of Zilphah, Leah's handmaid, were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob which were born to him in Paddan Aram.

That is, except for Benjamin. They were born along the way. And Jacob came to Isaac, his father, unto Mamre, unto the city of Arba, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac journeyed. And I imagine the first time that Jacob sees Isaac, Isaac doesn't see Jacob.

He was blind 30 years before this. Jacob must be remembering, the last time I saw Dad was with goat hair on my neck and my hands. There was a sourness between us even when he sent me away to Paddan Aram knowing that I had deceived him.

And what a remarkable thing, after 30 years, now coming back and seeing Isaac again. Now, Isaac will live on into the events in chapter 37 about 12 more years. Jacob comes to him in Mamre into the city of Arba.

Verse 28,. And the days of Isaac were 180 years. And Isaac gave up the ghost and died and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days, I'll say. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. They're 120 years old at this point.

Twins. Now, 36. Don't worry. I'm not going to read it all. Chapter 36 traces for us the lineage of Esau and places it in there. Esau, in one sense, becomes a perennial enemy of Israel. Edom. We'll read part of it.

It says, These are the generations of Esau who is Edom. Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan. Adah, daughter of Elan, the Hittite. Aholabama, what a name. You know, honey, I have this name book.

What do you think we should call her? You know, I was thinking Aholabama. That's a funny thing. It's the same thing I was thinking. What a cute name. Aholabama, the daughter of Anna, the daughter of Zibion, the Hivite.

Bezimuth, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nabijoth. Nadah, baron to Esau, Iliphaz. And some wonder if it's the Iliphaz from Job. I don't think so. My personal conviction is Job is written about a generation that lived much earlier.

Bezimuth, Ber-Ruel. And Aholabama, Ber-Jahash, and Jahalam, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau which were born unto him in the land of Canaan. And Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters and this is important information, and all the persons of his house and his cattle and all his beasts and all his substance which he had gotten in the land of Canaan and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob, because their riches were more than they might dwell together and the land where they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle.

Thus dwelt Esau in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom. It's telling us that Esau moved east of the Jordan River down by the Dead Sea, that area where Petra is today. That that was the area that Esau moved to with his generations.

And then it tells us, these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir. Again, you can read through them on your own. Amalek is mentioned there in verse 12. Moses notes that because he struggles with Amalek there in Exodus 17, I believe.

Verse 14, these are the sons of Aholabama. You read through those. Verse 15 starts to talk about the dukes of Hazzard there. Read through there. The duke of this, the duke of Korah, the duke of this, the duke of that.

Verse 17, these are the sons of Reuel. Verse 18, these are the sons of Aholabama, Esau's wife, and more dukes there. Verse 20, these are the sons of Seir, the Horite, who inhabited the land of Lodom and Shobel and Zibion and Anna.

And we're taking his lineage and we're taking note there is no mention of the Lord through this lineage. There is no mention of... so the Lord led, so the Lord blessed, so the Lord opened the womb. No mention of it as we go through.

Verse 31, notice now, these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom. There he's talking about the kings that came forth from Esau. And then as we get back down to verse 40, he starts to speak about the dukes again.

And finally, in verse 43, it says there, these be the dukes of Edom according to their habitations in the land of their possession. He is Esau, the father of the Edomites, and Jacob, in contrast, dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan.

Esau’s Earthly Kingdom and Jacob’s Pilgrim Faith

So it takes us through this remarkable lineage of Esau, making the point that his lineage became dukes and chiefs of tribes and kings. They made their home in this world. They settled in. They built their kingdom in this world.

They built their life in this world. And they are a type of the flesh as Esau was. And we come back to Jacob again. It says Jacob dwelt in the land where his father Abraham was a stranger. Dwelling in the land of promise as a stranger.

Because they looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. They looked for a place that kept them from settling. And again, remember Abraham with the tent and the altar. The tent defining his relationship to this world.

And the altar defining his relationship to the next world. And remarkably now, it comes to Jacob and it says these are the generations of Jacob when Joseph was 17 years old. Then it gives us 13 chapters on one person.

You know, here we are looking at the dukes of Hazard, you know, and here in the chapter before are all the earthly kings and chiefs and dukes and all their names. When we get to Jacob, these are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph being about 17 years old. That's all it says. And then 13 chapters on Joseph. One guy. Because this is the transition and the remarkable work of God and one of the most wondrous stories in all of the Scripture where God will move this young man down into Egypt through horrendous circumstances to preserve his lineage and to form a nation in Egypt of millions.

And no doubt as they're there to teach them agriculture and writing and science and geometry and to bring them out with great riches and to lead them through the wilderness and to make of them a nation.

This is the transition. This young 17 year old man. We begin the record of his life. Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph being 17 years old was feeding the flock with his brethren. And the way it's written here that he was feeding the flock, it seems to indicate that he was kind of the preeminent one there. He was shepherding the flock or in charge of the flock with his brethren.