Genesis 35 The first revival!

Most times the first example is the best. This is the first revival in the Bible. The rest of them all have the same structure, but teach different things we have forgotten or have messed up that have caused this struggle that God is putting on us so we will come back to him. He always answers if we truly obey. I believe the size and power is all about the number of people that will agree, obey and how serious we really are. All these start with one, or a few hearts that give in with everything and it can turn into all and then it will start reaching outside of the original group. Our reward could be something like Pentecost! Thousands of people saved in our community! One is worth it though. I believe our only limit to this is our love for God/obedience, and our desire to disciple others in this/loving your neighbor. We will see if everyone really cares most for the two greatest commands of the Bible. God really enjoys using normal people! We are all normal to God! So no excuses! Anyone can choose to obey!

1God 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." As we ended Genesis 34, Jacob’s sons had withheld mercy and forgiveness on a people trying to conform to God. Is there any greater sin that this? Christ said, better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around your neck than keep someone from him! Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2 The solution started with “arise and go”! Everything with God starts with us obeying. If we choose to obey he is helping. If we choose to disobey he is not. When we choose to disobey he is always trying to restore fellowship thru loving discipline which can be as tough as HE chooses. This is how he can be with us always, but against us at the same time. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? 1 Cor 4:21 It took losing the most important thing ever, before I finally understood this! God is hoping you are not as slow to feel the rod that we are getting right now! There should be our only two concerns in life with every breath we take. Am I choosing to obey God or am I choosing to do this my way/disobey. He begs us, but never forces us to obey him! We first choose to obey Christ and are saved! After that, if we choose to break fellowship, it is only restored when we repent and start obeying again. These two choices are the basics for all revival and the basics for every single story in the bible.

Second thing is where he told Jacob to go. Bethel means “House of God”. Yep, God said the first revival would start when Jacob got his tail back to God’s house (church) where he first appeared/spoke to him and DWELL there. 4 times a year because your Mom made you feel guilty does not count! Ain’t your Mom making you feel guilty anyway! Better than zero times a year though! It does not get much simpler than this does it? I fought seriously getting back in church for much longer than most would believe possible. I made every excuse I could to people that cared enough to invite me to go back. After making enough excuses why I quit visiting God’s house, I even started to believe I didn’t need to go back. As someone that has really made a ton of excuses, I would like to address some you are already running thru your head.

I needed to get back in church because my best example, Jesus, was always there. Jesus is the head of the church. Why be head of something people don’t need? When his parents were looking for him he said they should have known where he was. Now this one hits me hard. If someone asked where I was two years ago, church would have been there last guess! Where would people guess you are? It is a lie of the devil that I was not supposed to be in church, and often, but was my fault for believing it.

Most of the New Testament are letters written to the churches to instruct them. God sure wasted his time if church is not vital? I am to be taught about these letters at church. Moses read and taught the law that God wrote to everyone during their assemblies. Deut 4:13-14 Church is for helping to stir up love and good works by encouraging each other, not forsaking the assembling together, as is the habit of some, and even more often as time goes by. Hebrews 10:24-25 That is a command, meaning not a debatable topic, but once I started going and actually serving I wanted more! I’ve already thought about Jesus spent time by himself too, that was only for short times to focus more on God. “I have Christ in me”, I do not need to be in church? If you have that good of a relationship, God would like you to come and teach some of us people that struggle. The need for more teachers is actually in the other revivals. If you got it down come help make disciples!

Sabbath is holy and is a commandment also. Anything you do that keeps you from his assembly or forsakes his Sabbath is an idol! Work, play, tired, lazy, stubborn, drunk, all the same. You have made it more important and placed it higher. God the Father created a house for us to come and worship at (make an alter). He is the one to be feared! It is time we remember this! We meet together to worship our savior! For where two or three are gathered in his name, there am I among them. Matthew 18:20 Surely this is not a hard one? If you are not sure how important this is the other 12 revivals talk about his house too. God never ever says come after you do what you need to do either!

If you have been harmed in some way you can’t expect God to forgive you, if you won’t come back home and forgive those that harmed you. He loves them too and you would be teaching big time forgiveness then! Be a teacher!

I can keep this up, but it is simply a sin to avoid church! The bottom line was I knew I would be spoken to in his house and I did not want to hear from him right then! I was busy figuring all this out on my own and I would do anything to not feel convicted of my sinful lifestyle. If I ignore him maybe he will go away? I pray you lose this fight! It is time to get all our tails back in church and serve and worship the one true God that saved our life! No church is perfect. It can’t be, it is full of sinners! I do know of a few that do their best to accomplish the role of the church as Paul stated in Hebrews 10 so no excuses. I can suggest some if you would like. I do this to take any doubt away that not going is wrong and if you don’t start back you are choosing to ignore God not me. That means broken fellowship with God! Your call. Last thing, I started asking myself, where is a better place to be than in God’s house? I can’t figure out a logical debate for that one. There is not a better place!

2So 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. Listen up men, as the head of the household you are responsible for this! If Dad ain’t in church or making me be there, why should I go? That is what our children are thinking. If you love your kids you will make them go to church WITH you! Lady’s you are still responsible too, but as the head of the household I apologize, we have let God and you down! It is going to change! After his household he shares with all. God’s word is same for all! We need to conform to it, not make it conform to us. Bible is very clear about teaching and being fruitful. If the seed isn’t growing, we are doing something wrong. Put away all other gods – this is the first commandment for a reason. If we can’t get this one right we don’t have a chance. He has to be most important. Love him first and with everything -- If something else is stopping you, fix it.

Clean/Purify yourselves – ask for forgiveness and accept it, repent and stop sinning. Once saved you did not get a pass on not asking every day to be forgiven for that day’s sin. And yes, we sin every day. This is actually being obedient. God knows you will mess up and just wants you fess up. When you don’t, human guilt builds and broken fellowship with God.

Change garments – Be different than the world. Allow him to change you. Adam and Eve tried to cloth themselves but God has to do that thru a blood sacrifice Genesis 3:21 – clothes, name whatever it takes, the changed garments is the spirit filled life that people can see and the example Christ left us – still begging us for this in Rev. 3. Listen up, if people can’t see this change you are doing something wrong!

This is a heart issue. I have tried to half do this and it never works. He knows. You know. Everyone else knows too. It is a waste of time and we are lying to God. That is a poor plan. Putting it off is just as bad. This may hurt a bit, but not as bad as us not doing it and you can’t image the joy after. John 16:16-24 explains this.

3Then 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." Let “US” arise and go, seed spreading, build and alter to the God who answers in our distress and is always there! We are hurting. All of us or we see people that are. Jesus is the only solution. We have run God off. If we will cry out with all our heart he always answers. At this point in our separation we have to really mean it. And that goes for all of us. Genesis 28:10-22 is actually when God first revealed himself in a dream to Jacob.

4So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem. All obeyed and gave up foreign gods and materialistic stuff, hid it under/at the base of a tree. Sinful items under a tree – the cross – pretty cool how often he speaks of his son taking our sins whenever we will give them to him.

5And 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. After obeying and repenting and allowing God to change his garments his greatest worry was resolved. A lot of obeying before he fixes some of our biggest concerns. Not only did the other nations “not” destroy him, but they were terrified of him! Not because he was special, but because he had God with him because he simply obeyed. He went before them to protect so they didn’t have to fight. It’s about time we learn to fear him again, this is the only way we will ever obey him and that is for our own good. Deut 6:24

6And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him, This is another cool name change. Luz = almond tree. It would have already been a beautiful and important place, but was nothing and useless to God until changed to Bethel (House of God). No matter how great the world thinks something is, it’s nothing without being useful to God!

7and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. God sent Jacob back to where he had revealed himself to him before – we can’t be afraid of going back to be able to move forward – we have forgot so much or more shamefully never learned it to start with -- we need to allow his spirit to teach us as children again.

8And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth. Following/obeying God is tough! He never said it wasn’t, but promises it is worth it! This is where many would just quit. God says that easy love is worthless! Anyone can do that!

9God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. Crazy how when I returned to his house and started obeying more often, he appeared/spoke again. Thing is, he was always saying get back in church! I just was ignoring him. Why would he say anything else if I would not do the first one? Would you bless someone that never did anything you asked? If Jacob had refused he would not have kept helping. Glad he did!

10And 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. God appeared to him again and blessed him. How did he bless him? Changed his name to Israel – gave him a new start – once we get back in fellowship thru repenting and obeying he will continue to reveal more of himself to us thru his spirit. I still have tons of things to improve on, but I feel these changes and it is not changes we can do on our own!

11And 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. Sure, this is talking of physically multiplying on earth, like most in my Sunday school class are blessed at. lol God is more concerned with multiplying his kingdom though.

12 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." God will give them the promise land and even to their children. If we get right with God our children benefit greatly for this. They learn from us, we have let them down and we will be held accountable for this. Never too late to correct our mistakes!

13Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. 14And 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. Jacob poured out a drink offering and poured oil on it. Finished it and gave all. The spirit is described this way many times. The spirit is our ultimate reward. Jesus said he had to leave so something greater could come. The spirit now lives in us, do not be mistaken though, we can break fellowship with him too. Flesh and spirit war against each other, we must listen to the spirit and do opposite of our human nature.

15So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel. If you haven’t ever been spoken to in God’s house you ain’t listen!

16Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. 17And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, "Do not fear, for you have another son." 18And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), 20and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day. This is the second person to die on the trip God sent him on, but Jacob never stopped obeying. Listen, obeying God does not equal easy. Awfully easy to question him when it gets hard, huh? This does show that if you are willing to do anything he will finish what he promises. This was the 12th tribe, the completion of the nation of Israel. God finished what he promised Abraham! Bottom line is when it gets tough, and it will, do you really love enough to love even when it hurts? All this struggle and still showing future glory with first reference to Bethlehem.

21Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. I like how his name change to Israel makes me think of an entire nation when heard. One man’s obedience fathered an entire nation. Jesus did something like that, huh? Would be nice if people thought of God when they heard of America as when founded?

22While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. 23The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. 24The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. 25The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant: Dan and Naphtali. 26The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.
27And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. All this and finally back to his father’s fellowship! :)

28Now the days of Isaac were 180 years. 29And 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.

This is pretty simple. Get back in church and if you are there go tell everyone that isn’t. I keep hearing people complain about the state of this world. Well it is our fault that it is getting worse! Evil does not win on this kind of scale if God’s people are obeying. This is what God said to do for his first revival. Jesus is our only solution to any problem and we better start acting like we really believe that! God is awesome! :)

I love you cause Jesus loves us both and there is absolutely nothing you can do about that!

BEZ