Address—B. Graham
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Like you to turn with me, if you will, to Genesis.
Genesis chapter 28 to begin with.
Genesis 28.
Have upon my heart particularly.
The House of God.
And.
God's ways of grace with men, with us.
With our hearts.
And.
Jacob was a man like us.
I should say, perhaps we're men very much as Jacob was.
And our needs are very much the same as his. And so as we look into Jacob's life, I trust we shall see something of God's ways with ourselves.
Because we are so much like him.
We'll read from verse 10 of this chapter. Genesis 28, verse 10.
Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Heron.
There's another name given to that place is Pedan Arum. We'll be reading that name several times this afternoon.
And he Jacob, lighted upon a certain place, and tarried their all night, because the sun was set.
And he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows.
And lay down in that place to sleep.
And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.
And behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it.
And said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac.
The land whereon thou liest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed, and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the West to.
The East.
North to the South.
And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places, whether thou goest.
And will bring thee again into this land.
For I will not leave thee.
Until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.
And Jacob awaked from his sleep and he said.
Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not.
And he was afraid.
And said, How dreadful is this place? This is none other but the House of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows.
And set it up for a pillar.
And poured oil upon the top of it.
And he called the name of that place Bethel.
The House of God.
But the name of that city was called Luz at the 1St.
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying.
If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace.
Then shall the Lord be my God.
And the stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house.
And of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the 10 unto thee.
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Jacob was a man who had decided ideas about things.
He had ideas about what he wanted and he had ideas about how to go about to get what he wanted.
And his ways of going about getting what he wanted were not usually the very best in the world.
He cheated.
He extorted.
He deceived.
He used every kind of tactic that nature could devise in order to get what he wanted.
He extorted his brother's birthright.
Took advantage of his situation.
He deceived their blind father twice as to who he was into thinking that he was his brother.
In order to steal his brothers blessing.
And many other things.
As we look into Jacob's history here in this chapter.
He's fleeing from the face of his brother Esau.
Who had threatened to kill him?
And so he's flying to his.
Mother's brother.
Laban, who lived in Haran or Peyton Arum.
Where he would remain for more than two decades.
Absent from his house, from his parents, and from his brother, where he would obtain 2 wives to concubine and have a number of his children there, and to amass a fortune of cattle, sheep, and so on.
And as we look into his history, he's on his way to that place.
And he comes across this place in the evening where we read of.
And the sun has set.
I think the Spirit of God puts that little note in there that the sun has set to show us that morally it was.
A time of great darkness in Jacob's history, and it was indeed perhaps the lowest point.
And he goes to sleep using one of the stones or some of the stones for a pillow.
Lies down and goes to sleep and he has a dream.
A ladder set up on the earth whose top reaches to heaven.
He sees the angels of God ascending and descending upon it.
And the Lord standing above it over all things.
And the Lord has a word for Jacob.
He identifies himself as the Lord God of Abraham, his father, and the God of his father, Isaac.
And then the Lord proceeds.
To in sovereign grace.
Promises unconditionally.
That he would give this land to Jacob.
Why would he choose such a vessel to give such blessings to or make such promises to?
God is sovereign. Has he picked you up? Are you saved? Are you a child of God? A sovereign grace? You and I are no better than anybody else. You and I are no better than Jacob. There isn't any more reason why he should have picked us up than he did pick Jacob up.
That's a lesson for us to learn. But Jacob has that same lesson to learn. God is picking him up for no good reason except it pleased God. He says I'm going to give this land to you that you're lying on, and I'm going to give it to your seed too.
And not only that, but your seed is going to multiply greatly like the dust of the earth.
And your children will spread abroad from the top to the bottom of the land, from the West to the east.
You're going to fill the land.
And not only that, Jacob, but I'm going to bless in you and in your seed.
All the nations of the earth.
Everybody.
Now all of this is committed as promised.
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Without exacting anything from Jacob, no strings attached. It's God acting in sovereign grace.
Well then he goes on and speaks as to Jacob personally and he says.
I am with you.
And he says, I will keep you wherever you go. I'm going to take care of you, Jacob. You're special.
He's manifesting His love to this vessel of His mercy.
And he's going to bring him again to that land where he now was.
And he said, I will not leave thee.
Not a precious promise.
Jacob had that promise from God that he would never leave him. We have that too, you know.
In Hebrews we read that the Lord says, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
The Lord is faithful and He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He never changes.
If He has picked us up, it's forever, and if He's with us, it's forever. As we were reminded yesterday, though, we're conscious of His personal presence with us only if we're walking with Him in obedience to His precious Word.
But it won't leave us.
Not until he has done all that he has spoken.
Not one syllable of God's promises or His word will ever fail. They'll come about.
There may be difficulties along the way before they do, and it may be a long time coming.
But it's coming.
The promise of the blessing of all nations in Jacob and his seed. That hasn't happened yet.
This is many, many years ago and it's been 2000 years since the Lord Jesus was here on earth and it still hasn't been accomplished.
It's the millennial Kingdom that God has promised to Jacob and his seed. It's in the Millennium, the thousand year Kingdom, when all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed in Jacob and his seed.
Israel will be the head nation of all the countries of the earth.
But all the Gentile nations will be blessed under them on Jewish ground.
When Israel's God and King reigns over this earth. But that hasn't happened yet. But it will not one note of it will fail.
Jacob's responsibility was to believe it.
That too has been brought before us in yesterday's ministry. Do we believe God when he speaks?
Do we believe absolutely that what he says will happen?
Or the what he says we should do, we should do.
Well, Jacob awakes.
And he recognizes that it was the Lord that he had had seen.
And he says, how dreadful is this place?
You know God, well, let me just go back a little bit. Says this place and I knew it. The Lord is in this place and I knew it not. And he was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place? This is none other than the House of God.
He recognizes that he has been in the presence of God himself.
And God has a house today too, hasn't he?
He has a house, and the Spirit of God is that person of the Godhead that inhabits that house.
And the House of God is a place of responsibility as well as privilege.
The higher the privileges, you know, the higher the responsibilities in God's things.
In the early days of the church.
House of God was formed and the church was formed on the day of Pentecost.
The people of God, the Christians in those early days, were happy, they were rejoicing, they were going on together and happy fellowship and oneness of mind and heart and soul.
The Spirit of God was operating in power and blessing in that day.
He was ungrieved.
The.
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The world, about the people, about the Christians, it says that they were afraid to join themselves to them, and that was because they didn't know God. The Christians were rejoicing.
The world wouldn't dare approach and become part of them because they didn't know God. They were afraid of Him.
And that was something of Jacob's position here. He didn't really know God.
As far as I can tell, this is the first encounter Jacob ever had with God in any sense.
I assume the Lord was working in Jacob's heart even before this.
To what extent I don't know.
I do know this, that while he took from his brother what didn't belong to him, it was that he prized and valued what God had for men. He wanted what Esau had.
Esau didn't care about it. He sold it for a piece of a bowl of soup.
But Jacob valued it, and I don't know about what that might have been the result of the Spirit of God working in his heart to cause him to value the things that God had for men.
But he had never really personally encountered God yet. This was the 1St.
We're going to read of a couple other times when God appeared to Jacob. This is the first time.
As to the House of God, today, you know in first Timothy three we read that Timothy that Paul had written to Timothy that he might know how he ought to behave himself in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
And then he goes on to say, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit.
Scene of angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world.
Received up into glory.
And in those early days of the church, the House of God and the Church of God were one and the same, made-up of the same people, the same individuals. They still had each their character. The House of God was the place of responsibility and privilege. The Church of God is the body of Christ.
In time.
The house grew to be larger than the church so that by the time we come to Second Timothy, the house has grown into a great house.
And it's a great house because everything was allowed in.
Nothing was kept out.
Idolatry, corruption, every form of evil has been allowed into the House of God until today. At the very present time when we speak, it's growing in its corruption.
So those persons who comprise the House of God or who fill the House of God, are some of them believers, part of the church, but some of them are unbelievers that simply pretend or profess to be Christians.
But it's still the House of God, and it's still inhabited by the Spirit of God. It's still the only place on earth where there is blessing and where the Spirit of God is allowed to act. He acts in blessing.
But the Church of God is the body of Christ.
And it consists only of believers today.
And it's the pillar and ground of the truth.
Very often the pillar is referred to in the scriptures as a memorial. More often than not, maybe always.
And it's a memorial of what a man is doing or has done or to his memory.
And the same with God. It's a memorial to what God is doing.
God in this world today is taking out a people for heaven.
That's what he is doing.
And it's the pillar and ground of the truth.
It's the churches place to keep and to maintain the truth of God and we may not be very faithful in it.
We may not be very competent in it, but that's our responsibility nonetheless.
If the church doesn't do it, who's going to do it?
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The world isn't going to do it. The world neither wants nor knows the truth of God.
The truth of God is to be maintained. It's our responsibility to do it.
And we have to hang our heads in shame because we, as the Body of Christ, have not been faithful in our responsibilities.
But we see this picture of the pillar and ground of the truth, you know, as Jacob sets up this pillar and he pours oil upon it.
Which is a picture, I believe typically of the House of God today, where the Spirit of God inhabits it and brings about blessing where he's permitted to act.
And but you'll notice that with Jacob here, there was number drink offering poured with it. Only oil was poured upon the pillar, which makes it the House of God, for the Spirit of God inhabits it.
But there's no joy, no drink offering, because Jacob is afraid. He's not happy.
But you know, if he had been happy.
If his heart had responded as God desired that it should respond, there would have been a drink offering there. And not only that, but I believe personally that Jacob would never have left the place. He would never gone on the rest of his journey up to Pedan Arum and his uncle Laban and.
To the sad experiences that he had there, he would have remained in what he knew was the House of God.
Acknowledged it, but he was still dreading God because he didn't really know the heart of God.
For the future dealings of.
God with Jacob are, I believe, designed to reveal to Jacob God's heart, his love, his patience, his long-suffering, his gentleness.
How kindly he dealt with this.
This scoundrel of a man, really.
And he does eventually bring Jacob to that point, but it takes many years.
Well, we read here that in verse 20 that Jacob makes a vow.
And how like Jacob it is, and how like us it is. You know, by nature we have a legal heart. It's difficult for men to simply receive God's grace on his own merits.
If we receive something from God, we want to make ourselves responsible for some of it, and therefore to take some of the glory for it. And that's how Jacob is thinking here, he says in verse 20.
If God.
You see, he doesn't really believe God. He doesn't really trust God. He doesn't really know God yet.
So if God will be with me now, he said he will be with me, but if he does, if he will be with me.
He raises a question. There's a doubt in his heart.
And will keep me in this way that I go.
And will give me bread to eat. Raiment will put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace.
Then shall the Lord be my God. I'll make the Lord my God if he really will do these things.
And this pillar which I have set up for a pillar, this is a stone which I have set up for a pillar, shall be the House of God. It's being the House of God now is being made dependent upon Jacob and Jacob's blessing from God.
He's making God beholden to himself.
And of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the 10th.
Unto thee he's bargaining the way you would bargain with a car salesman. You give me this, and I'll give you that.
God said I will give.
Jacob says if you give, I'll give you.
So this is where we start off with Jacob.
Let's turn to the next time, next place, where we have the Lord appearing to Jacob.
That's in chapter 32.
Chapter 32. We'll begin with verse 24.
And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him.
Until the breaking of day.
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And when he the man, saw that he prevailed not against him, noticed that the man is wrestling against Jacob, it isn't Jacob wrestling against the man.
When he saw he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him.
And he said, let me go for the morning break for the day breaker.
And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me.
And he said unto him.
What is thy name?
And he said Jacob.
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more, Jacob.
But Israel?
A Prince with God. A Prince.
With God, Think of it.
Jacob.
A Prince with God.
For as a Prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee thy name.
And he said, Wherefore is it that thou ask, thou just ask after my name?
And he blessed him there.
And Jacob called the name of that place Peniel.
For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
And as he passed over Penuel, it's a river.
The sun arose upon him.
And he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of that sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day.
Because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh.
I'm going to send you the shrank.
Well.
You know, if we were going to get to know God.
If there is to be growth in our souls.
If there is to be reality developed in our hearts toward God.
We have to be left alone.
We have to be alone with him.
And so that's where we find Jacob.
It's still night.
The day hasn't broken yet.
And it's still night. It was night when he lay down in Bethel to sleep, and it's still night, but he's alone.
Except there's a man with him, and he wrestles with him.
This is, of course, the Lord Himself wrestling with Jacob.
By wrestling with Jacob because Jacob was Jacob.
No other way to approach Jacob than to wrestle with him than to wrestle against him.
Jacob needs to be brought to the end of himself in order to really be blessed of God.
And that's the way the Lord deals with us too, doesn't He?
Sometimes it's just a nudge of our consciences and our hearts.
Sometimes he needs to bring real heavy trials into our lives.
But it's for blessing, and it's out of love that He does it. He's seeking fruits from us that are to His pleasure and glory and for our good and blessing. But we sometimes need to be wrestled with.
As Jacob was, so the Lord wrestles with him, seeking to bring poor Jacob to the end of himself so that God could bless him.
And that there could be growth in his soul.
And then when the Lord sees that he prevails not against him, he touches the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with it. He had to treat Jacob pretty roughly. Jacob was wrestling against him. He was fighting him all the way.
But the Lord was determined to bless him.
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Heart of love wouldn't leave them alone.
Many of us here, I'm sure, have had that same experience. We've fought against the Lord, but the Lord and His love and His goodness wouldn't leave us alone, not till He had blessed us.
So he.
Essentially makes Jacob lame on his feet.
It took that to quiet him down.
After that, we don't read that he's resting anymore.
So the Lord says unto him, Let me go.
The Daybreaker.
But Jacob now says, I will not let thee go till thou bless me.
Jacob is not fighting against him, but he's fighting to keep the Lord there.
He wants the blessing.
No matter how he gets it, he wants it.
And so.
The Lord asks him.
Very solemn question.
He says if I'm going to bless you, Jacob.
I want to know your name. I want to hear your name from your lips.
So he says, what is your name?
And he said.
Jacob.
Supplanter.
Cheat Deceiver.
Extortioner.
My brother Ron Clawson of my generation.
Told me something that I really enjoyed about this.
As I mentioned earlier, Jacob had lied twice to his blind father about who he was.
He made his father think he was Esau.
In order to get Esau's blessing that didn't really belong to Jacob at all.
So he made his father think that he was Esau.
Twice he deceived his father in that way.
Now the Lord says you're going to have to tell me your name, your real name. Who are you? What are you?
And Jacob does it.
He admits it.
I'm a cheat and I'm a liar and I'm a thief.
I take what doesn't belong to me.
I don't deserve anything that I've got.
I'm a Jacob.
Well, Jacob has, in one sense been brought to the end of himself, hasn't he?
That's where the blessing begins.
And so in verse 28 he says, Thy name shall be called no more, Jacob.
But Israel?
I now no longer see you as a cheat and a liar and a deceiver.
You're a Prince with God, and that's what God's grace has done for us.
We don't deserve what we are or who we are. By grace, we've been given it.
Giving it free, clear without any strings attached. We have the title to it all.
Sons of God, sons and heirs of God, that's what we are.
We don't always live like it, but we are sons and heirs of God.
A Prince with God. So now this poor man has gone from being a Jacob.
To an Israel from a supplanter.
To a Prince.
And a Prince.
With God.
God hasn't.
Subverted his own principles.
In so doing, he has gotten Jacob to the place of repentance and confession.
And then God's grace is poured out upon him.
He's not finished with him yet.
But he's now a Prince.
For as a Prince, hast thou power with God and with men? If we have power with God, it's grace, isn't it? The power of prayer, our relationship with Him as our Father.
This is power with God, but it's all grace. It's all grace.
And hast prevailed, he got the blessing.
And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, what is thy name?
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Tell me thy name.
The Lord gives him a peculiar answer, doesn't he? He says, Wherefore is it that thou hast asked after my name?
And he doesn't tell him. He doesn't answer him.
It goes on and says, and he blessed him there.
He blessed him.
But it didn't answer his question.
There are still room for a lot of growth in Jacob's soul and until he reaches a certain place.
He can't really know God, not fully. You know, it's like Paul the apostle. He was saved, but he said, I want to know him, I want to know him. He knew the Lord, but the more he could know him, the better he liked it.
He wanted to know more and more of Christ.
And he would never know so much about Christ and of Christ that there wouldn't be any more to know. And throughout eternity, we'll never fully know all the glories that are folded in His person. Those glories are going to be unfolded to us throughout all the ages of eternity. He's infinite. He'll never be exhausted. We'll always be learning of His love and His grace, His goodness.
But.
If we are to know the Lord in any measure.
Our state of soul has to be such as to be in keeping with it. And it wasn't soul of Jacob, not yet. And so the Lord doesn't answer his question. It's not time. I'm not ready for it.
So Jacob calls the name of the place Kenny Hill, because he's seen the face of God and he still lives there.
He still has a reverential fear of God, but it's not a dread any longer.
The heart of God is beginning to dawn on his soul.
And is not afraid of him any longer, although he knows that God is God.
And God is our Father, but he still is God. He still hates sin just as much as he ever did.
But we have a relationship with them that can never be broken, not even by sin.
But our enjoyment of fellowship with the Father can be broken by sin, and so he's provided a way for restoration.
Through confession we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's a provision the Father has made, not God as God, but the Father, so that we might be restored to full communion with Himself and the enjoyment of fellowship with Him and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Then as Jacob passes over the river annual in verse 31, the sun rises upon him.
Daytime now Jacob has come out of the darkness. He's in the light.
Sun is shining on him.
He says if we are in the lightest, he is in the light.
Now the light was shining upon Jacob. He was brought out into the day. What a blessing this is, and what a change this is over what we saw in chapter 28.
And he hauls it upon his thigh.
He was lame the rest of his life.
But may I say, I think.
His walk was a better walk as a lame man than it was before he was made lame.
Because he knew God better.
And then let's turn over to the next chapter.
As I said.
I believe that if Jacob's heart had really been touched as fully as it could possibly be and should be back there when he was in Bethel, he would never have left Bethel. He would have stayed there where God was. That's where he would have wanted to be.
But he dreaded God still at that point, so he wasn't ready for that. And so he went on for.
More than 20 years of sad living.
And now in the last chapter 32.
He's leaving Peyton, Aram. He's leaving Laban, his father-in-law.
Going back toward home, you might say. And there he encounters the Lord, wrestling with him and bringing him into a measure of blessing.
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But his heart is still not what it ought to be.
Because if it were, he would have then headed for Bethel Straight as a bee.
But it doesn't.
Let's read from verse 17 of chapter 3230. Yes, 30. What is it?
33.
Verse 17.
And Jacob journeyed, journeyed from where he was wrestled with by the Lord to suck off and build him a house, and made him booths for his cattle. Therefore the name of the place is called Suck Off, which means booths.
And Jacob came to not Bethel, a Chalum, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan.
When he came from paid an Arab, that's where his father-in-law lived.
And pitched his tent before the city.
And he bought a parcel of a field.
Where he had spread his tent.
At the hand of the children of Hammer.
Shechem's father for 100 pieces of money.
And he erected there an altar.
This is the first time Jacob erects an altar to the Lord.
And called it El Eloi Israel.
The mighty God of Israel, I think he was rejoicing.
In his knowledge of God as the mighty God, and that the mighty God was his God.
There is real growth here.
Real advancement in his soul.
But it's not Bethel.
It's Shechem and he's settling down there, and he builds the Lord an altar there.
He doesn't build him one in Bethel. He didn't build him one in Bethel in chapter 28.
And is not building him an altar in Bethel now he's building him an altar in Shechem.
Is Shechem now God's house? Is that where God can be found?
Oh, God's house is still battle.
The House of God, but his offering. He's making an altar here.
To God in a place where God doesn't exist, for God isn't.
For God hasn't taken up his abode.
Well, the result of this is in the next chapter. We won't read it.
But sorrow.
Shame.
Conflict.
Corruption.
Violence.
To sad history in this next chapter, all taking place in Shechem where Jacob decided to go to.
Instead of going to battle, his heart wasn't ready for Bethel quite yet. And so he chooses this place.
And there is a price to be paid for it.
If seen, that price is seen in his paying 100 pieces of money for that piece of land.
For the real price.
Is found in chapter 34 where you have all those sad conditions that Jacob encountered there, even to the place where his children had made his name to stink before his neighbors.
And they thought of Jacob. It was a stench in their nostrils.
Not because he was.
But because of the ways of his family.
There was a price he paid.
Well then, let's go on to the third instance and last instance where the Lord appears to Jacob in chapter 35.
And God said unto Jacob.
Arise, go up to battle.
And dwell there.
And make there an altar unto God.
That appeared unto thee when thou fled us from the face of Esau, thy brother.
He causes him to remember that he had been in Bethel once.
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And that he had chosen to leave that place, but he had received those promises of grace while there. He reminds him of that.
And now, finally, he tells them, get up, leave this place.
Come to battle.
Much to be learned in the verses following, but we'll skip over some of them to verse 6.
So Jacob came to laws, 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 call the place L.
You'll notice in this name, Jacob doesn't intrude his own name at all.
He's now in God's house. He's now where God wants him to be. God is everything to him now.
And.
The Places L Beth El.
You don't find Israel anywhere in this name. God is everything. Jacob is nothing. Isn't that a change? Isn't that a transformation?
God has become everything to Jacob now.
And he is where God wants him to be.
She called it LL.
Because their God appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. Oh, he remembers that well. I've often wondered if it didn't pass through his heart at that moment.
How much of A waste his life had been.
Well, that's the way with this, isn't it?
Sometimes we are years before the Lord is able to get as close to Him.
And then when we are, we wonder, how did I ever do that? Why did I ever choose a life like that?
Thank God he didn't give up on us.
That's our God.
But Deborah, Rebecca's nurse and died, and she was buried beneath Bethel.
Under an oak for the name of it was called Alan Baca.
An almond of weeping. As much as we could say about this, and we may if we have time at the end, I would be surprised if we do. But if we do, we'll come back to this.
As much to be learned from this.
But then verse 9 and 10, verses 9 and 10 go on to review or to allude to the second appearing of the Lord to Jacob, which was in chapter 20, chapter 32.
Where God appeared unto Jacob again the second time, when he came out of Peyton Arab and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is thy name.
Thy name is Jacob. Thy name shall not be called anymore, Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called him, called his name Israel.
So all that refers back to the second time he appeared to him in chapter 2032.
And now we come to this third time.
And God said unto him.
I am God almighty.
That's the way he had made himself known to Abraham and to Isaac.
But Jacob had never known him that way.
He was another generation. He had to come to know God for himself. It wasn't good enough that his grandfather and his father knew God.
And This is why the Lord, when he asked him what his name was, didn't tell him, because Jacob wasn't ready for it yet.
He still hadn't chosen even to be a Bethel again.
But now it has. He's where God has been seeking to lead him all these decades.
Decades of years.
And now his soul is ready.
God says.
I'm going to answer your question now, Jacob.
And God Almighty, that's my name.
And I am your God.
I am sufficient for all your circumstances.
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I'm equal to them all, and my power is exerted for your blessing.
It's for you. I'll spend my power on you.
I am God Almighty, that's who he is.
Be fruitful, multiply a nation, and accompany a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give this land.
God hasn't changed. His promises haven't changed. Jacob isn't making deals with him any longer. Everything is as it was that first time.
The only thing that's changed though, is Jacob. God hasn't changed.
And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.
And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone.
And he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.
Now there is the acknowledgement of the presence of God in his house.
But there is also joy.
That was lacking the first time, wasn't it?
He gave God, as do you might say back there in chapter 28, but there is no joy in Jacob's heart.
But there is now.
He has been led by God all these years.
Formed and his affections molded, his heart drawn out to God, and he has been brought back to that place where God was.
And there's joy. The joy of the Holy Ghost, the oil of the loudness.
In that place.
And Jacob called the name of the place.
Where God spake with him, Bethel.
That all was the same as it was.
More than 20 years before.
God was the same as he was more than 20 years before.
But Jacob had learned a lot of lessons in God's school.
He wasn't finished. God still had more lessons to teach him.
We read of them somewhat in his experiences with regard to Joseph's rejection by his brethren and his sufferings and his exaltation in Egypt.
In the 48th chapter of Genesis, he acknowledges that God is the God that had fed him all his life long, and that his Angel and that he was the Angel that redeemed him out of all evil. God had been faithful and he acknowledges it.
And at the end of his life, he blesses the two sons of Joseph.
And it says worshiping.
On his staff.
It took Jacob 147 years to get there.
But he got there.
And God didn't give up. Give up on him.
God stayed with him, He worked with him. He developed affections in the heart of Jacob toward himself that he wanted there.
Until he got them.
And then when Jacob was a true worshipper.
He took it.
What is worship?
Well, a brother one time said to me.
When was the last time you prayed?
Without thanking God for something or asking him for something.
Think about that question.
The thought that came to my mind was, if you're not asking for something or thanking him for something, what else is there?
And then I realized.
Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Common thoughts Sharing common thoughts with the father about his son and those things that are important to his son, and thoughts in common with his son concerning the father.
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That's worship.
It's not thanking him for anything. He's not praying him for anything. It's being occupied with God's thoughts and those of the Lord Jesus. That's worship.
And that's a foretaste of heaven.
In Ephesians 3, the apostle prays that the Ephesians might be strengthened with might by God's Spirit in the inner man. For what reason?
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
That was his desire for the Ephesians. There isn't anything higher.
Here on earth, there isn't anything higher than to have Christ dwell in our hearts by faith.
That's heaven on earth.
But it's on earth because it's by faith. But we need to be strengthened within the inner man by the Spirit of God in order that it might be so. And that's what God was doing here. He was strengthening Jacob in his soul, in the inner man, you might say.
In order that God might be All in all.
And when he was?
And he took him to be with himself.
Let's pray.
Our God, our loving Father, we thank You for Thy gracious ways with us how we need them.
I'll thank We Are Our God that dying is a heart of love.
That thy purposes for us are purposes of love and grace. And now it determined that those purposes should be fully realized.
We pray Thee that in the meantime, while we wait for our blessed Savior and the joys that will be ours then and His too, that there might be fruit born perhaps through difficult circumstances and trials, but born out of those trials for Thy glory and blessing.
And for their glory and thy pleasure, and for the good and blessing of Thy people.
So we pray they are God, that there might be something in the Word spoken this afternoon that would.
Lead in some little measure to the drawing out of our hearts to thee and to thy beloved Son without worthy, and He is worthy.
We give Thee our thanks and asked thy continued blessing upon these meetings if we're left here until the next ones.
Give our thanks and ask this for Thy glory and the unveiling name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.