All right, so we've got two chapters to go over tonight. And again, I've printed them in the American Standard Version. It's a little bit of an older translation, so it's going to read a little bit awkwardly in some places. But it's not under copyright. That's one of the reasons. And also, we've said that when we're studying the Old Testament, one of the things that the ASV does that I think is helpful is whenever the covenant name of God appears, the name Yahweh or Jehovah, they'll actually translate it in that way. They'll render it Jehovah rather than what most English versions do. They'll just put the word Lord there all in capital letters. So it helps you get a better sense of where that name is being used and how it's being used in the text. So we'll see that again as we study together this afternoon. We're coming down to the end of the life of Jacob, and we've seen that Jacob's life story in the book of Genesis really is a story of conversion. There you go. Already got it. Thank you. You're welcome. So his story is a story of conversion that Jacob, his name itself, signifies his nature. He is the supplanter. He's the one who grasps the heel of another, pulls them down to advance himself. And that's how he lives most of his life. Most of his life is spent living in his own strength and wisdom and cunning by his deceit, seeking to advance himself. And yet throughout his life, God remains faithful. It's a reminder of what Paul tells us in the New Testament. When we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. And we see how God worked in Jacob's life, protecting him, preserving him, blessing him, not because Jacob deserved it, because he didn't by any means, but because God is good. And finally, Jacob comes to terms with the fact that he cannot advance himself by his own strength, or by his own schemes, or by his cunning, that he ultimately has to trust in God. And that's what we saw two weeks ago as we looked at chapter 32. Then last week, we began to see how even though Jacob is now a believer, his family is becoming more and more like the Canaanites among whom they're dwelling. And we saw that particularly in the violence of Jacob's sons in retaliation for the rape of their sister. Now obviously, that was a horrific crime that needed to be dealt with. in a just manner, and it would have been appropriate to put to death the men that were responsible for that crime. But that's not what Jacob's sons did. They didn't take legal means. They did not use holy or righteous means to obtain that righteous end. Instead, their attitude was the ends justify whatever means we take to get there. And so they fell into the same kind of lying and deceit that was characteristic of their father prior to his conversion, and they take advantage of the men of the city, including butchering all of them in what can only be described as a war crime in a time of peace. and then they sack the city, carry away their wives, their children. There's just no justification for that. We're going to continue to see that theme develop in the chapters we're going to look at today, particularly chapter 35, and then next week also in chapters 37, and then as we go into chapter 38, we're going to see that this is part of the reason that God carries the Israelites down into Egypt. We'll have more to say about that even today and over the next couple of weeks. All right, Genesis chapter 35. Now, in chapter 35, let's see. Here we go. All right, chapter 35. Chapter 35 is going to be our primary focus tonight, or this afternoon. We're not going to go all the way into tonight, I don't think. so we can't do that. Chapter 36 is one of the chapters in the book of Genesis devoted to a genealogy, to a family table. And in this case, it's the genealogy of Esau. There are some important things we need to learn there. But if we run out of time, I may let you read that chapter. And I may just give you a couple of annotations to note as you go home and read it. So we're going to spend most of our time on chapter 35. Let's first of all read this first page, the first couple of paragraphs in this chapter. And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God, who appeared unto thee when thou fled from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household and to all that were with him, Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, 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, and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hand, and the rings which were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. And they journeyed, and a terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, the same 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 was revealed unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died. And she was buried below Bethel, under the oak, and the name of it was called Elon Bakuth. And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob. Thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name 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 thy body. And the land which I gave unto Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. And he poured out a drink offering thereon, and poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him. right now let's stop there and look this is the main narrative that we're going to focus on today and then we'll look at the latter part of the chapter in just a minute Jacob this is immediately in the aftermath remember of Dinah's rape and of this Jonathan feels left out. He didn't get us. Okay. Okay. Okay. Good. All right. Just coming to Bible study. All right. Okay. So this is immediately after Dinah's rape. And you remember that Jacob's response in the aftermath of that horrible event was to tell his sons, what in the world have you done? You are going to make me offensive to all of the Canaanite tribes around here. They are going to retaliate against us for sacking the city of Shechem and murdering all of the men there. Unfortunately, I think, is less seemingly concerned about the immorality of what they have done and more concerned about the practical consequences, the practical implications of this act of violence. And that's why we have this reference here in verse 5, as they journeyed, a terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. So that is the blessing. that God protected Jacob and his family at a time where they could have been very vulnerable. They could have, hey, y'all scoot over here and let them come in and sit here, okay? Can you do that? Just kick that door open, or they're gonna go in that way? Are there seats up there, Jim? Okay, never mind. All right, thank you. Okay, so God is protecting them, providentially putting a terror upon these tribes because you can imagine how vulnerable Jacob and his family would be that at such a time as this, as they are strung out, traveling on the road to Bethel, this would be the perfect time to ambush this family and to wipe them out. The only thing that saves their lives is that God causes his fear to rest upon them. Alright? Now, God says to Jacob, verse 1, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make an altar there unto God, who appeared unto thee when thou fled from the face of Esau thy brother. Now remember that Bethel, this is referring back to Genesis chapter 28. Bethel is known at this time as Luz. That's the name of the city or the town that is closest there. This is the place where Jacob camped on his way to Paddan Aram over 20 years ago. And that night, he has this dream where he sees this staircase, this ladder into heaven itself, the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. And he wakes up with awe, with reverence and fear and says, I didn't know that God was in this place. Surely God is in this place. This is the house of God, Bet El, the house of God. And so he names the place that way. Now later, when Israel invades and conquers the land of Canaan, they will rename the town of Luz Bethel because of this history. So we're looking at the spiritual name of this place, so to speak, at a time before the inhabitants of the land even know it by that very name. But God says, Jacob, I want you to go back to Bethel. Go back to that place where I first appeared to you. Go back to the place where my word was first pronounced to you. That was the time when God made promises to Jacob. And what God does at that moment is He makes covenant. He extends covenant to Jacob, recognizing that Jacob, not Esau, is the heir of the covenant, the heir of the Abrahamic covenant. That it's going to be through Jacob and his offspring that God's promises are fulfilled. And so God is extending these covenant promises to Jacob in that place. But at that time, Jacob is, for all intents and purposes, an unbeliever. I mean, he knows that there is a God. He knows that Jehovah is the true God, and yet he's living like an unbeliever. He is not trusting the Lord, and yet God is faithful to protect him, to preserve him, and to provide for him all this time that he is sojourning in Paddan-i-Ram and as he comes back. Now, Jacob is a believer. And so the Lord takes him, as it were, on a spiritual journey. And he says, I want you to go back to where I first appeared to you. I want you to remember the promises that I made to you there. And I want you to worship me there, along with your family. And so that's what Jacob does. The very first thing that Jacob does in getting ready for this trip, in verse 2, is to say to his household, and to all those that are with him, put away the foreign gods that are among you. Do you remember the story when Jacob and his wives and his children leave Paddan Aram, flee from Laban? Do you remember what Rachel does? Rachel takes the household gods, the teraphim, these little idols, the symbols of her father's idolatrous worship. Now, her family worshiped Jehovah. But they were essentially polytheists. That is, they believed in many gods. And they were syncretists. That is, they combined the worship of the true god with the other worship of the tribes and nations around them. They were non-discriminatory in terms of religion, just whatever. It just worked, right? We just prayed all kinds of gods. And these little household gods, these were symbols of blessing, symbols of divine protection in their home. They were not symbols of trust in Yahuwah, in Jehovah, the true God. Now, Jacob did not know that Rachel stole those idols then, but he knows now that there are foreign gods among his household, within his family, and among his servants. Now, one of the things that we see in the period of the patriarchs that God calls men, husbands, fathers to do is to lead their family in righteousness. to lead their family in the way of the Lord. That's not by being a tyrant, that's not by being a dictator, that's not by forcing other people to comply with your wishes, but it's by leading, by example, and by teaching. And we see that all the way back in the life of Abraham. In Genesis chapter 18, God says concerning Abraham, he says, I have known him, I have chosen him, that he may command his household to follow after the Lord, to do righteousness and justice. Now up to this point, Jacob's life spiritually has been a mess. He has not been a believer in any salvific sense. But now he is. Now he's turned to the Lord in faith. Now he's entrusted himself to the Lord. This chapter's the next step. But Jacob, you're a believer, but you're not yet leading your family as a believer. You're content to worship God, but your family's just continuing to worship whatever gods they may delight to do. And so it's time for Jacob to step up and be a believer, not only personally, but as a leader in his home. As for me and my house, what does Joshua say? We will serve the Lord. My children will make their own choices when they move out, when they are on their own, right? My girls share a bedroom. My boys share a bedroom. and then one of the boys will say to me, Dad, I'd really like to have my own room. I said, that's no problem at all. Get a job, move out, and you can have your own room. It's a very simple process, right? But here's the thing. When they get a job and they move out, they're going to make their own decisions. And if they decide on Sunday morning, I don't want to get up and go to church, well, Too bad for them. I guess that's what they'll do. But as long as you're in my house, going to church is not an option. We're Christians. This is what we do. We worship the Lord. We pray every day. We listen to scripture. We live a certain way because this is who we are. We're not forcing compliance. We're just saying this is the way this family operates. Jacob now needs to establish that kind of leadership in his home. And he says, we're going to Bethel. We're going to worship God, the true God. All these false gods, all these foreign gods, all these household idols, they need to go away. Put away your foreign gods first. Then second, still in verse two, he says, purify yourselves. Recognize that there is a difference between putting your idols away for a while and putting your idols away and purifying yourself. There's a difference. There is a difference between moral behavior or religious conformity and actual repentance. Did you know that? There is a difference between moral behavior or religious conformity and actual repentance. For example, a person who is an unbeliever who doesn't believe in any God may say, you know what? I'm going to live a fairly moral lifestyle. After all, if I'm sexually promiscuous, I get a lot of sexually transmitted diseases. It creates a lot of heartache and suffering in my life. I don't want any of that. I'm going to be a pretty moral individual. And beyond that, I'm going to be a good citizen. I'm going to pay my taxes. I'm not going to murder anybody. I'm not going to cheat people in business because that's just asking for trouble in your life. He's a morally upstanding person. But if he's an unbeliever, it's not pleasing to God in any way. There's a difference between saying I'm going to follow the rules and saying I'm going to trust the Lord. I'm going to repent of my sin. I'm going to stop doing what's wrong. I'm going to start seeking to do what's right because I love God and because I would desire to honor Him and please Him. That's what Jacob's calling them to do. Don't just stop worshiping these gods. Put them away in repentance. Purify yourself. And purification, as Jesus makes very, very plain in Matthew chapter 15, Mark chapter 7, purification is a matter of the heart. It's not a matter of washing your hands. It's not a matter of just getting rid of the things in your life that may or may not be pleasing to God. It's a matter of changing your orientation, your attitude toward God. So first, put away your foreign gods. Secondly, purify yourself. Third, change your garments. You know, I don't really honestly think it matters what you wear to church. And I think some people go over the top. It's almost like they're trying to draw attention to themselves. And I see other people that they seem to rebel against that in another unpleasing, unbiblical way. It's like they just literally rolled out of bed. It's like, it would not have hurt you to brush your hair before you came to church this morning. We're on pants. But anyway. But, but, but, having said that, let me say something. There is something special about preparing to come into the presence of God. You're not more holy if you're dressed up. But there is something to say about preparing to be in the presence of God. Where are we in worship? This isn't like any other day of the week. This isn't like any other thing that we do. We're coming to the presence of the Holy God. And there's something to be said for preparing for that. God's going to impress this upon the children of Israel several hundred years after this. In Exodus chapter 19, He brings the children of Israel after the Exodus from Egypt to Mount Sinai, and He says, I want you to establish a perimeter around the mountain. And if anyone or anything crosses that boundary marker, it dies. But you don't put your hand on it. It's been sanctified. It's come into the presence of a holy God. You can kill it with a rock or an arrow, but you don't touch it. You stay away from the mountain. And for three days, you stay away from your wives, you bathe your bodies and your clothes, you put on clean garments, and you prepare to meet the Lord. What's special about that? Now, maybe we don't think enough about that to say, Saturday night, I need to get a bath. Why? Well, because I want to be clean to go to church tomorrow, and I don't want anybody to be offended if they sit next to me. No, because I'm preparing to go to meet the Lord. There's something about that. Jacob says, this is a special moment. Purify yourselves. Change your clothes. Get ready. We're going to meet God. Then in verse 3, 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, and was with me in the way in which I went. Now don't miss what Jacob's saying there. He's saying God has kept His promises to me. God made promises to me that I didn't ask for, that I don't deserve, and He's kept His word. is the proper response of a heart that has been blessed, a heart that is grateful to God. You say, God doesn't need me to go to church. God doesn't need me to worship Him. God doesn't need anything. He's God. It's part of what it means to be God. He doesn't need you or me or anything else. We don't worship God because we're doing for God something that he can't have otherwise or that he needs. God doesn't need your worship. You need to worship. Why? Because he has blessed you. He has made you. He has sustained you. If you're a believer, he saved you. What's the proper response to all of that? Worship. Jacob says, we're going up to Bethel. We're going to make an altar. We're going to worship God because God has kept his word. cried out to him. God helped me in the day of distress. It is right for me to worship him because he has cared for me." Verse 4, they gave to Jacob all the four and gods which were in their hands, the rings which were in their ears. By the way, this is not on earrings in general. This is actually associated with their idolatry, right? So in the ancient world, jewelry was oftentimes not just a decoration, it was actually an identification with the idol, right? That's the significance here. You'll see jewelry that's worn for non-religious purposes elsewhere in the Old Testament. There's nothing wrong with that. But this is jewelry that's identifying them with something that is not of God, something that is false and unholy. And they give that to Jacob, and he hides them under the oak, which was by Shechem. Now, sometimes people ask this question, so I'm going to anticipate the question and answer it before you ask it. Why does he hide it under the oak? People say maybe he's burying it for the purpose of coming back to get it. I don't think that's the case. I don't see any indication that he goes back to get it, first of all. Secondly, I think it misunderstands what Jacob is actually intending here. You'd say, but he ought to just get rid of it completely. My question would be, how exactly would he do that? These aren't necessarily wooden idols that you could just throw in the campfire and burn. This jewelry and these little household gods are made out of gold and silver and bronze. And how exactly do you dispose of that? It's not as though that they have a dumpster. along with their caravan that gets emptied every Friday, like ours does at the church building. I mean, where do you put it, right? They're a nomadic tribe, and you can't really destroy it. What do you do? You give it to Goodwill and let somebody else start using that to worship? No. I mean, you bury it. Exactly, you put it in the ground where no one else will be led astray, right? As far as I'm concerned, this is comparable to what we see in Ephesians, not Ephesians, but in Acts chapter 19 in the city of Ephesus, where the Ephesians burn their books of magic when they turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the value of those books was enormous. You say, what a waste. Oh, should've taken those things down to half-price books. They would've been intact, right? The point is, you don't want anyone else to be contaminated with this. This is an act of repentance. This is saying that this is not of God, this is not something that a believer in God should be identified with, and I don't want anybody else to find it. I don't want to give it away. I don't want to keep it for old time's sake. I want to be rid of it, bury it in the ground. Verse five, they journeyed and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. We talked about that at the beginning. Verse six, so Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, the same is Bethel. He and all the people that were with him, and he built there an altar and called the place. Now notice, here's a little Hebrew lesson, right? So El is the shortened form of the name of God. It's the word God, mighty one in Hebrew, and that Beth, In the middle is the word for house. So it is God, the God of Bethel, the God of the house of God. That's what Jacob says here. And it is because there God was revealed unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. Now, I want you to just remember, Jacob does not initiate this relationship with God. God initiates it with him. And I know how so many of us think. We think, well, I remember when I turned to the Lord. Praise God that you did. I remember when I cried out to God, praise God that you did. I remember when I reached out and found the Lord, praise God that you did. Just so long as you remember, he found you first. He called out to you first. He reached out to you first. Praise God that you responded. But let's not think that we took the initiative in this at all. God revealed himself to Jacob when Jacob was an unbeliever. God took care of Jacob, protected and preserved Jacob in view of the fact that one day he would be a believer, long before he ever was. God is the one who initiates salvage. God is the one who will complete salvage, Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6 says. At this time, Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, this would have been Rebecca, Jacob's mother's nurse, right? That Deborah dies and is buried there at Bethel, which is the first indication, by the way, that Deborah was with Jacob. Now we could say, when did she come to be with Jacob? We don't know the answer to that question. But it's at least possible that she's been with him for some time. Perhaps Rebecca sent him to watch over her son when he went to sojourn in Paddan Aram. Perhaps Deborah went to find Jacob after Rebecca died. and that she's been with Jacob for some time, or perhaps they've reunited since Jacob has been back in the land. We don't know for sure. And then God appears to Jacob, verse 9, and God says unto him, verse 10, thy name is Jacob, but it will not be that anymore. Israel will be your name. Now, if you notice, what we've got in this chapter, chapter 35, is we've got the repetition of renaming things. So you say, wait a second, Jacob changed the name of the place Luz to Bethel all the way back in chapter 28. That's right. You say, well, wait a second, God already changed Jacob's name from Jacob to Israel back in chapter 32. That's right. What's happening here is a reaffirmation. It's a renewal. name that is being re-emphasized. And there's an important reason God would re-emphasize the change in Jacob's name at this point. We said a couple of weeks ago that God likes to rename people in the Bible. He does it all the time. Many of the heroes of the faith, God gives them names. Jesus continues that practice with the apostles. You remember the apostle Peter, right? His mother did not call him Peter, right? That was not his name. That was Jesus' nickname for him, right? And the apostles continue that practice, we find, at the end of Acts chapter 4. God changes Jacob's name when Jacob turns to him in trust in chapter 32. But remember that at that point, Jacob is alone with the Lord. Not so now. Now, Jacob has brought his family and his entire household to Bethel for this covenant renewal ceremony. Jacob already has a relationship with the Lord, praise God for that, but the family needs to see that we are going to be a covenant family. We are going to be a family that believes in Jehovah, that follows after Jehovah. And part of that is recognizing that the leader of this family, he is no longer the supplanter, Jacob. He's no longer the deceiver. He's no longer the old man He's the one who has striven with the Lord and prevailed, not by strength, but rather by faith and by God's grace. In verse 11, here is the covenant renewal. 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 thy body. And the land which I gave unto Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. A covenant is established by oath, right? Now, there's more to formal covenant-making ceremonies, a formal covenant inauguration in the Bible. We've seen that already a couple of times in the book of Genesis. But the basic premise of a covenant is a relationship that is entered into by way of an oath. And God makes covenant with Jacob. He is passing this covenant promise, first given to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, and then later given to Abram's son Isaac, and then later given to Jacob. He is passing that now to Jacob. He's already given these promises to Jacob in chapter 28. Why is he doing it again now? Because now Jacob is a believer. And because now Jacob's family is here. And this household needs to understand God's plan and purpose for them, that God is blessing them in a special way and using them in the history of redemption. That not Esau, not the oldest son, but rather Jacob, who is by right, by inheritance, the firstborn. He is given the privilege of these promises. And Jacob, verse 14, set up a pillar in the place where he spake with him, a pillar of stone, and poured out a drink offering upon it, and poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him. Bethel, you've seen that before, right? Chapter 28, that's what Jacob does when he wakes up. He takes the stone that he used as a pillow the night before, and he consecrates it. He recognizes this is the house of God, and he memorializes that by this sign. By the way, the covenant signs throughout the Bible, both Old and New Testament, there are many of them, but those covenant signs always point to God and His promises. That memorial is not to indicate that Jacob did something significant here. He doesn't set up the pillar and anoint it and say, look, we worshiped here. No, that's not the point. Here, God made himself known. Here, God spoke. He revealed himself. All right, let's look at the next page. Verse 16. And they journeyed from Bethel, and there was still some distance to come to Ephrath. And Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not, for now shalt thou have another son. And it came to pass, as her soul was departing, for she died, that she called his name Benoni, but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, the same is Bethlehem. And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave, the same as the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. And Israel journeyed and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder. And it came to pass, while Israel dwelt in that land, that 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, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun, the sons of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, Dan and Naphtali, and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob that were born to him in Padan-eram. And Jacob came unto Isaac, his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath, where Abraham and Isaac sojourn. And the days of Isaac were 104 score years. And Isaac gave up the ghost and died and was gathered under his people, old and full of days. And Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him. Isaac thought he was dead over 20 years before, but not so. does not live to see the return of her son that she encouraged in deception and dishonesty. Isaac, on the other hand, who thinks that he has got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, he survives to see Jacob again and to be reunited with his sons who are now at peace with one another. It's a remarkable thing. Now, a couple of hard things here in this part of the story. First of all, Rachel's death. Rachel is the beloved wife. She's the one that Jacob loved from the beginning. She was the one that he wanted all along. In many ways, his love for her, coupled with her father's deception of him, is what has created so much of the stress and strife in Jacob's home for over two decades now. Rachel is pregnant, and she is giving birth to her second son naturally, and she dies in childbirth. As the child is coming forth from the womb, she is in the process of dying, and the midwife, trying to comfort her, says, don't be sorrowful. You have a son. You've got another son. And she calls him Benoni, son of my sorrow. Jacob does not like that name, understandably. Benjamin is going to be a reminder of his beloved for the rest of Jacob's life. He says, no, he is the son of my right hand. He is the son of my strength, Benjamin, the son of my right hand. So Rachel dies, and Jacob sets up a pillar on her grave, which is apparently known even in Moses' day. You'll notice the reference in verse 20. And then as they journey on, they come to this Tower of Eder, and they dwell there for a while. And there is this almost throwaway statement about something that Reuben did. But it's not a throwaway statement. It's very, very important. It fits into this larger theme that we said is stretched out over this latter third of the book of Genesis. Reuben has sexual relations with Bilhah, his father's concubine. Now you say, OK, that's weird, but so what? Well, the answer to so what is this. Bilhah would have been very young, by the way. She would have been a good bit older than Reuben, but she would have probably been a teenager when she came with her mistress to be her handmaid as one of Jacob's, eventually one of his concubines, one of his slave wives. She's probably 15 to 20 years older than Reuben. But this is conduct that is characteristic of Canaanites, not of the covenant people of God. So what I told you last week, and I mentioned again at the beginning of our class today, is that the latter third of the book of Genesis is intended in part to answer the question, why does God send the family of Jacob to Egypt if he knew that they would be enslaved there? Why in the world? Is this a miscalculation on God's part? Is he failing to think strategically? Is he caught unawares? No. While they remain in the land of Canaan, Jacob, though he has come to faith, is watching his family gradually being assimilated into the Canaanite culture and value system. We're going to continue to see examples of this over the next couple of weeks. His sons are living like Canaanites. His oldest son, the one who should have known best, the one who should have done the most to seek to honor his father and to uphold the integrity of the family and the covenant that God's made with them, he is sleeping with his father's concubine. He is called specifically, verse 23, Jacob's firstborn. But here's what's significant about this. When you get to the end of Jacob's life, you will find that Reuben is no longer the firstborn. You say, how can you change who is the firstborn? Isn't it the first kid to be born? No, we've mentioned this before. In the Bible, the title of firstborn is not about birth order preeminently. Sometimes it's used that way, and it can be, as we see here in verse 23. But it's preeminently about legal status within the family. The firstborn is the heir. He is the one who obtains the inheritance, who receives the estate at his father's death. He is the one who possesses all things. And Reuben is not going to be the firstborn. In fact, it will be the eleventh son that is given that privilege, that being Joseph. His father heard of it, notice verse 22 says, and that will be significant later on. And then lastly, in this chapter, and we'll run real quickly to the next one and make a few comments, we see that Isaac dies, 180 years old, and who buries him? Jacob and Esau. Jacob and Esau are together with their father at his death, honoring him in his death. This shows the power of God's grace to bring about reconciliation. to bring about restoration. These guys didn't have a peaceful relationship before they separated. They had to separate when Jacob went north to Ben-Haniron because Esau wanted to murder his brother. And quite honestly, his brother kind of deserved it. And they were a pair. This is an awful relationship. How are they able now to come together so that, as we saw last week, Esau would greet his brother with tears, with an embrace, and with a kiss. And now they would work together in laying their father to rest. Right? I often tell people in pastoral counseling, you must believe that things can be better than they are. You must believe that. It may not be the case that things will improve. God doesn't promise that every sorrow in this life is going to be fixed in this life. Some won't be. But you must believe that things can be better than they are. Because if you don't believe that, then you don't believe in the power of God's grace. You say, I cannot be reconciled to this person. I don't love them. I can't forgive them. Whatever. I can't live peaceably with them. Is your relationship like Esau and Jacob's was? This is pretty bitter. This is pretty violent. There's a whole lot of betrayal. A whole lot of lies. Plots of murder. Twenty years of alienation and estrangement. But this is the power of God's grace. Jacob has come to faith. We don't know whether Esau has or not, but he certainly seems like a man with a changed heart. Regardless, there is reconciliation, there is restoration, and both of them are willing to be at peace. That's a remarkable part of the story. Does that make sense? Okay, so that's chapter 35. Now, let's go over to chapter 36. We only have just a few minutes left in our class today. I want to read through chapter 36, I think just quickly, just for the sake of making sure that we're not overlooking any part of scripture. We've said before, Genesis has a number of genealogies in it. The genealogies are those parts of the Bible where a commitment to daily Bible reading goes to die. People say, I'm going to read the Bible this year, and then they hit the first genealogy, and they're like, whoa, slow down. And I realize that it's a challenge. I would not say to you as a pastor that it's necessarily sinful if you skim a little bit in the genealogical sections, so long as you don't always do so. And here's the reason I say that. There are things that relate to the Bible story that relate to redemptive history. There are particular questions that are raised in the stories of scripture that can only be answered by reading the genealogies. If you want some illustrations of that, come talk to me after class. If you always skip or skim over the genealogies, you are robbing yourself of something that God intended for your good. Remember that Paul says, all scripture is God-breathed. profitable profitable for doctrine reprove correction and instruction and righteousness the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work now he doesn't say all scripture except those pesky genealogical sections he's just says all scripture so God has breathed it now I realized that the genealogies have a significance for the original audience for the original readers that it doesn't have for us to These are tracing lines of inheritance. These are showing family trees that had particular meaning to them. But for us, it's a reminder that God keeps his promises. It's a reminder that God is sovereign over all of human history. and that God maintains his word. Even when men are faithless, he remains faithful. I'm going to show you an example of that now, in chapter 36. So, now these are the generations of Esau, the same as Edom. Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan, Ada, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholobama, the daughter of Aena, the daughter of Zibion the Hittite, and Basimath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebaioth, you may remember. this. Esau marries two Hittite girls, then later sees the distress that that caused his family. He tries to make up for it by marrying a third woman. That's not usually the solution, guys, just in case you're wondering. Trying to marry a third woman in the broader covenant community, so he marries Ishmael's daughter. And Ada bare to Esau Eliphaz, in base math, bare Reul. And Aholahbaba bare Jeush, and Jelom, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau that were born unto him in the land of Canaan. And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the souls of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his possessions, which he had gathered in the land of Canaan, and went into a land away from his brother Jacob. For their substance was too great for them to dwell together, and the land of their sojournings could not bear them because of their cattle. And Esau dwelt in Mount Seir." Esau is Edom. Now, pause here. You say, I thought that he was already in Mount Seir when Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, and that does indeed appear to be the case. So we have a question. Well, what does this mean? It says he went away from his brother Jacob to the land of Mount Seir. into the territory that we're going to know as Edom at a later period of biblical history. And yet, if Jacob isn't put on Eram, he's not really going away from his brother Jacob, is he? Actually, he is. Remember that when Jacob stole the birthright and the blessing of the firstborn from his brother, as God sovereignly intended and decreed, everything that belonged to Isaac at that point passed into the control of Jacob. Jacob goes away to Paddan Aram for 20 years, but that estate that is still under the care and management of his father actually no longer belongs to his father. It belongs to Jacob. And that is the problem here. Do you remember a similar story in Genesis chapter 13? When Abram and Lot, his nephew, have so many different herds and livestock that they can't stay in the same place because there's not enough grass and water for all of them. Esau has to go away from his brother Jacob's holdings. He has to go away from what belongs to his brother Jacob and establish a place for himself just as God said he would. Go back and read the story of the deception in chapter 27. See what God says about Esau and Jacob. This is exactly what God sovereignly foretold and decreed. And so Esau has separated himself. He's now dwelling down around Mount Seir. That territory is going to be given to his offspring, which are numerous as we see now. Verse 9. And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir. These are the names of Esau's son. Eliphaz, the son of Ada, the wife of Esau. Reul, the son of Basemath, the wife of Esau. And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatham, and Kinavs. And Temna was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau's son. And Sheber to Eliphaz, Amalek. These are the sons of Ada, Esau's wife. And these are the sons of Reuel, Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizah. These were the sons of Basimath, Esau's wife. And these were the sons of Aholobamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibion, Esau's wife. And she bared to Esau, Jeush, and Jelom, and Korah. Now, again, you may say, oh, these names are hard to pronounce. What do they mean to us? What do you see? you are seeing God's personal, intimate knowledge of and faithfulness to even those people that are outside of the covenant of grace. Why does God care about Esau? Because Esau is a descendant of Abraham. You say, but he's not in the covenant line. No, he's not. He's placed outside of that covenant line. and look at how God still sovereignly watches over him and all that is his. Go back to chapter 27. See what promises God made to Esau. You are seeing the fulfillment of those promises in this chapter. Let's keep reading. Verse 15. These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau. Chief Teman, Chief Omar, Chief Zepho, Chief Kinaz, Chief Korah, Chief Gittam, Chief Amalek. These are the chiefs that came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Ada. And these are the sons of Rehul, Esau's son. Chief Nahath, Chief Zerah, Chief Shammah, Chief Mizah. These are the chiefs that came of Rehul in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Basimath, Esau's wife. And these are the sons of Ahol Obama, Esau's wife. Chief Jeush, Chief Jelam, Chief Korah. These are the chiefs that came of Ahol Obama, the daughter of Ena, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Esau, and these are their chiefs. The same is Edom. Why is this important to the people in the time that this was written? Remember, According to Jesus, Moses wrote the book of Genesis. That's not what an Old Testament professor will tell you at, you know, your ordinary seminary or university. According to Jesus, and I think we can trust Jesus' word on that, Moses is the author of Genesis. Now, think about it. Moses is writing this to the children of Israel during the time probably of the wandering This is as the children of the Exodus generation are growing up and getting ready to enter the land of Canaan. And guess who they're going to encounter before they get there? They're going to encounter the Edomites. And guess what God's going to say to them about the Edomites? He's going to say, they're your brethren. You can't have any of their land. Why not? You're going to give us the land of everybody else, all of the other Canaanite tribes. Why can't we have the land of Edom? because they're related to you. And here are their names. Here's their family tree. Here are their leaders. Do you see how God is providing important history to help Israel understand who they are in this world and why God decrees the things that He decrees in their lives? Very important for them. These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land. Lotan and Shabal and Zibion and Anah and Dishan and Ezer and Dishan. These are the chiefs that came of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom. And the children of Lotan were Hori and Heman, and Lotan's sister was Timnah. And these are the children of Shabal, Alvan, Manahath, and Ebal, Shefo, and Onan. And these are the children of Zibion, Ea, and Ena. This is Ena who found the hot springs in the wilderness as he fed the donkeys of Zibion his father. No doubt something that the children of Israel have heard of. And here's a point of historical connection, right? Verse 25, and these are the children of Anah, Deshan, and Aholobamah, the daughter of Anah. And these are the children of Deshan, Himdan, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Chiran. These are the children of Ezer, Bilhan, and Zavan, and Akhan. These are the children of Deshan, Uz, and Aran. These are the chiefs that came of the Horites, Chief Lotan, Chief Shabal, Chief Zivyan, Chief Anah, Chief Deshan, Chief Ezer, Chief Deshan, their chiefs in the land of Seir. And then verse 31, and these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned any king over the children of Israel. Pause. Full stop. Whoa. Genesis chapter 17. What did God promise to Abraham? We remember the significant promises that outline redemptive history. And that's right. That's what we should primarily remember. He said, I'll make your descendants a great nation, like the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky. I'll give to them the land of Canaan. And one day, through your descendants, through your seed, all nations of the earth will be blessed. That's pointing to Christ. And those are the three promises that we always remember, because those are the three that outline the rest of the Bible. But God actually gives, in chapter 12, seven or eight distinct promises to Abraham. And in the rest of Abraham's life, God makes a number of other statements and promises to him that become significant later in the Bible. And one of them, in chapter 17, is that kings will come from his body. You remember that promise was reaffirmed to Jacob in the previous chapter, chapter 35. But kings come from Abraham's body through Esau before they ever come through Jacob. Jacob's descendants aren't going to have a king over them for a very, very, very long time. The first one will be named Saul. He's not going to work out so well. The next one will be a man after God's own heart, David. He becomes quite an important person, right? But long before the Israelites ever had a king, God's already fulfilling promises to Abraham. There were kings among the Edomites by the time of Moses. Verse 32. And Bila, the son of Beor, reigned in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabab. And Bila died, and Jobab, the son of Zerah of Basra, reigned in his stead. And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his stead. And Husham died, and Hadad, the son of Bedad, who smote Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his stead. And the name of his city was Avith. And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrecha reigned in his stead. And Samlah died, and Shal of Rehoboth, by the river, reigned in his stead. And Shaul died, and Baal-Hanan, the son of Akbor, reigned in his stead. And Baal-Hanan, the son of Akbor, died, and Hadar reigned in his stead. And the name of his city was Pau. And his wife's name was Mehedabel, the daughter of Maitred, the daughter of Mezahab. And these are the names of the chiefs that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names. Chief Timnah, Chief Alva, Chief Japheth, Chief Aholobama, Chief Elah, Chief Pinnon, Chief Kinnaz, Chief Timon, Chief Mibzar, Chief Magdiel, Chief Iram. These are the chiefs of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession. This is Esau, the father of the Edomites. Think about that for a second. That's just powerful. You say, I didn't think it was powerful. I thought it was a little boring. No, it's powerful. Esau is not the heir of the covenant. And so, of course, God has nothing to do with him at all. Doesn't even know anything about him, right? No. Do you see God's sovereignty? Do you see God's power, God's promise, God's purpose working out even in the portions of Abraham's family that are outside of the covenant line that is going to come through Israel? This is important. God keeps His promises. God's power preserves everyone and everything that is. Paul will say it this way in Colossians 1 in the New Testament, that Christ holds all things together by the Word of His power. Do you know why there are Edomites in Mount Seir? Because God decided that there would be, and God enabled there to be. And even these parts of the Bible story that seem to be less significant to us need to be reminders to us that God is a God of detail, and God is a God of faithfulness, and God's Word will never fall to the ground. What He says, He will always perform. And that's important, because all of us are awaiting His promise as well.