One Dad's Path to Full Surrender

I to, this morning to turn in your Bibles to, Genesis chapter 33. Genesis chapter 33 for our time of study in the word this morning, we're actually gonna be looking at quite a number of verses, this morning. We'll be looking at verses 33, verse 18, all the way through chapter 35, verse 7, and, journeying with Jacob, on a part of his life's journey. And if you want to give a title to the message, it would be One Dad's Path.

To full surrender., It's been an interesting week for me. Every once in a while, my wife, breaks out her Creative Memories albums and just starts working on them, and she's years behind, but she'll start working on them and taking photos from the past and putting them in an album, and she'll break out all the boxes with photos in them and And whenever she's doing that, I normally like to come into the room and sift through them and relive some old memories. And so this past week, including yesterday, I found myself going through the, one of the albums that my wife had put together.

I was looking at pictures of my 4 children from a decade or so ago.

And it was a bittersweet experience for me because as I looked into the faces of my children from over a decade ago, I keenly remember that time in my life, and it was a time in which my heart was not fully devoted. To the Lord as it should have been. And I just felt a sting in my heart. I loved those kids that I saw in those photos.

And I so wished that I had been a better father to them, and that my heart had been more devoted to God at that time so that I could have then been to them the dad that they needed for me to be. as I look at their pictures from years ago, I keenly am aware of the fact that I was not at that time the dad that I would be now if I could go back with what I know now and get to be their dad again at that age that I see them in the photos. And sometimes I ask God the question, why did you give me children when I still had so much growing up and maturing to do?

To which God always replies, I gave you children because you needed to grow up.

I gave you children to grow you up and to mature you, and indeed God has done that. And then I realized in such moments like I felt yesterday that's actually a miraculous moment that I would even have the capacity to feel that sense of grief over the fact that I was not then the man that I know that God wanted me to be. I feel like God is growing me as a man, as a husband, as a dad, and And I'm on the verge of being a good father. I'm like, I'm almost there.

I'm on the verge of being a good husband. I've repeatedly told my wife, just stick with me for another year. I'm about 1 year away from being a good husband to you. And I've been saying that to her the last 5 years.

And I feel that way as a dad, like I, I'm I'm figuring some things out. God is growing me and I'm ready to be a good dad to my children, but they're, they're far along now. 21 years old, almost 20. And so forth.

And I wish that I can go back, but I can't. spiritual growth and surrender to the Lord is an intriguing process. 25 years ago, I'd hear messages saying you got to surrender yourself fully to God. And to the best of my knowledge at the time, I did that.

But I look back now, and at none of those moments was I fully surrendered to the Lord. I thought I was at the moment, but there was always something inside of me that was holding on to things. And over the years, God would fight me on those things, a fight of love, and my life's journey has been one of God taking those things I'm holding on to and prying open my hands and pulling those things away from me. And when they're finally released from my hands, there's such a liberation that occurs.

And I'm like, well, that was easy. And it's so sweet that I'm thinking, why did I fight the Lord so long on these things? Over the years God has been patient. God has been loving and growing me and bringing me to a place of surrender, but this is a process that took far longer than it should have been taking.

My story is a story of spirituality. Growth, but it's been slower than it should have been. My story is a story of growing surrender to the good loving heart of God, but that path to surrender has been a meandering path and has been far slower. I have been far slower on that journey than I should have been.

Meanwhile, I've got a wife and kids and children that are growing underneath my leadership throughout that whole messy process. It's because of these things that I can really identify with the man that we find in our passage for this morning, and that is Jacob. Jacob walked a very slow and meandering path towards full devotion to the Lord, and his family was profoundly and negatively affected as a result of that. But God is relentless in His grace towards Jacob and affirms him, protects him, loves him, provides for him.

At times, yes, even fights with him to bring Jacob to the place of full surrender. And we're gonna look just this morning at one of the latter stages of that journey of Jacob towards the place of full surrender. And that begins in chapter 33 verse 18. If you don't mind though, let me take a few minutes to set the stage for you.

I, you'll, you'll like this. OK. This won't be like a boring. review, but we need to set the stage for what happens in Genesis 33:18 and following.

in a nutshell, Jacob is living at home with his, dad, Isaac and his mom, Rebecca, and his brother Esau. And many of us know the story where he cheated Esau out of his birthright and then at a really critical moment, his dad, who couldn't see very well, was ready to deliver the blessing to the firstborn, which was Esau. Jacob disguises him at Esau as Esau, and his dad ends up laying his hands on Jacob and delivering the blessing to Jacob that he had intended to deliver to Esau.

Well, when Esau catches wind of what Jacob has done, he is angry and he hates Jacob, and pretty much determines That when the time is right, I'm going to kill him.

Jacob knows this, and Isaac, now the dad now knows this. And so in chapter 28, Isaac sits down with Jacob and prays for him one final time, and he says, As soon as I'm done praying, get out of town as fast as you can and go up to Pedaram, all right. which is not on the map behind me, but you see the word Heron. Heron was a major city in the region of Padaram.

So he's telling Jacob, who's down in Beersheba down at the bottom of the map, I want you to go up there to Heron, and your mom's brother lives there along with his family, and I want you to find a wife from among them and stay up there until things cool over down here, and then hopefully someday you'll be able to return. So Jacob obeys his dad and begins to journey up to Pedaram. to Heron and on his journey up, he ends up stopping one night at a place called Luz, which later became known as Bethel, and he takes a stone and uses that as a pillow and falls asleep in Bethel, and it's there that he sees the dream called Jacob's ladder of a, of a stairs, the ladder that ascended up into the heavens, and angels of God were Ascending and descending, and God was at the top.

And God speaks to Jacob and delivers Jacob a wonderful promise.

He says in Genesis 28:13, the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants, the very earth that you are right now lying on, Jacob, I'm going to give this to you and to your descendants. Behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go. And I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised. So Jacob, you're heading up to Pananara.

And there's gonna be a lot of things that happen to you, but I promise you will come back here to Bethel. You will come back to your father's house, and I will see to it that that happens. Well, Jacob responds to this promise from the Lord by, making a vow to God. It is not a perfect vow.

It's not even an ideal vow. It's, what's interesting is it's a conditional vow. It does not display a full level of trust in God, but it's honest nonetheless. Jacob says in Genesis 28:20, it says, then Jacob made a vow saying if If God will be with me, and if God will keep me on this journey that I take, and if God will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and if I return to my father's house in safety, then the Lord will be my God.

So he's not even saying so much that the Lord will be my God right now. He's saying, God, if you are true to your word, and I find my way back here to Bethel, and you give me food to eat and clothes to wear and take care of me and bring me back here, then you will be my one and only God. He then says this stone which I have set up as a pillar. will be God's house, and of all that you give me, I will surely give a 10th to you.

Jacob's not saying starting today, I'm going to give a 10% of everything I have to you. He's saying if you bring me back, if you keep your promise, and I come back here to Bethel, and I come back to my father's house and Safety, then you will be my God, and then I will give 10% of all I have to you. Well, Jacob continues on his journey on up to Pedaram, comes to Heron, meets up with Laban, and lays his eyes on the most beautiful gal he's ever seen. In his life, and that's a girl named Rachel.

He wants her so bad that he's willing to work for her dad for 7 years. At the end of 7 years, there's a wedding ceremony and Laban gives to Jacob a veiled bride. They have a wedding ceremony, and then, and then they consummate the marital union. And in the Old Testament in the story, it says, in the morning, behold, it was Leah.

And so it was Rachel's ugly sister essentially, and Jacob is sorely disappointed with this and comes to Laban and files his complaint and says, I wanted Rachel. What did you give me Leah for? And Laban said, Yeah, you're right. what, if you can work another 7 years, I will give you Rachel.

So Jacob contracts himself to work another 7 years, and Laban gives him Rachel. Jacob ends up being up there for a total of about 20. Years up in the region of Panarim. All right, but at about the 20 year point, God begins to beckon Jacob back down south to the place of his birth.

It says in Genesis 31:3, while he's up with Laban's household and God is prospering him there, God speaks to him after 20 years. Say, Jacob, return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you on that journey. It's now time to go home. And I know you've got worries about Esau and everything and, and traveling concerns, but I want you to know you will be home.

You will make it safely. In fact, God also says to him on this occasion, these words, I am the God of Bethel. And this could be translated, I am the God at Bethel. It's almost like God is speaking to Jacob from Bethel, many miles away.

Hey, Jacob, I am the God at Bethel. Remember, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to me saying that if you came back here, I would be your one and only God. I am that God, and I'm speaking to you now. Arise, leave this land.

And return to the land of your birth. It's time to come back to the region of Beersheba. And when you come back, I'm the god of Bethel. I want you to pass through Bethel.

That's essentially what he's saying. So Jacob begins his journey down. Let's see if this works. He begins heading down in Ramoth Gilead.

That's where Laban catches up with him. And they get into it because Jacob snuck off. They end up making a covenant. Laban lets him come, continue on his way.

He then comes to Penuel. Esau lives somewhere down around here. Jacob sends word to Esau saying that, I'm on my way. I'd like to meet you, and he then gets word back being told that Esau's coming with 400 men.

Jacob freaks out and is sure that he's a dead man. He begins to connive and strategize and so forth, but it was while Jacob was at Penuel, the day before he hooked up with Esau, that the angel of the Lord wrestled with Jacob. Remember that story? And, Jacob demanded a blessing from God, and God delivered.

Jacob. Jacob extracted this blessing from the angel of the Lord, and he received that, and it was there that his name was changed from Jacob to Israel because it says, you have fought with God and you have prevailed. So you've extracted from God this, this blessing. Well, on the very next day, Esau comes to meet Jacob.

It's a wonderful, awesome moment of reconciliation. And love between the two of them. But after they spend a little bit of time together, Esau wants to head back to this region where he lives and says, Why don't you come spend some time with me, Jacob? And Jacob says, OK, I'll do that.

And Esau says, Well, let's, let's, let's travel back together. And Jacob's like, No, my family's slow, my animals are slow. I don't want to slow you down. You go on back and I'll hook up with you later.

Later, and Esau's like, OK, but let me leave a few of my men behind and they can help you on your journey. And Jacob's like, No, I don't want to trouble you. You go on down to your hometown, and I'll meet up with you there. And so Esau says, OK, and he heads down.

Jacob deceived him once again, and instead of coming down to where Esau is, he comes and settles in a place called Sukkoth. temporarily. And, build some temporary shelters there, stays there for a brief spell, and then he comes to Shechem. All right, and that's where our narrative in Genesis 33:18 begins.

And what we're going to do with the time that we have is we're gonna make 4 observations about at this point of the narrative, 4 observations about Jacob's choices and their impact upon his family. And the first observation that we can make as this story begins to unfold is that Jacob chooses to settle in a place of spiritual compromise, rendering his family vulnerable to danger. Jacob chooses to settle in a place of spiritual compromise, rendering his family vulnerable to danger.

Look what the text says.

It says now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Pedaram and he camped before the city, so he's not in the city, he's in the outskirts or the suburbs of the city. Verse 19, and he bought the piece of land where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for 100 pieces of money. Then he erected there an altar and called it El Elohei is. In other words, God, the ultimate God of Israel.

That's essentially what he is saying. It sounds great on the surface what is happening here, but it's at this point that many commentators basically surround Jacob and heavily criticize what's going on here in a way that might not be evident immediately in the text, but it becomes evident as the story continues to unfold. Schofield, one commentator is very unimpressed with this act of worship on Jacob's part. He says, this is Jacob worshiping in a state of self-will.

Another commentator says this, that Jacob's summons was to Bethel. But Shechem, about a day's journey short of it, stood attractively at the crossroads of trade. Buying his own plot of land there was disobedience, and his pious act of rearing an altar and claiming his new name of Israel could not disguise this fact. Keep in mind, guys, that God had, let me go back to this map.

God had called to him from Bethel, actually, forget the map. God had called to him from Bethel. Jacob should have continued on his journey, but instead he stops in Shechem. how long he was in Shechem?

8 to 10 years. So he stops there, buys some land, and hangs out there for a number of years. So his ambition of going back to Bethel, Jacob, when he gets about a day shy of Bethel, ends up stopping in his journey, and a number of years are spent in Shechem, which is by all accounts a place of compromise for him. One commentator says the idle years near the Canaanite city of Shechem reflect a general spiritual passivity on Jacob's part.

Matthew Henry says Jacob apparently had forgotten his vow, or if he remembered it, he at least deferred the performance of it. And that raises the question. He started off saying we're going down to our family's household. We'll be passing through Bethel.

That's what his intention was. And now he settles in Shechem or just on the outskirts of the city for a number of years. What is going on here? Well, if you go to chapter 35, verse 1, you begin to find out a little bit of what's going on.

Go to chapter 35 verse 1 real quick. it says in chapter 35 verse 1, then God said to Jacob, after the ugliness that happens in Genesis 34, after all the ugliness that we'll be seeing in a moment happens, then God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and Live there and make an altar there to God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother. So Jacob said to his household and all who were with him, Put away the foreign gods which are among you. Purify yourselves, change your garments, and let us arise and go up to Bethel.

And there I'm going to build an altar. It's interesting when he finally does decide to go to Bethel, he tells his family, guys, put away all the foreign gods. Because we can't go to Bethel with foreign gods. Remember his vow, God, if you bring me back here, you will be my one and only God.

And so he's heading to Bethel, but he stops about 20 miles shy of Bethel and says, I'll get there. I'll get there eventually. But for now, let's settle here. And he settles just outside of the city of Checkham in a place of compromise, rendering his family vulnerable to danger.

We're going to see a lot of ugliness that follows in the coming verses, but let me just say this word of warning to us as dads, a father's compromises often serve as the open door through which the devil attacks. When we as men settle in a place of passivity and compromise, that area of compromise often serves as an open door through which explosions of evil take place, through which the devil attacks our wives and our children. In fact, just as an example of this, Fred Stoecker, one of the authors of Everyman's Battle trying to help men with their battle against lust, shares about his own experience where he struggled with pornography for, for years, and, and then he ended up getting married and wasn't looking at full-on, pornography like he had.

perhaps before, but he mentions that there were little compromises that he would make.

For example, every Sunday morning he would take the Sunday newspaper and pull the ads out and look at the lingerie ads that were in the advertisement section. It was just a little thing he did, a place of compromise and sin that he went to. No one knows about it. No one's affected by it, but he began to realize that his wife was being affected by this, even though she did not know what was going on.

Listen to what he says. He says, more than once, my wife rushed downstairs with tears and terror on her face while I was in the very act of viewing lingerie ads. She'd say, I just had a horrible dream. She'd say, Satan was chasing me and I was racing desperately to find you so that you could protect me.

I called and called, but no matter where I ran, I couldn't find you. And in her mind she's like, Oh, thank goodness it was a dream, and you're right here and I'm happy to know that it was just a dream. But Fred Stoeker sat there pondering deeply, and he said, torn, I wondered, has my sin crushed my spiritual protection? Over her.

Has my private sin provided an open door through which the devil is attacking. My wife By the way, if the full story of Fred Stooker and his battle with pornography, his battle with pornography began when he was in the first grade. When he found a Playboy magazine underneath his father's bed. And thus his father's place of compromise became an open door through which this first grader was attacked by the evil one, who then this young man then grew up and got married, having similar battles, and he would go to places through which the devil would go after his wife.

Men, the stakes are extremely high. And when the devil, seeks to attract us to sin, and tries to get us distracted and bound and in places of spiritual passivity and compromise, he's not even often necessarily doing that because we're his number one target. He's just trying to sideline us so that he can get to our wives and get to our children. And the most dangerous place for any woman and children to be is underneath the headship of a man who's in a place of compromise.

A place of spiritual passivity. Jacob would have said, I love Bethel. In fact, I'm going to Bethel. The day's going to come when I'm going to go there and God is fully going to be my God, but not today.

And he settles in a place of compromise. And his family pays the price for it. There's a second observation we make as the narrative unfolds, and that is that Jacob's daughter gets sexually violated and wooed by a man who successfully speaks to her heart. In this place of compromise, Jacob's daughter gets sexually violated and wooed by a man who speaks to her heart.

Look what happens here in Checkham. Now, Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, this as far as we know, is Jacob's only daughter. Dinah, the daughter of Leah. whom she had borne to Jacob went out to visit the daughters of the land.

When Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force. The idea literally is he saw her, he took her, he lay with her, and he sexually violated her. The implication of the text is this was not mutually consensual sex. He forced himself on her and violated this young gal who was anywhere from 13 to 16 years of age at the time.

So this is an ugly beginning to this relationship between Shechem and Dinah. However, on the other side of this sexual violation, look what happens. And he was deeply attracted to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl, and he spoke tenderly to her. That's what the new American standard says, literally in the Hebrew text says he spoke to her heart.

He spoke to the heart of this girl, which seems to imply that in speaking tenderly to her, he actually succeeded in reaching her heart. He spoke all the way up to and into her heart. This is such a reminder to me having two daughters, and to all of us as men, to speak to the hearts of our daughters, to speak with tenderness, with love, with affirmation, and with respect and with understanding. If we as dads don't speak to our daughters' hearts, Somebody will.

In fact, many people already are seeking to speak to the hearts of our daughters. And if we don't speak to the hearts of our daughters and have their hearts as we speak to them with tenderness, with respect, then they will be emotionally vulnerable to any loser who comes along and knows how to talk a great game. We now find out that Dinah was not only physically vulnerable, but she was emotional. And on the other side, sexual violation, Sheckham speaks to her heart, and now things are at a place where it is possibly a consensual relationship.

She doesn't mind, it seems, actually being with Sheckham. And so at this point, verse 4, Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, Get me this young girl for a wife. He pulls his dad aside and says, Dad, I want to marry this girl, do whatever it takes, get her for me as a wife. Now look at how Jacob and his sons end up reacting to this verse 5.

Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter, but his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob kept silent until they came in. What's interesting is this is the only thing said about Jacob's response to what has happened to his daughter. Maybe he was angry. Maybe he was outraged.

The text doesn't say that. The only thing the text reveals is that he kept silent. He seemed somewhat passive in his response, but look at the son's response, verse 6. Then Hamor, the father of Shechem, went out to Jacob to speak with him.

Now the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it, and the men were grieved, and they were very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done. So Jacob's response, he kept silent about the whole thing. The son's response is they were aggrieved. They were very angry, literally they were on fire with anger.

They viewed this as a disgrace. They're morally outraged. This should not have ever occurred. So they have a very weighty emotional moral response to what has happened.

Jacob, he kept silent. That's a mysterious response on Jacob's part. Jacob has made a choice to settle in a place of compromise. Rendering his family vulnerable to danger, and in this place of compromise, Jacob's daughter gets sexually violated and wooed by a man who speaks to her heart.

There's a third observation that we make here as the narrative unfolds, and that is that Jacob's son's murder and plunder and an explosive act of vengeance and greed. Jacob's son's murder and plunder and an explosive act of vengeance and greed. Look at what it says in Genesis 34. But Hamor spoke with them saying, the soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter, please give her to him in marriage.

So they're speaking now to Jacob and his sons all together. Saying give her to my son in marriage. And even beyond that, he offers them a deal. Intermarry with us, give your daughters to us and take our daughters for yourselves.

Thus you shall live with us, and the land shall be open before you. Live and trade in it and acquire property in it. Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, If I find favor in your sight, then I will give whatever you say to me. Ask me ever so much bridal payment.

And gift, and I will give according as you say to me, but give me the girl in marriage. Ask whatever you want. I'll give it to you, but give me the girl in marriage. And the dad is being more practical.

Hey, how about we become one people, we trade together, do business and commerce together, and we intermarry. That's the deal that's being offered. Again, Jacob is not even a player in this dialogue. It's only his sons who respond.

And look at their response verse 13, but Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor with deceit because he had defiled Dinah, their sister. And they said to them, Well, we cannot do this thing to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us. Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will become like us and that every male of you be circumcised, then we will give our daughters to you and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you and become one people.

But if you do not listen to us to be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go. So we will honor your request, but first you and all of the men of Shechem need to become circumcised as we are, and that way we can become one people. interestingly enough, they're speaking with deceit. They know what they're planning on doing.

Jacob does not know. He's shocked by what they end up doing, but Jacob offers no protest to this plan. He doesn't speak up and say, no, no, no, we can't become one people with these Canaanites. That's not what God wants.

We're not going to sacrifice our future generations and the will of God. No, he doesn't protest. In fact, the only protest we hear from Jacob in coming verses is him protesting against his sons for not living up to this agreement. Jacob is clearly in a place of compromise.

Well, the sons offer this deal and It says in verse 18, now their words seem reasonable to Hamor and Shechem, Hamor's son. And the young man did not delay to do the thing because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter. Now he was more respected than all the household of his father. So Hamar and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, These men are friendly with us.

Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage and give our daughters to them. Now here's what they're saying to the men of Shechem. Only on this condition will the men, Jacob and his sons consent to live with us.

To become one people, and that is that every male among us to be circumcised as they are circumcised, will not their livestock and their property and all their animals be ours? Only let us consent to them and they will live with us. And then, amazingly, amazingly, all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and do a sun Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. Shechem's like, I'm willing to do this, and his dad, I'm willing to do this.

And every man in the city of Shechem, from young to old, said, we're willing to do this in order to become one with this family of Jacob, and so that Shechem can have Dinah as a wife. They're doing this in good faith. There's been a pledge made by Jacob's sons, do this, and here's what will follow. We'll be one people.

We can live together and trade together, and Sheha can have Dinah. But Jacob's sons lied. This was a fraudulent contract. Look what happens after all the men of Shechem get circumcised.

Verse 25. Now it came about on the 3rd day, which was the day of greatest pain and immobility. And greatest weakness. Now it came about on the 3rd day after the circumcision when they, the men, were in pain, that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, by the way, read Genesis 49:57, Simeon and Levi are brutal men, and even Jacob's final words to these two guys are not kind.

At all. They're angry, brutal men, Simeon and Levi, who were full blooded brothers to Dinah. Dinah's brothers each took a sword and came upon the city unawares and killed every male, and they were able to do that because the men were in such a state of weakness and immobility. They killed every male.

They killed Hamar and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword, and then they took Dinah from Shechem's house, and they went forth. So they, they killed all the males of the city and then took Dinah and they returned to Jacob's house. And at that point, all of the other brothers, the sons of Jacob, find out. What they had done and so they get caught up in it and all of the sons of Jacob basically return back to Shechem.

Verse 27. Jacob's sons, not just Simeon and Levi, but all of his sons, came upon the slain and looted the city because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks and their herds and their donkeys, and that which was in the city and that which was in the field, and they captured and looted all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives, even all that was in the houses. This is a gross explosive overreaction.

This is sheer vengeance. And greed that has assumed control of Jacob's sons. In fact, later when the law would be given, there would be that principle an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and part of the reason for that principle in the Old Testament law was to limit the degree to which retaliation could be exacted against a person. If someone does something and you lose an eye.

You cannot retaliate with more than causing them to lose an eye. Sheckham has done something wrong with Dinah and Jacob's sons respond. By killing every man in the city and plundering everything in the city, and they did so based upon having weakened the men through circumcision based on a fraudulent, deceptive contract that they entered into with them. This is, this is wrong on their part.

They are under the control of a spirit of vengeance and greed. Evil is exploding here in Jacob's house, and we even see Jacob's pathetic response. Look at this. Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, look at his response.

There's no moral outrage like you have sinned against God. You've offended God. There's nothing about that. Look at his objection.

You have brought trouble on me by making me odious among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Parasites, and my men being few in number, they will gather together against me and attack me, and I will be destroyed. I and oh by the way, my household. Jacob is completely caught up. With himself.

And again, he's not even speaking them from the vantage point of representing God, and that this is a sin against God. His only protest is you guys have created an immense practical problem for me. You've ruined my reputation. And now our safety is in jeopardy.

What is going on in Jacob's life and in his household to where that's the only vantage point from which he can speak to Simeon and Levi about what they had led the way in doing. Jacob settles in a place of compromising, rendering his family vulnerable to danger. In this place of compromise, Jacob's daughter gets sexually violated and wooed by a man who speaks to her heart, and that sets in motion a third thing that happens, and that is that Jacob's son's murder and plunder and an explosive act of vengeance and greed.

Right now, their family situation is in an absolute mess.

And yet here we see. The amazing grace of God. A 4th and final observation. is that Jacob now chooses to clean house and lead his family to the place of full surrender to God.

Jacob chooses to clean house and lead his family to the place of full surrender to God. One commentator says God allowed Jacob to experience the appalling weight of his sinfulness so that he would return to his call. Jacob would later go to Bethel, humiliated and chastened. God's relentless, tenacious, intrusive grace would have its fearsome, loving way.

I love that. After all of this mess and the years of compromise and delay, And carrying out what God had told Jacob to do, and then all of the pain that's now come into the family as a result of this delay and this compromise on Jacob's part, God is not fed up with Jacob. He's not through with Jacob. Look at the very next verse, Genesis 35:1.

Then God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and live there. Jacob. Jacob, come to Bethel, what I told you years ago, come to Bethel and live there and make an altar there the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. And Jacob decides, what, we're gonna go, we're gonna go.

And so Jacob said to his household and all who were with him, Put away the foreign gods which are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Things are going to change around here. We're going to Bethel, and before we go to Bethel, we got to get rid of any rivals. To God being our ultimate and our only God, we've got to purify ourselves.

There is sin in our midst. We must be purified and cleansed. We've got to change our garments that right now are. draped in bloodshed.

And let's go to Bethel. Look at how the family responds. Look at verse 3. Jacob says, and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I've gone through all the ups and downs, compromises and, and sin and self-sufficiency and deceptions and explosions of injury and evil that have taken place even in recent days.

God has always been with us. He's always been faithful. And he says, Give me the foreign gods. We need to put them away.

Look how the family responds. So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which they had and the rings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was near Shechem. This is amazing in its simplicity. Jacob has been doing family for about a decade or 25 years now.

And now he's like, OK, we're going to go to Bethel, and we got to clean house and get rid of foreign gods. Jacob may have even wondered, Good night, how's the family going to respond when I demand this? Even my own wife stole some of the deities from Laban's house. I know she's got some, so she's included in this.

How's the family going to respond? But once Jacob takes a stand in front of his family, and says, Put these gods away, look how the family responds. They're like, OK, OK. And they bring all the foreign gods to him and they take the earrings out of their ears that no doubt symbolize various deities, and they bring them to Jacob, and he now goes and buries them.

Jacob may have thought, man, what would have happened if I would have done this sooner? Oftentimes, men, not always, but oftentimes, our wives and children are ready to follow our lead. They're just waiting for us to man up. And to stand before our households and with broken, contrite, humble, fully surrendered before God with that leadership coming to our families and saying, here's what God is wanting us to do.

And oftentimes our families are just waiting for us to do that. And we think, man, what's going to happen when I say this to my family? And often men are surprised by the fact that the family's like, OK, and they're, they're ready to follow their lead. You wonder what might have happened if Jacob had taken the stand sooner.

And so they journey, and as they journey, verse 5, there was a great terror upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. And so Jacob came to Luz, that is Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan. He and all the people who were with him, and he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel. Which means the God of the house of God, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he had fled from his brother.

Jacob, after a thirty-year commute. 30 years ago, he had left Bethel and said, when I come back, God, you will be my God. Now, about 30 years later, he comes back to Bethel, to this place of full surrender. I love the fact that when God spoke to him, and check him and said, Jacob, come, come.

To Bethel. That Jacob didn't say to his family, hey, I'm going to be away for a while, and that he didn't just decide to go to Bethel by himself. It's like, what, I've learned something. I've been chastened.

I've been humbled. I'm going to Bethel, and what? By the grace of God, I'm bringing every member of my family with me. What we see in a story like this, man, is the pain of a father's compromise.

The stakes are incredibly high. This is not something to trifle with. We see the patience of God. God is so loving, so patient with Jacob, just as he is with us.

We see the grace of God that keeps on beckoning. keeps on beckoning as he does with us. We see the grace of God who accepts the worship of a broken man with a lot of sin in his history. God doesn't say to Jacob when he's at Bethel and worshiping him, God doesn't say, how dare you try to worship me?

No, God delights in the worship of a humbled, broken, chastened, and contrite man who's repenting of his sin, putting away all rivals to God, and coming to God. Especially nowadays, having purified himself through Jesus Christ in his shed blood, and changing his garments for his old rags of sin, and draped in the perfect righteousness of Jesus. God loves the worship of a man who has a sin history, but who's repenting. And coming before God in brokenness.

We learn here also that it's never too late to clean house and start anew. Jacob again has been at this for 25 years as a husband and as a father to his children, and has messed up in a number of ways. And yet he's like, what, put the gods away, purify yourselves. We're going to Bethel and we're going to worship God, and I'm going to fulfill my vow.

It's never too late, never too late, no matter how much we failed. In fact, is it not true? That like God actually used all of the failures in Shechem, and the evil that exploded to actually spur Jacob on. And God even uses in his mercy our failures.

To go into the mix of stirring us on to a place of surrender to him. We see in this story that wherever we go on our journey with God as men, we should seek to take our families with us. We also see the need for repentance, for cleansing, for a change of garments which can only happen. Through Jesus.

Is there anything in our lives, men, that we need to renounce and put away? Are there things in our house that we need to renounce and put away? Is there anything in our household that is serving as a rival to God? Is there anything we need to change in order to worship God rightly and be fit for his blessing?

These are questions that I want to leave all of us as men with. Listen, here at Cornerstone, we, we want to invest in the men here. Our church will rise no higher than its men. If there's anything we can do to help any of our husbands and And dads, we want to do that.

in fact, that's one of the best ways we serve the wives here at Cornerstone and the children here at Cornerstone is by investing in trying to be a help to their husbands and their, their dads. If there's anything we can do to be a help or to pray with you, we, we would love to do that. I do want to encourage you as men to, consider coming out on Tuesdays. We have our second day Man Forum from 6 in the morning to 7:05.

You're welcome to come to the Man Forum. We just spent some time looking at the word and reading quotes from guys that have something encouraging to say to us as men, and I do want to let that this coming Tuesday is the one year anniversary of our Second Day Man Forum, and some of the guys who are part of the Mann Forum. are putting together a breakfast, for this Tuesday. So, you're welcome to come even if you don't normally attend.

In fact, I got a text, there will be scrambled eggs, home fried potatoes, French toast, bacon, orange juice, and coffee. So, If you're even on your way to work and only can stay for a little while, just stop through, eat a bite, and be on your way. But even in the coming Tuesdays in the Tuesday Man Forum or anything else we can do, To be a help to you, please know that we want to do that. Let's bow our heads and let's ask God to help us as men to grow.

Into the men that he has called us to be. Lord, our path toward full surrender and spiritual growth and maturity has been a torturous, meandering path. That has been Characterized by many places of compromise and delay and deferred obedience. We thank you for your grace and for your persistence with us, Lord.

And that you never give up on us. I pray for the men of Cornerstone. That you would Just help us in our weakness. We are weak, Lord.

We We have so much ignorance inside of us and a history of failure where we have failed. be our healer and our forgiver and our physician, where we are ignorant, Lord, be our wisdom, where we are weak, be our strength. And raise us up as men of God to lead our families. To love you that they would see us progressing in the things of God, help us to be immersed in the good news of salvation through Jesus and relishing what Jesus has done for us at the cross, Lord, that daily we are feasting upon his love and his heart and as he gives himself to us so freely through the cross.

As we feast on these things, Lord, that we would grow thereby and that our wives and children would see the power of the gospel because they see it displayed in our lives. And though our history may be characterized by a lot of failure, Lord, that actually yields up a tremendous opportunity for us to model gospel progress to our families. Help us to do that. Use us by the way that we live before our children.

By the way we speak to them, by the way that we relate to them, help us through all of these means, Lord, to show our children what you are like, and the fullness of your good heart. That you would use us, along with many other means to raise up a godly generation of people, men and women, Lord, who will be champions of the faith. And do great exploits in the name of Jesus. When that day comes, we'll be grateful that you used us.

Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, receive these funds that we give at this time and do much with them for the glory of Jesus. At the same time we give ourselves to you in the name of Jesus. And all God's people said.