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Awesome Hands – Part 24

“Arise, go up to Bethel”

In the last study, we learned that a lot can happen when we let our “children” take control of the house and the “plans” of the house.

As an example of that we learned that God made a covenant with Abraham to circumcise his children in order to be God’s people.

However, we have Jacob’s sons telling the Hivites that they can be “one people” with God’s people if they will only do what God has instructed their (Israel) people to do.

Gen 34:19 And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter: and he was more honourable than all the house of his father.
Gen 34:20 And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying,
Gen 34:21 These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for the land, behold, it is large enough for them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters.
Gen 34:22 Only herein will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised.
Gen 34:23 Shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us.
Gen 34:24 And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.

They let two days pass before going about doing this act on the third day.

Gen 34:25 And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.
Gen 34:26 And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went out.
Gen 34:27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister.
Gen 34:28 They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field,
Gen 34:29 And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house.

We have Jacob’s sons, not Jacob, calling the shots in this story. This is to show us the contrast of what happens when the old man has dominance over us versus when we are in control, as the new man, and have dominance over the “fruit” that comes from living according to God’s commandments.

Eze 34:27 And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.
Eze 34:28 And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.

Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Mat 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Mat 7:17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

Mat 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

The fruits of these works, of slaying these men who were confederate with Jacob and his family while having an agreement is something that Jacob recognizes right away.

If Jacob had “nipped this thing in the bud” he would not have had to deal with this situation, but it was his sons who made the agreement that they now were going to usurp.

Listen closely to Jacob’s response and then we’ll look at his overall assessment of these two sons.

Gen 34:30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.
Gen 34:31 And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot?

We know that there is a positive and a negative to words in scripture so in this case this is not a favorable situation to be in. The same word stink can be found in these verses:

Exo 7:18 And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.

Psa 38:5 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
Psa 38:6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

Contrasted with the idea of:

2Co 2:15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
2Co 2:16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
2Co 2:17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

So, we can see that Israel’s sons did not use the covenant God gave to them in a wise manner. Rather, they used it as a ploy to kill others.

This is what Jacob prophecies about these two sons in later verses:

Gen 49:5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
Gen 49:6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.
Gen 49:7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

Simeon and Levi represent our own self- righteousness when we have this mindset.

“Death, death, death”

In this study today, we are going to find that chapter 35 of Genesis contains a lot of death, but as we have learned from scripture, death is used to bring about life.

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

We ended the last study with the start of Gen 35:1-5, so I am going to pick up from there and Lord willing the Lord has a blessing or two in store for us.

Gen 35:1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
Gen 35:2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
Gen 35:3 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.
Gen 35:4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
Gen 35:5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

When the Lord is working with us and His people, He always works with us in such a way as to stump whatever plans it is we have in and of ourselves. This is just a simple Truth of scripture.

The Lord, as the master potter, molds us into whatever vessel He wants us to be.

In Gen 35:1, we are told to arise and go to Bethel but why is Bethel so important? For that, we need to look back to what original happened to Jacob “at Bethel”.

Gen 28:16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
Gen 28:17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
Gen 28:18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.
Gen 28:19 And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
Gen 28:20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
Gen 28:21 So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:
Gen 28:22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

Notice it is in Jacob’s sleep, a type and shadow of death, that Jacob is given a dream of what is referred to as Jacob’s ladder.

We know that this is Christ because Christ tells us in Joh 1 that it is “the Son of man”.

Joh 1:51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

So, what are we being told about the Son of man as it relates to Jacob being told at the start of Gen 35 to arise and go to Bethel?

Jacob himself makes a pillar from the stones he rested his head on and calls it the house of God, and “don’t you know that you are the temple of God?”

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Jacob calls this place of this pillar Bethel and even vows a vow to God that if God will bring him back to his father house in peace, then Jacob will call the Lord his God and that this pillar will be God’s house for a whopping ten percent of Jacob’s achievements in the flesh.

Hmm, I wonder what God the Lord will have to say about that? Does anyone else detect a little sifting of the wheat from the chaff about to happen in Jacob’s life?

Now we find Jacob being told to arise and go to Bethel once again, only this time we notice that we are going the opposite direction of when we first started.

In other words, the Lord has brought this full circle and Lord willing, we are going to see the mighty hands of the Lord working in Jacob’s life clearly.

“Deborah dies”

We covered a little bit of this in the previous study, but as things played out in chapter 34 of Genesis we saw that Jacob has indeed forgotten this vow to God.

Why do I say this? Well, at the end of chapter 33 Jacob buys land from “the children of Hamor” and pitches his tent there.

He even builds and altar there, but it was only the workings of the hands of the Lord that the Lord causes the scenario to come about that Shechem would defile Dinah.

Even after this, Jacob was going to give his only daughter away in marriage to the man that had done this. It was Jacob’s sons that the Lord caused to be sent an evil spirit to go and slaughter the city of men who had just been circumcised.

However, the Lord then comes back to Jacob and tells him to go to Bethel where we are going to encounter our first death of this chapter.

In the first five verses, we see Jacob being told that he needed “go back to the place of his vow” and it can clearly be seen that all of Jacob’s house had been defiled with worshipping strange gods.

Remember, it was Jacob’s own wife Rachel that hid Laban’s idols under her when they fled form Laban’s house.

Gen 35:6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.
Gen 35:7 And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
Gen 35:8 But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.

Isn’t it interesting that all the idols of Jacob’s house were buried under an oak tree? Remember, it was Rebekah, Jacob’s mother, who had told Jacob what to do in order to steal his brothers blessing.

Deborah was Rebekah’s nurse and is NOW being buried right after we see it mentioned that Jacob’s whole house was burying their false gods under an oak. Of course, this is all at the hands of the almighty Lord!

Jacob had lost his first love when at first he came to Luz and had his dream of the “gates of Heaven,” only to depart from his first love and go through all these years of departure from the vow he made to God.

The only reference I could find to Rebekah’s nurse was in Gen 24.

Gen 24:58 And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.
Gen 24:59 And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant, and his men.
Gen 24:60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.

Oh, how true it is that we weep at the destruction of our old man, his ways and our life while living as that old man! We don’t want our flesh to die! In type and shadow, we can see this very clearly play out in Jacob’s life and by extension we know this is US, the temple of God!

H439

‘allo n ba ku th

BDB Definition:

Allon Bachuth = “oak of weeping”

1) site of Deborah’s (Rebekah’s nurse) grave near Bethel

Part of Speech: noun proper locative

A Related Word by BDB/ Strong’s Number: from H437 and a variation of H1068

Jacob buries his mother’s nurse and there is much weeping, but this is the last direct connection to his mother as far as I can see in scripture.

As this process happens though, the Lord does not leave us. In fact, He never has. It is we who leave the Lord, but as the Lord works it our according to His will, He appears to us time and again.

Gen 35:9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
Gen 35:10 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.
Gen 35:11 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 loins;
Gen 35:12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
Gen 35:13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.
Gen 35:14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.
Gen 35:15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

It was as Jacob was entering into Pandanaram that God appeared to Jacob and now as Jacob leaves Pabdaaram God appears to him again.

During this time, we can see that Jacob did many things but it can be said that Jacob was not living by faith. So, God reminds Jacob that it is the “seed of Abraham” that is going to be “given the land”.

This time, Jacob not only sets up a pillar but he pours out a drink offering and oil on it versus just oil.

At this point, a “drink offering” should stir up our spiritual eyes and ears because we know the Christ Himself is the offering that is given.

It may be only a drink offering as compared to a bullock or a ram, but in this type and shadow, this is Jacob just now getting back into a relationship with God after losing his first love.

“House of Bread”

I want you all now to journey with Jacob and I from Bethel (house of God) and the pillar God has caused us to build up to Him there and join us on the road to the house of Bread.

In verse 14, we have a drink offering (think of blood) and now we are going to see another form of death happen but it is going to happen as we travel a short way from Bethel to Bethlehem.

Gen 35:16 And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.
Gen 35:17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.
Gen 35:18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.
Gen 35:19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.
Gen 35:20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.

Now, when I read something like “unto this day” I don’t think of a pillar that is consisting of the stones that Jacob used to build the pillar with.

What I do think of is Christ being is, was and will be. This pattern that we see Jacob living out is the same pattern we all live out Lord willing.

We see that Rachel in her death was hard in labor because counting the cost to walk with the Lord is not going to be cheap. It is not going to cost us a tenth as Jacob promised God, but when God gets done with us it is going to cost us EVERYTHING.

The old man will not go down without a fight though and that is why we are told that we are in constant struggle due to the wars going on in our heavens.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Eph 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Listen, it is going to take every ouch of Faith that the Lord gives us to quench the fiery darts of the wicked. Satan is very good at his job and His number one duty is to make you DOUBT that the Lord is working with and in YOU. Do you believe this?

This whole admonition that Jacob lived out for us is to show us what is happening in us “unto this day”.

With this Faith, hear what the Lord is speaking through the scriptures and is using me to tell you now.

It is NOW at this point that the Son of the right hand is born in and to us. It is NOW that Christ takes His rightful spot at the right hand of the Father because God now sits on the throne of your hearts and minds.

With this de- throning of the beast, we see Benjamin born in us! The Father, typified by Jacob renames Benoni to Benjamin.

Jacob Himself was renamed to Israel and just because we can see in this type and shadow that Benjamin represents the Son of the right hand doesn’t mean that we can’t also see that we are Christ’s Christ and later will be given 5 times more than our brothers who are caused to persecute Joseph.

Of course, that is for another study coming up so you’ll have to stay tuned to the “Awesome Hands” studies J

It is now finally that we live by our new name in Christ. It is also now, that as we live out our “new name” that we will see that the “first born” [ that which comes first] will lay with the “seed of the bondwoman” and be open about it.

It is in this that we can JUDGE now the house of God.

Gen 35:21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.
Gen 35:22 And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

Israel is now dwelling in the land which is to say to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear that Christ is working in us to conquer these giants.

As will all processes, we will see a third part of the process come to the death of the “old man” in us as we see Isaac give up the ghost.

With this, the house of Israel will be established as the new generation of the “seed of Abraham” who will live out the next part of the plan that God has to reveal to us.

Gen 35:23 The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:
Gen 35:24 The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:
Gen 35:25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:
Gen 35:26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padanaram.
Gen 35:27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.
Gen 35:28 And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.
Gen 35:29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

“Conclusion of part 24”

We have seen many things happen in this study that show us the process that God is using to work in us all the plan He has for “those that love Him.”

We all know that we cannot love God without keeping His commandments, but we also equally know and understand fully that God is control of even our ability to listen and obey Him.

However, we can know with certainty that God does love us because it is when the Lord drags us to Him, through all that He does in our lives and even after “losing our first love,” that He reveals to us that He alone is ALMIGHTY.

Gen 35:11 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 loins;

The fruit that God tells us to be fruitful which will come as He ordains and we know that this happens with us as the Lord has already revealed that He loves us and is building up His Holy Godhead in us via the Head and the body.

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Just as Jacob pours oil out at the beginning of his walk with the Lord and vows a vow to serve the Lord, we know that we too will lose our first love and turn our backs to the ways of the Lord.

However, the Lord is faithful in using us and all we do to bring us to the point of pouring out oil and drink so that we will know that we are anointing with the Holy Spirit to be able to keep His commandments.

Gen 35:14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.
Gen 35:15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

Eze 39:29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

Rejoice, for you are the temple of God and the house of Israel!

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.