TEXT: Genesis 35:1 – 36, KJV

Youth Focus this week: First 30 Books of Bible

Key Verse: “And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?” Genesis 37:15,KJV

Introduction:

Leah	Zilpah	Rachel	Bilhah
Reuben	Gad		Dan
Simeon	Asher		Naphtali
Levi
Judah
Issachar
Zebulun
Dinah
		Joseph

Previous Points:

1. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit created man, the highest earthly species in His own image and For specific Purpose
2. Man’s purposes on earth are to, Reproduce (Gen 1:28), Replenish (1:28) to Be Responsible (1:28) and Responsive (1:29 Behold – 2:17)
3. Angels are also created beings capable of love, logic and liberty
4. Lucifer, once a gifted Angel was removed from Heaven and has become the enemy of God known as satan or the devil
5. Satan only has one power….. to convince us that we have none which he does by tempting us to sin through 3 tricks: Lust of Flesh, Lust of Eyes and Pride of Life!
6. God has given man the power to resist sin with love, logic and liberty!
7. CR: Job 2:3 The Hebrew Word: Chazaq (khaw-zek) means to grow firm inculcating that God will often teach us life lessons through curriculums we may not like.

THREE PRIMARY LESSONS WE LEARN FROM STUDYING GENESIS

• God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit created everything in this world For Purpose!
• Man has been given Love, Logic and LibertyI
• Holding to Gods unchanging Hand through hard times is the harbinger of Biblical Christianity

BACKGROUND BIBLICAL CONTEXT:

Chapter 27 Issac gives the blessing to Jacob instead of Esau                                                           Chapter 28 Jacob leaves home in Canaan and heads to his Uncle Laban’s but sees a ladder on the way Chapter 29 Jacob makes it to Uncle Labans house in Padanaram and meets the love of his life Rachel                               

Chapter 30 Jacob works for his Uncle, builds a family with his two wives and gets his own field (Labans sons tend Jacobs few flock and Jacob tends Labans)                                                                                            

Chapter 31 Jacob heads back to Canaan with his wives, their 13 kids and his wealth                               Chapter 32 he wrestles with the Angel, has his name changed to Israel and meets Esau after 20 years   Chapter 34 Jacobs daughter Dinah is assaulted and her perpetrators killed by her brothers

“14 Signs that Lost People Looking for in Spiritual Places”

Chapter 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.

Jacob has returned and settled in Shechem

Link to Chp 34 is that the 12 sons have perhaps caused a war

“I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.’” Gen 31:13

42 total years have passed

Beth = House, EL= God; House of God

• Seeking a place that they can meet God

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:

The gods of the stranger

Shechemite’s had intermarried with Jacobs family

Elohim used but there’s an “s” on god meaning what?

• Seeking a place that accepts them for who they are and makes them part of  family

Some people may only experience family inside their church

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.

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.

Jewish scholars suggest that these were earrings of idol objects that were taken from the Canaanite village when they killed Dinah’s attacker and his family

• Seeking somewhere to give up everything that’s Not of God 

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.

Compared to the cities around them Jacobs tribes were small & vulnerable

They needed Gods protection

Transliteration: chittah          Phonetic Spelling: (khit-taw’)        Definition: fear or respect

• Seeking to be somewhere where God is Respected & Feared

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.

“And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.” (Genesis 28:19)

Luz is Canaanite word and Bethel is a Hebrew word for the same town

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.

Elbethel-means “The God, of the House of God”

• Seeking a place where God can be related to personally by every person

⁸ But Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.

Rebekah was Issacs wife & Jacobs Grandmother

Deborah was Rebekahs nurse and most likely a nanny to Jacob ; 125 years old at least

• Seeking a community to encourage them during discouraging times

So many people are dealing with so much

⁹ And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.

v1) God Said; ………. v7)  God Appeared; …………v9)  God Appeared; ……….v10 God said

• Seeking somewhere that every experience with God gets better & better

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.

Y, SRAL– The “Y” is a prefix meaning “he”. The “AL” usually pronounced as “el” is the Hebrew word for “God”. The “SR” is the part that seems to cause most of the problems in translation. “SR” is yasar meaning “discipline”. When you discipline your children you are turned their head from a path of bad to a path of good.

Word studies reveal that the name could mean:

1. One who wrestles with God
2. Prince of God…….. ‘SR’ usually translated Prince and feminine SRH=turns head
3. One who struggles with God
4. He who is disciplined with God
5. Seeking somewhere that offers opportunities to grow as a disciple

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;

EL-Shaddai or God Almighty

• Kids
• Kings
• Seeking somewhere that’s focused on discipling children

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.

• Seeking someplace stable enough to stand shifting seasons

¹³ And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.

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.

Drink represents wine or Blood

Oil represents Holy Spirit

• Seeking somewhere that sacred things are still special  

¹⁵ And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.

House of God to House of Bethaven meaning House of Iniquity under Jeroboam

• Seeking someplace where worship will always be what’s most important

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.

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.

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.

Benoni- Son of my sorrow

Benjamin- Son of my right hand/the comfort of my old age

• Seeking to find something good inside despite seeing so much sorrow outside

A reason to keep, on keeping on

¹⁹ And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.

Ephrath means Fruitfulness

²⁰ And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.

Jacob  had set a pillar of his joy now he sets one as reminder of his sorrow

²¹ And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.

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:

²³ The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:

²⁴ The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:

Leah	Zilpah	Rachel	Bilhah
Reuben	Gad		Dan
Simeon	Asher		Naphtali
Levi
Judah
Issachar
Zebulun
Dinah
		Joseph
		Benjamin

²⁵ And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:

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.

²⁷ And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

²⁸ And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.

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.

• Seeking somewhere that forgiveness, grace and mercy are practiced daily

Chapter 36

Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom or the Edomites