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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Chapter 36 is a list of names that we're going to blow through since it's just a genealogy and I'll tell you why it's there and why we blow through it and why we do it. But then this way we can begin next time with Joseph's life in chapter 37. So we want to finish 35 and 36. Lord willing, you know, we may not be able to do it. That's happened before. The Lord might come in the middle of the study. That'll be fine.
I'll finish it out. But at least tonight we're in Genesis chapter 35 and 36. Now once upon a time, there was a scorpion and a turtle. And scorpions, as you know, don't swim.
Turtles do. But one morning the scorpion got up and wanted to make his way across the pond. So he found an unsuspecting turtle and said, excuse me, but could I hop a ride on top of you and get to the other side? The turtle looked at the scorpion and said, you got to be kidding.
I know what'll happen. I'll be out in the middle of the pond, you on my back, halfway across. You'll sting me and then I'll drown. The scorpion said, well, that's illogical because if I stung you and you drowned, I also would go down with you. So that flies against logic. The turtle said, well, you got a point there.
Hop on. So they made it across the lake halfway and wouldn't you know it, about halfway across the lake, that scorpion aimed its stinger right at the neck of the turtle and gave it everything it could and stung it. As the turtle started to sink, he turned his head back and said to the scorpion, do you mind if I ask you something? You said that it would be illogical for you to sting me just a moment ago.
So why did you do it? The scorpion said, has nothing to do with logic. It's my nature.
And as you can tell, both the scorpion and the turtle did not live happily ever after. All of us have a sin nature. And that nature has a sting to it because we have been stung by sin. It's poison within our system.
Everyone born has that nature. The sting of death, as Paul said, death has spread to all men. All have sinned. Now, Jacob, as we saw, was a rascal. Jacob was a scorpion. Whoever he got around, he'd sting them. He stung his brother Esau, ripping off his blessing. He stung his dad, deceiving him. He stung his uncle Laban.
And last week we saw that because he was so passive with what happened to Dinah, his daughter, he stung his daughter. But we serve a God of second chances and third chances and fourth chances and fifth chances and 268 chances. And tonight we see the second chance with Jacob, the stinger, the scorpion, heel catcher by God bringing him back to Bethel and him getting a whole new do over with the Lord. Now, just remember back last week in our study, we noted the chapter 34 was a godless chapter, godless because the name of God wasn't even mentioned one time in the entire chapter.
It was filled with deceit, lust, murder, shame. God was absent from the chapter in name and in principle. Well, if that was a godless chapter, then chapter 35 is just the opposite. It's a God-filled chapter.
In fact, the name God appears 11 times in chapter 35 of Genesis and another 11 times in names like Bethel, house of God, El Shaddai, God the mighty. So a total of 22 times a radical departure from a godless chapter, this is a God-filled chapter. And I believe the chapter 35 is the first revival in the Bible and it's a personal revival. It begins within the heart of one individual, that's Jacob, and that revival spreads from the head of the household to the rest of the household.
Now, the word revive means to bring back from the dead or bring back to life or bring back to consciousness. Spiritually speaking, Jacob really, really needed a revival. He had not obeyed God, he had not gone back to Bethel as I'll show you tonight. He was lingering far away from God until this chapter, and here God brings him back. Charles Finney, who was a revivalist and a preacher of revival a century and a half ago, said, All that is necessary for revival, all that revival really boils down to is a new beginning of obedience to God. A new beginning of obedience to God, I'm going to obey God. I'm awakened to the fact of my sin, the need for repentance, and the desire to obey God. And that happens here in this chapter.
It didn't happen until there was a crisis, and if you notice that sometimes it takes a crisis. A crisis at home to awaken us of our real need for God and get us back on track and ask God for help. So chapter 35 verse 1, we read, Then God said to Jacob, Arise, go to Bethel and dwell there, live there, stay there, that's your home, and make an altar there to God who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother. Think back a few chapters. Right after Jacob deceived his dad and stole his brother's blessing, and he was running away from home, and he's out in the middle of nowhere, what he thought was a God-forsaken place, in the middle of the night he had that vision of a ladder stretched up to heaven and the angels of God descending and ascending. He woke up the next day and said, Man, this is awesome. Well, he didn't quite say it that way, he said, truly this is an awesome place. The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. That's the first time he recognized God was doing something in his life, and so he named that place where he was spending the night, which was in older days, in Abraham's time, named Luz, he renamed it Bethel, the house of God. But he made a vow to the Lord. You remember he said, after the Lord spoke to him and he made an altar, he said, Now, if the Lord will be with me, and if the Lord will bring me back to this place, then Yahweh, the Lord, will be my God.
But he never went back. He's got some unfinished business with God. Now God orders him back. Do you have any unfinished business with God?
Is there something between you and God that isn't made right? Then this is a great chapter to study, because we see this man going back to Bethel and getting things right with God. Now, here's the first principle of revival, and I'll give you just a few tonight. Number one, revival came after a period of wickedness. And I've discovered in studying some of the revivals of the past that that is true. It seems like the nation, the world, the country, the city, has experienced an enormous season of wickedness.
And then revival comes. After the period of the judges, when every man did what was right in his own eyes, remember that phrase from the Bible? There was no king in Israel, the writer says, and every person, every man, did what was right in his own mind, his own thinking, his own eyes. It was a very desperate and dark period of time during the judges. Even in the priesthood, even at the tabernacle, there was corruption. Eli the priest had a couple of sons. They were not righteous. Dad, Eli, was passive like Jacob, and his two sons were doing wicked things in the tabernacle, and he knew about it, but he just didn't say anything about it. And then Samuel was born right after that dark time, or right in the middle of that dark time. And God used him to bring a revival to that nation after a season of wickedness. You know, they say that the darkest period of the night is the time just before the dawn.
Just before the sun comes up, it's the darkest. And so, as the world and as our country, if you look around, seems to get darker and more desperate, it's time to rejoice. It's time to get on our knees and pray, Lord, maybe you'll bring a revival. Revive us again, as the prophet prayed, O Lord. Second principle of revival, God always initiates the revival. Man doesn't, God does. It was God who ordered Jacob back to Bethel. It wasn't like Jacob woke up and said, Okay, I'm really convicted.
I'm going back to Bethel. He should have, but he didn't. God initiated it.
Now, why is that important? Because you can pray for a revival, but you can't program revival. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, in his powerful book, Beyond the Summer of Love, Pastor Skip Heitzig helps you understand God's plan and his rules for relationships that flourish and reflect his own love. And when you give a gift of $25 or more this month to support the worldwide ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Beyond the Summer of Love. This resource is for anyone interested in having a successful relationship.
Whether you're single, searching for love, planning to get married, or already married, this book is a helpful guide to help your relationships flourish as God intends. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give $25 or more. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. I remember driving by when I was first a Christian, a church, and I saw a sign that just struck me as being odd. It said, Revival, this Friday night, 7 o'clock. They had scheduled it in their bulletin. They had put it on the books. They announced it to the community that revival would begin at 7 o'clock Friday. And I guess that meant they could live any way they wanted up till then. They could continue to be dead if they were dead or unrevived if they were unrevived, but the revival begins at 7 and lasts until Sunday night at 10. Well, why would you want to end something that glorious, first of all?
Also, it's not something you conjure up or program or strategize. It's begun by God. It begins as God speaks to the heart and does something within the heart. So he orders them back to Bethel. Verse 2, And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, Put away the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments. Well, that's quite a thing to say to your family that maybe up to this point you thought was a godly family. Not that I think he did.
But he has to order them. Put away the idols that you have. It seems, does it not, that a lot of wickedness had been tolerated in this family for a long time.
Now it's time to do something about it. And even as God tells him to get back to Bethel, he tells his family, now get rid of the idols. Do you remember some of those idols a few chapters back once again when Jacob and Rachel and the whole gang decided to leave Padan Aram and go back to Canaan? And the Bible says that Rachel, the wife of Jacob, stole her father's idols and hid them. And it really bummed Laban out so much that he chased them all the way down to the border of Canaan and said, you stole my gods. And I've always thought, well, you've got worthless gods if they can be stolen.
I want my gods back. Jacob said, if you can find them, you can kill the one who has them. Well, he never did find them because she was sitting on top of them on top of the saddle in the tent and she said, you know, it's that time of month, Dad.
Pardon me, I can't get up and greet you like I normally would. And she just bowled him over with a lie and deceit, but she had stolen the idols. They'd been in the house for some time. Jacob knew about it. Again, he was passive. He tolerated it.
But now he says it's time to end that. When you think of idolatry, you probably think of Old Testament. Most of us do. We think of bowing before an image or like this, carrying little images around with you and ascribing some kind of value or worth to that image as if it is a representation of God or a god or some person, and that's idolatry. But you may remember that John, when he ended his letter 1 John, he said, little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Now, that's a New Testament book. So it's not just something Old Testament, nor are idols simply statues that you ascribe some worth or value to. But anything that is a replacement for God or takes up the worship of God could be considered an idol. Keep yourselves from idols. It's a good word for us. Are we tolerating anything that's taking the place of devotion to God?
Only you know and can answer that question. But many people are. Many people's style of worship and religion is to worship idols six days a week and then worship God one day a week. And then they wonder why their worship on Sunday is so lacking. Divided heart. So Jacob says, get rid of them. It's time to go on.
I do want to sort of pick up on last week's theme and tie this into this week. You'll notice that Jacob, for the first time, gets involved actively with his children, admonishing them to get rid of something that wasn't right. Up to this point, he just, whatever, never really gave it much thought.
Again, he was very passive, but not here. He admonished them. Parents, you have the right. In fact, you have the calling and responsibility to admonish your children.
Paul said, bring them up. Bring them up, your children, in the fear and the admonition of the Lord. You have the right, you have the responsibility to say, this is right, this is not right, that's wrong. This is acceptable, this is not acceptable.
This can be practiced, that cannot be practiced. Finally, even though his kids are much older, he takes the leadership of the home and says that to them here. I think that of all the tasks we have, the most important task is that of parenting.
Here's why. In our culture, about 16% of your child's time will be spent at their educational facility, at their school. One percent of their time will be at Sunday school or at church school of some kind, midweek or on weekends. One percent of a child's time, 83% of that child's time will be at home with some kind of parental influence. So it's unrealistic to say, well, I can't understand what happened to my kids. I took them to Sunday school one percent of their life when that parent himself or herself never really followed the Lord passionately or had an example to those children.
So that 83% of the time the message they saw in their parents contradicted the message they heard one percent of the time. I remember when my son Nate was born right out here on the west side. I mean, not like out on the west side but at a hospital on the west side. Yeah, we did it out just real natural. And I remember holding him. He was an average weight, average size, but I remember holding him and it was the first time I'd held him and I thought, first thought is he's so light. He's so light.
I hope I don't drop him. That was my first thought, my first fear. Then as I thought about it, he seemed heavier and heavier as the weight of responsibility for this life came upon me and I saw, wow. The next many years must be devoted to training this child and making sure that what he sees and hears at home are the principles of the scripture. Now somebody once said a parent is simply a partner with God in discipling children.
God wants to disciple them, wants to nurture them, and he uses us to do it. It doesn't mean we're going to be perfect. No parent is. I've never met a perfect parent.
I've met some good ones, I've met some bad ones, never met a perfect one. Here's the trouble. The problem is when we're really experienced at it, we're unemployed. Just when you get the rhythm, just when you get it down, just when you're just at your prime pace, they're grown up. Fortunately, there's a lot of latitude and leeway.
Children, I have found, are very resilient. And when we make mistakes, it's sometimes as simple as, Son, Daddy did a stupid thing. It was a mistake. Would you forgive him?
And maybe even Jacob said, you know, your father's been dumb. He's not been going back to Bethel. He hasn't been serving the Lord. He's been allowing idols in the house.
Would you please forgive me for being a poor father? Now, get rid of the idols. And they did, as you'll see. Verse 3, then, let us arise and go 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 in the way which I have gone. You can see his revived commitment to God.
So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree, which was by Shechem. So his kids, in seeing the commitment spiritually of the father, they followed suit. They follow his example. This guy's serious, man.
He's doing it. Now, there's a verse that I have heard more than any other verse, and I bet you have too. In fact, I'll ask you, what is the one verse you have heard more than any other verse by parents when it comes to their children, as looking for hopes to the future? Train up a child, Proverbs 22, 6.
Train up a child in the way which he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. But the word train in Hebrew, hanak, comes from a word which has to do with putting one's finger in date honey and putting it to the lips of a child. It's a practice in the ancient Middle East where a parent would take some date honey in the little finger and touch the lips of the infant.
The sweetness would stimulate the sucking reflex and get the child ready to be fed from its mother. So the idea of hanak or train meant to stimulate one's taste. So when it says train up a child, it means far more than just give them information. Here's the information. Here's the book. Read it. Do this. Do that. Don't do this.
Don't do that. It's to live in such a way, to live in such a way that it stimulates their taste for godliness and righteousness. They look at a life, and it's so sweet to see a life governed by God, and they go, I want that.
They have a relationship with God. I want that. That's what it means to train up a child in the way that he should go. Actually, our 16th president, President Abraham Lincoln, had it right. He quoted this verse, and he said, if a parent wants his child to be trained in the way that he should go, he should walk in that way himself.
That's the idea. Finally, Jacob is doing it. His children are following suit. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $25 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Beyond the Summer of Love, Relationships in the Real World by Pastor Skip Heitzig, to help you build biblically healthy relationships or repair ones that have been damaged by sin. To request your copy of Beyond the Summer of Love, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to check out the many resources available at connectwithskip.com slash store. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
