Scripture: Genesis 35:9-29
I. God gives grace of reassurance in a fallen world.
A. Genesis 35:9, “God appeared to Jacob again.” Again. God is always appearing to Jacob. God keeps showing up in Jacob’s life to reassure him that God will indeed bless him. God reminds Jacob of the blessing that he had won in a wrestling match with God in Gen. 35:10: “And God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.’” Jacob means liar. Israel means victor, prevailer. God blessed Israel with a new name and a new character and a new life.
B. When God showed up at Bethel (vs. 15), he reassured Israel by his grace of the blessings that were coming for him. He had blessed Israel and would bless him with a nation of people, a land and royalty (vs. 11). God reassured Israel that He would keep all His promises by reminding him of the promise He had already kept in giving Israel a dozen sons (vs. 22-26). Sometimes we don’t see how God has kept His promises. But we just need to listen carefully to our life and look around to see the promises God has kept. This will reassure us.
II. God gives grace in seasons of sadness and sin in our fallen world.
A. The sin that Israel had to deal with in Genesis 35:22 was the sin of incest in his family. Jacob’s oldest son Reuben sleeps with one of Jacob’s concubines Bilhah. Sin is heartbreaking. But God’s glory consists in His grace. In Exodus 34:6-7, God says His glory can be seen primarily in His grace as he tells Moses who He is: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”
B. The sadness in Genesis 35 has to do with death. Two people that were very close to Jacob die in Genesis 35: his wife Rachel (vs. 19) and his father Isaac (vs. 29). One gift of God’s grace to Israel was in experiencing the closeness of God in his time of loss. Psalm 34:18 says “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” We feel God’s presence in our sorrows in ways that we don’t feel at other times. God was still good even though the death of loved ones was very bad. God still gives good gifts of grace even in sorrow.
Application:
Receive God’s grace through Jesus today and extend that grace to others.
Sources:
The Bible
Commentaries by Allen P. Ross, Bruce Waltke and Dale Ralph Davis.
Sermon Discussion Questions
1) How did God reassure Jacob that He would keep His promises to him? How has God reassured you that He will also keep His promises to you?
2) What had God promised Jacob (vs. 11)? How does the genealogy in vs. 22-26 reassure Jacob that God is keeping His promises?
3) Does the presence of grief and sin in our world mean that God no longer loves us? How does God still show us grace even in these times of sadness and sin?