FBT Daily Devotional: Genesis 35

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Okay. Yes, taking a completely different approach to Genesis thirty-five. Amen. This keeps happening. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Taking a different approach to Genesis thirty-five. So today, just kind of gleaning into the word, just having a complete understanding that Genesis 35 is um just kind of describing returning to Bethel, alignment before expansion. That's today's topic. Alignment before expansion. So Genesis 35 is a turning point chapter in the book of Genesis. And this is where God calls Jacob back to Bethel to realign his life, his household, and his leadership before stepping to the next phase of his destiny. I'm very confident many of you, all of you, can relate to that. Now, this teaches us a very, very powerful, um, many powerful aspects that before God expands your influence, he calls you back to alignment, a spiritual reset to identify reaffirmation, generational transition, or often sometimes preparational for national leadership. That's definitely reflected here in Genesis 35. So God tells Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there and make an altar to God. And here Bethel means house of God. Years earlier, Jacob had an encounter with God there when he saw a ladder connecting heaven to earth. Now, this place represents divine access. Amen. We have divine access to God, but God is here, is essentially saying, return to the place where you first encountered me. Before Jacob could go lead a nation, he had to return to the altar. Now, just in the aspect of leadership, understanding expansion without alignment leads to a collapse. Guaranteed. There's no way around it. God often calls leaders back to their spiritual foundation before the next level of influence. What did God tell you to do previously? So there's a cleaning of culture of households that's upon. When Jacob prepares to go into Bethel, he tells his family, put away the foreign gods, purify yourself, and change your garments. The three things that are happening here is you have to first, there he's telling them, but also an unction unto us before going to the next level, remove the idols. Jacob's household have foreign gods from previous regions. You got to get rid of it. What's the previous thing you held on to? You um idolize. God is saying there can be no other God before me. Purify yourself is number two. This represents spiritual cleansing before encountering God. And then lastly, change garments. Clothing symbolize new identity and transformation. Jacob even buries the idols under a tree near, I didn't pronounce them right. I think it's she met. She excuse me, Shechem, C-H-E-C-H-E-M. It's better to spell to say it. So the the part here that God is unctioned onto us is before an altar to God, before building an altar God, Jacob had to clean the culture of his household. Now, when we think about cleaning up our house, I also think about order. So God cannot build something holy while you're tolerating hitting idols. He's a jealous God. But also there is no other God that should be before him. So today, idols may look like control. Today, an idol may look like eagle. Today, idols may look like fear or money or status. And so when a household became um aligned, spiritual uh scripture tells us that God places fear on the surrounding cities, protecting Jacob's family. So that alignment activated protection. And no matter where you are and what you're doing, we all want God's protection. And us aligning to his word gives us a deeper access to not only his blessings, but his protection because we are safe in his arms. But again, in his arms is also under his alignment, under his instruction. So God affirms Jacob later, um, Jacob's identity. And so when Jacob arrives at Bethel, God prepares or God appears to him and again says, and we're always very attentive to repetition, your name is Jacob. You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. Why is this significant? Jacob had already received his name change earlier, but God repeats it. Why? Because identity must mature before responsibility increases. I'm gonna say that again in our way. Our identity must meet mature before responsibility increases. How do we mature in the things of God? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We hear for much is given, much is required. We hear that there is a next level, that there's no cap in God. He's looking to bless us exceedingly abundantly above anything we can think, acts for, imagine. We know that God calls us from glory to glory, from faith to faith, from strength, from strength to strength. And in order for us to release the next level, we must mature, get through the fire, get through the cycle, step out of the cycle, rather, to experience the more. Jacob means deceiver. So what we're thinking about because identity must be true before responsibility, Jacob itself means deceiver, but Israel means one who wrestles with God and prevails. So God often affirms identity before expanding authority, before destiny increases, God strengthens who you are. And think of the essence, who he's called you to be. So the um later in this story, um, we're going down to the birth of Benjamin, and it's going to be a prophetic symbolization. And at this time, Acob, um not Acob, Jacob leaves Bethel, and Rachel is giving birth to Benjamin, but dies in childbirth. And Rachel names the baby, I believe, son of sorrow. And but Jacob remained um renames him Benjamin, son of the right hand. In the scripture, the right hand represents authority, power, and favor. As we know, we sit at the right hand of the father. Later, we see this same symbolization when the Bible says Christ again sits at the right hand of God. And Jacob refuses to allow sorrow to define his next generation. So what I want you to take away here is a leader, you must redefine the narrative so that pain does not determine your future. We understand that things happen. We understand that, yes, God tells us in this life we will have trials and tribulation. Amen. But it's not a matter of what happens to you, it's how you respond. We gotta be focused on remembering the promise of God. So the later kind of bringing down into Genesis, we're kind of focusing now on the 12 sons that become a nation. And in Genesis 35, this list of this is a list of the 12 sons of Israel. Now, the sons became 12 tribes of Israel, forming um the foundation of the nation. Now, this fulfills a covenant originally given to Abraham and Isaac, which is very significant. God had promised that the nations and the kings would come from their lineage. So in Genesis 35, this is where family structure becomes a national structure, as we mentioned before. So your alignment, you know, is connecting to something greater than who you are alone. God is always thinking about completion. He's always thinking about moving forward. He's always thinking about how can this not only bless you, but bless those that are connected to you generationally. And that generational transition, there's several um several major transitions that occur in this chapter, just to really brief it. Deborah dies, Rachel dies, and then later in the chapters, we see um the death of Isaac. And this represents the closing um pretty much of this generation, but leadership authority now rests fully on Jacob and his sons because something is up is also being prepared in this time. Joseph's story is about to begin. Now, Joseph will eventually become the economic strategist who saves the nation during famine. If you haven't read the chapter, please make sure you do. And so here is an aspect of a shift from just kind of stepping into a space and land to becoming the generational, um, for you be able to examine some general, generational, excuse me, leadership patterns. And the covenant unfolds for across four generations. As a visionary, Abraham receives the promise. As a steward, Isaac preserves it. As a builder, Jacob forms the nation. And here now, Joseph, as an economic strategist, Joseph will create systems that sustains the nations. This shows that God builds destiny across generations, not just individuals. You are needed in the kingdom of God. So, just in a sense of closing, very quickly. Oh, time went by so quickly. God expands destiny and he is calling you back to align to what he called you to do before. So we want to just check our hearts and ask ourselves where is the place where God first called you, shape you, and gave you assignment? It is time to operate and go into the next level of your purpose. And when we return to the author, we rely align ourselves back to God. We align ourselves back to purpose, and in that there is provision. I am done.