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GENESIS 35:1

"BACK TO BETHEL"

Intro: The Call of Gad for Jacob to return to Bethel is much like the call of Christ to
       the church of Ephesus to return to its first love.

I. IT IS AT BETHEL GOD FIRST REVEALED HIMSELF TO JACOB.
        A. A God of mercy and kindness.
                1. Jacob was not really seeking God at the time.
                        a. He was fleeing for his life.
                        b. His treacherous sowing was ready to bear harvest.
                        c. Yet God came to him uninvited.
                2. It was a dark and lonely night in his life.
                        a. His twin brother was rugged, tough, a hunter and man of
                           the fields.
                        b. Jacob was plain and dwelt in tents.
                        c. His heart no doubt filled with loneliness and fear.
                        d. It is often in those dark hours of our lives that God
                           comes to us.
        B. A God who is building bridges to man.
                1. Natural difficulty created by vastness of God and smartness of man.
                        a. "When I consider thy heavens...."
                        b. Job, "How can a man be just with God?"
                2. Jacob saw the ladder from earth to heaven.
                3. He called the name of the place, Bethel, "the house of God."
                        a. When we speak of the house of God so often, we are
                                referring to some building.
                        b. There were no buildings here at Bethel, God does not
                                dwell in houses made with hands.
                        c. "The fullness of the Godhead bodily" dwelt in Jesus Christ.
                                He is the "house of God."
                4. Man today is still seeking to build his towers to reach into
                        heaven.
                5. In Jesus Christ God made a bridge to reach man.
        C. The God of Bethel was a God of promise.
                1. Promised him the land.
                2. Promised him great prosperity.
                3. Promised him the Messiah.
        D. The God of providence, "I am with thee in all places, and will keep thee 
           whither thou goest, and will bring you again into this land, for I will not
           leave thee, until I have done all I have spoken to thee."
                1. Be with you wherever you go.
                2. He will provide for you all the way.

II. AT BETHEL JACOB FIRST BECAME TRULY CONSCIOUS OF GOD.
        A. Of course he believed in God.
                1. From a child he had heard the stories of God.
        B. He had never had his own personal vital encounter with God until Bethel.
                1. Some of you know and believe, yet have never truly met God.
        C. "Truly the Lord is in this place and I. knew it not."

III. AT BETHEL HE MADE HIS FIRST COMMITMENT TO GOD.
        A. Not a total commitment to be sure.
                1. He was still very much Jacob (surplanter).
                2. Much refining before he would become Israel (God governed..

IV. GOD IS CALLING HIM NOW BACK TO BETHEL.
        A. God is calling some of you this day back to your Bethels.
                1. That first love, joy, consciousness, experience.
        B. What Jacob discovered when he returned. "God made a new commitment to him!"