pilgrim people

"The God of Bethel"
(Gen 30.25-31.55)

Imagine living in a world with no maps, no signs, and no landmarks with names. What would that be like? Most of us would agree that it would be a very difficult place in which to live. In fact, we could probably conclude that it would be sheer chaos. Without maps, signs, and landmarks, there could be no safe travel, no commerce, and no order in society. Every direction would be a new frontier and exploration. We would grope for our destinations. We would constantly live with the frustrating feeling of being lost.

What is it about maps, signs, and landmarks that make them so essential for living? Why are we so dependent upon them? Well, they are essential to our lives because they provide us with necessary orientation and direction. They communicate information that tells us the truth about where particular places are so that we can know our location, where we are going, and how to get there.

In many ways, that is exactly what God’s revelation is: it tells us the truth about where we are in the journey of life. It informs us of where we are going and the only way to get there. God has not made us to live life as drifters, people aimlessly wandering through a pointless series of experiences until we die. There is a goal, a destination to which all of human history is moving. And our individual lives find true orientation and direction only within God’s covenant.

This is why the Lord reminded Jacob of his covenant and promises. In the midst of the craziness and chaos of Jacob’s life, God spoke to him and said, “I am the God of Bethel…I am the God who came to you in that place in the desert and renewed my covenant with you, that place where you set up a landmark and made a vow to me.”

That is what each of us needs again today. We need to be oriented once again to God’s covenant promises. It is so easy for us to become preoccupied with the buzz of daily life in this age. We become so preoccupied with ourselves so that we are disoriented and forget that God is bringing us to a destination and a goal. Like Jacob, we forget that we are pilgrims and people of God’s promise.

The gospel comes to us today like a bright arrow on a map with those words, “You are here.” It provides true orientation and direction to us. Think with me now about the God of Bethel, how: 1) He calls his pilgrim people to a better country; 2) He calls his pilgrim people to remember his covenant; 3) He remains committed to his pilgrim people.

I. The God of Bethel Calls his Pilgrim People to a Better Country

Jacob’s fourteen years of service to his uncle Laban was completed. He earned the right to Leah and Rachel, even though Laban ripped him off in the process. His work was completed and now it was time to go. So he says to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country.” Jacob wasn’t merely expressing homesickness or a desire to leave Haran; this was an act of obedience. The Lord had told Jacob to “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” This was not merely an issue of finding a better place to raise a family, a place with nicer scenery, less traffic, good schools, and a lower cost of living. No, this was an issue of his identity and where he belonged. His identity was in the covenant that God made with him – the same covenant that God made with his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. Jacob was an heir of that covenant. And as an heir, he had been promised a land. He did not belong to Laban. He belonged to the Lord.

But Laban, of course, was an obstacle. Laban knew a good thing when he saw one, and he didn’t want Jacob to leave. Laban is very similar to Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus. 400 years later, when Jacob’s descendents were in servitude in Egypt, Moses went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Let my people go.’” Like Laban, Pharaoh was not compliant. The Israelites were his slave labor, helping him to accumulate wealth and prestige for Egypt. They were his bread and butter. Laban is similar to Pharaoh in his thinking. He doesn’t want Jacob to leave. He even tells Jacob, “I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.” Being a pagan, Laban used occult practices in an attempt to discover the reason why Jacob was such a good luck charm. Ever since Jacob had shown up, Laban’s wealth had increased. Over all those years, Laban had wondered what it was about Jacob that made him so prosperous. He came to find out that it was because of Jacob’s God.

And yet, because there was no fear of God before his eyes, Laban was only interested in what he wanted, not what God wanted. He was a man driven by his own lusts and greed. He loved the world and the things in the world. He was a slave to the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride in possessions. That was all that mattered to him, and that was what he lived for. So he was willing to cheat Jacob again and again, if meant his personal advancement. And for a long time, it seemed to work. Laban got seven years out of Jacob for Leah, then another seven years for Rachel. And now he gets another six years for a flock of sheep and goats.

But what we have to keep in mind throughout this story is that Jacob was owned by the Lord. It was the Lord – not Jacob – who decided that Jacob was not meant to live the rest of his life in Haran. The Lord had promised him something more, something better. On that night in the desert, recorded in chapter 28, the Lord appeared to Jacob and said: “I am the LORD, the God of Abe your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.”

Jacob’s whole life was to be oriented this promise. These promises were not part of Jacob’s story. It was the other way around! Jacob’s life was part of God’s great story. And it the same with us, loved ones. The Lord and his covenant promises are not part of our story; rather, we are part of God’s story.

In our sinful minds we have a tendency to reduce the eternal purposes of God to a nice little place in our life. We like that sort of God. He’s manageable. He’s tame. We can sort of control him and maintain our own autonomy. But that kind of thinking is nothing more than fiction a false religion. The true and living God is one who is sovereign over all things. He is the Creator, Redeemer, and Consummator. He is the One who has made all things for himself and has brought into existence that which pleases him and works all things according to the counsel of his will. And he has taken for himself a people, and brought them into covenant with himself. We were made for him, not he for us. Our lives are to be oriented to his promise, not his promise to our life!

The fact that God calls us to a better country should give shape and direction and orientation to our lives. Just as Jacob was called to return to Canaan and not remain in Haran as his home, so too have we been called to Canaan, that greater Canaan of which the land that Jacob was promised was only a type and shadow. In fact the writer to the Hebrews tells us that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all heirs of the same promise, and that they were “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” They “died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”

The land of Canaan foreshadowed that greater land promised to Abraham and his descendents, namely, the new heaven and new earth. The New Testament tells us that all who are in Christ are Abraham’s descendents. It is the land of the new heavens and new earth, therefore, to which we belong. This life is only temporary. It is just the title page to the book, as CS Lewis said. God has promised something better.

And that promise is what gives us direction in this age! Without it, all of life would be like a world without maps, signs or landmarks. We would grope for direction, and drift and wander aimlessly. This is why the New Testament tells us repeatedly that we are heirs, that we have an inheritance, that we are citizens of heaven.

It tells us that not so we will merely know how the story ends, but so that we will live each day with the understanding that the Lord owns us. It tells us that we will know that God’s promise is sure, and he is bringing us to our glorious destination. That is the whole message of Peter in his first epistle. The fact that God has made us his pilgrim people and has prepared for us a better country is what gives us hope in this life as we face suffering and persecution, even death itself. It gives us perspective on this life, so that we do not merely live for the passing things of this plotless age.

The Lord has promised us something eternal! He has created us and redeemed us for more than having our best life right now; he has created us and redeemed us for himself! And this age is no more our home than Haran was the home to Jacob. We no more belong to this present evil age than Jacob belonged to Laban, or the nation Israel belonged to Pharaoh. We belong to the Lord and we are his, not our own. And our lives are to be oriented to his promise of a better country.

And to that end…

II. The God of Bethel Calls his Pilgrim People to Remember His Covenant

Notice what the Lord said to Jacob in his dream. He called himself “The God of Bethel.” This is the only place in Scripture where he calls himself by this title. The Lord calls himself by many different titles. Why this one? It was to remind Jacob of his covenant. “I am the God of Bethel, the God who brought the ladder to you; who came down to you and said, ‘I will give to you.’”

The Lord is constantly reminding his people of what he has done. We think of the preamble to the Decalogue: “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” He constantly calls them to remembrance, remembrance of his covenant, remembrance of what he has done and what he has promised to do.

That was the purpose of circumcision. It was a sign that pointed to something that God had done. It pointed to the covenant that he made with Abraham and his offspring when he walked between the severed animals and committed himself to his people by a self-maledictory oath. The cutting away of the flesh in the male reproductive organ was to be a constant remembrance of this: “To you and all your offspring,” said the Lord.

And it is the same with the sacraments. They call us to remembrance. Baptism is a sign of something that God has done, namely, the washing away of our sins by the blood of Christ. Our baptism is meant to remind us of who we are, and of the covenant to which we belong. It reminds us that we belong to God’ peculiar people. It reminds us that we are set apart from the pagan nations and that those words of Peter’s are for us: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

Likewise, God uses the Lord’s Supper to remind us of what he has done for us in Christ. That is not all that the Lord’s Supper is; the Holy Spirit does more than just remind us. He actually strengthens our faith and unites us further with Christ in heaven. But he still reminds us nonetheless. He calls us to remembrance of what Christ has done for us by his body and blood. The Supper comes to us and speaks to us; it readjusts our thinking in this life. It speaks to us like one of those red arrows on a map at the mall or the zoo, accompanied by the words, “You are here.” It tells us where we are at, who we are, and what God has done for us. It functions very similarly to God’s reference of Bethel, calling Jacob to remember what the Lord had promised him in his covenant. It provides us with a point of reference, and points to something outside of ourselves, something greater and larger than our own experience.

The Holy Spirit will do that very thing again today as we come to his table, as the bread and wine goes into our own mouths, and we taste it, smell it, and feel its warmth. We are at once reminded of what Christ has done for us. We are reminded that he is the One who came down the ladder from heaven to earth because we could never climb up. The One who IS the ladder himself, the Only Mediator between God and man!

The whole Bible constantly calls us to remembrance. That’s why it seems to repeat itself as the story unfolds. We hear God’s great promise echoed from Genesis to Revelation: “I will be your God and you will be my people.” God repeats himself in command and promise because we are so prone to forget. He uses symbols and points of reference like the anointed pillar at Bethel, or the sign of circumcision, or baptism, or the Lord’s Supper, in order to communicate something to us that we are apt to forget. He has established a weekly, Sabbatical rhythm of six-and-one, calling us to worship once a week – not once a month or once a year. Why? Because we need to hear his promises and have our lives oriented and readjusted to his great story, to the truth!

We are prone to turn inward and get lost in ourselves. We are prone to become preoccupied with the cares of the world, which, as Jesus said, are like thorns that choke the word sown in our hearts. We need to hear the good news announced to us over and over again, constantly being redirected and refocused to what is true. Otherwise, we will allow our own experiences and our own foolish thinking to get the final word.

Thankfully, God has given us his revelation, just as he did to our father Jacob, so that HIS promises get the final word and communicate to us that…

III. The God of Bethel Remains Committed to his Pilgrim People

By revelation of the Lord, Jacobs received the assurance that the God of Bethel remained committed to him. When Laban tried to rip Jacob off again by cheating him out of the flock of striped and speckled goats and sheep, the Lord still caused Jacob to prosper. From the basis of his experience, Jacob thought he was the one who caused the goats and sheep to be birthed by his silly folklore method of putting fresh sticks of poplar and almond before the eyes of the animals.

But the Lord, by his Word, reveals to Jacob that that is not the case. HE is the reason for Jacob’s triumph over Laban. Despite Jacob’s foolishness, the Lord remained committed to him on the basis of his covenant and promise. He told Jacob, “Lift up your eyes and see, al the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.”

It is this revelation that transforms Jacob. God’s revelation of his steadfast love and covenant faithfulness humbles Jacob and causes him to understand that the Lord is with him, and for him. While Laban was against him, the Lord remained with him and for him. While Laban cheated him, the Lord would not allow Laban to harm him. Jacob realizes this by God’s revelation to him, and so he declares these things to Laban and gives God the glory.

We see Jacob slowly changing in these chapters. He is beginning to learn that the sovereign God of the universe can be trusted, for he is a God of promise. And that should bring us comfort today, loved ones! Like Jacob, we have been given promise after promise after promise by the Lord. We have been given something so much better and fuller and more clear than special revelation in a dram. We have the climax of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. In him all the promises of God are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’.

That doesn’t mean that God will never allow a hair to fall from our heads. Like Jacob, we will often go through hardships and difficulties that the Lord has allowed. He may allow us to spend twenty years in a Haran, in servitude to a Laban. He may lead us through thorny paths and dark valleys through which we would rather not travel. But ultimately, no one can cause us harm. He remains our refuge and our strength at all times.

And despite our foolishness and unfaithfulness, the God of Bethel remains committed to us and is at work in us, transforming us by the renewal of our minds; by giving us these points of reference over and over again, showing us that our lives are not about ourselves, but about him, and what he is doing in the outworking of his eternal purposes.

But how can we be so sure that God remains committed to us? How can we be sure that he is our refuge and our strength? What is that gives us confidence? Well, we go back to Bethel, don’t we? We go back to the One who is the ladder from heaven to earth. We go back to Calvary, to the One who was spent for our sakes. The One who was abandoned by the Father when he hung on the cross with our sins imputed to him.

Because Christ was abandoned by the Father, we never shall be! Christ was abandoned when he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He bore the punishment for our sins, so that we never will. He was the object of God’s divine wrath for us. He satisfied the demands of God’s law for us. And because that is true, we have the confidence that we are the objects of God’s steadfast love and covenant faithfulness.

The God of Bethel speaks again today. He speaks to the heirs of his covenant. He says, “You are mine! I am brining you to the Promised Land. This life is only temporary, so don’t become lost in it. Remember my covenant with you. Remember what I have done for you. Be assured that I will be with you always.”

Loved ones, may we be redirected by the God of Bethel again today. May our lives be reshaped by his promises. And may we respond to his grace with a life of gratitude, obedience, and praise. Amen.