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All right, we're here in Genesis chapter 35, and hold on one second. All right, we're here in Genesis chapter 35, and the name of the sermon is Put Away the Strange Gods. Put Away the Strange Gods, and I don't have my typical three-points or four-point sermon. We're just going to kind of cover every verse and hit some highlights along the way. So what it says here in verse number one to start off, And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fled us from the face of Esau thy brother. And so God is reminding Jacob about an earlier event in his life, but to fully understand this, I want you to go back to Genesis 34 and look at verse number 30. Let's see how this chapter basically ends. Verse 30, And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have trouble with me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me and slay me, and I shall be destroyed, I in my house. So you see that at the end of Genesis 34, Jacob is afraid. Jacob has fear. If you remember from last week, his sons murdered Shechem and that family. So when Genesis 34 ends, Jacob is being sincere when he says, hey, these people are going to kill us now because we killed their people. So at this point in the story, at the beginning of Genesis 35, Jacob is actually afraid for his personal safety, right? And so in verse one of chapter 35, God reminds him and he says, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fled us from the face of Esau thy brother. And when he fled from Esau thy brother, he was also in fear as well. So he's bringing him back to a similar situation and reminding him to go to the same place. Genesis 27, let's look at that story real quickly. Genesis 27. Genesis 27, and when he fled from Esau, his brother was really his fault because he deceived his brother and, you know, basically, well, he deceived his father, he lied to his father, and his brother gets so mad that he wants to kill him. So that is basically his fault for why he's fleeing in the first place. But that's what it says in verse 42 of Genesis 27. So in Genesis 27, he is afraid that he's going to be killed by his brother. Now go to Genesis 28, verse 10. This is what it's referring to in Genesis 35. He fled from the face of Esau thy brother, and he was told by God to go to Bethel in Genesis 35. And this is what's taking place in Genesis 28. Genesis 28, verse 10. The Lord stood above and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, my father, and the God of Esau, Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it into thy seed. And so you're basically seeing that God appears to Jacob. Now, at the end of Genesis 27, and in Genesis 28, you've basically seen that Jacob's gotten out of God's will because he did wrong, he deceived his father, and he's backsliding. And as a result of that, he's afraid of his brother who wants to kill him. Whenever we have a very fearful situation in life, what's the number one thing that we should do? Talk to God about it. Take it to the Lord in prayer. And in this instance, it's his own fault. It's because he sinned and he did wrong, that's why he's fearful. But whether or not you sinned and that's why you're fearful, or whether or not you're just fearful because of some situation, either way, take it to the Lord in prayer. That is always a good answer, and that's what you see here in Genesis 28. Verse 14. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, and in thee, and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken of thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. Now, remember, he's fleeing from his brother because he's afraid, because he did wrong. And notice this in verse 17. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And basically, that fear switches from a fear of his brother to basically a fear of God. And see, what the Bible says is that we should fear the Lord God. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And if you don't fear God, then you know what? You're going to end up fearing man. That's what you basically see. You have your choice in life. Am I going to fear and obey God and do what he says and be afraid of what he's going to do in my life, or am I going to go down this road of sin and then just be afraid of everybody and everything that comes up? Go back to Genesis 35. Genesis 35. Genesis 35. So, in Genesis 28, he's afraid. And what takes place? Well, he ends up being, you know, talking to God. And you know what? That's a template for all of us here today. But it's also the same thing in Genesis 35, and God is reminding him. When he says in verse 1, arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, he's being reminded of the fact that, hey, the last time I was there, because in chapter 28, it mentions Bethel at verse 19, he's like, the last time I was there, I was afraid of my brother, I was out of God's will, and then I spent time with God. And then Jacob's in this situation where it's not really him that did this act, it was his sons, but obviously, he's in a fearful situation, and God's reminding him, basically, take him to the Lord in prayer. Spend time with me, go back to Bethel where you were before, and you drew an eye to me. And then he says here, arise and go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee, when thou fled us from the face of Esau thy brother. And it gives us a lesson that, you know what? When it comes to getting right with God, you know, that is the best protection we can have. The Bible says safety is of the Lord. The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord. So the safest place you can be as a Bible-believing Christian is in God's will. Verse two, then Jacob sent unto his household and to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean and change your garments. And what Jacob is saying and what he's doing is that he just talked to God, and he's reminded of the fact, he said, Bethel is the house of the Lord, back in chapter 28, and he talked to God, and he's like, okay, I talked to God and fixed the situation. Now he's reminding me, and the promise from Genesis 28 was, if you obey me, I will bless your seed. And obviously there's kind of chaos with his sons from the previous chapter, and he's being reminded by God, you've got to draw nigh to me. So of course at this moment, he's like, okay, put away the strange gods, get rid of all the sin, we need God's blessing in our lives. It'd be similar to if you hear a sermon about something that really hits home about something, and then you go home and say, all right, we got a clean house. We've allowed some things to slip a little, but we got to make some changes. And this happens to all of us. Things that we already know and maybe things that weren't an issue before, but then things start to creep in or come in, and every once in a while that sermon hits or you read the Bible, and you're like, man, I got a clean house because I need God's blessing upon my lives. Right? This happens to all of us. We're basically, you know, you can be right with God, but you allow certain things to slip, and then you need to be reminded of that. That's why when it comes to preaching, it's not good enough to preach on a topic one time and then never cover it for 30 years. Right? Because when it comes to sermons that are preached, I mean, I'm pretty much repeating the same things over and over, the same basic topics. There's a lot to preach, and there's a lot of verses, but a lot of things just kind of keep getting repeated. You say, why? Because we need to be reminded of these things. We already know what's sin and what's not sin, but you know what, if we're not reminded of these things, it kind of just doesn't seem that serious to us. And it's the same way with me as well in my family. It's for all of us. We're basically, we need to be reminded. I mean, you read the Bible sometimes, things you know, things you've heard a million times, and then you read the Bible and you get that fear and you're like, man, I got to make a change. Right? I'm sorry, God. I messed up. I allowed this to slip. And that's basically what's taking place in Genesis 35, where Jacob comes home and he says, it's time to clean house. Right? He says, put away the strange gods that are among you. That would probably be idolatry. Actual physical idols that he is referring to. Now, of course, idolatry is wrong, but it appears that Jacob was basically allowing it in his family or he let it kind of creep in a little bit and he's like, if we want God's blessing, we need to get rid of all of the idolatry. So he says, put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments. Verse three, and let us arise and go up to Bethel and I will make there an altar unto God who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went. And, you know, he highlights this again. He says, in my day of distress, God answered me before and basically I'm going to do the same thing. But before he goes to get the, you know, stress reliever as he talks to God, he's like, you know what? My whole house, we all need to get right with God. We need to get this sin out of our lives. Now go to Genesis 31. Genesis 31. Genesis 31. Now when it comes to strange gods, I believe one that he's referring to are the idols that his wife Rachel had basically taken from her father. If you remember that story in Genesis 31, verse 34. Now Rachel had taken the images and put them in the camel's furniture and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tents and found them not. And she said to her father, let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee, for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched but found not the images. Those images are referring to what we would say as an idol, right? Idolatry. Where basically her father had some sort of false god that he was worshiping. Or, you know, here in the Philippines you have people that they don't believe in Buddhism, but they have idols of Buddha. So it's possible that that's the sort of situation because I think Rachel was probably saved, but apparently this statue or this idol seemed cool to her. And I'm sure Jacob found out about this. He doesn't know this in Genesis 31 but I'm sure he found out about it that his wife had basically taken an image. I mean at some point he's going to walk into the room and say what is this? Why do we have this blue god with a snake around his neck in our house? Why do we have this false god in our house? Why do we have this idol in our house? And then, you know, he would have found out it was from his wife. But, you know, oftentimes even as the leaders of home, you might allow these things from family members where it's not worth fighting on it. It's not that big of a deal. We're not worshiping it. But it actually is a big deal. And Jacob knows that because when he's afraid and he talks to God, he comes home and he says hey, put away the strange gods. Get rid of the idols. I don't know if these are the only idols that they had. I would hope so, but it's probably likely with a lot of people in an idolatrous society that basically his house had various idols in it from various people or some of his, you know, workers, some of his family might have had idols. It is very possible. Go to Joshua 24. Joshua 24. Joshua 24. Now, obviously, when it comes to being right with God, the number one thing is being saved. No question about that. But if I were to give advice to people here in the Philippines that is unrelated to salvation, in terms of something they could do immediately where God would be more happy with them, I would say, you know what? Get your idol of Peter. Get your idol of Mary. Get your idol of whatever and smash it into pieces. And that's going to make God very happy. I mean, idolatry is a major problem in this country. And you know what? Catholics can tell us all day that they don't worship idols and it's like why are you praying to it and asking this statue to basically bring your prayers to God? The Bible says there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Well, we live in a very idolatrous society here in the Philippines. And I always say, you know, what's the difference between Catholicism when it comes to idols and Hinduism? I don't see a difference. The only difference is in Catholicism they say it's a saint, whereas in Hinduism they're being more honest and they say it's a god. It's like, what's really the difference? You're praying to it? You think there's something magical about it? I mean, you just touch the feet of the black Nazarene and somehow it's going to just heal you of all your problems? It's like, that's hocus pocus. I mean, it's just like, that's like sorcery. Like, what are you talking about? Why would, where in the Bible does it say to do something like that? And what I would say to people in 2022 is, hey, put away your idols. Get rid of them. God hates it. Where in the Bible does it tell you to worship a statue? I mean, and people in 2022 think they really know the Bible. They'll tell you, hey, you know what, to go to heaven you got to keep the Ten Commandments. It's like we live in a Catholic country and the first two commandments are associated with idolatry, graven images, have no other gods before me, and people that are worshiping idols will tell you you got to keep the Ten Commandments. Do you know what the first commandment is? Do you know what the second commandment is? And it's just like, but people don't. That's the society we live in in 2022. I would say this that in the past, I believe that people that were believers would realize idolatry is wrong. In our modern day, a lot of people associate themselves with Christianity that aren't safe. And the Catholic Church is the biggest example of that because there's over one billion Catholics in this world and they are teaching a work salvation, worship idols, they worship Mary, all of these things that are pagan practices that just came from the Roman gods that they passed on to this Roman Christianity, so called. Joshua 24 verse 14, the Bible says in verse 14, Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it's seen evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose lands he dwelt. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua as the leader of his home says, you know what, every husband out there who has a family, you make your decision what you're going to do. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And you know what, that's the sort of Christianity that's what we need from men in 2022 to say, you know what, I'm going to serve the Lord, but also my family. I'm going to make sure it's not just me that's in church, but also my wife, also my kids, that they're reading the Bible just like I'm reading the Bible. Not that I'm serving God, but my whole family is serving God. What I often see is people that are zealous for God, young men, they get married and then their zeal just dies off. They get married and then all of a sudden you see their standards change because instead of basically making sure their family is serving God, they basically go the other way and just meet their wife in the middle or go all the way over and even though their wife's saved, all of a sudden they're not really zealously serving God now. That's not the way it ought to be. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I think it's a sad situation when you see wives that love God and the husbands don't and that's a common situation I see and that's a horrible situation. But as husbands, you're the leader of the home. With wives, it's just like do your best but your husband's going to have to decide to be a leader. But with husbands, we are the leaders of our homes. And so for us, we need to have the attitude as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And then this is associated with putting away the strange gods as we saw in Genesis 35. Go back to Genesis 35. Genesis 35. Genesis 35 verse 4. And you know, what he also said in verse 3, actually just go back there to actually verse 2. Verse 2, this is what Jacob said. Then Jacob sent unto his household unto all that were with him. Put away the strange gods that are among you. And this is the most clear thing of getting rid of the idols. He also says and be clean, which I believe is both spiritually, physically, you know in all manner, but he says and change your garments. Considering what we're going to see in verse 4, I believe what's being said there is basically the way that his family was dressing, at least some people, was not the biblical way, but they had taken basically the approach of the heathen. The reason why is because in verse 4 he's going to start talking about earrings. And so I believe that he's talking about standards of men and women at dress standards. Because he says change your garments. Well I mean, what would be wrong with the garments that they had? Obviously something, right? Because I mean most things are fine. I mean I have a lot of different types of shirt. It doesn't matter. I mean white shirt, black shirt, red shirt. I mean why does he say change your garments? Well I believe that the men were not really acting like men and the women weren't really acting like women. Basically the culture had basically changed and they were getting this not from God, but from the heathen cultures. Because you look at practices of heathen cultures and the way they dress is just right? I mean who's seen the statues of Lapu-Lapu? Just not wearing any shirt. But that was how they dressed. It's like is that a modest society? Would it be right for guys to just walk around into Robinsons just not wearing their shirts and then just showing off a lot of their body and then just in some of these cultures a lot of the natives in Africa and various places the women aren't wearing. You know it's just like that's not appropriate. Right? So we don't know exactly what the garments are, but we know that they're not appropriate. They're not the standards of modesty or standards of masculine and feminine. There's a problem with how they're dressed. Verse 4 says this And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand. So they apparently have a lot of idols, right? And all their earrings which were in their ears and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Cheshire. It mentions their earrings that are in their ears. Well what's the problem with an earring? Right? What I would say is it kind of depends on if you're a man or a woman. And for people that are saying that I go because people might think well you're going overboard as you're talking about dress standards. Well God's the one that brought up earrings. I mean considering how often earrings are considered a good thing for women in the Bible I don't think God is forcing them, hey you women, quit wearing earrings. Right? Because I mean that was even given as a gift when they went to find a wife for Abraham's son and then basically they gave earrings. Because that's something that for women is something that's been culturally accepted and biblically accepted for thousands of years. I don't think that the women were turning their earrings in. I think there were men that were turning their earrings in. You say what would be wrong with men wearing earrings? Well remember in verse 2 it talks about clothing. So I think this is being linked to basically being masculine and being feminine. And here's the reality God does care about how we're dressed. There's a difference between men and women. There should be a difference. Right? I mean here's the thing. I'm dressed pretty normal today. Right? I mean nothing peculiar about it. But wouldn't you find it strange if my wife was wearing the exact same thing that I'm wearing right now with the tie and these shoes. You're just like you know wearing a belt. You're like it's not normally how Miss Tan dresses. It's not exactly the most feminine way to dress. Right? There ought to be a difference between the men and the women. And I believe what the Bible is showing here is that men wearing earrings is not something that God actually likes. It's something that should be associated with women and not men. Now let me read you from this article about earrings and the history of them. It says from this article, fashion may be said to be inherently genderless. Now I don't agree with this article. Let me just make that very clear because I don't agree at all. I think that if I was wearing high heels there'd be a problem here. Right? That's not a masculine thing to do. There's a difference between how men dress and how women dress. And you know what? Honestly kids know this at a young age. They understand this. My kids understand. I mean my daughter gravitates toward wearing pink. Right? And it's just like it's obviously kids can be different but I'm just saying it's not really all that surprising to me. She gravitates toward things that are motherly things. Feminine characteristics. And my son on the other hand gravitates toward things that are more masculine. It's just born into them. And when you have these parents in 2022 that say well I'll just let my kid decide for themselves who's like five or six years old. Number one, naturally boys like to be like boys. Girls like to be like girls. The example I give with my kids is that my wife bought you know our daughter about a year ago like a little Barbie dress thing that you dress up or whatever. My daughter's playing with it. Putting it in this little toy thing to bring around like she's a mom. You know my daughter two years old. Not even two at the time and just playing with it like a girl would. My son finds it and he rips that that you know that doll apart. You say why? Because boys are born to fight. They're born to like do sports and that's just the way it is. Right? Where my daughter just naturally wants to be like a motherly figure whereas boys on the other hand are the opposite. It's just the way it is. Right? Boys and girls are different. God made us different. It says in this article fashion or clothing may be said to be inherently genderless. But for centuries traditional conventions for men have barred them from many aspects of fashion. Well first off if fashion is genderless how come for centuries people didn't agree with that according to this article. It sounds like from the beginning people said actually there's a difference between men and women. Even today men's sections and clothing stores often pale in comparison to their female targeted counterparts. However there's been a growing market for men in one of the tiniest accessories anyone can wear. Earrings. They're saying in our modern day all of a sudden a bunch of men are wearing earrings and that never happened before. Right? There's a growing need for men wearing earrings in 2022. This article is written in the last couple of years and it says here from the article from underdog to mainstream in the past earrings on men were associated with effeminacy. This is not a Christian article. This article talking about men and clothing says it used to be thought that men wearing earrings was a feminine girly something for women. Well I mean that sounds just like Genesis 35 verse 4 because it sounds like God has a problem with it. Right? I mean this article says it used to be thought men wearing earrings was a feminine. Something that women did not men. Right? Under traditional gender norms. More recently however this perception has begun to change across the globe. And here's their defense of earrings being for men. It says earrings for men have become a key symbol of the hip-hop subculture. The rap subculture. While the hip-hop movement originated in the US its influence has since spread beyond its borders. Cultural variations of hip-hop from Nigeria to Korea have inspired local men to adopt earrings too. As hip-hop culture is strongly associated with ideas of masculinity, earrings on men too gain masculine connotations in this context. Since when is rap and hip-hop masculine? Because they talk about murdering people? How's that a masculine thing? That's offensive to me as a man that murder is something associated with men. I mean drugs? That makes it masculine? Drinking? Fornicating? All the stuff they talk about in rap music? Number one, rap did not originate in America. Because that sort of music is coming from Africa from a long time ago. Those same boots, those same beads have been around for a long time and it's just they change the name. It's kind of like they say rock music was invented in the 50s. Well how come they heard the noise of war in the book of Exodus? There's nothing new under the sun. The same sinful music they repackage it to different generations. Same thing. But here's the thing. If you remember when David was at the point to die, he said to Solomon, show thyself a man. He said I want you to be a man. Here's a man that killed Goliath. From the world standards, killing Goliath is the most impressive thing that you could possibly do. And it's a cool story in 1 Samuel 17. But you know when he told his son to be a man, he didn't talk about the fact that he killed Goliath. He said obey the commandments of God. He said this is how you become a man. Obey God's commandments. So how is rap music a masculine thing? Because they're talking about murdering and drinking and fornicating. That's not masculine. That's sinful. That's wicked. You want to talk about, you know, if I were to tell people I want my son Zeph, I want you to be a man one day. What do I mean by that? Obey God's commandments. Take the lead in your home. Say that as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's what it means to be a man. Not about listening to hip hop music. And you know what, how is it masculine the way the hip hop culture dresses? I mean, it hasn't caught on as much here as in America, but it's just like you know, just wearing your pants down to here and just showing off parts of your body. Your boxers are showing. I mean, that's not called being a man. Being a man is like, grow up. You're not going to go to a job interview like that. I mean, you want to be a man. It's like start dressing and acting like a man. But according to this, well, for thousands of years, earrings were considered feminine until rap was invented 30 years ago in America. And now we just discovered that wearing earrings is fermentive. Well, I'm sorry, but in Genesis 35, when Jacob is getting right, he says, you know what, turning the idols and the earrings come off. So you say why? Because it's a feminine for guys to wear earrings. And in 2022, men need to act like men. I mean, I don't want women to act like men. I'm glad my wife is feminine. I'm glad she dresses differently than me. She talks differently than me. She wears clothes that are different than me, right? As a man, I should be like a man. We don't need men acting like women or women acting like men. What we need is that, you know what, there's specific garments that are associated with men, specific for women, and that's what's being referred to here in Genesis 35. So why does Jacob have this? And here's the thing, Jacob already knows this, but he's trying to get right with God. He says, you know what, we're going to have to go to extremes. I want to make sure God's blessing is upon our family. Verse 5. And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is Bethel. He and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared on them when he fled from the face of his brother. But Deborah, Rebecca's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak, and the name of it was called Elan, Elan-Bacchus. And let me say this as a side point. Throughout the Bible, the pattern you see of saved people is they're buried. I believe saved people should be buried. You say, why? Because that's the pattern that you see in the Bible. We're going to get a glorified body one day, and look, if a saved person, whether they're buried or they're cremated, of course they still get the glorified body, but the pattern we see in the Bible is burial. Now unfortunately in today's world, it's a very expensive thing to do burial, right, which is something that hinders people, but the best situation, according to the Bible here, is she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak, and the name of it was called Elan-Bacchus. God appeared unto Jacob again when he came out of Pedanarim and blessed him. God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob. Thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name Israel. Verse 11, And God said unto him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. God says, I am God Almighty. This is a name of God. It is an attribute of God. It is also a name of God. Now go to Exodus chapter 6. Exodus 6, second book in the Bible, Exodus 6. See God has many names. And in Genesis 35 it mentions, I am God Almighty. Exodus 6 verse 1, Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh. With a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. God spake unto Moses and said unto him, I am the Lord. And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty. But by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. He's saying, I appeared under the name God Almighty, but I did not reveal my name to be Jehovah to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. You see, the name Jehovah does not replace God Almighty. God Almighty is a name of God. And it will always be a name of God. Jehovah is also a name of God. Because you've got the Jehovah's witnesses and they'll say, well the only name of God is Jehovah. Well why is the name of God God Almighty here? The name Jehovah does not replace any names. And here's the thing, let's say they were right. Let's say the name Jehovah replaces earlier names. Well there's new names given to God after Jehovah. And the most recent is Jesus. Right? So a name that is above every name the Bible says, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Look, the name God Almighty is still a name of God. It's not the most common name we call God, but God Almighty is the name of God. Jehovah is the name of God. Jesus is the name of God. There are many names of God. The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, I mean there's many names and many attributes associated with God. One way to look at this, or to think about this is with my son, the first thing he knew me as was dad, or daddy. Right? And then eventually I was trying to teach my son that my name is Matthew. And it's kind of hard for him because he's like, no, you're daddy. Right? So for a while I think he thought I was joking with him. He didn't realize that. And I was explaining, because obviously kids it takes him a little while to fully understand these things. I was explaining that I am your daddy. And you can always call me daddy. That is a name that you can call me as daddy. Absolutely. And honestly, that's the name I prefer the most from my son, but I also want him to understand my name is Matthew, my actual first name that my parents gave me. My middle name is Ryan. These are all names that I have. But see, when my son was two years old, he only knew me as daddy. And as time went by, I revealed more names that I have. Right? Or, you know, he knows our last name and our family is Stuckey. He didn't know that when he was two years old. He just knew me as daddy and mommy. And eventually, you know, he understood this. But what I'm saying is, it's the same thing with God where he didn't reveal every single one of his names at the very beginning. And Jacob, he did not know all of these names. He didn't know the name Jesus Christ. But he still believed in the true God and he was saved by faith, just like we are saved by faith today. Right? Go back to Genesis 35. Genesis 35. Genesis 35 verse 12. And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac to thee I will give it, verse 12, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. Verse 14, And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone, and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. Jacob called the name the place where God spake with him, Bethel. They journeyed from Bethel, and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath. And Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. And it came to pass when she was in hard labor that the midwife said unto her, Fear not, thou shalt have this son also. Now there's a lot of information we can take from these verses and I'll try to be quick on these things for sake of time. You know, it mentions the midwife here, and I do believe that you know, the midwives or people that deliver babies should be women. And the reason why is because obviously, you know, it's not appropriate for women to be without their clothes on in front of other men and vice versa. Now that's not really the world that we live in in 2022, but midwives in the Bible I believe are all women. Now I will say this though, the word midwife is not stating that it's a woman. You would not call a male midwife a midhusband. You would call him a male midwife. Because midwife means with woman, meaning with the woman that is delivering a baby. It's not actually referring to the gender of the midwife. So a male midwife is a male midwife. You say a male midwife because you would assume if someone's a midwife based on the origin of the word midwife, mid and wife put together it's like that's what it actually means. But you would call a male midwife a male midwife and call a female midwife just a midwife because people are going to assume a midwife is a woman. And there's a reason. And you know, these are traditions that you know what, I believe are correct and biblical because this is a job that I believe you see that is actually a good thing for women because it's a necessity. Obviously there's a lot of babies born and I believe this is a role that should be filled by women as opposed to men. Now it says here in verse number 17, fear not thou shalt have this son also. Now it's interesting where it says fear not because Rachel dies but the reason why she's told not to fear is thou shalt have this son also. And basically you know I think Rachel knew, she knew there's a good chance that she wasn't going to make it but she's being told don't fear because you're going to have this baby. And what that kind of shows you is the heart of a woman, the heart of a mom where it's so important for her, for her child to be born where she basically is not that concerned about herself but she wants her child to be saved. Right? That's the heart of a mom and it's something I don't believe as men we can fully comprehend. To some level of degree maybe we can but I don't think we can fully comprehend this. When before our son Zeph was born we actually told our son the other day, I don't know if you knew this before, we told him that he actually had older siblings that didn't make it right before you know when my wife had twins and they didn't make it. That was very painful and hard to me but I'm sure it was harder on my wife because there's just a naturally born thing of being a mom inside of women and that love that they have. The Bible says in verse 19 and Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath which is Bethlehem. And you know what this shows you is that sometimes pregnancies can have difficulties even if you do everything correct. Now my sister actually just gave birth about 24 hours ago and my sister she has 11 kids now. She has a lot of kids. Now on Monday morning actually yesterday morning my parents told me because she was supposed to give birth in a couple weeks the baby was early and my parents told me that it was she was having problems and my sister has not had problems on the first 10 babies. What took place was the water broke but the birth was not coming. And so the midwife basically they waited and it had got to the point of over a day. The water broke 24 hours later she was not in labor. Now that's not a safe situation. What the midwife said is we can wait until 48 hours. After that you're going to have to go to the hospital. We're going to have to induce labor. You know they're going to have to induce labor at the hospital. Now of course my well my sister she goes to midwives and she's never had a problem before. And of course they're very much into natural birth so they only do those things if it's necessary. Now the baby was delivered. My sister's fine. The baby's fine. So everything's good. But we were afraid yesterday. We're praying about it. You know praying to my kids and we're explaining pregnancy can be difficult. Anyway there are situations where it is okay to get medical help from professionals that know things that you don't know. Now I'm very much into natural in most ways. But I do believe that sometimes we can go a bit overboard with certain things. And it's like when the water breaks and 44 hours have gone by it's kind of like there's something that's not going correct. And these sorts of problems can happen as my sister's now 40 years old. She's two years older than me. And so you can have more problems I believe as you get a little bit older with pregnancy. It's like sometimes it's like we can be a bit stubborn. And I'm this way as well where it's like it's all going to work out and then it's actually no. You know you have to actually get some real help. An example of this when I was in college I had a staph infection in my leg and I was just like oh it's going to go away. It's going to be perfectly fine. And it got to the point where it got pretty bad. And eventually I went and then you know they had to cut open my leg because I had let it get to the point where the infection had gone pretty deep inside my leg. Sometimes we can get a bit overboard with just all natural things will work out because sometimes things don't go correctly. Here's an example where things are not going well and it doesn't go in detail about the story but I would imagine that there was you know the midwife was getting help from other people like this is a dangerous situation. You know we need to monitor this. I mean obviously this is a big situation and Rachel ends up dying during childbirth. First one, Jacob set a pillar upon her grave that is a pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day and Israel journeyed and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar and it came to pass when Israel dwelt in that land that Reuben went and lay with Phila his father's concubine and Israel heard it now the sons of Jacob were dwelt. This is a pretty big sin. You've got Reuben sleeping with his father's wife and kind of the cross reference is the church of Corinthians right where one would have his father's wife and what it says in that book is something that was not even being done outside of the church by just the world. We expect the world to get drunk. It's different in a bible leading church though and it's like that's a sin that not even the world was doing but here you see it in Genesis 35 where basically he sleeps with his father's wife. Now that's a pretty big sin right? That's pretty disgusting and yet that's what you see Reuben doing here in the bible. Go to Genesis 49. Genesis 49 Genesis 49 We will see this as we go on with the book of Genesis but I've said before I believe Reuben was always a bad character in the bible not a good guy. Look we all sin but there are certain sins that most people just aren't going to do right? I'm not saying Reuben was a reprobate that's not what I'm saying. I don't know that. I don't think the bible gives enough information. I'm just saying though most people whether saved or unsaved are not going to commit that sin right? Sleeping with your father's wife it's just like obviously Reuben didn't have the strongest set of morals to even do something like this right? This is pretty bad and it's mentioned in Genesis 49 verse 1 Jacob called on to his sons and said gather yourselves together that I may tell you that I would shove a fall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together and hear the sons of Jacob and hearken unto Israel your father. Reuben thou art my firstborn my might in the beginning of my strength the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. Unstable as water thou shalt not excel because thou wentest up to thy father's bed then defileth thou it he went up to my couch. And it's referring to the fact that he slept with Billa which was the wife of Jacob the concubine wife. Go back to Genesis 35 Genesis 35 we'll close up here. Genesis 35 there's a lot of information in this chapter I mean you could probably preach a lot of different types of sermons I think it's easier though just kind of fitting into one but it says here Genesis 35 verse 23 well the end of verse 12 what verse 22 was now the sons of Jacob were 12 verse 23 the sons of Leah Reuben Jacob's firstborn and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun the sons of Rachel Joseph and Benjamin and the sons of Billa Rachel's handmaid Dan and Naphtali and the sons of Zilpah Leah's handmaid Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob which were born to him in Pananaram Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre unto the city of Arba which is Hebron where Abraham and Isaac's adjourned. The days of Isaac were 104 score years so basically 180 years and Isaac gave up the ghost and died and you know giving up the ghost is a reference terminology for a person dying is the body without the spirit is dead. I remember when I first got saved I read the Bible and it's like gave up the ghost because I was thinking about being involved with the Holy Ghost I was like how can a saved person lose the Holy Ghost right I was just confused because I didn't know just the terminology because the body without the spirit is dead so basically gave up the ghost the spirit has departed from the body so he gave up the ghost and died and was gathered onto his people being old and full of days and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. Let's go to the word of prayer your heavenly father thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see Genesis 35 and all the great information and ask you to help us to apply this to our lives and I don't believe people in our church have literal actual idolatry in their houses but help us to symbolically put away the strange gods