Arise and Go Up to Bethel

A field with stone pillars

​Photo by Johanneke Kroesbergen-Kamps on Unsplash
How do you meet with God? How do you have a soul satisfying, hopeful relationship with God in this world? The question of hope and happiness has never seemed more elusive in a culture as prosperous as ours. We have never had more of our immediate needs taken for granted as we do today, and yet we find ourselves in the midst of the most anxious, psychologically burdened generation we’ve ever seen. Every day I am seeing best selling books and articles acknowledging this problem, sounding the alarm that all is not well in a world that just 150 years ago would have been considered a paradise. 
This revelation is a mercy from God. It’s a mercy because we now have the surest evidence that we can stop wasting time thinking we are just one more discovery from finding hope. The answer to hope is found in God’s Word, and we will see how this chapter displays that for us. 
Wonderfully, that hope is found in the midst of real life. As you no doubt noticed in the back half of the chapter, there isn’t a ton to be happy about. The hard things of dying in child birth and a scandalous son cannot overshadow the hope that God offers. No matter how modern we get, these are among the worst problems we can imagine. Yet God’s promises ring through even this and point to how we, too, can have a hopeful relationship with God. 
Let’s look at this together in our two points Hope in God requires exclusive worship of God and Hope in God requires eternal waiting for God. 

Hope in God requires exclusive worship of God 

In the first verse, God commands Jacob to leave Shechem and go to Bethel as Jacob promised that he would. As we saw last week, Jacob’s settling outside of Bethel near Shechem produced a disaster. Simon and Levi became terrorist vigilantes that will have an effect on their lives later (as we will see near the end of the book). Dinah’s life is forever changed and traumatized in the true sense of the word. Yet God visits and calls the family up to Bethel, the house of God. Even after all that, God invitation to worship isn’t rescinded. 
Responding to this invitation requires surrender. Jacob tells his family that they must put away the foreign gods that are among them. How did that happen?! One scholar thinks that these gods would have been part of the plunder that Simon and Levi took from Shechem (Matthews). They are rounded up and buried under a tree, possibly with the goal of desecrating the area so that no worship happens here again (Matthews). 
We are to worship only one God. We cannot bring any other god to the relationship. Jesus says that no one can serve two masters. Paul compares our relationship with Jesus to a marriage in which only one spouse is allowed. 
Where does your worship go? By worship, I mean hope. If you are struggling to find your hope in God it is almost certainly because you think hope comes from life going your way. Even the secular artists understand these things. I’ve come across one song recently of a guy singing about this women he is in relationship with. She’s perfect in every way, yet there is this haunting line part way through the song, “But there’s no man as terrified / as the man who stands to lose you.” The chorus asks God (he’s a former Mormon, Benson Boone) to please not take “these beautiful things that I’ve got.” 
Perhaps you’ve expressed that sentiment. Maybe it is disguised as a joke when you say, “Well, things are going well, so I’m going to knock on wood/ brace for the other shoe to drop.” Why do we talk like that? Because our hope is in the thing we fear to lose. This isn’t a call to some sort of Buddhistic disattachment to things. The Buddhists think that pain comes from being attached to things that eventually die, so the solution is just to never attach. That’s not caution; it’s just cowardice. That’s just looking at the world in terms of dangers to you. It is never losing beautiful things because you never received any beautiful things to begin with. 
God’s call is much more profound. He reveals Himself to you in such a way that losing beautiful things—even dying—as gain. HOW? Through His promises. 
First, look at the safe journey the family has on the way. “A terror from God” not the sons’ swords, mind you, protects the family as they go. 
Second, when they arrive, look at what God promises to the family. A scholar points out that while these promises are very familiar, there has been some building here. The language takes on new significance. Look at the word “nations.” This is appropriate because Jacob has a new name, Israel. As such, he represents a new nation-state, a world-recognized authority in a region. This isn’t just a clan, it is a government entity. As such, it is appropriate that we emphasize “kings” coming from this family (Matthews). Of course, thrown in there is the long-standing promise of descendants and land.
But in the midst of all of that, there are notes of tragedy, as God so often waits until those times to reiterate these promises. In the midst of this chapter we see some key deaths. The first mentioned is Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse. To be clear, this is Jacob’s mother’s servant that is dying here, not to be confused with Rachel’s servant. This woman would have been there from the very beginning with Jacob, so her death would have been a significant loss. It is pointed out where she is buried, in a place named “oak of weeping.” Promises are received despite tragedy and heartache. 
What’s more, some promises are received through tragedy. In verses 16-21 we are given the heart-wrenching story of the death of Rachel, Jacob’s wife of his passionate youth. This is the woman he sought so hard to protect and favor, yet he could not save her from death. Rachel asked for one more son way back when she was competing with Leah. Here that prayer is answered, but it will cost her her life (Ross, 582). She names him “son of my sorrow” as she recognized that she was dying. Jacob instead names him “son of my right hand,” a name of favor (Matthews). Here God fulfills the promise of descendants even through the death of Rachel. 
Does the thing you hope in provide through tragedies like that? No! But why do we do it anyway? Because we aren’t patient. We want things to provide us hope now; we need to see results now. I want tangible expressions of joy and security before I will risk hope. 
But to get God’s blessings, you have to wait.

Hope in God requires eternal waiting for God. 

The promises of God aren’t instant. True, they cannot be touched by anything, but they will also not be rushed by anything. 
Look with me at this quick verse in 22. Here we are given a glimpse into yet another failure of Israel’s sons, Reuben. He has relations with his father’s concubine, but there isn’t any real reason or response given. We have to do a little speculation here, but it is possible that Reuben (the firstborn) is making a challenge to Israel’s authority. King David’s son commits this exact same crime as a challenge to David’s throne, and it is very likely the same thing is going on here. God has promised that there would be kings and descendants to Israel, so from a worldly perspective, how do you get that? Take the wife of the king! Produce descendants yourself! Don’t wait for a blessing to be bestowed, take what you can. 
And there’s a certain logic to that. The world agrees that it is full of trouble and no guarantees. So the solution is to take whatever happiness comes your way for however long it lasts. Don’t wait for happiness from God; inject it. Don’t seek a faithful spouse to experience marital intimacy and joy; just find whatever happiness you can in the backseat. Don’t patiently endure proper discipline of the children, just scare them with yelling. The world is full of false promises. 
This was just as true of Jacob’s family as it is yours. 
Let me ask you, what did the Shechemites offer? They offered the same things, actually, as God did (opportunities of descendants of other nations and land) but they just couldn’t actually fulfill it, because the Shechemites need Jacob just as much as Jacob would have needed them. Further, you know what stopped them from fulfilling such a promise (if they ever really intended to anyway)? Death. The promise of the Shechemites died with them, as will everything else that makes promises to you in life. Everything in this world is vulnerable. There is no such thing as a foolproof investment. No matter how beautiful a thing is in your life, you will lose it. 
So if all of this is true, how do you find a satisfying relationship of hope like I asked in the beginning? Worship and wait on God alone. 
Why? God’s promises not to leave, the promise to forgive, the promise to unconditionally love you cannot be stopped. Romans 8:35–39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That’s hope. That’s what endures. It doesn’t make you be unmoved by attachment and love in this world. 
These beautiful things that you’ve got serve as reminders not of what you can lose but what you will one day gain in its fullest form. The joy and security you feel being lost in the eyes of your spouse is meant to point you to the ultimate security and love that is yours in Christ. The comfort you feel after working hard to earn provision for your family is meant to remind you of the provision you have now and will one day experience in its fullness in heaven. 
You won’t get this any other way. 
So practically, how do we worship and wait on God? For starters, be regular in public worship on Sunday. That is the bottom rung of the ladder of hope. Whatever you skip Sunday for is your hope and that thing is vulernable. This isn’t meant to guilt you but guide you. Do you want joy in Christ? Then gather in the place that is Christ’s own joy, the Church. He loves Her. Be a part of that. And yes, I get it, people get sick, bodies break down, traveling for family is a real thing, but is your physical absence from church, any church, on Sunday a measure of last resort, or is it the first thing on the chopping block? If it’s the first to go, then no wonder you don’t have hope! You’re cutting off your weekly dose of hope! Don’t do that to yourself! 
Second, be regular in private worship, your prayers and Bible intake. This world won’t let you coast on yesterday’s hope. Your own sin won’t let you coast. Stillness is stagnating. Take the time to slow down, meditate on what it is you have in Christ. 
I remember some months ago in the fall, I was looking outside my office through the bare trees lit by the sunset. Seasons and times remind one of the fact that all things come to an end, even me. I remember thinking about my death, as we’ve witnessed it a lot here lately. I remember thinking, “If I were to die suddenly at this age but was given the chance to say one last thing, but only one last thing, to Abby, what would I say?” A peace came over me as I realized that there is only one right answer to that question for the Christian: “Everything is going to be ok.” That doesn’t mean everything is going to be easy. Or that there are going to be no tears, or that there aren’t going to be real, painful struggles. But I mean one day, for sure, because I have God’s own sworn promise to me sealed by His very blood, that everything will work together for my good and His glory! 
That’s a promise worth clinging to, a promise worth letting go of whatever is in your clenched fist to get. God will not disappoint. You just gotta wait.