As people of faith, one of the ways that we find God in times of crisis, is to acknowledge— not ignore— the pain. And even when God speaks, defending the fact that Job is yelling at the one who made heaven and earth, who created the sea crea-tures and drives the wind, even then God does not call Job names, but holds him in love. We have seen that our God’s rule extends beyond Jacob, and that our God’s promises outlive our heroes, and that our God answers in our time of crisis. We must appear happy, to be OK, to others and ourselves. More than 200 years later, when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and carried off her leaders to exile, Edom not only stayed aloof and did not help his brother, Israel, but conspired against him and gloated over his destruction. Psalm 137, one of the most shocking imprecatory psalms, was written after this betrayal: “Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!” (Psalm 137:7). God has shown himself to be the God who hears and answers in the time of crisis. God also invites us into community. Those events are the primary emphasis of these chapters. Which has something important to say to us as a young church. When God says in verse 1, â€œArise, go up to Bethel and dwell there,” he is calling Jacob to fulfill a vow Jacob made back in chapter 28. Jacob spent twenty years under the tyranny of Laban, and as we’ll see in the weeks ahead, Joseph spent thirteen years going down, down, down, before God raised him up. Be sure to sign up to get updates on the latest sermon notes by Team JP. And now, decades later, when Jacob feels precarious in the land, and putting his whole household on the road could expose them to attack from the surrounding tribes, God calls Jacob out in faith. The Bible emphasizes getting the facts before you take major actions in your life. We discovered that in times of Crisis God is right there. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:2. He rails at God. That God brings resurrection out of death over and over again so that we can be God’s joyous people. Stanley Hauerwas, an author and theologian, wrote a book called Prayers Plainly Spoken. And he is not alone. We have a difficult time admitting when we are in the middle of a crisis because of something that happened to us last night or because of a family argument we had in the car on the way to church this morning. So we cannot even be around ourselves. The primary emphasis of this psalm is not on trying to guess when and where storms will come, but to always realize that God is our only true, safe place. Power Jacob plays just as much a part, if not more, than his father. But during his son Jehoram’s reign, Edom revolted successfully from Israel (2 Kings 8:20–22; 2 Chronicles 21:8–10). Probably the number one thing I hear from people who don’t go to church, is that those of us in the church too often just pretend that everything is okay. God loves us; nurtures us; and when we’re ready or sometimes when we’re not but need to be, God nudges us, pushes us, and empowers us to get up. We have been delving into the Biblical story and how we enter into God’s story. That God offers us relationship through the crisis. At times like this, we need to hang on to truths that don’t change. And at the end of the Joseph story, when Jacob blesses his sons, he says to Reuben, his firstborn, “You shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it—he went up to my couch!” (Genesis 49:4). Genesis 25:19: Isaac (Abraham’s promised son).Then Genesis 36:1, 9: Esau. We take the time to be courageous enough to talk about what’s ailing us. God will live on once Jacob has died, and God will extend his promises, even as death comes for Jacob. It’s … God has promised his favor to his people, but his power is not limited to them. They don’t answer. Believe the crisis is bigger than God or that God is bigger than the crisis. These times of crisis in our lives are most likely not what we would’ve chosen for ourselves, but we can make a choice to use the manual God has given us in how to treat one another. I appreciate that so many of the people who wrote the psalms express their anguish and anger in such vivid imagery, even as I often recoil at the vengeful language that they use. The original commission to humanity and the promises of Abraham are here clearly applied and renewed to Jacob. OUR TEXT TODAY WILL REMIND US AS FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST, THAT THE LORD OUR GOD DESIRES & EXPECTS US TO BE A THANKFUL OR GRATEFUL PEOPLE IN ALL TIMES, IN ALL CIRMCUMSTANCES OR SITUATIONS IN LIFE. Responding to a crisis pastorally in the pulpit requires the preacher to exercise discernment drawn from their knowledge of the congregation and the crisis itself. 1) Our God answers in the time of crisis (35:1–7) When God says in verse 1, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there,” he is calling Jacob to fulfill a vow Jacob made back in chapter 28. Already under David’s son, Solomon, according to 1 Kings 11:14, “the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite. You’ll see that key word “journeyed” in verses 5, 16, and 21. It is not Isaac alone who makes his own legacy. Do not covet anything your neighbor has. He hears. This completes the southward journey of this chapter from Shechem in the north, down to Bethel, then Rachel dies on the way to Bethlehem, then down to Hebron. The God of Jacob, and after Jacob, and beyond Jacob who we celebrate here at the Table is a God too real and too big and too glorious to work according to human expectations and timetables. And he is the kind of God who welcome foreigners to join in the covenant love of his Table. However, in the midst of this section in which Jacob loses three significant people in his life, and is betrayed by his firstborn son, we do have one last revisiting, and extending, of God’s promises (which have driven the story since Genesis 12). And no matter who you voted for, I think we can all agree that our country is deeply divided in ways we can’t even always explain. Why bother with Esau’s genealogy? The next two losses are the hardest. How do the disciples recognize Jesus after he has been resurrected? She is in crisis. And what he said, when asked how it is that he has had the courage to share his feelings of grief and crisis, is, “If you don’t talk about it, then grief really gets to set up and fortify its positions inside of you and begin to immobilize you. He will hear you. In times of crisis like this one, the natural human response is for us to have great concern about our well being and to also worry and panic. May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!”. How often have you been a witness for what God can do because someone dared to tell the truth? So, secondly, the God after Jacob outlives our heroes. Sundays at 10:00am & 5:00pm 1524 Summit Ave, St. Paul, MN 55105. Those gods do not answer in the day of distress — literally, the time of crisis. The rest of the chapter gives us a succession of four major losses for Jacob. That this would be devasting for Jacob is plain enough. This is about preaching and leading in times of crisis and some ideas and principles about that. He almost certainly will not do just what you want when you want. Amidst the Pestilence – Coronavirus Sermon. Once we become parents, the most important work we have to is not our own grades and achievements and awards but the investment we make in our children. CHRIST OF EVERY CRISIS March 22, 2019 Save Article. They recognize him because of his hands— the place where he was speared— they recognize his pain. For the last while, we have been occupying ourselves with the details of Joseph’s relationship with his brothers and his father. It has meaning to any tragedy. Jacob then encountered Esau (chapter 33). and Ezekiel (25:12–14; all of chapter 35) and Joel (3:19) and Amos (1:6–2:1) prophesied that it was just a matter of time until destruction would come to Edom as well (also Lamentations 4:21–22). With the death of Isaac, not Jacob (35:29). He is the living God who wants us to turn to him, to wrestle with him (Genesis 32:22–28), not just our circumstances, in our time of crisis. But even then, Deuteronomy 2 will tell Israel to treat “the people of Esau” as “brothers” — not to take their land or disturb Esau’s descendants (Deuteronomy 2:4–8; 23:7). And the way these genealogies often work is that they lead the way for focusing on the person’s children. The One who created us and redeemed us also sustains us throughout life - including times of crisis. Contributed by Terry Laughlin, pastor at CrossRoads … Adrian Rogers explains what to do and how to trust that God is sufficient either to remove you from it … Jacob’s nomadic household is not native to the land, and now Levi and Simeon “have brought trouble on me,” Jacob says, “by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land” (34:30). But the more you talk, the more you expose it to the air and to the light, then grief doesn’t get a chance to organize itself. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.” (11–12). But instead of giving up or blaming someone else, he yells at God. Our lives are full of pain. He has gone off to be away from the crowds for awhile. 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