Latest / Reformed Thinking / From Shechem to Worship: Covenant Fulfillment and Incomplete Rest (Genesis 33:18–20)

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From Shechem to Worship: Covenant Fulfillment and Incomplete Rest (Genesis 33:18–20) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Imagine surviving this terrifying midnight wrestling
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  match with God himself. Yeah, just a grueling physical
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  struggle. Right.
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  And then only to discover that the sunny, peaceful Meadow you
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  just moved into is, you know, infinitely more dangerous.
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  Really is a striking contrast. It is well welcome to reform
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  thinking. This is the audio space where we
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  take the vast, heavy theological realities of Scripture and break
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  them down into practical, robust truths for your daily life.
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  That is what we are here for. Today our mission is to take a
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  deep dive into two theological sources analyzing A brief but
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  incredibly weighty passage of Scripture.
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  We are looking at Genesis 33 verses 18 through 20.
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  On the surface might just look like a travel log to some.
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  Yeah, I mean, before we start, let me set the scene for you.
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  Consider the physical and emotional exhaustion of a man
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  named Jacob. He was entirely drained.
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  Oh absolutely. He has just survived A literal
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  physical wrestling match in the dark at Pineal.
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  And his hip was put out, a joint draining around.
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  Yes. So he is exhausted, he is
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  limping, and the very next morning he has to face his
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  brother Esau. Which is terrifying given their
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  history. Because the last time Jacob saw
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  Esau, Esau was actively plotting to murder.
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  Him. Yeah, Holding a serious grudge.
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  And right now, Esau is marching toward him with 400 armed men.
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  Just a massive private army. Right.
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  So, humanly speaking, Jacob is staring down the barrel of total
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  annihilation. There is no worldly way out for
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  him. But he survives.
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  The dreaded reunion happens. There is a measure of peace and
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  finally arrives at Shechem in the land of Canaan.
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  Safely and intact. Yeah, those 3 verses 1819 and
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  20, they cover his arrival, a real estate purchase and the
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  building of an altar. Which seems so mundane at first
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  glance. Yeah, to a casual reader, it
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  just looks like a, you know, an itinerary.
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  But as our sources make clear, this is a massive theological
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  statement. Yeah, I mean, we really have to
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  make sure we don't just read these verses as a quick map
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  coordinate update, right? Because these 3 short sentences
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  established this colossal framework.
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  They really do. They represent a definitive
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  statement about God's sovereign Providence over the lives of His
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  people and also the believers. Progressive sanctification in a
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  hostile world plus the absolute non negotiable priority of
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  public worship. That is a lot for three verses.
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  It is Moses, the author of Genesis, is showing us that
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  God's covenant promises are not abstract concepts floating in
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  the ether somewhere. Yeah, they are grounded.
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  Very grounded, they crash down into actual dirt, actual
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  economics, and actual stone altars.
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  So practical. The sources we are analyzing
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  today argue that these texts use this ancient narrative to
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  confront modern assumptions directly.
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  Which is super relevant for us. Because we live in an era
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  saturated with the idea of human merit.
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  Oh yeah, the whole pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality.
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  Precisely this idea that we earn our safety and our status
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  through our own cleverness or, you know, our moral performance.
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  And our culture loves that. They do.
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  We also live in an era of seeker sensitive religion where the
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  goal is to make everyone as comfortable as possible.
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  Which we see everywhere today. Right.
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  And the authors of these sources argue that Jacob's arrival in
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  Shechem completely dismantles both of those modern idols.
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  OK, let's unpack this. Let us look at verse 18.
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  Let's do it. The text tells us that Jacob
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  arrives safely or in peace to the city of Shechem after coming
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  from Patanaram. Yeah, and that phrasing is key.
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  It is. Both of our sources draw
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  immediate attention to the specific Hebrew word used here,
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  which is Shalom. Shalom, right?
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  It does not mean he avoided getting killed by the skin of
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  his teeth. No, not at all.
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  It means whole, intact or complete.
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  That word, Shalom, is really the linguistic answer to a prayer
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  Jacob prayed 20 years prior. Back when he was running away.
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  Yeah, back in Genesis 28, when he was fleeing for his life,
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  sleeping on a rock at Bethel, he bargained with God.
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  He asked for safe passage, right?
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  He did, He asked to be brought back to his father's house in
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  peace. And God did not just meet the
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  minimum requirements of that desperate plea.
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  He went way beyond it. He over delivered.
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  Jacob arrives Shellum. Whole and complete.
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  The man who was shattered and broken by his own sin and by
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  Laban's abuse and by the wrestling match at the Jabbaq
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  River, is brought back whole by the hand of his creator.
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  That is just incredible. What's fascinating here is the
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  grammatical structure Moses uses to convey this.
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  What Hebrew phrasing you mean? Yeah, the Hebrew text we see a
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  way of toll sequence. Right, which is a big deal in
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  biblical translation. In Hebrew, this specific verb
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  structure acts like dominoes falling.
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  That is a great way to describe. It it grammatically refuses to
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  let you read this as a new, unrelated event.
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  No, it ties it directly to the past.
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  It forces you to see it as the immediate, unstoppable result of
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  what just happened. And that structural reality
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  proves that Jacob's safe arrival is not some random accident of
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  history. Or a stroke of luck.
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  No, it is the direct, inevitable execution of God's divine decree
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  in space and time. Which brings us into some heavy
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  theology. It does.
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  If we look at the Westminster Confession of Faith,
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  specifically Chapter 5 on Providence, we see this doctrine
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  in full display. God's absolute control over all
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  things. Yes, the Confession teaches that
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  God, the Great Creator of all things, upholds, directs,
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  disposes, and governs all creatures, actions and things.
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  Even the smallest details. Down to the smallest detail,
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  Jacob did not arrive safely because his strategy of sending
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  gifts ahead to Esau worked. Even though he sent a lot of
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  goats and sheep. He did, but that wasn't what
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  saved him. He did not arrive because he was
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  a master negotiator who outmaneuvered his Uncle Laban
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  either. He arrived because the Sovereign
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  God decreed his preservation. But you know, I look at Jacob's
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  track record, lying to Isaac, manipulating Laban's flocks.
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  He was a schemer for. Sure, he really was.
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  And my internal sense of justice says Esau's 400 men should have
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  wiped him off the map. Humanly speaking, he deserved.
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  It So why does Providence preserve Deceiver if you arrive
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  safely? Does his arrival mean his
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  scheming actually worked? Does God reward his
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  manipulation? Well, the sources we are looking
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  at cut right through that assumption.
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  How so? By establishing a clear law
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  gospel distinction. OK, lay that out for us.
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  If we evaluate Jacob's life through the lens of the moral
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  law, the strict demands of God's justice, Jacob deserved absolute
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  destruction. No question about it.
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  His scheming earned him death. If his survival depended on his
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  own merit or moral performance, his story would have ended in a
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  bloodbath in the desert. Just a terrible tragedy.
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  But the gospel shows us a God who provides safe passage
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  entirely through sovereign grace, independent of the
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  sinners worthiness. So it's not about what Jacob
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  did. Not at all.
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  God preserves Jacob despite Jacob, not because of Jacob.
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  Justification is the absolute ground of Jacob's peace.
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  He is declared. Righteous.
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  Yes, God declares him righteous through faith, independent of
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  his moral failures, and Providence is the vehicle of his
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  preservation. The mechanism God uses.
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  Exactly. I mean, God orchestrates the
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  external events, like Esau's changing heart or a Laban's
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  delayed pursuit to ensure the justified Sinner makes it to the
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  destination. His survival is a testimony to
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  unmerited favor, not to human cleverness.
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  You know, think about being on an airplane during a severe
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  storm. Oh, I hate turbulence.
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  Me too. You hit massive turbulence.
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  The plane is dropping, the bins are shaking, and you are
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  gripping the armrest so tightly your knuckles are entirely
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  white. Just terrified.
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  Right. And in your mind, you are
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  practically trying to mentally fly the plane.
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  Oh yeah, holding your breath. Holding your breath, trying to
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  force it to stay in the air through sheer willpower and
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  tension. Like that will somehow keep
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  gravity away. Yeah, but when that plane
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  finally breaks through the clouds and lands smoothly on the
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  tarmac, you arrive safely. You make it to the gate.
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  But it wasn't your white knuckle gripping that got you there.
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  Not at all. It wasn't your worrying or your
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  mental maneuvering. It was the pilot.
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  The one actually in the cockpit. Right, the pilot brought you
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  through the storm. Jacob's safe arrival in Kanan is
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  entirely on the pilot. That is a brilliant way to
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  picture it. His scheming was just him
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  gripping the armrests. And the redemptive historical
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  stakes of that pilot taking control are massive.
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  Because it's not just about one guy.
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  No, God was not preserving an isolated individual named Jacob
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  just for the sake of one man's comfort.
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  There is a bigger picture. He was preserving the lineage of
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  the Messiah. The promise given to Eve in the
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  garden that her offspring would crush the head of the serpent
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  was currently residing in the loins of Jacob.
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  If Jacob dies, the line is cut off.
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  Right to preserve Jacob was to preserve the specific historical
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  Ave. through which Jesus Christ would enter the world.
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  So it's an incredibly heavy moment in history.
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  So this safe arrival is an act of cosmic covenantal fidelity.
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  It is God keeping His promise to redeem humanity by making sure
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  the carrier of that sea does not die in the wilderness.
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  But surviving isn't the same as inheriting.
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  No, it's just the first step. Once you are preserved, what do
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  you actually do with the promise?
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  You have to act on it. That brings us to the real
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  estate transaction. Once Jacob lands safely, he
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  doesn't sit back, breathe a sigh of relief, and relax.
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  He gets right to work. He takes immediate action.
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  He makes a highly specific financial transaction in verse
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  19. He pitches his tent before the
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  city of Shechem, and he buys a parcel of a field from the sons
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  of Homer for 100 pieces of money.
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  Which is a huge detail. Moses uses a deliberate contrast
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  in the vocabulary of this verse to show us what is happening in
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  Jacob's mind. The verbs are really interesting
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  here. The text says Jacob pitched his
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  tent. The Hebrew word there is
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  weichan. Weichan.
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  Yes, which clearly denotes a temporary camp.
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  It is the posture of a wanderer. Someone just passing through.
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  But in the very same breath, the text says he purchased the
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  field. That word is weyeet.
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  Weyekim. Which denotes a permanent,
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  legal, unshakable acquisition. So he is living like a
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  transient, but he is buying real estate like a permanent citizen.
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  It is a deliberate paradox. He is a possessor, yet he
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  remains a sojourner. Before we evaluate the
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  theological implications of that tension, we should look at the
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  money he used. Oh, the silver.
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  Our sources highlight a phenomenal archaeological and
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  linguistic detail here. This part blew my mind a little
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  bit. It's fantastic.
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  The tech says he bought the land for 100 pieces of money, and the
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  Hebrew word used is kesita. This is a rare archaic term.
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  It refers to an unminted weight of silver used in the ancient
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  Near East before standardized stamped coinage was ever
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  invented. So we aren't talking about like
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  Roman Denarii here. No, nothing like that.
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  It only appears three times in the entire Old Testament.
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  I was looking at the notes on this kesita, this ancient
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  silver. It seems like a tiny detail, but
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  the sources use it as a massive weapon against modern critical
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  scholarship. Oh, it acts as a sledgehammer
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  against the Documentary Hypothesis.
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  Which has been popular for a long time.
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  The last couple of centuries, yeah, there has been a massive
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  movement in secular and liberal theology, championed by figures
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  like Julius Wellhausen to a late date, the first five books of
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  the Bible. They claim Moses didn't write
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  them. Right.
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  They argue that Moses did not write Genesis, but that it was
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  cobbled together by various editors hundreds of years later,
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  perhaps during the Babylonian exile or even later.
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  Kind of an evolutionary view of the text.
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  They operate on an evolutionary assumption that Israel's
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  religion and texts developed very late in history.
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  But the Casey TA creates a problem for them.
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  A massive of problem here is the issue for that theory.
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  A Post exilic editor writing centuries after the fact would
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  have used the currency terms of his own day.
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  Like Shekels? Or talents.
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  Or Persian dyrics. He would not know to use a dead
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  obsolete word for unminted silver chunks.
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  He wouldn't have even known the word existed.
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  Exactly. The fact the text uses this
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  highly obscure ancient term Kesita proves its historical
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  reliability. It grounds it in reality.
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  It anchors the text in the actual patriarchal period.
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  It tells the reader that this is concrete, verifiable history
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  recorded by someone who knew the economic vernacular of the time.
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  That roots our faith in history, not in fairy tales.
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  Amen to that. Now, looking at the theological
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  side of this purchase, the sources mention an Israel Church
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  distinction here A. Very standard reformed
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  observation. They point out how this real
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  estate transaction connects to the literal land promises God
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  made to the patriarchs. Yeah, God made very specific
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  earthly geographic promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
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  concerning the physical territory of Canaan.
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  Real borders, real dirt. Real Dirt As readers adhering to
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  a Reformed understanding of Scripture, we see that God deals
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  faithfully with the physical descendants of Jacob regarding
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  these historical land promises. So this isn't just a metaphor.
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  No. This purchase of land functions
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  as an earnest or down payment on that massive inheritance.
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  Jacob is acting on faith. Putting his money where his
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  mouth is. Literally, God said the land was
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  his, so he puts his hard currency down to legally secure
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  a foothold in it even while surrounded by the Canaanites who
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  currently occupy. It But you know, if God is
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  sovereign and God promised Jacob the entire land of Canaan, why
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  require him to buy a small parcel with 100 pieces of silver
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  instead of handing over the whole country right then and
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  there? That is a very fair question.
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  Because God could have displaced all the Canaanites in a single
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  afternoon. He absolutely could have.
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  That goes straight to the mechanics of how God sanctifies
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  his people. The slow process of growth,
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  right? God often gives believers A
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  pledge, a small foretaste to sustain their faith until the
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  full harvest arrives. Like a taste of the future.
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  He gives the earnest money before the full payout.
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  This deliberate pacing guards the believer against
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  triumphalism. Thinking we have already won
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  everything. Yeah, that arrogant assumption
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  that we have already achieved final victory and ultimate
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  comfort in this life. Which happens a lot today.
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  It does. If God had handed Jacob the
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  entire nation of Canaan that afternoon, Jacob safe would no
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  longer be required. He'd be walking by sight.
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  He would have achieved final rest before final redemption.
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  By giving him just a parcel of a field, God forces Jacob to look
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  forward. He has to keep waiting.
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  It teaches Jacob that this world, even the promised land in
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  its current state, is not his final home.
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  He owns the promise, but he must wait for its consummation.
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  I think the best way to grasp this is to imagine you have just
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  been gifted A sprawling billion dollar estate.
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  That would be nice. Right.
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  The owner signs the deed over to you.
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  Legally, it is yours. The paperwork is filed.
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  Your name is on the document. But right now the owner only
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  hands you the keys to the front gate.
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  Oh, just the gate. Yeah, you can unlock the gate,
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  you can stand on the edge of the property, you can pitch A10 on
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  the grass near the entrance, but you have not yet been given the
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  keys to occupy the mansion. You're stuck outside the main.
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  House. You own it, but your experience
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  of that ownership is partial. You are living in the tension of
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  there already, but not yet. That is a core theological
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  concept. That is Jacob at Shechem.
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  He has the deed to Canon, but he is sleeping in a tent.
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  And that tension defines the life of every Christian
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  listening to this right now. We all feel it.
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  We have been justified by faith. We have been adopted into the
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  family of God. Our inheritance in the new
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  heavens and the new earth is absolutely legally secure,
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  purchased by Christ. Behold the deed.
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  But we still live in mortal bodies subject to decay.
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  We still battle indwelling sin. We still face suffering and
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  persecution. It hurts to wait.
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  We are pitching our tents in a fallen world while holding the
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  title deed to the new creation. Jacob's tiny parcel of land is a
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  master class in patient faith. It really is.
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  Unbelief demands the whole mansion right now or it walks
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  away. Faith accepts the keys to the
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  gate, pitches a tent, and trust God for the timing of the rest.
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  What Jacob does next with his little parcel of land is
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  stunning. That's my favorite part of the
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  chapter. He does not build a fortress to
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  protect his new asset. He does not build a mansion to
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  show off his wealth to the sons of whom or.
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  No, no, Sky Assemble. He builds something entirely
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  different, the text says, and he erected there an altar and
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  called it El Elohi Israel. The priority here is staggering.
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  It really stands out. The very first permanent
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  structure Jacob builds in the Promised Land is an altar.
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  After all the trauma, all the fear and all the waiting, his
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  immediate response to God's preserving grace is public
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  worship. Here's where it gets really
• 16:50
  interesting. Look at the name he gives this
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  altar, L Elohe Israel, which translates to God, the God of
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  Israel. Which is a huge shift in his
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  vocabulary. For his entire life up to this
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  point, whenever Jacob talked about God, he used inherited
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  language. Passed down from his
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  grandfather. Right, he would say, the God of
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  my father Abraham, or the fear of Isaac.
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  He always spoke of God at a distance through the faith of
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  his ancestors. Like he was their religion, not
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  his. But here he is claiming the
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  covenantal reality of his new name.
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  Remember, God changed His name from Jacob to Israel at the
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  Jabok River. He embraces the new identity.
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  By naming the altar El Elohi Israel, he is making a massive
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  personal confession. The God of the universe is
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  specifically my God. It is the ultimate expression of
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  personal covenantal ownership, and this action of building the
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  altar gives us a window into the regulative principle of worship.
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  Which is a big deal in our circles.
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  It is a. Cornerstone of Reformed
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  theology, specifically outlined in Chapter 21 of the Westminster
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  Confession. And what does that say for those
• 17:57
  listening? The regulative principle teaches
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  that the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is
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  instituted by himself and is strictly limited by his own
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  revealed will. So we don't just make it up.
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  No, we don't. Jacob does not invent a
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  creative, pragmatic, or a highly subjective way to thank God.
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  He doesn't throw a party. He doesn't hold a cultural
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  festival. He doesn't write a poem and call
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  it a day. He returns to the ancient blood
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  stained path of animal sacrifice.
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  We have God commanded he. Approaches God in the exact
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  manner God is required. The sources we are reading draw
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  a very sharp line here against seeker sensitive worship models.
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  Oh, they hit that heart. In a seeker sensitive model, the
• 18:37
  goal is often to remove any barriers to entry to make the
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  unchurched person feel as comfortable and affirmed as
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  possible. Cater to the audience.
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  Yeah, the architecture, the music, the message, everything
• 18:48
  is tailored to the felt needs of the consumer.
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  To understand why Jacob's alter is such a rejection of that, we
• 18:54
  have to look at how Canaanite religion actually functioned.
• 18:57
  The Sons of Ham are doing. Well, the people of Shechem
• 19:00
  worshiped localized fertility deities, specifically Baal and
• 19:04
  Asherah. Very dark stuff.
• 19:05
  Very dark. Their worship was entirely
• 19:08
  transactional. They believed that through
• 19:10
  sympathetic magic offer involving temple prostitution
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  and ritualistic frenzy, they could manipulate the gods in
• 19:15
  sending rain and making their crops grow.
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  So the gods were basically vending machines.
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  The gods were forces to be managed for human flourishing.
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  And right in the middle of that environment, Jacob Erexis
• 19:26
  structure dedicated exclusively to Yahweh, and he begins
• 19:29
  slaughtering animals on it. Nothing seeker sensitive about
• 19:32
  that. Not at all.
• 19:33
  It was a public, physical, bloody confrontation of the
• 19:38
  Pagan culture. It was an uncompromising
• 19:40
  declaration that the sovereign God cannot be manipulated for
• 19:44
  agricultural gain. You don't bribe Yahweh.
• 19:47
  No, He is holy and access to him requires substitutionary
• 19:51
  atonement. Blood must be shed for sin.
• 19:54
  There's no tailoring that message to make it more
• 19:56
  palatable to the sons of Him or. You can't soften it.
• 19:59
  The altar itself is the law, Gospel distinction built out of
• 20:02
  stone. I love that image.
• 20:04
  Think about the physical structure of an altar.
• 20:06
  It displays the guilt of the Sinner.
• 20:08
  The law says the wages of sin is death, and the dead animal on
• 20:11
  the altar makes that violently clear to anyone watching.
• 20:14
  It's a stark visual. But at the same time, the altar
• 20:18
  points to the provided remedy. The gospel says God accepts a
• 20:22
  substitute in your place. The altar teaches that God is
• 20:25
  holy and must punish sin, but God is merciful and provides the
• 20:29
  sacrifice. When you reach a milestone in
• 20:32
  your life, maybe you survive a massive health crisis, or you
• 20:35
  get that promotion you have been working years for, or you
• 20:38
  finally close on a house, what is your immediate reaction?
• 20:42
  Most people want to celebrate themselves.
• 20:44
  Do you build a monument to your own hustle?
• 20:47
  Do you update your resume, post about your grind on social
• 20:50
  media, and bask in your own cleverness?
• 20:52
  Just patting yourself on the back.
• 20:54
  Or do you, like Jacob, build an altar?
• 20:57
  Do you publicly acknowledge that your success and your survival
• 21:00
  are the result of God's unmerited grace?
• 21:03
  The choice between the monument and the altar is the dividing
• 21:06
  line between secular pragmatism and biblical piety.
• 21:09
  We look at the end of chapter 33 and it looks like the perfect
• 21:12
  happy ending. It reads like a finale.
• 21:14
  Jacob has arrived safely. He has his legally purchased
• 21:17
  land. He has set up his altar for true
• 21:19
  worship. Roll the credits.
• 21:21
  But we know that's not the end. But the text and our sources do
• 21:25
  not let us stop there. While Shechem looks like a
• 21:27
  picture of peace, the narrative actually holds a very dark,
• 21:32
  unresolved tension. The location is the key issue
• 21:35
  here. Why is the location bad?
• 21:37
  Shechem is certainly blessed ground.
• 21:39
  It is inside the borders of Canaan, but it is not the final
• 21:43
  goal. I see.
• 21:45
  When Jacob made his vow to God 20 years earlier, he made it at
• 21:49
  Bethel. Bethel is the place of ultimate
• 21:52
  divine revelation for him. That's where the latter was,
• 21:54
  right, yes. The stairway to heaven.
• 21:56
  God's implicit expectation was that Jacob would return to
• 22:00
  Bethel to fulfill that vow. But Jacob stopped short.
• 22:03
  He settles in the valley of Shechem.
• 22:05
  If God's Providence brought him to Shechem safely, and if he
• 22:08
  legally bought the land, and if he is worshipping truly at a
• 22:11
  biblically accurate altar, why is staying in Shechem a problem?
• 22:15
  It's a subtle trap. It seems like he's doing
• 22:18
  everything right according to the letter of the law.
• 22:20
  This raises an important question about the nature of our
• 22:22
  obedience. To answer it, we have to look
• 22:25
  ahead to what happens in Genesis chapters 34 and 35.
• 22:28
  Things get really bad. Very bad Shechem does not remain
• 22:32
  a peaceful haven because Jacob settles his family too close to
• 22:36
  the Pagan city. His daughter Dinah is violated
• 22:39
  by the Prince of the city. A horrible tragedy.
• 22:41
  And in retaliation, Jacob's son Simeon and Levi use the covenant
• 22:46
  sign of circumcision as a weapon of deceit.
• 22:49
  They trick the men of the city. They do, and they massacre the
• 22:52
  entire male population of Shechem.
• 22:55
  It is a story of horrific violence, defilement and moral
• 22:59
  disorder. Just absolute chaos.
• 23:01
  The family is nearly destroyed from the inside out because the
• 23:04
  patriarch pitched his tent too close to the world.
• 23:07
  The peace of Chapter 33 shatters into pieces in Chapter 34.
• 23:11
  That is where the theology of progressive sanctification
• 23:14
  becomes so clear. Because it shows we aren't
• 23:16
  perfect yet. A believer can experience
• 23:19
  genuine grace, genuine deliverance, and still harbor in
• 23:22
  complete obedience. Jacob is a mixed man.
• 23:25
  He still has a lot of growing to do.
• 23:26
  He is truly saved, he truly worships, but he is compromised.
• 23:30
  He chose the fertile, economically advantageous plains
• 23:33
  of Shechem over the rugged spiritual heights of Bethel.
• 23:36
  He picked the easy Rd. He settled for comfort instead
• 23:40
  of full obedience. God eventually has to intervene
• 23:43
  in Genesis 35, commanding Jacob directly.
• 23:47
  Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there.
• 23:50
  God won't let him stay there. God refuses to let Jacob stay in
• 23:53
  a state of compromise. Think about your own walk with
• 23:56
  God. As a listener, we often go
• 23:58
  through a massive struggle, a dark season, and God gives us a
• 24:01
  victory over a specific sin or He grants us a season of immense
• 24:06
  blessing. And we get comfortable.
• 24:09
  And what do we do? We decide to set up camp right
• 24:11
  there. We think I go to church.
• 24:13
  I stopped doing that one terrible sin.
• 24:15
  Things are peaceful. We check the boxes.
• 24:17
  We think we have crossed the finish line.
• 24:19
  We settle into a comfortable cultural Christianity that asks
• 24:22
  nothing more of us. Just cruising on autopilot.
• 24:25
  But God refuses to leave his people and half finished
• 24:27
  obedience, He will disrupt our comfortable shechems to force us
• 24:31
  up to Bethel. God loves his people too much to
• 24:33
  let them settle for partial holiness.
• 24:36
  The grace that saves us is the same grace that disciplines us
• 24:39
  and summons us onward. It is like pulling off the
• 24:42
  highway during a grueling cross country road trip.
• 24:45
  I've done that. You pull into a really nice rest
• 24:48
  stop. They have great food, clean
• 24:49
  facilities, a beautiful grassy area to stretch your legs.
• 24:53
  A great place to take a break. You are so exhausted from
• 24:56
  driving that you say, you know what, I'm just going to live
• 24:58
  here. I'm going to pitch my tent in
• 25:00
  the parking lot at this rest stop and never leave.
• 25:02
  But you can't stay there forever.
• 25:04
  It is a good rest stop, it provided genuine relief, but it
• 25:08
  is not your home. You have to get back in the car
• 25:10
  and finish the drive. You have a destination to reach.
• 25:13
  Shechem is a good rest stop, God provided it, but it is not
• 25:17
  Bethel. Jacob's failure to recognize
• 25:19
  that distinction, his incomplete obedience, proves something
• 25:24
  vital for redemptive history. What's that?
• 25:26
  Jacob is not the ultimate hero of the story.
• 25:29
  He is not the point. No, he is a shadow.
• 25:32
  He is a type pointing forward to the true covenant keeper.
• 25:36
  We have to trace this canonical line.
• 25:38
  The Bible is not a collection of disconnected moral fables.
• 25:41
  It is one unified story. How do we draw the line from
• 25:45
  Shechem to the New Testament? Well, we start with Abraham, who
• 25:48
  is a Pilgrim in the land. We moved to Isaac, then to
• 25:51
  Jacob, who, as we have seen, receives the down payment of the
• 25:55
  land but fails to obey completely.
• 25:57
  The patriarchs are all flawed. From Jacob comes the nation of
• 26:01
  Israel. They inherit the land under
• 26:04
  Joshua, but because of their own incomplete obedience and
• 26:07
  idolatry, they are thrown out of the land into the Babylonian
• 26:10
  exile. Another failure.
• 26:12
  The altar Jacob built points forward to the Tabernacle in the
• 26:16
  wilderness, which points forward to the temple in Jerusalem.
• 26:19
  Where the sacrifice has continued.
• 26:20
  But the blood of bulls and goats on those altars could never
• 26:24
  truly take away sin. The entire sacrificial system
• 26:27
  was screaming for a final, perfect fulfillment.
• 26:30
  It was begging for something better.
• 26:32
  And that fulfillment arrives in Jesus Christ.
• 26:34
  So what does this all mean for the listener sitting in the Pew
• 26:37
  on Sunday? How does tracing that line from
• 26:40
  a pile of rocks and Shechem to the cross of Christ change how
• 26:43
  they live tomorrow morning? Our source break down the
• 26:46
  application beautifully into 3 categories, Head, Heart and
• 26:50
  Hands. Let's walk through those.
• 26:51
  For the head, the intellect, the call is to believe.
• 26:55
  In exhaustive Providence, you must intellectually submit to
• 26:58
  the truth that your life is not a series of random accidents.
• 27:02
  God is in control. God is ordering your steps just
• 27:05
  as surely as He ordered Jacobs. For the heart, the affections.
• 27:10
  The call is to cultivate a deep affectionate gratitude for
• 27:13
  preservation. Real thankfulness.
• 27:15
  You are not meant to have a cold stoic faith.
• 27:19
  When you realize what God has saved you from, your heart
• 27:22
  should burn with Thanksgiving. And for the hands?
• 27:25
  For the hands, the application is prioritizing public worship
• 27:28
  and the ordinary means of grace. The things we do every Sunday.
• 27:32
  That means committing to the gathering of the Saints, sitting
• 27:35
  under the preaching of the Word, participating in the sacraments,
• 27:38
  and engaging in corporate prayer.
• 27:39
  It's not a solo activity. You do not build a private
• 27:42
  religion in your living room. You join the public assembly at
• 27:45
  the altar. We do this because we looked at
• 27:47
  Christ, who perfectly fulfills this text.
• 27:50
  He is the ultimate altar. Christ did not purchase a
• 27:52
  Fielding Canon with unminted silver.
• 27:55
  He purchased the Universal Church with his own
• 27:57
  substitutionary blood. A much higher price.
• 28:00
  And unlike Jacob, who settled prematurely in Shechem and
• 28:04
  compromised his family, Christ perfectly obeyed the Father in
• 28:08
  every single detail all the way to the cross.
• 28:11
  The sources use this narrative to critique modern culture,
• 28:14
  specifically pointing to things like materialism and secular
• 28:18
  sexual ethics. Which is very timely.
• 28:20
  The authors argue that when believers pitch their tents too
• 28:23
  close to a culture that rejects their ethics, they invite
• 28:26
  disaster, like Lot moving his tent towards Sodom.
• 28:29
  Exactly. They point out that Jacob bought
• 28:32
  a tiny field and was satisfied, whereas modern materialism
• 28:35
  demands the biggest house in the newest car, often at the cost of
• 28:39
  ethical compromise. We always want more.
• 28:41
  The sources further argue that Jacob's proximity to Shechem led
• 28:45
  to the defilement of his daughter and a massacre,
• 28:48
  illustrating the danger of accommodating to a culture that
• 28:51
  openly rebels against biblical ethics.
• 28:53
  It's a severe warning. The believer cannot be
• 28:56
  comfortable in a culture that rejects their king.
• 28:58
  We are pilgrims. Pilgrims need nourishment for
• 29:00
  the trek. This is where the illustration
• 29:02
  of the Lord's Supper is so powerful.
• 29:04
  It ties right into this. Just as Jacob's altar was a
• 29:06
  physical, visible sign of God's covenant in the middle of a
• 29:10
  hostile Pagan land, the communion table is the visible
• 29:13
  word for the Pilgrim today. Something we can touch and
• 29:17
  taste. When you come to the table, you
• 29:19
  are receiving tangible physical elements, bread and wine, that
• 29:23
  declare Christ's death until he comes.
• 29:26
  It grounds our faith. It is the down payment of the
• 29:29
  marriage supper of the Lamb. It nourishes you, strengthens
• 29:32
  your faith, and reminds you that you were just passing through
• 29:35
  this world. We have extracted massive
• 29:38
  theological weight from just three verses in Genesis.
• 29:41
  It's really dense material. We have seen God's sovereign,
• 29:44
  meticulous preservation of His people against all odds.
• 29:48
  We have seen the tangible down payment of faith, investing in
• 29:51
  God's promises even when we only get a small parcel of the field.
• 29:54
  And the worship aspect. We have seen the absolute non
• 29:57
  negotiable priority of regulated public worship centered on
• 30:02
  substitutionary atonement. And the warning at the end.
• 30:05
  And we have heard the stark, terrifying warning against
• 30:07
  premature spiritual satisfaction, the danger of
• 30:10
  settling in Shechem when God is calling us to Bethel.
• 30:14
  If we connect this to the bigger picture.
• 30:16
  The grand narrative of redemptive history.
• 30:18
  We are forced to conclude that everything in Jacob's life, with
• 30:21
  all of its glaring flaws, deceit, triumphs and altars,
• 30:26
  finds its perfect resolution only in union with Jesus Christ.
• 30:30
  Christ is our safe arrival. Amen.
• 30:32
  Christ is our purchased possession.
• 30:35
  Christ is our altar. As we close, I want to leave you
• 30:38
  the listener with a final thought, a new angle to consider
• 30:42
  as you go about your week. Something to ponder.
• 30:45
  We spend so much time in church analyzing how Jacob wrestled
• 30:48
  with God in the dark at Peniel. It's a famous story.
• 30:51
  We focus on the pain, the fear, the struggle in the midnight
• 30:54
  hours of our lives. But consider this.
• 30:57
  What's that? Managing the bright daylight of
• 30:59
  God's blessing at Shechem proved to be a far more dangerous
• 31:03
  spiritual test for Jacob and his family.
• 31:05
  That is a chilling thought. The comfort of the valley almost
• 31:08
  destroyed them where the terror of the river could not.
• 31:10
  For you, what is harder to handle right now?
• 31:13
  The desperate wrestling in the dark or the comfortable blessing
• 31:16
  in the daylight. That is a heavy question to walk
• 31:18
  away with. Thank you for joining us on this
• 31:20
  deep dive on reformed thinking.