When In Doubt, Worship! Genesis 32-35

Genesis 34:30 - 35:1 (ESV)

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.” But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”

God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

The context for the above verses comes out of the story of Jacob (soon to be renamed Israel) and his disappointment in his two sons, Simeon and Levi.   When Jacob arrived in this new part of the land (Shechem) his daughter Diana was defiled by the son of the leader of the land, Hamor.  His son was named Shechem.    Shechem raped Diana and, at the time, Jacob did nothing.  When Simeon and Levi came in from the fields, they made a deal with the men of Schechem to give their sister to Hamor’s son.  But they did so only to deceive them.   They eventually killed all the men of Schechem and took all their wives and children and incorporated them into their own families.   Jacob is furious because he now believes he is a stink in the land.   What Jacob failed to remember was the promise God gave him upon his return to this land.  His very reason to return to the land was because he DID rely upon God’s promise:

Genesis 32:10-12 (ESV)

I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

Now that he was in this fix, Jacob began to doubt the promises of God.  Isn’t that the case, often?  We trust God’s promises until we are in a tight, stinky spot where we need God’s promises.  But in the mist of this doubting God calls out to Jacob and wants him to continue to worship and believe.   God calls him to Bethel.   Bethel means a house of God.   Right in the midst of Jacobs doubting God calls out for him to worship.   It is in this place of doubt that God calls out.   Jacob obeys and leads his entire family toward Bethel.  What happens?  

Genesis 35:5 (ESV)

And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

In the midst of the challenge with Diana, Jacob had neither faith nor honor.   Yet, God had promised to make a great nation out of him.   He had no reason to fear.  Even in the doubting God was there to assure and to encourage and protect.   We will have times of great doubt when our Sunday promises don’t carry over to our Monday work week.   But God is faithful and will invite us to return to Bethel, a house of God.   When we doubt God and fear man turn to God in worship and praise.