Title: Escape from the Crisis of Faith
Contents
Japanese author Yasudayoshio is famous for his book, “Do not pick up a 10,000-dollar bill.”
The title of the book is not easy to understand.
“Don’t pick up a ten-thousand dollar bill!”
Generally, if there is a 10,000 won bill on the side of the road, it is a windfall and you pick it up quickly.
The point of the author is to invest that time and passion to pick up the 10,000 won bill in a more valuable place.
It's like being caught in a snare by a few pieces of meat thrown by a hunter, not the life you want, but a life with only regrets.
No one wants a life like this.
In today's text, we must examine Jacob's life.
Before he was changed, Jacob made it his own regardless of any means to achieve his desires.
That was the process of getting the birthright, and so was the birthright.
The passion for spiritual things was good, but the process of achieving it was littered with deception and fraud.
He was a person who seemed to do anything for profit in front of him.
From Yasdayosia's point of view, Jacob must have looked like a man who risked his life only to collect ten thousand dollars.
However, God changes Jacob and leads him into a new man of God.
Today's text also makes us realize this kind of God's love.
God tells Jacob, who was living in Shechem, to go to Bethel and build an altar.
In fact, there was also an altar in Shechem (Genesis 33:20).
Then, let's take a look at the reasons why God told us to go up to Bethel.
First, it is to remind us of God's grace.
For Jacob, Bethel was the place where meeting and promises with God were fulfilled in a dream.
God spoke in a crisis where the future could not be promised as a fugitive, not in an ordinary situation.
Genesis 28:15 “I am with you, I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, and I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Ex) Lost mother's leg
Whenever he saw his mother's lost leg, the troubled son must have felt his mother's deep love. The fact that her mother's two legs were smashed instead of the rail of the railroad track where she had to die...
The same is true.
God told Jacob to look at Bethel and come before God...