Genesis chapter 35, give your attention to God's holy and inspired word. 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. So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Then let us arise and go up to Bethel so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone. So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem. 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. And Jacob came to Luz, that is Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. And there he built an altar and called the place El Bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. And Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died. And she was buried under the oak below Bethel. So he called his name Alon Bakuth. God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan Aram and blessed him. And God said to him, your name is Jacob. No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. 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.' Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel. Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, do not fear, for you have another son. And as her soul was departing, for she was dying, she called his name, Benoni. But his father called his name, Benjamin. So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem, and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel's tomb, which is there to this day. Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Edir. While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now, the sons of Jacob were 12, the sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, the sons of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant, Dan, and Naphtali, the sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant, Gad, and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram. And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre. or Kirith Arba, that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac has sojourned. Now the days of Isaac were 180 years, and Isaac breathed his last, and he died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days, and his sons, Esau and Jacob, buried him. Amen, let's ask the Lord's blessing upon this scripture passage, let's pray. Lord, we come to you. Thankful for the words of life that you've provided in Holy Scripture, yet also confessing our dependence upon your spirit, Lord, for we need your spirit to illumine this passage, to shine it like a light into our minds and hearts, that we might see and understand more of your grace to us in Jesus, your son. May you instruct us in your ways. May, Lord, you humble our hearts. May you comfort us with grace and equip us, Lord, as your saints. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, in our journey through Genesis, we've been with Jacob for a very long time. He commands so much of the book of Genesis, and especially his story, you could say, is engrossing. He doesn't have all of, or he's not the one most talked about in Genesis. We'll get to Joseph. He'll be the one who has more chapters devoted to him than pretty much anyone else. But Jacob is a very significant figure. I think one of the reasons why he is very significant is that he's so multifaceted. In other words, he's like you and he's like me. In some seasons of his life and ministry, he's a shining example, a paradigm of godliness, of what it means to be a follower of the covenant Lord of God, of God himself. He is acting in faith. He's confessing the dependence upon the grace of God and giving a blessing to the work of his hands. He's enduring under suffering. He's in many ways a model believer for us. And in other ways, he is sometimes what we should strive diligently not to be. We saw last week in chapter 34 one of those examples, perhaps, of what we should not strive to be. Jacob was, in a sense, like an absent father in a moment in which one of his daughters very much needed his protection and care. You can go back and read Genesis 34 to see that story play out. Jacob is concerned, it seems, just with his own name and his own skin in the midst of a very, very, well, messy and terrible situation. Well, as we get to chapter 35, this is the last sort of chapter that's solely focused on Jacob as the main actor. Now, if you notice in Genesis 37, we have the book of the generations of Jacob, which include the children of Jacob and how they themselves live on and carry out the lineage of the covenant that Father Jacob brought them into. The same is true in what we've looked at thus far. This is the generations of Isaac, and it concerns mainly the goings and comings of Jacob. Here we have the last sort of full chapter where we're dealing with, well, Jacob as the main actor here. And in many ways, this chapter rounds out his story. He's back in the land and the covenant that God made with him is renewed, it's reaffirmed. You know that there's a bit of an echo of what we have seen already back in chapter 32, I believe it is, where Jacob wrestles with God and God changes his name to Israel, no longer Jacob, and reaffirms his covenant with Abraham and Isaac to Jacob there. Now that he's in the promised land, this is like the official sort of stamp and seal of approval in a way that God stamps on Jacob himself here as he takes to himself or as God gives him the role of covenant leader and head, especially given the fact that Isaac is very, very soon to die. So we get to chapter 35 and we see much of God's blessing on display. Literally, he blesses Jacob. But then in things like a new son, Benjamin, who is born to Rachel, Jacob's favorite wife, there's much good, much blessing that happens in this chapter. The people of God really take their place in the land here. Finally finding rest after the events of chapter 34, God protects them by putting a terror on the nations or the cities around them as they travel so that there won't be any hiccups along the way. There's much blessing, but there's also tremendous sorrow. There's death, there's sin, there's much of corruption in this chapter as well, which helps us see really the nature of the pilgrim life that we all are living. And a stark relief here is filled with both blessing and sorrow. That's one of the main points I want us to see as we go through this chapter. There are three headings which you see there in your bulletin. First we'll consider the call to holiness and the repentance it involves, that God issues to Jacob and Jacob then issues to his household and then we'll consider the covenant that is renewed on the basis of God's steadfast love and then finally the sorrow that is found amidst joy. You can flip that around as well, the joy that is found amidst sorrow. That is a part of the nature of the pilgrim life that we all live. So let's jump in. Let's consider this chapter in Jacob's life, really the closing out of much of what we've seen thus far. God begins this chapter with his voice. He begins with a command, the summons. He takes the initiative here after everything that has occurred in chapter 34. God doesn't say to Jacob, you know what, I think I'm done with you. and I'm gonna go and find someone else to carry along my covenant promises. Your family is a mess. You've not been a good father. I think that, I think, yeah, I think I'll just pick it up with someone else here. He doesn't do that. He takes the initiative. He reveals himself yet again to Jacob, and he says, in verse one, arise, go to Bethel, and dwell there. Make an altar. And then he reminds him of what he did for Jacob when Jacob left the promised land when he was fleeing from Esau. That's where God met him and revealed himself to Jacob really for the first time. Remember the dream Jacob has and the ladder that goes up to heaven and the angels of God ascending and descending. upon such ladder or staircase. It was a promise God made to Jacob, not only in the vision itself and in the symbolism of a stairway and angels ascending and descending, but in the very words of God where he promises him he will be with him, he will be a source of blessing for him, and he will bring him back to the land that he's fleeing from safely. Well, God does that. And here he again calls out to Jacob, And he says, go to Bethel, the house of God, the place I met with you before. This time, build an altar there and worship me, in other words. This is a summons. This is a call to worship, which requires, at its foundation, a call to holiness. just as in our own worship service, and really much as what we see in this chapter here can be reflected in our own order of service, which is not something we just made up, it's built off of the very pattern of scripture, that God calls us to meet with him. But before we can hear him speak to us fully, we must humble ourselves and confess our sins and repent of them and purify, be purified really, before we enter into his That's what's happening here in the first few verses. God is summoning his people, Jacob and his household, to himself. He does so, he takes the initiative. He's the one who speaks first here. He's faithful to his covenant promises in that way. He says, come to me. Come to Bethel. Make sacrifice. Worship me. And so it's implied in this that Jacob himself, in order to do this, has to humble his own heart. He is reminded that God's essentially saying, Dan, look, I brought you out of this land, now you're back, so come and worship me. That's humbling for Jacob, who, when he got back into the land in chapter 34, experienced nothing but, well, sin and tragedy. Here, the initiative of God is summoned to return to him. But Jacob is the head of his family, the head of his household, the covenant head of the people of God at this time. And his seeking of holiness is not just tied to his own personal walk with the Lord. It's tied to his household. And so he has the calling from God to make sure that as much as he can, he can't shape and form the hearts of his household, but he can call them to holiness and call them to repentance, and that's exactly what he does. Remember, this is more than just Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah. and then the 12 kids, 13 counting Dinah. This is far more. This is all of Jacob's servants, all of the livestock tenders. This is a big group of people, hundreds of people. And they are this group over which Jacob has spiritual authority. And so he calls them, notice the language here, to put away your foreign gods, which is striking because, well, a number of ways. First, is striking in the sense that, wouldn't he have done this before? Might be better late than never here. You would assume that Jacob, who has knowledge of the one true God, who has wrestled with God, who has confessed Him, who relies upon His grace, would say to his family, it would be good if we weren't idolaters here in this household. But better late than never. He calls them to put away the foreign gods. Notice these are not just like little trinkets and idols that one would have, even perhaps as an aid to worship the one true God. All forms of idolatry are forbidden, making a representation of God in order to worship Him, or especially idolatry in having a foreign representative of a foreign god, an idol, say, to Bel or to Astra or to any of the other pantheon of gods surrounding Israel. But that seems to be what Solomon, his household, had. I mean, even his wife, Rachel, if you remember, when they left, she stole the household gods of Laban and lied about it and hid them. When Laban frantically searched for them, maybe they're included in this. The point is, as they prepare as a unit, as a covenant people to meet with God, the call to the whole household is, turn from your sinful ways, especially your idolatry, from the foreign gods. and from perhaps whatever else represented them. Like we read here that the people did obey and they brought to Jacob their foreign gods and also earrings and things like that, that maybe represented these foreign gods as well. They were not godly. And Jacob says, in doing this, you purify yourselves and then change your clothes. Like get ready to meet with the just judge of all the earth. Be thorough in your repentance. Be thorough in your confession. Before you meet with God, seek forgiveness and confession of your sin. That's what we see here in these first few verses. It's a call to holiness that requires the humbling of our hearts and the seeking of repentance. We see that, like I said, not only in our own worship service, and then we have a reading of the law, confession of sin, and then assurance of God's covenant mercy. This is true of every aspect of your communion with God, even your personal devotional times. You know, as you gather to read your, gather yourself together in the morning or in the afternoon or whenever it is in the day, and you read God's word, you meet with God in prayer, make diligent use of confession. Confess your sins to God. Let that be a part of your prayer. You know, the famous acronym for praying, ACTS, is very helpful. And it shows that as we commune with God, even personally, begin with adoration of God, and then C, confess your sins to God. And then show him you're thankful in your prayers, and gratitude to him, and thankfulness for what he's provided for you. And then give him your supplications, that is asking for his help and various needs you have. This is what Jacob is calling his family to hear, is what we should consider as we gather before our glorious triune God. We should turn from all sin and we should confess our sin freely and wholly. We should ask ourselves thoroughly the ways we have fallen short of his glory. as we prepare to meet with him. A bit of practical help for that, by the way, is if you, it's in the back of the hymnal, or you can look it up online, or hopefully you're familiar with our larger catechism, the Westminster Larger Catechism, and go to the section of that catechism that deals with the Ten Commandments, and it will give you more than you're probably willing to think deeply about. It's a lot. And it's not like, as the catechism was being authored, it was just written there to, to basically gather every possible sin under heaven under each of the Ten Commandments, but it's really explicating the ways that Scripture speaks of various sins of God's people, and it does order it especially under the Ten Commandments. Read through the larger catechism and ask God to reveal to you by His Spirit ways that you have fallen short of His glory, that then you might enjoy that communion and fellowship with Him which comes to the repentant, to those who have confessed their sins. as a side point here before we move to our second point. Again, we have, in this incident here, a complete mockery, appropriately so of ideology, by the way, especially as it was practiced then. Just as with Rachel, who hid her household gods under her saddle as she sat on them, here we have, I mean, what kind of gods are these that they can be collected together and buried in a pit under a tree? They're probably not that powerful. They're probably not that effective. They can simply be hoarded together into a mass grave and put into a, they have no strength, they have no power, they will not save. This is an indictment upon all who would worship idols. It shows the utter folly of it. That leads us to our second point here. As they journey to Bethel, and God renews and reaffirms his covenant with Jacob and with Jacob's household. Now first note that this journey is protected. Verse five, as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them. Now why is that important to note here? Well, because they had just interacted with a city, with Shechem, And granted, they were pretty much the source of the terror there. But perhaps to protect Israel, the people of God here, and in a way, perhaps even to protect those cities, God puts a separation between them. He gives a spirit of terror upon the people in the cities. So they see the group of Israel, the people of God sojourning along the way. They are not tempted to go out and to do battle with them, or to make a covenant with them or anything. They're just saying, just let them pass. Just let them go. They're terrified by them. This will not be the case when Israel as a people return to the promised land, but it is here in this moment because God is protecting his people as they journey to where his covenant will be renewed. Fear fell upon the surrounding cities. This is God's providential gift of protection. They're going out and they're coming in. He is watching over them. He gets to Bethel, Jacob does, and his family, and he built an altar. He calls the altar El Bethel, which is God, the God of Bethel. and he makes a sacrifice there, he remembers what God has done, and he rejoices in God's mercy. And as he's waiting, verse nine occurs. God appears to him. And in many ways, we are covering familiar ground here. This is reflective of what we've read of in Genesis 32, and then earlier in God's interactions with Isaac, and then originally with Abraham, what God does here is he's forging and building upon and renewing the bond, the relationship that he has established with his people solely by grace, not based on or influenced by their good works or their character, their spiritual aptitude. I mean, Jacob is, well, exhibit C in this. Abraham wasn't particularly a righteous man before God called him to himself by grace. Isaac neither, and especially not Jacob. God graciously establishes a relationship, builds a covenant with his people. And so he does so here as well. God appears to Jacob again as he came in from the nations, from Patenarem, as he's in the promised land, and he blessed him. Remember that word blessed, it's not a throwaway word. It's very significant, it's in opposition to cursing. It spells out the Lord's grace and mercy and steadfast love towards his people. It's the foundation of life, it's this blessing that God gives to his people on the basis of his sovereign good grace. He blessed him, and then he reiterates that Jacob's name is changed to Israel. Your name is Jacob. No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. This is like where his name is confirmed. This is the, it's like if you are, when you are pregnant and you plan a name for a baby and like you say this child is gonna be named Jacob. Jacob is his name. Or Israel is his name, whatever. And then the baby's born and there gets a point where you're actually like filling out like the info, you know, to prepare for like the birth certificate and things like that. And that's like the point where it's like, this is the name. It's like, it's reaffirmed and it's solidified, it's confirmed. This is the name of the child. That's what's happening here. God, yes, gave him the new name Israel back in Genesis 32, but here is like the confirmation of it. This is at the renewal of the covenant here with Jacob in the promised land. God is bringing it all to his head, making it official. I know a few things about God's words to Jacob here, and not only are they, as we noted earlier, they are God takes the initiative here. Not only are they the result of God having sought out Jacob and over and over again calling Jacob back to himself, but also we see a description of God's mighty, holy character. He says in verse 11, I am God Almighty, or El Shaddai. It's one of the names of God you find in the Old Testament that speak of the power, the strength, the sovereign might of God. And it's especially used when God is making covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, here with Jacob, where God is acting to show his power and his might in blessing a people, which is instructive for us to consider. Where do we see God's power on display? Most purely, most supremely, But in the good news, there's grace to us, especially in Jesus Christ. What is the gospel? It is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. That's why God here illustrates or shows this by declaring his own name, I am God Almighty. And then he speaks this blessing to Jacob, which he had spoken over Isaac and over Abraham before him, and even farther back to Noah, and then all the way back to Adam and Eve in the garden, be fruitful and multiply. showing that this work that God is doing through Jacob, through Isaac, through Abraham, through Noah, through Adam, is the work that he is doing in order to bring about the promises of Genesis 3. He is acting in these families and through this covenant people to bring a reverse of the curse that is on all of every human heart and all of this world, and he's working to bring redemption and a new creation through, well, Jacob and his family here. And this is found way back in what God began in Genesis 3, or Genesis 2, is now just moving along, and it's being here in this moment as God reaffirms his covenant with Jacob, transferred to Jacob and his household, no longer Will Isaac be in the picture? Now Jacob is officially become the covenant head of his people. And so we see God's power. We see how he echoes his promises he made all the way back in the beginning. We see as well here that the mercy of God is supremely on display and that is Jacob through whom God is choosing to work, to bring about and accomplish his good pleasure and the promises he's made all from the beginning. We also see in Jacob, the proper response. He has traveled here, prepared himself to seek holiness, he has met with God, God has spoken, and he responds, and what does he do? Jacob sets up another pillar, and he pours out a drink offering and oil on it, which is very sacrificial in a way. We can go to the grocery store and buy a bottle of wine very easily. There's tons of them. But think of all that's required to make that. And especially in Jacob's day, a group of hundreds of people traveling through the wilderness, really. These are very expensive, not only wine, but the oil. Very expensive items that are offered as thankfulness unto the Lord here. This is the people's response. to the mercy of God that they've heard in their encounter with God, through the word of God, as God has summoned them to himself and renewed his covenant with them, it all leads to a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Again, this is why new covenant worship is structured the way it is. God calls us, he summons you, regardless of how your week has been, to come and give him praise, He summons you to consider your sinfulness and to humbly call upon His name, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He then gives you the covenant promises in grace and pardon. He speaks to you words of life, reminding you of Jesus and what He's accomplished. And then what do we bring back to Him but a sacrifice of thanksgiving, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. We bring to Him not sacrifices of bulls and goats or even of wine and oil poured out. For those are the old covenant types and shadows of what we have in Christ. We bring him our own selves as living sacrifices with thankfulness for what Jesus Christ has accomplished that is once and for all And as we gather week in and week out, we hear God's word again, almost like his covenant renewed in a way each week, reminding us that he is our God. We are his people. Confess your sins. Come to me. Receive again an assurance of his grace and pardon because of what Christ has accomplished in his life, death and resurrection. Christ, who is the son of Abraham, the one through whom all of God's promises are yes and amen, the one who brings the reverse of that original curse, the one who enables his people to be fruitful and multiply as the gospel goes to the end of the earth, the one who brings blessing from God in the place of cursing and wrath. This is why our worship is the way it is, but even more so, this is why we depend upon God the way we do, because he is merciful to us. Each week, we need that reminder, for we are so forgetful. That's why I say Jacob is such an interesting character to study because he is like you and me. He has an abundant wealth of blessing, but how easily does he forget it, especially when things get tough? And how easily does he turn aside from the Lord and walk in folly? And how often then does he and do we need this continual call to come to the Lord, to confess your sins, to remember his mercy, and to give him thankful praise. This is our Christian pilgrim life. That leads us to our third point. As we consider the pilgrim life that Jacob lived here, which we in a sense share, It is one that is filled with blessing. There's much joy in this passage here. There's the covenant faithfulness of God on display. They're in the land, they're protected. No longer are there skirmishes with the cities around them. And then out of nowhere, Rachel is pregnant and giving birth to a son. This is a surprise. And you know why that's so significant? Because she was barren and she's only had one natural son. And yet now, she gives birth to Benjamin, who happens, along with Joseph, to be one of Jacob's favorites. But there's a son here out of nowhere, and yet it's a gift of God, and the beauty and the mercy of a new son. That's why the midwife says to her, do not fear, you have another son. That's a comforting statement, but not just for Rachel to consider, but for Jacob as well. God is gracious to them. He has a home here in the promised land again, and the last of his sons. And from Rachel is icing on the cake. But it's also much sorrow. There's sad sin, which heightens the sorrow. Remember, sorrow is not just bad things like health issues or people dying, that it is the ultimate sorrow. Sorrow in our lives come from Well, sins, the sins of our children, our own sins, the sins of others against us, just the natural distaste we have when we see someone who has sinned greatly and ruined their life or their family's life, like we have an aversion to that because it's saddening, it's sorrowful, it's not the way things should be. You read this little interlude in verse 22. While Israel lived in the land, Reuben was first born, went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, Bilhah, the mother of two of Reuben's brothers, Dan and Naphtali. This is messy. It's wrong, of course. It's wrong to the point that later on when Jacob will be used by God again to speak words of blessing over each of his 12 sons, he begins with Reuben because he's the firstborn. He's the one who has the preeminence over his brothers. He's the one who is given the greater inheritance. He's the one who has the responsibility to carry on the family lineage and to carry on, really, the covenant here. And what does Jacob say to Reuben? He says, Reuben, this is chapter 49, verse three, you are my firstborn, my might, and the first fruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. So good so far. Unstable as water. "'You shall not have preeminence "'because you went up to your father's bed, "'then you defiled it. "'He went up to my couch.' "'That's sobering words,' said Reuben." It illustrates the sadness of this. I wonder what's hiding behind this line at the end of verse 22, and Israel heard of it. And my guess is much sorrow. What Reuben was doing, just as an aside, it's not like he was caught in like a sort of moment of lustful passion. This is Reuben actively seeking to humiliate and take the place of his father. It's him seeking the station, the eminence of Jacob himself. This is a child trying to throw his parents under the bus. This is active, I mean, it should not be done. That's a source of sorrow in this chapter. But then there's much death here. There's Deborah, Rebecca's nurse. We haven't been told about her thus far, but she makes an entrance in verse eight. Perhaps when Jacob was back in the land, Rebecca heard of it. and Isaac and sent Deborah to be with him. Maybe this is, was Jacob was being raised. Maybe this was like his nurse. Maybe this was the one that he loved and, you know, that raised him, you know, in the household here. And regardless, she died. And it's clearly sorrowful because there's an account of how she was buried under the oak near Bethel. And Jacob even named this oak tree Alon Bakuth. which expresses sorrow. It literally, it means the oak of weeping. It's showing sorrow here in the midst of the covenant joys of life in the land. And then there's Rachel. Yes, there's a joy of a son, but it's a son that she gave her life for. For her labor was hard. And we read here that as verse 18, her soul was departing for she was dying. She named the son Ben-Ani, which means son of my sorrow. And Jacob eventually changed it to Benjamin, son of my right hand. Regardless, Rachel died, the beloved wife. Jacob makes a pillar over her tomb, which Moses says is here with us to this day. Israel then moved on from there in sorrow. Rachel herself, even in sorrow as she died, perhaps sorrow mixed with joy over the gift of a son, but also the inspiration of her own life. There's joy here over the list of the sons of Jacob, 12 in all. But then it ends with a note of sadness as well. Isaac, who did not die back when he thought he would, when the inheritance was going to be passed on to Esau, but then actually Jacob, and all that. situation. Isaac lived a good bit longer until this point. Verse 27, Jacob came to his father Isaac at Hebron, where both Abraham and Isaac had lived or sojourned. Isaac lived a good old life, 180 years, and that'd be nice. He breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And note here, his sons, Jacob and Esau, were there at his burial. That is, there's much blessing in this chapter, even that's a source of blessing. Esau and Jacob here together at the death of their father. The two sons who were alienated for decades are together here, even at a sad moment. And there's death. There's sorrow amidst joy. This is the pilgrim life. It's a life in which our bodies break down, A life in which, you know, we have children who sin in massive ways. It's a life in which there is much blessing, but also great sorrow. It means that as long as this life is a pilgrim life, it's in some sense incomplete, because this type of sorrow ought not be. Definitely death, definitely sin. And that's why the pilgrim life isn't a life that is waiting, that is pregnant, with something yet to come, with something that will be the way it should be, the way it's been promised to be. It's why this whole narrative of Jacob is the story of God working out his original promises to all of creation, to provide one who will crush the head of the serpent, to make all things right? Like this is how God is bringing about his original promises. He's bringing about through Jacob and through Jacob who becomes Israel and through these 12 children who will be the patriarchs of Israel, through whom will come the Christ who is the one who is the Lord and master of all of creation, the redeemer of his people, the one who sets all things right, who makes all things new, the one who brings an end to sorrow and sin and death, destroys death by his own death, the one who makes an end of sin and wipes away every tear from every eye. That is why the covenant that God makes with his people is not just to bring them, well, freedom from sin, though that is a very, very, very important part. It is a covenant that culminates in Christ, who not just deals with our sin, but puts everything right Even as we read from Romans 8, like this current creation that itself groaned and us with it longing for our full revealing of the sons of God, which will happen when he returns. Like this is what Jesus makes right, the whole cosmos, which involves first making our hearts right, calling us to himself until he does come again to remind us week in and week out that he is good and gracious that we are sinful and need his redemption, that we are dependent upon him, the one who is our covenant Lord, in whom all God's promises are yes, and amen, and eternal, and fulfilled, and the one who will conquer, ultimately, death and sin, who will come again to judge the living and the dead. Let this story of Jacob, just as we saw last week in all of its messiness, remind us, as God's pilgrim people, that our God is faithful, and he will come, and he will put things right. Let's pray.