Are you living your life without making mistakes?  Do you have it all figured out? If you answered yes, than… quite frankly… you are wrong. None except Jesus Himself live the perfect life.  Even among those of us who wholeheartedly seek after and submit to God, we can only do our best and ask God for His help to live according to His commands. For those of you who answered “no”… the good news is that God can use us even though we make mistakes.

Let us explore two sides of Jacob’s life in Genesis 35:9-22. Jacob has such a personal relationship with God, that God continually appears to him and communicates important things and Jacob receives this instruction and follows it. God tells Jacob once again that he will now be called Israel and again reinforces the promise and prophecy that many nations shall come from him.

However we see also, that even this great moment for Jacob in the presence of God is experienced in the midst of his continuing family struggles for which he seems to be at a loss to be able to solve in order to more effectively lead his family.  We learned in Genesis 34 and earlier in Genesis 35 that Jacob settled and remained in an ungodly land. His daughter was raped, his sons used treachery and deceit to kill many as punishment to the one who mistreated their sister, and as his household packs up to leave, Jacob finds idols and foreign gods among them. They were not pure, not holy (set apart for God’s use), but rather had blended with the pagans around them to some extent.

Jacob Is Named Israel

      9Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him.

10God said to him,
“Your name is Jacob;
You shall no longer be called Jacob,
But Israel shall be your name.”
Thus He called him Israel.

11God also said to him,
“I am God Almighty;
Be fruitful and multiply;
A nation and a company of nations shall come from you,
And kings shall come forth from you.

      12“The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac,
I will give it to you,
And I will give the land to your descendants after you.”

13Then God went up from him in the place where He had spoken with him. 14Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He had spoken with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. 15So Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel.

      16Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe labor. 17When she was in severe labor the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for now you have another son.” 18It came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. 21Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

      22It came about while Israel was dwelling in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it.

We see Jacob again hit hard by family trouble in verse 22, when his eldest son has sex with Jacob’s concubine. This was a huge disgrace for all involved. I am sure Reuben thought “no one will know”… but that is rarely the case among people when we sin… and God always knows. Of course, we could also have quite a discussion on why Jacob even had concubines… this is not consistent with God’s plan for marriage. From the beginning, with Adam and Eve, God intended it to be one man and one woman in marriage… no extra wives, no concubines.

Studying earlier points in Jacob’s life, we see that leading his family to honor God in their daily lives and relationships is not a new struggle for Jacob. In fact his wives struggled badly when they married him, competing with one another rather than showing love within his household. Ultimately this jealousy resulted in his failure by sleeping with their maid servants all in pursuit of sons. Go back further and we see where he had to run away from home to get away from an angry brother who wanted to kill him, after Jacob deceived his aging father to receive a blessing which Isaac intended for Esau. It goes even further back… Isaac and Rebekah chose favorites in their family, each openly loving one son more than the other.

Suffice it to say, that Jacob did not have every aspect of his life together and going well. So what is my point? Why do I point this failure of Jacob’s out?

First, we can all take heart and be encouraged that God can use us, can have intimate relationship with us, even when our lives are not entirely in order. We must, however, be submitted to God, as Jacob was. We can not be in open rebellion to God, intentionally disregarding His commands in how we are to live.

Secondly, even when we are walking with God in our lives and hearing from Him, we should take heed to purify ourselves, our family, our household. Consciously choose to submit to God and to follow His ways. Study the Bible and apply what it teaches to your lives. Change your ways to be set apart for God rather than to blend with the ungodly around you. There are consequences to leaving sin in our lives. Consider the mess that Jacob’s family experienced. It was not “God punishing them”, but rather it was natural consequences for not living God’s way. God tells us how to live, but we must choose to do so or live with the consequences.

Do not be complacent just because you have a relationship with God but rather use that relationship as a strong foundation to transform your life and that of your family to reflect God’s values and God’s will in every aspect of your life. Seeking to change our lives to live according to God’s instructions is not a one time adjustment, but rather a difficult and intentional journey that will last the rest of our lives.

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Have you submitted your life to Jesus Christ? If you die today, do you know for sure that you would be with God in heaven? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.