Jacob was selected and chosen by God even before he was born. However, throughout his life he schemed and struggled to obtain the birthright and the blessing, and he wanted to have his way with everyone – even though the blessing was his by God’s choice. He cheated on his brother Esau, tricked his father to give him […]
Being Poured out as a Drink Offering over the Building of God for His Satisfaction
It is a great blessing to read the Bible with “the glasses of God’s economy” on. When we read the account in Gen. 35 with Jacob going to Bethel, setting up an altar, calling on the name of the Lord, having the Lord’s speaking, setting up a pillar and pouring out a drink offering and […]
Building an Altar at Bethel and Realizing God’s All-Sufficiency in the Church Life
At his second coming to Bethel, Jacob built an altar there and called it El-Bethel, and God appeared to him and said to him, “I am the All-sufficient God” (Gen. 35:11). Previously, Jacob built an altar at Shechem, where he also pitched his tent and was settled for a while, having a life of ease. […]
Advancing from the Individual Experience of God to the Corporate Experience of God
In Genesis 35 Jacob had a radical turn from the individual experience of God to the corporate experience of God. As a result of being dealt with, broken, and transformed, Jacob experienced God as the God of Bethel, El-Bethel, the God of the house of God (Gen. 35:7; Eph. 3:17-21; 4:4-6). Outwardly you may think […]
Coming to Bethel (the Church) a Second Time and Having our Name Changed into Israel
Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28 was a dream of God’s goal, the dream of Bethel, the house of God, which is the church today and which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal dwelling place of God and His redeemed elect. After he saw this wonderful dream, Jacob went through a lot of […]
Transformation Issues in Building up the Church Consummating in the New Jerusalem
The issue of God’s transforming work is the building up of the church, the Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem. God doesn’t want to transform us so that we may be “shining gems in the universal spiritual museum”; He wants us as His people to be transformed so that we would be built up […]
Going Along with the Lord’s Work of Transformation to be Conformed to His Image
After being regenerated by God with His divine life, all the believers in Christ are in the daily process of transformation until they are being conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God, Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29). This process of transformation is not something outward, like an outward correction or adjustment, but an […]