Coming Home

Genesis 35

There is an old hymn of the church entitled "Softly and Tenderly."  It speaks of how Jesus watches and waits for us -- He calls us to come home to His mercies and grace.  The chorus goes like this:

Come home, come home;
Ye who are weary come home;
Earneslty, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

Genesis 35 is the story of a weary man who returns home.  He returns to Bethel, the place where he first met God -- the place that he dreamed a dream of a staircase reaching up into heaven and of angels ascending and descending. 

The man is Jacob, who now will be known as Israel.  The traveler has returned to his roots and he is a changed man.  In the past, he had been consumed by selfishness and ambition.  Now, it seems that he is consumed by a passion for purity and a desire to leave a legacy of devotion to the God whom he says "has been with me in the way which I have gone" (vs. 3).

In looking back over the life of Jacob, it is clear now.  He was a marked man.  He was shaped by the moments of encounter with God.  Though he path strayed at times, yet the word of God did not falter.  God brought him home to Himself -- back to Bethel.

It is the same with you and me.  There are home places for each of you that are the places God has worked in us to show us more of His grace and power.  Anyone who finds God like that will be marked.  These are the building blocks of our lives in the Kingdom of God.  They are Bethel.