Genesis 31:30,34 KJV
[30] And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father’s house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?
[34] Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel’s furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not.
The camel furniture equivalent to a ride that has been upgraded . She sat on the camel furniture in her tent.
1:Stealing from her father could be interpreted to be Rachel payback for the hurt of Leah been given in marriage to Jacob.
2: Rachael taking the gods may also be interpreted as taking the source of power or wealth.
3:Yet the most convincing was as the daughter of an idol worshipper she was hedging her bet as she was now moving to join a new tradition of Worship .
Jacob worshipped the God of the Universe ,nature. The Divine Almighty . From a culture of many gods Rachel was joining to worship One God .
Moving from polytheism to Monotheism.
This in itself is a radical journey .
To carry on the denial of the theft Rachel sat on the gods.These idols we know had no power over human affairs .
How can you carry or make your gods ?
The age was an age of Magic the bending of nature and worship of the creation instead of the creator .you and I may say I would not really worship an idol ,but let us examine the camel and it furniture .
Decorations on a camel was a sign of wealth
The furniture were also a sign of wealth .
Our life style can become the source of idolatry if we sit on it .
There must be movement in our spiritual growth we cannot be sitting or we become like the dry bones in Ezekiel37 :
We must be preached to , we must be breathe upon by Holy Spirit . We have to develop spiritual sinews, muscles, we must hear the Word of God.
We worship the One God , describes as the one who sits above the circle of the earth.
Isaiah 40:20-22,29,31 KJV
[20] He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.
21] Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? [22] It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: [29] He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. [31] But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Today we say we are monotheist we worship the True God, are we like Rachel , she desecrate the idols of her father by sitting on them. Rendering them fit only for fuel.
We have within us the internal transaction , we pray , we turn our thoughts to God and to the written word of promise . Some how we sit on our obligation to God and our fellow human .
How do we sit on God? Can we detach ourselves from our modern day idols?
Pleasure
Beauty
Money
Self importance .
Desire for fame .
Two behaviors say we have difficulty detaching
We are disobedient to God And do not trust him neither do we
Exercise the gifts of Holy Spirit .
During the 1940 when we had the Second World War Adolf Hitler used the institution of the Church, the Lutheran Church to augment his country’s nationalism.His socialism set apart one group of people as chosen as the master race , blonde ,blue eyes . For this to take place he got the Church of the day which sided with him . Like Rachel they sat on the idol of Church. Yet not all the Church members agreed with Hitler .
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ,was that one who stood up to The machine of National Socialism . He famously asked Christians to divorce themselves from the idea that Jews and gypsies were sub humans ,but to remember they too are redeemed by Jesus. When we deny the dignity of humans for whom Jesus died we deny Jesus himself.
Bonhoeffer coined the expression of’ cheap grace ‘ Grace was what God had to give for his son to come into the world . Grace is not cheap , Grace has a cost.
Bonhoeffer himself became a pacifist ,as an ordained minister he was hunted by the Nazi and was put to death in 1945 almost at the end of the war. He lived in terrible times when the Church chose to use Nationalism as a God and sat on the truth that God made from one man all nations of the earth .
In our country today we are going through such time . As a matter of fact black people have been through lynching , murder, police brutality and racial profiling at the law enforcement level for ever.
Our prisons are full to capacity with poor ,black and Hispanic people.
How do humans overcome this historic disregards for the church of Jesus Christ. A church where we love our neighbors .
Only by Grace ,the costly grace of God in Jesus Christ.
How is the Grace manifest in our lives .
Grace is God Incarnate in the world of humanity
Grace is God alive for evermore
Grace is the gift of Holy Spirit .
Do you have the Holy Spirit . John 5:44 KJV
[44] How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?
Acts 11:15,23-24 KJV
[15] And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. [23] Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. [24] For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.
We cannot sit on the The Grace of God and the Holy Spirit. Let us look at what the Church must look like as Jesus prescribed . The act of Discipleship is the function of Grace,both are interchangeable ,grace makes us disciples . Disciples are full of grace .
1 Corinthians 12:5-11 KJV
[5] And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. [6] And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. [7] But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
8] For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9] To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
10] To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
[11] But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
What are you sitting on
Ephesians 4:11-12 KJV
[11] And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; [12] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
You know who you are in Christ .
What are you sitting on ? Are you sitting on Grace
Are you sitting on the anointing of the Holy Spirit .
Every Disciple of Jesus must use the gift of Discipleship ,provided through Holy Spirit.
What are you sitting on ?