BLUEPRINT FOR BACKSLIDING
There’s a direct connection between our
Backsliding pushes us
REASONS FOR BACKSLIDING: (33:1-20)
Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two slave women.
2He put the slaves and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.
3He himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times until he approached his brother.
4But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Then they wept.
5When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?” He answered, “The children God has graciously given your servant.”
6Then the slaves and their children approached him and bowed down.
7Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.
8So Esau said, “What do you mean by this whole procession I met?” “To find favor with you, my lord,” he answered.
9“I have enough, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what you have.”
10But Jacob said, “No, please! If I have found favor with you, take this gift from me. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing God’s face, since you have accepted me.
11Please take my present that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have everything I need.” So Jacob urged him until he accepted.
12Then Esau said, “Let’s move on, and I’ll go ahead of you.”
13Jacob replied, “My lord knows that the children are weak, and I have nursing flocks and herds. If they are driven hard for one day, the whole herd will die.
14Let my lord go ahead of his servant. I will continue on slowly, at a pace suited to the livestock and the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.”
15Esau said, “Let me leave some of my people with you.” But he replied, “Why do that? Please indulge me, my lord.”
16That day Esau started on his way back to Seir,
17but Jacob went to Succoth. He built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock; that is why the place was called Succoth.
18After Jacob came from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at Shechem in the land of Canaan and camped in front of the city.
19He purchased a section of the field where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.
20And he set up an altar there and called it God, the God of Israel. —Genesis 33:1–20 (CSB)
Backsliding stems from three forms of compromise..
WORRY
Vision based on
(Shrinking
WORLDLINESS
Decisions based on
(Growing comfort with
WORSHIP
Worship that is
(Failure to recognize what God really
RESULTS OF BACKSLIDING: (34:1-31)
1Leah’s daughter Dinah, whom Leah bore to Jacob, went out to see some of the young women of the area.
2When Shechem—son of Hamor the Hivite, who was the region’s chieftain—saw her, he took her and raped her.
3He became infatuated with Jacob’s daughter Dinah. He loved the young girl and spoke tenderly to her.
4“Get me this girl as a wife,” he told his father.
5Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent until they returned.
6Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor came to speak with Jacob.
7Jacob’s sons returned from the field when they heard about the incident. They were deeply grieved and very angry, for Shechem had committed an outrage against Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter, and such a thing should not be done.
8Hamor said to Jacob’s sons, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.
9Intermarry with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.
10Live with us. The land is before you. Settle here, move about, and acquire property in it.”
11Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I’ll give you whatever you say.
12Demand of me a high compensation and gift; I’ll give you whatever you ask me. Just give the girl to be my wife!”
13But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah.
14“We cannot do this thing,” they said to them. “Giving our sister to an uncircumcised man is a disgrace to us.
15We will agree with you only on this condition: if all your males are circumcised as we are.
16Then we will give you our daughters, take your daughters for ourselves, live with you, and become one people.
17But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go.”
18Their words seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
19The young man did not delay doing this, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most important in all his father’s family.
20So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city.
21“These men are peaceful toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and move about in it, for indeed, the region is large enough for them. Let’s take their daughters as our wives and give our daughters to them.
22But the men will agree to live with us and be one people only on this condition: if all our men are circumcised as they are.
23Won’t their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals become ours? Only let’s agree with them, and they will live with us.”
24All the men who had come to the city gates listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and all those men were circumcised.
25On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and killed every male.
26They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went away.
27Jacob’s sons came to the slaughter and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled.
28They took their flocks, herds, donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field.
29They captured all their possessions, dependents, and wives and plundered everything in the houses.
30Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”
31But they answered, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?” —Genesis 34:1–31 (CSB)
Backsliding results in some serious costs. It will…
RECOVERY FROM BACKSLIDING: (35:1-15)
God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
2So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes.
3We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”
4Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem.
5When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.
6So Jacob and all who were with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.
7Jacob built an altar there and called the place El-bethel because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.
8Deborah, the one who had nursed and raised Rebekah, died and was buried under the oak south of Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.
9God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him.
10God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; you will no longer be named Jacob, but your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.
11God also said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you, and kings will descend from you.
12I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac. And I will give the land to your future descendants.”
13Then God withdrew from him at the place where he had spoken to him.
14Jacob set up a marker at the place where he had spoken to him—a stone marker. He poured a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.
15Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel. —Genesis 35:1–15 (CSB)
To come back underneath the umbrella of God’s protection…
DISCUSSION GUIDE
Can you identify a time in your life when you experienced “backsliding” in your faith? What factors contributed to this?
How might worry or fear be impacting your current relationship with God?
In what areas of your life might you be engaging in partial obedience rather than full obedience to God’s will?
Reflect on your current approach to worship. Is it focused more on yourself, your experiences, or truly on God? How can you cultivate a more God-centered worship?
How does your relationship with God affect your relationships with others, especially your family members?
In what ways might your spiritual state influence/impact those around you, particularly those you lead or love?
What “idols” in your life might be competing with your devotion to God? How can you practically remove these?
How can you, as an individual or family, create regular opportunities to “return to Bethel” - recommitting yourselves to God’s will and worship?
Reflect on God’s grace in your life. How does remembering His goodness and forgiveness motivate you to live more faithfully?
As a group, discuss practical ways you can support and encourage one another in maintaining a close walk with God and avoiding “backsliding.”