Grains of Sand

Google Images He’d been here before—different man, different circumstances. The last time Jacob had visited Bethel he had bargained with God (Genesis 28). Back then, in his flight from the repercussions of his lying and deceit, God had promised to go with him, and to bring him back to Canaan. Now Jacob was instructed to go back to Bethel, this time on his way back to Canaan, just as God had promised. This time, instead of telling God what he would do if God held up His part of the bargain, Jacob acknowledged that God had done exactly what He had promised. This, I believe, is Jacob’s true moment of “conversion.” When he fled from his father-in-law Laban, Rachel, Jacob’s wife, had stolen her father’s household gods (31:19), which tells us that Yahweh was not exclusively worshiped and served. Jacob appeared to be accepting of this practice even if he didn’t participate in it himself. But now, at Bethel, the picture changed. “ Then God said to Jacob, ‘Go up to Bethel and settle there a...

Google Images To prepare the way for the coming Messiah, John the Baptist, emulating the Old Testament prophets, called people to repentance. He also called them to physically demonstrate their renewed spiritual state by being baptized. It was, to the Jewish mind, a rite of purification similar to that of the priests who were to wash themselves, dress themselves in specially prepared garments and be perfectly clean before they began their priestly duties. “ People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River ” (Matthew 3: 5, 6). In some traditions baptism takes place at the same time as a person accepts Christ as his or her Saviour. In other traditions, there are intensive studies and often a waiting period between the time a person becomes a believer and the time he or she publicly confesses that faith. The arguments for or against either position are many. Personally, I suspec...