© Duplication and distribution of these readings is encouraged.

Internet: http://NonConformist.MyChurch.com

Genesis 35:

Reading #138  Back to Bethel/God

Where to go after the slaughter?  God supplied the answer.

***************(Begin Quote)

Genesis 35:

1 And God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar to God, that appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”  

2 Then Jacob said to his household, and to all that were with him, “Put away the strange gods that are among you [the gods of force], and be clean, and change your garments: 3 and let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.”

4 And they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

***************(End Quote)

Jacob felt that there was cause for deep humiliation. Cruelty and falsehood were plainly shown in the character of his sons. There were false gods in the camp (which were evidence of mistaken ideas in religion), and idolatry had to some extent gained a foothold even in his household as witnessed by their earrings.  If the LORD dealt with them according to their deserts, would He not leave them to the vengeance of the surrounding nations?

Lateral thought:

***************(Begin Quote)

Exodus 21:

1 Now these are the judgments [one of the daily advices] which you shall set before them. 

2 If you buy [employ] a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. 3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. 

4 If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.

5 And if the servant shall plainly say, “I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free”: 6 then his master shall bring him to the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or to the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl [to put in an endless ring, symbolising eternity]; and he shall serve him for ever.

Judges 8:

***************(End Quote)

While Jacob was thus bowed down with trouble, the LORD directed him to journey southward to Bethel, the house of God. The thought of this place reminded the patriarch not only of his vision of the angels and of God's promises of mercy, but also of the vow which he had made there, that the LORD should be his God.  Genesis 28:19-21. 

He determined that before going to this sacred spot his household should be freed from the defilement of idolatry. He therefore gave direction to all in the encampment, “Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments [get the robe of righteousness]…”

How did he get his rebellious children to listen?  With deep emotion Jacob repeated the story of his first visit to Bethel, when he left his father's tent a lonely wanderer, fleeing for his life, and how the LORD had appeared to him in the night vision. As he reviewed the wonderful dealings of God with him, his own heart was softened, and his children also were touched by a subduing power.  He had taken the most effectual [true Pentecostal] way to prepare them to join in the worship of God when they should arrive at Bethel. “And they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.” 

***************(Begin Quote)

Genesis 35:

5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God [the presence of the angels] was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. 7 And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel [“the God of Bethel”]: because there God appeared to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

8 But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died [soon after this], and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called “Allonbachuth” [“the oak of weeping”].   

***************(End Quote)

At Bethel, Jacob was called to mourn the loss of one who had long been an honoured member of his father's family - Rebekah's first personal maid, Deborah, who had accompanied her mistress from Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan so many years before.  (Jacob’s mother had died while he was in exile.  Genesis 49:31.) The presence of this aged servant woman had been to Jacob a precious tie that bound him to his early life, and especially to the mother whose love for him had been so strong and tender. Deborah was buried with expressions of so great sorrow that the oak under which her grave was made, was called "the oak of weeping."

It should not pass unnoticed that the memory of her life of faithful service and of the mourning over this household friend has been accounted worthy to be preserved in the word of God.  Yet all we know of her before this is the record in Genesis.  “And they called Rebekah, and said to her, ‘Will you go with this man?’ And she said, ‘I will go’. And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men. Genesis 24:58-59.

***************(Begin Quote)

Genesis 35:

9 And [the Son of] God appeared to Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him [He repeated it]. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob [thief]: your name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be your name [because you have learned to trust Me completely]: and He called his name Israel [overcomer].” 11 And  [the son of] God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of you, and kings shall come out of your loins; 12 and the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to you I will give it, and to your seed after you will I give the land.” [See Romans 4:13].  

13 And [the Son of] God went up [the ladder] from him in the place where He talked with him.

14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel [“the house of God”]. 

***************(End Quote)

So Jacob/Israel renewed his consecration.

***************(Begin Quote)

Genesis 35:

16 And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath [Bethlehem]: and Rachel travailed [in childbirth], and she had hard labour. 17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said to her, “Fear not; you shall have this son also.”

18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni [“the son of my sorrow”]: but his father called him Benjamin [“the son of the right hand”]. 19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. 20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.

***************(End Quote)

From Bethel it was only a two days' journey to Hebron [the burial place, Genesis 23:19], but it brought to Jacob a heavy grief in the death of Rachel.

Twice seven years' service he had rendered for her sake, and his love had made the work  light. How deep and abiding that love had been, was shown when long afterward, as Jacob in Egypt lay near his death, Joseph came to visit his father, and the aged patriarch, glancing back upon his own life, said, "As for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath."  Genesis 48:7. 

In the family history of his long and troubled life the loss of Rachel was alone recalled. 

***************(Begin Quote)

Genesis 35:

21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar [“the tower of the flock”]. 22 And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine [one of the handmaids]: and Israel heard [of] it.

***************(End Quote)

On the way to Ephrath another dark crime stained the family of Jacob, causing Reuben, the first-born son, to reject the privileges and honours of the birthright.  (Bilhah must have been quite a few years older than he.) 

The birthright then passed to the fourth son because of Simeon and Levi’s sin, for it was from the tribe of Judah that the kings of Israel came, and the descendants of Judah who form the bulk of the Jews today. (See Numbers 14:24 and 13:6.)

***************(Begin Quote)

Genesis 35:

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve [in order of importance, not birth]: 

23 The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun: 24 the sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin: 25 and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:

26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padanaram. 

27 And Jacob came to Isaac his father to Mamre [for he was not well], to the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned [had mostly lived]. 28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and eighty years. 29 And Isaac gave up the [leading of the] Ghost, and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him [Jacob and Esau were 120 years old].

***************(End Quote)

See you all next week,

RonP

On to next reading                                  Back to previous reading