Genesis 35:1-15
Jacob’s Return to Bethel
1 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
2 And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. 3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.
5 And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. 7 And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.
8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth.
9 Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. 11 Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. 12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.” 13 Then God went up from him in the place where He talked with him. 14 So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.
Jacob had memories of his escape from his brother Esau when he returned to the House of God, Bethel, and built an altar to worship the LORD there as he was told to do and was obedient to follow through with. He spurned all foreign idols of nonexistent gods from his company to be holy and purified in the outward pursuits as well as inwardly in their souls by this stand against anything in place of the only true and living God. They went together to Bethel to make the altar with the work of their own hands in response as Jacob recalled how He had answered his cry for help (Genesis 28:16-17, 19, 31:13) there before and received the promise to bless the nations by exercising faith in the One who promised, just as Abraham did with Jacob’s father Isaac (Genesis 22:2, Hebrews 11:17-19, James 2:21, 23) before him. Jacob took the fake gods and buried them under a large tree and they journeyed to Bethel in Canaan as he had promised God. The LORD protected them from the ungodly around them on the way by putting the terror and fear of the Lord into them. Upon their arrival, they constructed the altar and renamed the place El Bethel, “God of the House of God” as a remembrance of the time Jacob fled for his life and there they worshipped. Do we ever look back or even travel back to visit the places where God intervened in our lives as Je was calling us to Himself, and to the exact place where He saved us and made us new in Christ by opening the eyes of our hearts, minds, and souls to truly know Him and begin a life worship (Acts 26:18, Romans 12:1-2, 1 Peter 2:9-10) under the gospel promise of eternal life? We see here how God appeared again to Jacob after leaving there and gave him a brand new name (Revelation 2:17), changing it from Jacob (supplanter) to Israel (‘God prevails’, or ‘he who struggles with God’) to indicate his calling as a channel of salvation to the nations. God restated His promise to Israel that He as God Almighty with whom nothing is impossible or beyond His power would make Israel fruitful and multiply to fill the earth again with descendants of faith after the original promise to Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:27-28) in the beginning. The promise had filled out from merely populating the earth to filling it with offspring of faith in God’s calling and promise as repeated to Abraham for us all (Romans 4:16, Galatians 3:14, 28-29) and now to his continuing line in Jacob called Israel! Nations would come through Israel and the kingdom over all, the kingdom and nation of God would result ultimately in Christ through this channel of redemption from the fall in Eden’s Garden. God promised both the physical land and a heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16) to come as Jacob heard and offered a sacrifice of worship there at the House of God. May we likewise worship and remember all Gods has done and promised us in Christ as the fulfillment of this promise of faith in His work to redeem and call us His own with a new birth and a new name in His Son! We also have escaped sin’s penalty of death, been reborn in His name, and received the promise of eternal life spent in His presence forevermore. Hold fast to these things in constant remembrance. Amen.
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