And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto the God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
God speaks to Jacob after years that had gone badly. He had settled at Shechem, and his household still kept idols. The call is short, and it names a place he already knew: Bethel, where God met him as he ran from his brother.
Everything about Shechem deserved comment, yet God makes none.
Notice this. Here we see a beautiful feature of God's way of dealing with souls. There is not one word said about Shechem, its pollution and its confusion. There is not a word of rebuke for having settled down there. Such is not God's way. He uses a far better way. If we had been dealing with Jacob, we would have come down on him with a heavy hand. We would have given him a severe lecture about his folly in settling at Shechem, and about his personal and family habits and condition. But oh, how well it is that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not like ours!
Nothing spectacular came with this message. Yet it did what greater sights had not done.
These few words were with power. They formed, I believe, the great turning point in the life of Jacob, or rather, in the history of his soul. They were few and simple. Nothing strange or startling came with them, no vision and no miracle. But they were a day of power. He had already come away from the vision of the ladder at Bethel, from the magnificent sight of the army of angels at Mahanaim, and from the wrestling of the divine Stranger at Peniel. None of it had helped him or moved his soul forward. But now power visits him. God's hand can do God's work, though it has only a sling and a stone, or the jawbone of a donkey, or lamps and pitchers. And God's Spirit can do God's work in souls, though He uses only a word, or a look, or a groan.
Jacob had spent years building up his own house and his own interests. Bethel — the place he had named the house of God — now has first claim.
That was a reminder to Jacob. The Lord said, "You are going back to Bethel. That is the place you left, the place where I met you before, the place you called Bethel, the house of God. All these years you have been wandering about, taking care of your own house — and acting deceitfully about it too. Now it is time to get back to My house. You are concerned about your circumstances, you are concerned about your interests. What about My interests now?" God has a house too. We should truly care about the house of God. And the house of God today is "the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15).
God names Himself here as the One who appeared to Jacob when he was running from Esau.
God stepped in and called Jacob back to the place where He first made Himself known to him. There he was to dwell, and there his altar was to be. At Bethel, as we saw in Genesis 28, God declared what He would be for Jacob and to Jacob, without raising any question about Jacob's response or behaviour. God is always true to Himself and to His word. Before God gave the law through Moses, He was dealing with these fathers on the basis of His promises in grace. Those promises still stand.
Jacob's first move after hearing this is to order the idols out of his camp.
"Strange gods"? Yes, there they were, and he knew it all along, but he never felt how serious it was until God called him to go to Bethel. His conscience is now awake to what had made no impression on his mind before... Now it is God's presence that brings light into his soul — not providential power, not His disciplinary dealings, but the call to Bethel. And the false gods must be put away.
God spoke to one man, but Jacob had a household with him.
God seems to have spoken this to Jacob alone. But Jacob never thought for a moment of separating himself from his family, either in privilege or in responsibility... So a call to Jacob put Jacob's house under responsibility. God called him to go up to His house, and at once his conscience asked whether his own house was fit to answer such a call.
- Bethel first. God does not scold Jacob about Shechem. He names a place. The cure for a wrong place is a call back to the right one.
- Bethel's promise. At Bethel God said what He would be for Jacob, without one question about Jacob's behaviour. That promise still stands.
- Bethel means dwelling. Jacob had only passed through before; now God tells him to stay. His own house gives way to God's house.
- Bethel awakens. Jacob had lived with idols for years. The call to Bethel made them unbearable. Light did what discipline had not done.
- Bethel's household. God spoke to one man, and his whole house came under the call. Jacob would not go up alone.
And Jacob said to his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments;
God tells Jacob to go up to Bethel, and at once he orders his household to get rid of their idols, wash, and change their clothes. Why does a command to travel produce a house-clearing — and why had Jacob left those idols alone until now?
The call to Bethel told Jacob nothing new about his household.
"Strange gods"? Yes, there they were, and he knew it all along, but he never felt the seriousness of it until God summoned him to Bethel. His conscience is now awake to what previously made no impression on his mind. We easily forget what our heart does not judge as it is before God... Clearly it was so with Jacob. But now the presence of God brings light into his soul — not His power working through events, not His discipline of him, but the call to Bethel. The false gods must go.
Years of hardship had never touched those idols. One writer separates what hard experience can do from what only God's presence does.
These false gods came from his connection with the world... The thought of God's presence made him remember them. It awakens in his soul the conviction that these gods, the objects of this world's worship, can never be kept alongside a faithful God. Nothing else can awaken this conviction. No experiences can ever have the effect which the presence of God produces on a soul. Such experiences are useful to humble us; they are a means of stripping us of ourselves. Still, only the presence of God as light can make us condemn ourselves. Only it gives us power to purify ourselves from our deepest idols — the ones we know well but keep hidden.
The idols were not new to Jacob's household.
In Genesis 31 we saw how Rachel had carried off from Laban the "gods" that he valued, and there is no record of Jacob taking exception to them at that time. But with God before him, he at once became alive to the evil of them. They were to be put away. There was to be personal cleanliness too, reaching even to the clothes they wore. The presence of God demands a cleansing that covers even what surrounds us — an important lesson we all need to take to heart.
Jacob is heading out to worship. He starts at the other end — with what has to go.
At the call of God he sets out for Bethel; he leaves his field and his own altar for the place of God's choosing. He is going to worship. Before learning to do well he stops doing evil, and begins by purging his house... Now he hates even the garments spotted by the flesh. There must be self-abasement as well as cleansing, and he tells them to take off their earrings. It was an outward sign of repentance and humility. Jacob feels his sin in tolerating the idolatrous practices in his family... Christian parents sometimes allow things in their homes that they know are wrong. It is a sin to them.
Jacob's call to "be clean" — where the ESV reads "purify yourselves" — does not stop with his household.
This whole change stamps another pattern upon Jacob: the clothes they wore, the altar of their worship, the stripping off of their ornaments, the denial of the strange gods in their hands, and their burial "under the oak, which was by Shechem." "Be clean" is now his word. It was later the word of the priests, and then of the prophets whom God sent among His people. At last Christ came and did the work that enables God Himself to testify that "the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."
Jacob's family had settled at Shechem. The call to move exposes a double standard.
Jacob felt that he could not bring false gods and defiled garments to Bethel: such things might pass at Shechem, but they would never do for Bethel.
Jacob's own recovery does not stop with him.
The very thought of Bethel, where God had appeared to him, revived Jacob's soul. Once revived himself, he could lead others also in fresh power.
Commentators differ on how complete this reform was. One writer notes what Jacob left untouched.
Jacob judges Laban's gods and says, "Be clean and change your garments"; but he holds with a greedy hand to unrighteous gains. He may hide the strange gods and their earrings under the oak by Shechem — but they go with flocks and herds to seek the Lord.
- Call. God's call to Bethel, not years of trouble, woke Jacob's conscience to idols he had known about all along.
- Light. Painful experience humbles us and strips us of ourselves. Only God's presence as light exposes the idols we hide deepest.
- Clean. The cleansing reaches past the idols to the clothes and the earrings. Repentance shows itself in what surrounds us.
- Bethel. What passes at Shechem will never do at Bethel; the place you are going to sets the standard.
- Lead. One revived man led a whole household out of idolatry — yet he still held on to unrighteous gains, so the cleansing was not complete.
and we will arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar to the God that answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way that I went.
Jacob has settled at Shechem, and his sons' violence has left him fearing for his life. God answers with a call back to Bethel, not a rebuke, and this verse is Jacob's reply.
Restoration does not start where the failure left the believer. God names the highest point, not the present one.
When there is failure or decline, the Lord calls the soul back to Himself. "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first." This is the divine principle of restoration. God must recall the soul to the very highest point. He must bring it back to the divine standard. The Lord does not say, "remember where you are." He says, "remember the high position you have fallen from." Only this way can a person learn how far he has slipped, and how to retrace his steps.
The strange gods had been in Jacob's tents for years. What changed was not what he knew, but where he stood.
The thought of God's presence made him remember the false gods. It awakens this conviction in him: the gods this world adores can never be kept alongside a faithful God. Nothing else can awaken this conviction. No amount of experience can ever have the effect that the presence of God produces on a soul. Such experiences are useful to humble us; they are a means of stripping us of ourselves. Still, only the presence of God as light can make us condemn ourselves. Only it gives us power to purify ourselves from our deepest idols — the ones we know well, yet keep hidden.
Jacob's orders reach past belief to clothes and daily habits. One writer also gives a plain test for an idol.
Garments speak of people's habits, the part of a person others see. God's character must shape them where the people of God gather. Someone takes his place at the breaking of bread, remembering the Lord Jesus in His death. He then stands completely apart from the world around him. He takes this place as sanctified, so his habits must match it... An idol is anything that comes in between the soul and God.
Years earlier at Bethel, Jacob had made a vow. Notice what he leaves out of his speech now.
He fully acknowledges how faithful God had been in keeping His promise. But about his own vow to God on that occasion he says nothing at all. It has taken him some time to learn that God is truly more faithful than Jacob was. But even as believers we fail here far too often. We forget to give God credit for being completely dependable in every detail of His ways with us. And we think too highly of our own faithfulness.
The last words of the verse hand God's own promise back to Him.
Here he is, after all the discipline and trial, worshipping God as the faithful God. That God had answered him in the day of his distress, and had been with him in the way he had gone. The moment God put him under discipline, He said, "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go." And Jacob says, "He has been with me. Yes, He is the God who has been with us all the way, even while we failed on the road."
Commentators differ over how full Jacob's praise is. One writer asks which rescue Jacob had in mind.
When was the day of his distress? Not Luz, but Jabbok. God would recall Bethel to his mind; Jacob's thoughts turn back to Peniel. The Lord poured out grace at Bethel, but at Peniel Jacob sought, and by force obtained, a blessing after his own mind. The God of glory he cuts down in thought to someone who was with him in the way he went — a crooked way, a transgressing way indeed.
Jacob had already built an altar at Shechem. This one must be different.
It was at Bethel that he had learned what God was, and not at Shechem. So he must get back to Bethel again. The altar there must rest on a totally different basis, and carry a totally different name, from his altar at Shechem. Some think it makes no difference how they are mixed up with impure things in the worship of God. They feel that being true and upright in heart is enough. They think they can worship God at Shechem, and that an altar named "El-elohe-Israel" is just as much according to God as an altar named "El Bethel." This is clearly a mistake.
- Called. God restores by naming the height a believer fell from, not the level he has sunk to.
- Convicted. Jacob knew about the idols for years. Only God's presence turned that knowledge into judgment; trouble alone never does.
- Cleansed. Idols out, clothes changed: the call reaches habits and outward life. An idol is whatever comes between the soul and God.
- Confessed. Jacob's altar praises God's faithfulness and never mentions his own vow. We rate our faithfulness too high and His too low.
- Completed. An altar at Shechem is not the same as an altar at Bethel. Only the whole way back gives worship its right name.
And they gave to Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hand, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth that [is] by Shechem.
God had called Jacob up to Bethel, and Jacob told his household to put away their foreign gods. They obey here — earrings and all — and the question is how idols had lasted so long in his camp.
Jacob had not just discovered these images. He had lived alongside them, and one thing finally brought them out.
These false gods came from his connection with the world. Rachel was afraid of Laban, so she had hidden them under the camel's saddle. Jacob knew perfectly well they were there... The thought of the presence of God made him remember the false gods. It convinces him deep down that no one can keep the gods this world adores alongside a faithful God. Nothing else can awaken this conviction. No experiences whatever can produce on a soul the effect that the presence of God produces. Such experiences are useful to humble us; they strip us of ourselves. Yet only the presence of God as light can make us condemn ourselves. Only it gives us power to purify ourselves from our deepest and best-known, though hidden, idols.
The place Jacob had chosen was part of the problem.
What a terrible amount of moral evil had gathered round Jacob's family! He judged none of it, until the call to "go up to Bethel" roused his soul. Shechem was not the place to detect all this. The air there was too full of impure elements. It kept the soul from seeing the true character of evil with any clearness.
Some of these idols had a history inside Jacob's own family.
Jacob's household gives up their foreign gods. The verse says all of them. So these must have included the household idols that Rachel had stolen from her father. We are not told when Jacob learned of these. But at least he knew it now.
Jacob could have removed the idols long before. Why did he let them stay?
Jacob feels his sin in going along with the idolatrous practices in his family. Rachel stole the images from her father — was it his love for her that led Jacob to allow them in his house? Christian parents sometimes allow things in their homes that they know are wrong. It is a sin in them. When human affection gets in the way of faithfulness to God, it always brings sorrow.
The verse names the rings in their ears next to the gods. Why should jewellery go with idols?
Idolatry ran through even their little ornaments, and so all of them had to go.
Another writer asks what hands and ears are for.
Hands are for doing work. They had idols in their hands. Hands are for working for the Lord, not for idols. Ears are for hearing, not for ornaments. People often decorate the flesh, and their idols take their character from this. That is what happened in the making of the golden calf — they took off their gold earrings to make it.
The burial is not a private act of tidying. It is the end of a chapter, and the family moves the same day.
Someone who feels and enjoys abounding grace cannot allow pollution. Gods and earrings, idols and empty things, all go together into the ground under an oak at Shechem. Shechem is left behind. The patriarch gets up with all that is his, and is quickly on the road to Bethel.
Writers see a picture in the tree itself — the terebinth, or oak, of the verse.
Jacob realised that much in his house did not fit the holiness of the House of God. So he told his household to put away the foreign gods, to be clean, and to change their garments. He hid the idols under the oak by Shechem — usually taken as a picture of the meaning of the cross of Christ. Behind all the circumstances was the hand of God in discipline.
The very next line reports that the surrounding cities did not attack. Jacob had feared exactly this after the slaughter at Shechem.
"And they journeyed; and the terror of God was on the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob." The living God knows how to control and direct the heart, not only of enemies, but of those who naturally resent an injury. Let His children fear Him, and trust Him too.
Commentators differ on how complete this cleansing was. One reading notes that Jacob buried the idols but kept the plunder his sons had taken.
Jacob judges Laban's gods and tells his household to be clean and change their garments. Yet he holds on with a greedy hand to unrighteous gain. He may hide the foreign gods and their earrings under the oak by Shechem — but they go with flocks and herds to seek the Lord.
- Light exposes. Jacob already knew the idols were there. The call to Bethel — the presence of God — is what made him act.
- Place dulls. The air of Shechem kept him from seeing evil. Where you settle shapes what your conscience can spot.
- Tolerance costs. The images came from Rachel's theft, and Jacob's love for his family let them stay. Affection that pushes out faithfulness always ends in sorrow.
- Everything goes. The earrings went with the gods. Idolatry had reached the ornaments, so the ornaments had to go.
- Then movement. The idols go under the oak, Shechem drops behind, and the road runs to Bethel. Yet one writer says Jacob still held on to gains he should have given up.
And they journeyed; and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.
Jacob has just buried his household's idols under the tree at Shechem and set out for Bethel. He leaves behind a region with every reason to want revenge for what his sons did there. On that road no one came after him. God put fear on the towns around him instead.
Nothing in Jacob's own strength made him safe. The towns nearby knew what his sons had done. One commentator names the only reason they stayed home.
They obey God and travel to Bethel. Of course the other cities around Shechem would know about the destruction Jacob's sons had caused. But one thing only kept them from chasing Jacob's company: God's restraining hand, putting fear in their hearts (v. 5).
Before the protection came the clear-out. Jacob's household gave up their idols and even their earrings. One writer sees the same picture in the journey that followed as in Israel leaving Egypt.
A man who feels and enjoys God's abounding grace cannot allow pollution. Gods and earrings, idols and worthless things all go into the ground together under an oak at Shechem, and they leave Shechem behind. Jacob gets up with everything he owns and is soon on the road to Bethel… And the Lord goes with him, as He later went with Israel on the day of their Exodus. He goes with him in strength too. The rod of Moses opened Israel's way in the face of their enemies, and the One in the cloud looked out and threw Pharaoh's army into confusion. So now we read of Jacob and his household: "As they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob."
The towns around Shechem were not just hostile strangers. They had a real grievance against Jacob's sons. That makes God's control of them more striking.
Idolatry had spread even to their little ornaments — the rings in their ears — so all of them had to go. The living God knows how to control and direct the heart. He can do it with enemies, and He can do it with people who have a natural reason to resent an injury. So let His children fear Him and trust Him at the same time.
Jacob was weaker now than ever. He was limping, and on the road instead of settled. That is when the protection came.
"Our God is a consuming fire," and His saints must not forget it. They must own that first, before it goes out in power and makes itself felt for them. While Jacob was a servant in Padan-Aram, and Laban was oppressing him (Gen. 31:38-41), he was far from the place of testimony, and God did not step in for him. But now Jacob is obedient, and crippled, and on the road again. He looks weaker than before. That is when the Spirit writes of him, as he journeyed: "a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them," and they did not pursue Jacob. (Gen. 35:5.) The secret lies in that limp. He has learned that he is walking in the way with God — that kept him in order — and then God makes those who would hinder His poor servant feel the power of His presence. It is the same today. Paul learned it on his own road. "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses," he says, "so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (2 Cor. 12:9.)
The protected journey has a destination. One writer traces the whole sequence — the call, the buried idols, the untouched march — to where it ends.
At the worst of his distress God's voice stirs Jacob to "go up to Bethel and dwell there." Then we hear of foreign gods in his household to put away, and of a cleansing to meet Him "who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way I went." Then the terror of God falls on the cities round about, so that they do not pursue the sons of Jacob. At Bethel his wandering ends. His new name is confirmed to him, and God declares His own name, as at Peniel He could not. The blessing is now fully his. Jacob bows in gratitude and recognises the house of God. There, the purpose of the discipline accomplished, he finds his rest at last.
- Call. God told Jacob to go up to Bethel. The safety in this verse belongs to a journey God commanded.
- Cleansing. The idols and even the earrings went under the tree at Shechem first. Parting with them came before the protection on the road.
- Cover. No human strength held the cities back. Only God's restraining hand, putting fear in their hearts, kept them from pursuing.
- Crippled. God did not step in while Jacob lived far from the place of testimony. The power showed when Jacob was limping and obedient. Paul learned the same lesson and gloried in his weakness.
- Completion. The protected road ends at Bethel. There the wandering stops, God confirms the new name, and Jacob finds rest.
And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.
Jacob's long detour ends here. Years after he first left this place, he walks back into it. This time he does not come alone, and the place carries a new name.
God had not asked Jacob for a fresh start somewhere new. He sent him to the one place where their dealings had begun.
In calling him back to the land of promise, God revealed Himself to him as "the God of Bethel," reminding him of the pillar he anointed and the vow that he made. So he was called back to the beginning of his direct dealings with God. This is always God's way with His people. We may wander away, but we have to come back to the very spot we left. The point of departure proves to be the place of recovery.
God had been patient with the years in between, but He never lowered the target.
This was true restoration. Jacob was brought back, after all his wanderings, to the very point from which he had started. Nothing less than this could ever satisfy God in reference to His servant. He could wait for him, bear with him, serve him, care for him and look after him. But He could never be satisfied with anything less than this — "Arise, go up to Bethel."
The verse gives both the old name and the new. Commentators differ on what Luz means. One takes it as separation, and ties that closely to what Bethel means.
Luz means "separation" and Bethel means "the house of God". The two things go together. If anyone is to value the house of God at all, there must be separation from everything else. The house of God stands alone. Nothing else can come near it. It is perfect and pure. God wants every believer at that place.
Another reading takes Luz to mean a curve, and reads it as a comment on Jacob's own life.
The old name of the place was Luz, which means a curve. It showed what Jacob's life had been — far from straight. But now for Jacob it was Bethel, the dwelling place of God, and it had a very important place in Jacob's later history.
The name goes back to Jacob's first night there. God Himself later took it up as His own.
Bethel means "house of God". It was the name given to the place where God first appeared to Jacob in a dream. It led him to say, "Surely the LORD is in this place... This is none other than the house of God... and he called the name of that place Bethel." In this way God let Jacob understand that the house of God on earth — the gate of heaven — would be tied to him and his descendants. Later God acknowledged the place and the name, saying, "I am the God of Bethel."
The verse notes that the whole household came with him. Jacob had already settled what could not come with them.
Jacob felt that he could not bring false gods and defiled clothes to Bethel. Such things might pass at Shechem, but at Bethel they would never do.
Arriving at Bethel changed how Jacob spoke of God. Compare the altar he had built earlier near Shechem with the one he builds now.
He called it "El-Bethel," which means "the God of the house of God." That was much higher ground than the altar he built near Shechem and called "El-eloheh Israel," that is, "God the God of Israel." Self was the centre of his thoughts when he used the earlier name; it expressed his trust that God would look after him. But at Bethel he rose to the thought of having to do with God in His own house. So everything about himself now had to suit the holy One who dwelt there.
- Called. God's word to Jacob was not "start somewhere new" but "go up to Bethel". The place he left becomes the place of recovery.
- Cleansed. Idols and defiled clothes could pass at Shechem. Jacob would not take them to Bethel.
- Company. Jacob does not arrive alone. The whole household must suit the place he is heading for.
- Canaan. Bethel stands in the land of promise. God first appeared to Jacob there, and later called Himself "the God of Bethel".
- Centred on God. The altar's name moves from God as my God to God as the God of His own house. That raises the standard for everything in Jacob's life.
And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el; because there God had appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.
Jacob has come back to the exact spot where God first met him. The altar he raises there carries a name he had never used before. The verse ties three things together: a place, an altar, and a memory of God appearing to a man on the run.
Mackintosh reads the altar's name as the close of all Jacob's wandering.
"El-beth-el." A precious title, which had God as its beginning and its end! This was true restoration. Jacob was brought back, after all his wanderings, to the very point from which he had started. Nothing less than this could ever satisfy God concerning His servant. He could wait patiently on him, bear with him, minister to him, care for him. But He could never rest satisfied with anything short of this — "Arise, go up to Bethel."
Going up to Bethel changed what Jacob was willing to carry with him.
Jacob felt that he could not bring false gods and defiled garments to Bethel: such things might pass at Shechem, but they would never do for Bethel.
"Bethel" means house of God, so "El-bethel" means the God of the house of God. Fereday sets the name beside the altar Jacob had built earlier near Shechem.
Notice again how Jacob connected the presence of God with the place. In calling it "El-Bethel," which means "the God of the house of God," he took much higher ground. Earlier he had built an altar near Shechem and called it "El-eloheh Israel," that is, "God the God of Israel" (Gen. 33:20). The earlier name put self at the centre of his thoughts. It expressed his trust that God would look after him. At Bethel he rose to the thought of having to do with God in His own house. So everything connected with himself had to be suitable to the holy One who dwelt there.
Kelly points to what the earlier name left out.
It is not now an altar called by a name that limits God to himself, like El-Elohe-Israel. His faith is now clearer and fuller. He is the God of God's house, which is richer, better, and higher up towards the source of blessing.
The verse looks back: God appeared here when Jacob was running from Esau. God's command and Jacob's altar both reach past all that came in between.
After this we find God saying to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau." Here He begins, if we may say so, to volunteer. He passes over what we have been considering, as if nothing had happened. "You had to flee from Esau," He says. "I promised you blessing. Get back to this place, and raise an altar there."
Grant draws out the town's older name, and where the altar put Jacob's focus.
They arrive at Bethel. The passage reminds us that it was called Luz before, which means "separation." We must realise that the house of God has a place separated from the world and from all that suggests man's work. Here Jacob builds an altar, calling it "El-Bethel" (v. 7)… We never have any proper focus in our lives until we reach this point and realise that God's house and its interests are to claim the first place. Today of course we know that the house of God is "the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15).
- Back. God will not settle for a halfway Shechem. He calls His servant back to the point he started from. That return is what restoration means.
- Barred. What Shechem tolerated, Bethel would not. False gods and defiled garments could not be carried up to the house of God.
- Beyond self. The first altar named God as the God of Israel — Jacob's own God. The second names Him God of His own house. Jacob's faith is clearer, fuller, nearer the source of blessing.
- Because. The name looks back to God appearing to a man on the run. God repeats that reason as if nothing had gone wrong since.
- Belonging. Bethel was once Luz, which means "separation." God's house stands apart, and its interests claim first place. Today that house is the church.
And Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died; and she was buried beneath Bethel, under the oak; and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.
Jacob has obeyed the call to Bethel and built his altar there. The very next thing recorded is the death of an old woman who had nursed his mother. Why does Scripture pause over a servant's funeral, and why is the tree that marks her grave given a name meaning weeping?
Scripture names her only twice, and a lifetime lies between the two mentions. One summary traces her life from the day Rebekah left home to the day of her burial:
Rebekah's nurse: she went with her mistress when she left Padan-aram and stayed with her until her death. She was buried under the "oak of weeping." Genesis 24:59; Genesis 35:8.
She ends her life in Jacob's household, not Isaac's. Kelly reads that as affection on both sides:
It is remarkable that she should have joined Jacob's household, no doubt after Rebekah's death. With her mistress gone, her heart turned to Rebekah's beloved son. That they repaid her love is plain from the record of their tears.
Nothing here is filler. Scripture records the death of a household helper because God wants His people to feel that loss:
The Holy Spirit did not record the death of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, without purpose and interest, nor the oak of weeping where she was buried at Bethel. God means His people to feel the gap left by a faithful servant of the household. That is all the more true when the faithfulness reaches far back over long years. Scripture is silent even about when Rebekah died. But we may be sure the aged nurse stayed with her beloved mistress at least until then.
Deborah was not the only nurse held in honour. Paul used the same picture for his own care of young believers:
Old Testament times held such women in esteem. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, was one of them, Genesis 35:8… Paul said, "We were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children." 1 Thessalonians 2:7.
The place name is the point. One writer reads Jacob's return severely and sets the two names side by side — God's house, and the oak of weeping:
He has returned to this land, to this very spot — and with what result! He has come again to Bethel, and he does not know Jehovah. The stone set up as God's house marks nothing for him… So El-bethel is only Allon-bachuth — no gate of heaven, but an oak of weeping.
The tears do not cancel what follows. God appears to Jacob again right after. One writer sees the pattern running both ways:
Arriving at Bethel, things began to move quickly. The first recorded event is the death of Deborah, who had been nurse to Jacob's mother. This marks a break with the past. Then the Almighty appeared again and confirmed the promises of God… But God's ways often run like this. Fresh grace from Him is followed by fresh losses on the human side.
Another writer treats the weeping as discipline that belongs to real worship:
He is not without chastening, "for the Lord disciplines the one he loves." (Hebrews 12:6.) Deborah dies and there is weeping. Where there is true worship, sin must also be judged at its roots. Now God appears again, and Jacob hears his new name again.
Some writers also see a larger picture in this burial. Grant links Deborah to Rebekah, and takes Rebekah as a figure of the church:
There is a striking dispensational picture here too. Jacob and his company illustrate the returned remnant of Israel, brought back to God's place for them after long years of wandering. This is why we are told in verse 8 that Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under an oak. Rebekah had been a type of the church, the bride of Isaac, who is a type of Christ. So the death of Deborah tells us that "the times of the Gentiles" are finished: the nursing of a heavenly hope comes to an end, because Israel's earthly hope has at last been reached.
Darby draws the same line slightly differently, making Deborah the one who cared for the church in its infancy rather than the bride herself:
Rebekah was the heavenly church, as we have seen, brought by the Holy Spirit to Christ; Deborah was its earthly Jewish caretaker in infancy — its nurse — what went along with it, but was not the bride.
- Faithful. Deborah left home with Rebekah, stayed with her to the end, then joined the household of Rebekah's son.
- Felt. God records her death so His people would feel the gap a faithful servant leaves.
- Repaid. Their tears prove the love was returned; the tree is named after the weeping, not after the woman.
- Named. The place that should have been the house of God is now also the oak of weeping — the same ground carries both names.
- Followed. The loss stands between an altar and a fresh appearance of God: grace, then sorrow, then the new name confirmed.
And God appeared to Jacob again after he had come from Padan-Aram, and blessed him.
Jacob has come back to Bethel, where God first met him years before, and God appears there a second time. Why did God wait for this spot? And why does the blessing come with no conditions?
The word "again" covers a great deal of ground. Years of delay lie between the first Bethel and this one:
Jacob's steps to Bethel had been slow indeed. His stay in Paddan-aram was long. Then came delay in Succoth and in Shechem. At last sin and sorrow, shame and fear drove him out — yet God was always faithful and true.
Scripture passes over all of it. The verse treats Jacob as if he had only just arrived from Paddan-aram:
Everything shows that now he has really reached the goal. All his journeys in the land are passed over in the quiet words which treat him as just come back to it.
Earlier, Jacob had wrestled with God for a blessing. Here nothing of the kind happens:
He appeared to Jacob, and there was no wrestling. He appeared to him and blessed him. It all comes from God. God speaks freely and fully. He does not ask, "What is your name?" He had called his name Israel before. That was part of the discipline and exercise, though it gave him strength. Now He takes it into His own hands and gives it of Himself. It is not Jacob wrestling for the blessing; he does not even have to ask God His name.
What God does not say is as striking as what He says. He brings up nothing from Jacob's past:
God at this hour speaks with Jacob, without saying anything at all about his experiences. He had been unfaithful, so these experiences were needed to chasten him and empty him of himself. God Himself appeared to him now, unasked... He gave him the name of Israel, as if He had not given it to him before. And He reveals His name to him, though Jacob never asked for it.
Jacob had already received the name Israel at Peniel, where he wrestled with God, yet God gives it to him again here:
As if to show how practically ineffective Peniel had been, He gives him afresh the name which He had given him there. "And God said to him, Your name is Jacob" — still Jacob! — "no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name." So we learn this: if weakness is the secret of strength — and it is — that strength is only for walking in God's ways. Israel must come to Bethel to be Israel.
The new name is God's own act, and with it He takes away a reproach:
The same grace that refused to call him Jacob any more declares his name from now on to be Israel; and He who loves to roll away every reproach from off His people writes this new name upon him, sealing it as His own act, for "He called his name Israel."
The name the verse uses for God fits the kind of blessing He gives:
It was no longer Jacob begging God for His blessing: God of His own accord appeared and blessed him... The blessing is gracious, but it is in a lower key and more general in character, as suited the name God (Elohim) rather than the name LORD (Jehovah). Still, God truly revealed Himself to Jacob, unasked, as He had to Abraham and Isaac, by the title that belonged to those fathers: El-Shaddai, God Almighty. None of them needed that assurance of protecting power as much as that "worm" Jacob.
One promise from the first Bethel is missing here, because God had already kept it:
In some respects this is almost a repetition of what God said the first time at Bethel, except that He did not say, "I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land." God had accomplished His purpose in Jacob. All He did then was to tell him two things. First, He drew attention to His own Person: He was God Almighty. Second, He drew attention to His promise, which could not fail. He remained as He was, and His promises could not change.
Bethel means "house of God." Jacob's recovery is complete there, not at Shechem:
At Shechem, Jacob called his altar "El-elohe-Israel," that is, "God, the God of Israel." But at Bethel, the true standpoint, he called his altar "El-beth-el," that is, God — the house of God. This was true restoration. Jacob was brought back, after all his wanderings, to the very point from which he had started. Nothing less than this could ever satisfy God regarding His servant.
- Again. God's second appearance comes at the same spot as the first, and Scripture skips the years between as though Jacob had only just come back.
- Unasked. No wrestling, no begging — God appears of His own accord and blesses, and Jacob does not even have to ask His name.
- Unmentioned. God says nothing about Jacob's failures; the chastening had done its work of emptying him of himself.
- Renamed. God gives the Peniel name again and seals it as His own act — Israel must come to Bethel to be Israel.
- Unchanging. The blessing rests on two things that cannot move: God Almighty Himself, and a promise that cannot fail.
And God said to him, Thy name is Jacob thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name Israel.
At Bethel God appears to Jacob a second time and names him Israel. But Jacob already had that name from Peniel, years earlier — so why give it again here, as if for the first time?
The two names carry two histories. One came to Jacob at birth; God gives the other. Notice how God speaks here:
His name is not to be called Jacob any more, the supplanter, but Israel, the wrestler or prince of God. The manner is striking. For God speaks of it as if it were given then, and not merely confirmed. That suited a man who had come back to the land, and was not a fugitive from his father's house.
Some read Genesis 32 and Genesis 35 as two versions of one story. The two scenes differ in character:
God confirms the name of Israel to Jacob; but there is no double account of its origin. On the first occasion God had a controversy with Jacob. Yet He blesses him, strengthens him to prevail in the conflict, and gives him the name of Israel — "a prince who prevailed with God." Still He chastises him, and does not reveal Himself to him (Genesis 32:28). After this Jacob goes up to the place of his real meeting with God in blessing. He puts away idols out of his house, knowing he is going to meet Him. Then God begins by freely revealing His name, and confirms to Jacob the title He had given him before.
Between Peniel and Bethel, people still called him Jacob. Where God met him mattered:
Here at Bethel God appears to Jacob again to bless him. He confirms that His servant's name was Jacob — which was not to be forgotten — and yet he was to be called Israel. This name was to have its full significance in God's place for him. It speaks of the dignity to which God had raised him by grace, "a prince with God." God had changed his name before (Genesis 32:28), yet people still spoke of him only as Jacob until he came to Bethel. In fact, even after this he is sometimes called Israel, but more often Jacob.
At Peniel God asked Jacob his name, and Jacob held on for the blessing. Here God asks for nothing, and Jacob drags nothing out of Him:
He appeared to Jacob, and there was no wrestling. He appeared to him and blessed him. It is all coming from God — God speaking freely and fully, not asking, "What is your name?" He had called his name Israel before. That was part of the discipline and exercise, though it gave him strength. He is now taking it into His own hands and giving it of Himself. It is not Jacob wrestling for the blessing; he does not even have to ask God His name.
The verse does not stop at the announcement. The last clause carries the weight:
The same grace that refused to call him Jacob any more declares that from now on his name is Israel. He loves to roll away every reproach from off His people. So He writes this new name upon him, sealing it as His own act, for "He called his name Israel."
Speaking the name as if for the first time also passes over the years since Peniel. That is not a comfortable thought:
"He called his name Israel" — blotting out in one sense all the history from the day when that name was first given to him. It is a sorrowful reflection for the heart when time past is, so to speak, time lost.
Jacob reached Bethel only after telling his household to put away their foreign gods. One writer turns this on the reader:
There has been inconsistency. Perhaps you have been away from God, and you have had chastening to remind you of it. God must have you with Himself to bring out what is there. He will bring your own name up. You won't get Israel without being Jacob with God.
- Name one. Jacob means the supplanter — the name he carried from birth, and the name God makes him own before anything changes.
- Name two. Israel means prince of God — a dignity Jacob never earned, and here he does not even wrestle for it.
- Named twice. Peniel gave the name under chastening. Bethel gives it in open blessing. This is confirmation, not a rival account.
- Named by God. The verse ends with God Himself doing the calling, sealing the new name as His own act.
- Named where you stand. The name took hold only when Jacob reached God's place and left the idols behind. No one gets Israel without first being Jacob with God.
And God said to him, I am the Almighty God be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee; and kings shall come out of thy loins.
At Bethel, Jacob buries the household idols. God then appears to him again and tells him His name. What follows is a promise of children, nations and kings — tied not to the schemer Jacob, but to the man God has just renamed Israel.
The command to go up to Bethel exposed what Jacob had been carrying for years. One writer follows the order of events.
God says, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there." The moment God says so, out comes what Jacob knew all along he had never finished with. There was a pile of idols in the house, and now he thinks about it. He knew about them all along; but there is no real putting away of idols until we come into the presence of God. Notice: once the idols were buried, the first thing God did was to tell him His name. He had not done so before, but now it is the first thing. God appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty" — the name He had given Himself to Abraham.
God had held that name back until now. One writer explains the delay as God's own reserve:
God was faithful to Jacob, but Jacob was not yet faithful to God. God still kept up reserve, and could not yet reveal His name as He did to Abraham and Isaac, and would in due time to Jacob (Gen. 35:11). There was not the self-judgment that made the way for it.
The title is El Shaddai. Writers read its two parts in more than one way.
Writers say the word El means strength, or omnipotence. Some think Shaddai means the same. Others prefer to render it all-sufficient, or self-sufficiency. Either way, the two words together carry divine attributes. Only God has omnipotence and all-sufficiency.
Of the three fathers given this title, Jacob needed it most.
Still God reveals Himself to Jacob, truly and unasked, as He did to Abraham and Isaac, by the title that belonged to the fathers: El-Shaddai, God Almighty. No one of the fathers needed that assurance of protecting might as much as that "worm" Jacob.
The renaming in verse 10 is spoken as if it had never happened before. One writer hears God dropping the old name entirely:
Jacob has got rid of all his strange gods, and he is meeting God where God can reveal Himself, and give him the new name of "Israel." He does it now as if He had never done it before. 'I know nothing,' He says, 'of the supplanter, you are now strong with God.'
That change of name carries weight for everything promised in verse 11. The blessing is not hung on the man who bought a birthright with a bowl of stew.
Unbelief drove God back on Himself. He fixes Jacob in his place on earth as Jacob the supplanter — "Your name is Jacob." And He hangs His purposes on the new man, Israel: even Jacob's own promises, the birthright bought with a bowl of stew.
The same might that brought Jacob home stands behind what God now promises.
He had shown His sovereign might in keeping His promise to greatly bless Jacob and bring him back to the land. Now He will show that power again. He will multiply Jacob's descendants, make him into a nation and a company of nations, and decide that kings would come from him. His promise in Genesis 28:13-15 had been absolute, with no conditions attached. This promise is also unconditional, but adds the words about "a nation and a company of nations" and kings.
Who is the "company of nations"? One writer answers from Israel's own history.
Some say this refers to the great nations of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and so on. But note that Jacob was the father of the twelve tribes. Why should this promise be limited to ten of them? Kings certainly came from Jacob's body, as we see in the long line from David to Zedekiah. The children of Israel did become a nation, and the twelve tribes were like twelve nations making up the nation.
Each name God reveals sets the terms for those who receive it.
"Jehovah" is the name of relationship taken with Israel, as "Shaddai" with the patriarchs. God revealed Himself to the fathers as "El Shaddai," and they were to walk in the faith of that name. He revealed Himself as Jehovah to Moses and Israel, and they were to walk in the faith of that. He has revealed Himself to us as Father, and so we are to walk.
- Bury — The idols only came out when Jacob came into God's presence. Nothing else brings hidden things to light.
- Name — The moment Jacob buried them, God gave the name He had held back: El Shaddai, the omnipotent and all-sufficient One.
- Rename — God does not build on Jacob the supplanter. He hangs His purposes on the new man, Israel.
- Promise — A nation, a company of nations and kings hang on that new name, with no conditions. Israel's own history met it: twelve tribes, and kings from David to Zedekiah.
- Walk — Each name God gives is meant to be lived on. The fathers walked by Shaddai, Israel by Jehovah, and we by Father.
And the land that I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
God meets Jacob again at Bethel, the place where He first made Himself known to him years before. This time God comes unasked, and gives him the land He had already promised to Abraham and Isaac — two men who died owning none of it.
Jacob did not ask for this meeting. God takes the initiative, and speaks to him as He once spoke to Abraham:
God Himself appeared to him now, though Jacob had not asked Him to. We read in Genesis 35:9, "God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him." He gave him the name of Israel, as if He had not given it to him before. And He reveals His own name to him, though Jacob never asked for it. He talks with him as He once did with Abraham. He renews the promises, and confirms them to him — at least those which relate to Israel. And when He had finished speaking with him, God went up from him, for He had visited him.
God had already set the terms at this same place, years before:
At Bethel, in Genesis 28, God declared what He would be for Jacob and to Jacob. He raised no question about Jacob's response or behaviour. Now God is always true to Himself and to His word. Before God gave the law through Moses, He was dealing with these patriarchs on the basis of His promises in grace, and those promises stand.
In the same breath God calls Himself "God Almighty". That name carried a guarantee long before Jacob heard it:
As the Almighty, God promised to be a God to Abraham and to his descendants after him (Gen. 17:7)... The Name of the Almighty assured Abraham that God would do all He had promised. Isaac blessed Jacob in the Name of the Almighty (Gen. 28:3). And when God changed Jacob's name to Israel, He said, "I am God Almighty… The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you" (Gen. 35:9–12). Jacob uses the Name of the Almighty in Genesis 43:14, 48:3 and 49:25. He knew the almighty power of the One who had blessed him despite all his failures.
The verse gives the land twice over — to Jacob, and to his descendants. Commentators place this in a line of promises that carry no strings:
In Genesis 15 the promise rests on a covenant God made with Abraham, again without condition. It is an absolute gift of the country... In Genesis 17:7-8, the promise of the earth is renewed. These are confirmed to Isaac (Gen. 26:3-4), and to Jacob (Gen. 35:10, 12). These are "the promises made to the fathers," and to Israel, "beloved for the sake of the fathers." God made them to Abraham without any condition, whether spiritual or earthly.
God speaks as if the land were already handed over, yet Abraham and Isaac died owning none of it. That gap carries a startling conclusion:
God never gave Abraham, Isaac or Jacob actual possession of the land of Israel while they were alive in their natural bodies. Yet He did promise them the land — not just to their children, but to themselves. So they must rise again to have that land promised to them. God gave them the land in promise, but they never owned it. They must therefore own it another day. And they cannot own it while they are dead, so they must live again to actually have the promised land.
Jacob receives the same promise of nations and kings that Abraham had. But this promise has a border:
He has, like Abraham in Gen. 17, the promise of nations and kings from his line; but nothing here goes beyond the bounds and glory of Israel and the land.
Jacob answers with a stone pillar — his third. The first two show what has changed:
His first had been one of confidence in the flesh (Gen. 28:18-22); his second was the pillar of broken confidence (Gen. 31:45), showing how untrustworthy the flesh is. This third is the pillar of confidence in God. This time he makes no vow. Instead he pours a drink offering and oil on the pillar, showing his genuine appreciation of God's faithfulness and grace.
- Grace first. God appears unasked and says nothing about Jacob's failures; the promises rest on God's word, not on Jacob's behaviour.
- Almighty backs it. God gives the land as "God Almighty" — the name that assured Abraham He would do all He promised.
- Given, not offered. God attaches no conditions, and the same unconditional promise runs from Abraham through Isaac to Jacob.
- Resurrection implied. Abraham and Isaac died without owning a foot of it, so they must live again to receive what God promised.
- Bounded but sure. God's promise here reaches no further than Israel and the land, and within those borders it stands.
And God went up from him in the place where he had talked with him.
At Bethel God had just appeared to Jacob, named Himself God Almighty, confirmed the name Israel and renewed the promises. Then, in the same place, He went up — and that quiet departure says much about the meeting Jacob had just had.
One writer traces the order of events at Bethel: buried idols, then a revealed name, then the parting.
There is no real putting away of idols until we get into the presence of God. Notice: when the idols are buried, the first thing God did was to tell him His name. He did not before, but now that is the first thing: "God appeared to him and said to him, I am God Almighty," the name He had given Himself to Abraham. And then, though the conversation was short, and there was no intercession for others, God went up from him just as He did from Abraham. You do not get as much bright blessing here, but God does reveal Himself now and talks with Jacob and does not wrestle with him.
The wording here is not new. God used similar terms of Abraham in Genesis 17:22, and one commentator calls it a favour to both men.
"Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him." We may compare this favour to Jacob with the similar terms used of Abraham in Genesis 17:22. What grace to both! And what an unspeakable difference from the mythological dreams of gods mixing with Gentile mankind, even if these had been true!
That earlier scene also settles the timing of the departure. God was not interrupted and did not leave early:
God went up from him. He was talking with Abraham, and went only when He had finished. Abraham could present the desires of his heart to Elohim (God), and had a full answer, but God had His own purpose.
Why does God go up at all, instead of staying at Bethel? Because at this stage of the story He comes to His people but keeps no address on earth.
Creation denies the Lord God a rest or a dwelling, because of the sin that defiled it. He must rise and depart. It could not be His rest, for it was polluted. So we see Him at once as a stranger in the world His hands have made. This was not His place of staying. He visits His chosen ones who are in it. But in the days of the patriarchs — with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — He does not make it a home. He communicates with them in marked, personal closeness, but He seeks no place on the earth. Still, He has a dwelling place here — in His purpose, and in what is still to come.
Jacob reached Bethel after years of struggle. One writer puts all such experience in its place.
Experiences are useful to bring us to God, but they all disappear when God reveals Himself.
Not every writer reads the departure as kindness. One writer takes the going up as a real withdrawal: God is finished with Jacob under that name, and what Jacob does next at the spot counts for little.
Jacob is passed over, and God's Israel alone is in view in this promise. So God went up from him in the place where He talked with him. He would never again acknowledge him in His record while he was in the land of Canaan, until by faith he goes out to God's separated man in Egypt. All is now lost for Jacob as such. He may set up a pillar of stone. He may begin his act of worship with an offering of thanksgiving. He may call the place where God spoke with him Bethel. But it comes to nothing.
So the same short sentence carries two readings: a gracious visit completed, or a solemn withdrawal. Commentators differ on the weight of the departure, not on the fact. God spoke with Jacob in that place, and then went up.
- Cleared — the idols went into the ground before God spoke His name. No one really puts idols away until he comes into God's presence.
- Spoken — Bethel was conversation, not conflict. God revealed Himself and talked with Jacob instead of wrestling with him.
- Finished — He went up only when He had finished; the departure marks a completed word, not an interrupted one.
- Visiting — God came near but kept no home on a defiled earth; He visited His chosen ones without seeking a place on it.
- Outlasting — the experiences that brought Jacob here fade when God reveals Himself. The revelation is what remains, not the struggle.
And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had talked with him, a pillar of stone, and poured on it a drink-offering, and poured oil on it.
Jacob is back at Bethel, and God has just appeared to him again and named him Israel. What Jacob does next — a stone pillar, wine poured out, oil poured out — is the first drink offering recorded in Scripture.
Jacob sets the pillar where God had spoken with him. One writer sees the spot itself as marked by grace.
Is it any wonder that Jacob set up a pillar of stone to mark that spot of divine grace? He poured a drink offering and oil upon it. He called its name Bethel with a fullness of honour unknown before.
Jacob had named this place Bethel years earlier. Now he names it again.
And now God reveals Himself almighty, as He did with Abraham, and confirms to Jacob the promise He had made to Abraham. Jacob sets up his pillar of stone, and pours his drink offering and oil upon it. He too names the place afresh — Bethel, as if he had never named it before. And he had never named it with understanding.
The first time God spoke to him here, Jacob bargained and made a vow. This time is different.
Jacob has his "Bethel." God had spoken to him from the top of the ladder, but now He comes down… This is not the half-fearing, half-worshipping cry, "How awesome is this place." He had been a "supplanter." His name, as a man, was "Jacob." But God will not give him that name. "Israel" is God's name for him… He has revealed Himself as "God Almighty," and Jacob can name the place "the house of God."
One writer weighs why this offering comes where it does.
I have long thought the "drink offering" was not so much the sacrifice — it was not a sacrifice at all. It was the divine delight gained as the result of a work done both for the pleasure of God and the blessing of His creature. That is why it always comes in last… Jacob poured out the first "drink offering" ever recorded in Scripture, Gen. 35:14. Here, I gather, it was the result of God's dealings with Jacob. At last he is in full communion with God, and from then on he moves in a way that pleases God… The sacrifice was offered up and so consumed. The "drink offering" was poured out and so remains.
A Bible dictionary sets out what the poured-out wine pictures:
This offering was not usually made on its own, but see Genesis 35:14… The drink offering may picture joy in the Spirit, in the sense of the value of Christ's work done for God's glory.
The pillar is Jacob's answer. He is answering God's settled purpose to bless him still.
God makes known the settled disposition of His heart still to bless Jacob. What comes of it is that Jacob puts up a pillar and pours a drink offering upon it, and oil upon it. He learns that God would still bless him, and he responds now to God. God has this in mind for us too. He would not only bless us in our circumstances. He would give us such a sense of Who He is, and that He is for us, that we adore Him as the God Who has shepherded us all our life.
Jacob once bargained with God here. One writer turns that into a warning.
No one will escape this moral distance by doing as Jacob did, and joining him as a bargainer with God, or a vow-maker. We must be receivers, and not givers. We must stay under the new name of Israel (after the wrestling is finished), for we are dead. Then "the fruit of the Spirit" takes the character David gave to his offerings and the offerings of the princes: "Of your own have we given you." Whatever comes from God goes back to Him in the sweet savour of Christ, who produces it in us.
Commentators differ here. One takes the act as coming too late in Jacob's story to count for much:
He may set up a pillar, a pillar of stone. He may open his act of worship with an offering of thanksgiving. He may call the place where God spoke with him Bethel. But it comes to nothing. He has no heart, and God no grace, until in Egypt he finds his forerunner, God's Heir.
- God speaks first. Jacob plants the pillar where God had talked with him — a stone marking a spot of grace, honoured as never before.
- Grace renames. God refuses the old name and gives His own, "Israel," before Jacob pours anything out. The response follows the blessing; it never buys it.
- Poured, not bargained. The first Bethel produced a vow and a tenth; this one produces wine and oil — receiving before giving, "Of your own have we given you."
- Joy that remains. The sacrifice is consumed and gone. The drink offering is poured out and stays — joy in the Spirit over a work done for God's pleasure.
- A man in communion. Commentators differ over how far Jacob had come. Still, the offering marks a man no longer wrestling, brought to adore the God who shepherded him all his life.
And Jacob called the name of the place where God had talked with him, Beth-el.
Jacob had named this spot years before. Now God has met him a second time, and he gives it the same name again. So what had changed, if not the word?
The name records what happened there: God spoke with him. One writer points to the difference in this second meeting — God came down to him — and to the name God revealed as He did so:
Jacob has his "Bethel." God had spoken to him from the top of the ladder, but now He comes down... He had been a "supplanter," a man who took another's place by scheming; his name, as a man, was "Jacob," but God will not give him that name. "Israel" is God's name for him... He has revealed Himself as "God Almighty," and Jacob is able to name the place "the house of God."
Some readers treat the two namings as proof that two separate stories were joined together here. One writer answers that the account itself calls the place Bethel before Jacob even arrives:
God appeared to Jacob when he left the land of Canaan, and he called the place "Bethel." On his return, God tells him to go up there, already calling it Bethel. Then God appears to Jacob there a second time, and Jacob confirms the name "Bethel." He had two reasons for it. But the second part of the story calls the place Bethel before he even gets there. The case is very simple and very clear, and there is no reason to speak of these as two separate, independent accounts.
Another writer says the second naming reads like a first, because Jacob spoke the first one without understanding it:
And now God reveals Himself as Almighty, as He did with Abraham, and confirms to Jacob the promise He had made to Abraham. Jacob sets up his pillar of stone and pours his drink offering and oil on it. He too names the place again — Bethel, as if he had never named it before. And he had not named it with understanding before.
Jacob had set up stones before, and one writer counts three of them. He reads each pillar by what Jacob was trusting at the time:
Then Jacob sets up his third pillar, which is his second at Bethel. His first was one of confidence in himself; his second was the pillar of broken confidence, showing that human nature cannot be trusted. This third is the pillar of confidence in God. This time he makes no vow, but pours a drink offering and oil on the pillar, which shows his genuine appreciation of the faithfulness and grace of God. He had named the place before, but naming it a second time surely shows that the meaning of this name has become vital and real to him.
Another writer contrasts what struck Jacob on each of his two visits:
On his first visit to Bethel, the holy character of the place struck him — God was in it. On his second visit, the grace and faithfulness of God filled his mind. So when he set the pillar up again, his first act expressed what he felt — feelings stirred by what God had just said to him.
Bethel means "house of God," yet no building stood there. One writer traces the title to God recording His name in mercy on that spot — and later on a bare threshing floor:
Wherever He records His name there is His house. Ornan's threshing floor was given the same honour long afterwards that Luz is given here, and on the same ground... For it was the place, like this Bethel of Jacob's, where mercy had triumphed over judgment, where God was revealing Himself in the abundance of His grace, and there faith sees the house of God.
One writer warns that calling a place God's house and submitting to its order are two different things:
He raised a pillar up and called it God's house, but he still kept going the wrong way. I expect many people have some respect for God's house and yet have no intention of submitting to the order of God's house... On the spot where Jacob raised the pillar there was a wilderness, but it was where God was. That is the important thing about God's house: it is where God Himself is.
- Named — Jacob calls the place Bethel, "house of God," because God spoke with him there. The meeting gives the name, not the monument.
- Named again — the repeat is no contradiction. The account calls the site Bethel before Jacob arrives; he only confirms it.
- Named knowingly — the second naming reads like a first, because Jacob spoke the first one without understanding it.
- Named without conditions — the earlier pillar came with a vow. This one carries a drink offering: confidence in God, not in himself.
- Named as a claim — respect for God's house is easy; submitting to its order is the harder lesson. What makes a spot matter is that God Himself is there.
And they journeyed from Bethel. And there was yet a certain distance to come to Ephrath, when Rachel travailed in childbirth; and it went hard with her in her childbearing.
Jacob has just met God at Bethel, and now he is on the road again. Rachel's labour turns dangerous while Ephrath is still some distance ahead — so why does the deepest sorrow so often follow the highest moment?
One writer traces what follows each stage of Jacob's moving on.
It was good for Jacob to be at Bethel: that seemed to be his right place. But "they journeyed from Bethel." At once the heaviest sorrow of his life fell on him: his dearly loved Rachel died. He journeys again (v. 21), and then comes the terrible wickedness of Reuben. He journeys again, and then comes his father's death. Then he lived in the land where his father was a stranger, and we read of the long series of troubles connected with Joseph.
Commentators differ on how to read that departure. Another writer reads Bethel as the point where a new kind of journey begins.
Since Jacob had reached Bethel, this becomes the starting point of a journey of a different kind. It is the same with a believer today: his path becomes different when he comes to value the truth of the house of God as he should. There are still trials. But he now looks at them with calm submission, instead of scheming in the flesh about how to meet them. Jacob journeys (v. 16), and near Ephrath (which means "fruitfulness"), Rachel goes into labour.
The hard birth was not just bad luck. One writer links it back to Rachel's own history. She had stolen her father's household idols and hidden it from Jacob.
The moral government of God, now along the way, fails no more than His grace from beginning to end. Rachel had greatly sinned and kept her husband in the dark, when he unknowingly said that the guilty one should not live. Her theft was not only a sin against her father, but in what she stole, a serious insult to God. And we have no evidence that she judged herself properly, either soon or ever. It is plain that Jacob in time became aware of idols in his household, and God's call to Bethel laid the sin of it on his conscience. To take his beloved away was a chastening, not to her only but to him also.
The account records no word of complaint from Jacob. One writer sees that silence as the mark of a changed man.
Rachel's death was certainly one of the most painful lessons that Jacob had to learn. It went deep into his soul, and yet in his history nothing is said about how Jacob felt about it. He mentioned it a long time later to Joseph... He felt it. Yet I think we now see in Jacob a submitted heart. He recognised that it had come from the hand of God, and he bowed to it. He had learnt his lesson, learnt to submit to God.
The verse names the spot with unusual care, and the name matters. Reference works note that Ephrath was the old name of the town: "Apparently it was originally called EPHRATH, Gen. 35:16, 19... It is once called BETH-LEHEM EPHRATAH, that is, the fruitful, for the ruler of Israel was to come from there. Micah 5:2." Jacob had no way of knowing what he was standing on.
Jacob set up a pillar of thanksgiving at Bethel, in the place where God talked with him. He never thought that so soon afterwards he would set up another pillar, this one of sorrow, on Rachel's grave. But he bows to the hand of chastening: the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives. Jacob could not know, since God had not yet revealed it, that the King of Israel would be born near this very Ephrath. That King is the pledge and picture of great David's greater Son, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.
Rachel's roadside grave became a fixed landmark of grief. Long afterwards, when Jacob rehearsed this loss to Joseph, he still could not see the whole of what that ground would carry.
His faith could not grasp the distinction that was still to come to the place, for centuries had to pass before prophecy pointed to that spot as the birthplace of the great Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from the days of eternity. It was to be the place where there was not only a mourning for Rachel, but also where there should be a great mourning, "Rachel weeping for her children," according to Matthew 2:18.
- Road — the sorrow begins with a move: "they journeyed from Bethel." Writers differ over what it means. Was Jacob drifting from the place God gave him, or starting a new stage of the walk?
- Labour — the hard birth falls under God's moral government, which "fails no more than His grace." It chastened Jacob as much as Rachel.
- Silence — Scripture records no complaint from Jacob. He felt the blow, yet took it from God's hand.
- Pillar — the man who raised a pillar of thanksgiving at Bethel soon raised a pillar of sorrow on a grave. He did not know what that ground would mean.
- Ephrath — the road where his hopes seemed to close ran on to the birthplace of Israel's King.