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.