Genesis 35:20

Saul came from Jacob's line and from the tribe of Benjamin. Few places would interest him more than Bethel and Rachel's tomb. Jacob clearly wanted both kept in memory, since he set up a pillar at each. It is now said that Saul must have gone out of his way to reach Rachel's tomb. Suppose he did. It was the way Samuel directed him, and we must think it was on purpose, however far out of his way it took him. He was to learn his first lesson at the grave of a woman who, like him, was beautiful and impressive to look at, yet who gave way to a rebellious will just as he did.

Jacob little thought, when he put up a pillar of thanksgiving at Bethel in the place where God talked with him, that he would so soon afterwards put up another pillar, and this one of sorrow, on Rachel's grave. But he bows to the hand of chastening: whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He chastises every son whom He receives.

Rachel had sinned greatly 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; in what she stole it was a serious insult to God. We have no evidence of proper self-judgment soon after — if ever. It is plain that Jacob eventually became aware of idols in his household... To take his beloved away was a chastening, not only for her but for him too.

This has brought us back to Rachel, Israel's history in fact. She dies. She had had Joseph; now she has Benjamin. She calls him Ben-oni, the son of my sorrow; Jacob calls him Benjamin, the son of my right hand. This points to Christ at God's right hand, who was also the son of affliction.

Rachel was the loved object of his life... At Rachel's death love marked her burial place with a pillar to keep her name in lasting remembrance. For Rachel he had suffered, toiled and lived, and with her all earthly joys closed for Jacob... But the faith of the dying patriarch looks beyond the end of all earthly joys. The man who was forever talking of going down to the grave now has his feet at the edge of it — and he looks beyond death and decay. When he speaks of Rachel's tomb "on the way to Ephrath," he is careful to add, "that is, Bethlehem." That very spot closed up the earthly joys and natural affections of Jacob's life. It is also the place from which would come the One who would bring everlasting blessing to Jacob's descendants.

In this case Jacob set up a pillar on her grave, and "it is the pillar of Rachel's tomb, which is there to this day" — this pillar of giving up every earthly hope. These last two pillars belong together. If my confidence is in a living God (the third pillar), then giving up the sweetest earthly hopes (the fourth pillar) is not hard. However, we are not told to give them up without having something better.