What is the significance of Bethel in the Bible?

Name, signifying 'house of God,' 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 but the house of God . . . . and he called the name of that place Beth-el." Gen. 28:16-19. God thus gave to Jacob the apprehension that the house of God on earth — the gate of heaven — was to be connected with him and his seed, and afterwards God acknowledged the place and the name, saying, "I am the God of Beth-el," Gen. 31:13. To take Jacob out of a false position God bade him go up to Beth-el and dwell there, and Jacob felt he must take no idols there, so he told his household to put away the strange gods from among them, to be clean, and to change their garments. "He built there an altar and called the place El-beth-el;" and there God met him, revealed His name to him, and confirmed the change of his name to Israel (cf. Gen. 32:28-29), blessed him, and renewed His promises. Gen. 35:1-16.

It was afterwards conquered and given to Benjamin. Joshua 12:9; Joshua 18:22; Judges 1:22. Apparently the tabernacle was pitched at Shiloh near Bethel, for Israel went there to inquire of God, and Samuel told Saul that he should meet three men "going up to God to Beth-el." Judges 21:19; 1 Sam. 10:3. At the division of the kingdom Beth-el fell to Israel, and Jeroboam set up there one of the golden calves to prevent the Israelites going to Jerusalem to worship. An altar was erected and sacrifices offered to the idol; but it was condemned by a man of God, and the altar was rent. 1 Kings 12:29-33; 1 Kings 13:1-32; Amos 7:10, 13. There were sons of the prophets dwelling at Beth-el, 2 Kings 2:3, but the idolatrous altar was not destroyed until the days of Josiah. 2 Kings 23:4, 15, 17, 19. Among those who returned from exile were men of Beth-el, and the place was again inhabited. Ezra 2:28; Neh. 7:32; Neh. 11:31. See also Hosea 10:15; Hosea 12:4; Amos 3:14; Amos 4:4; Amos 5:5-6.

The city had been originally named Luz. It is now identified with Beitin, 31 56' N, 35 14' E, some 10 miles north of Jerusalem. It stands on a rocky ridge between two valleys, but has higher ground on each side except the south. Amos 5:5 said it should 'come to nought,' and now amid the scattered ruins are about 20 houses roughly formed out of the old materials. 'MOUNT BETH-EL' occurs in Joshua 16:1; 1 Sam. 13:2. See BETH-AVEN.

Passing onward, Saul would meet three men going up to God at Bethel. Bethel was the first stage of Jacob's journey, the place where God had promised the banished patriarch never to leave him. In the midst of Israel's ruin, God's faithfulness to His promises was thus manifested to the future king, so that he might govern his conduct according to that faithfulness. Saul should have seen that Bethel was assured to him, and that he could count on divine protection. Amid the sad circumstances in which the people found themselves, Saul meets worshippers of God, be they but three, going up where Jacob had worshipped Him, where He would be worshipped forever. At this time Bethel was the place of grace where God had revealed Himself, the center of Israel's religious life, the beginning and the end of the wanderings of its founder. Saul could and should have entered into relationship with those going to this place of blessing and, although so few in number, giving complete testimony (indicated by the number three) to the reality of the faith still remaining in Israel. They inquire of him; he who had nothing to give the prophet was to receive the necessary nourishment from them. Having found grace in their eyes, he ought to have joined these men of faith.

Amongst the many idolatrous centres which were visited by Josiah, Bethel is specially mentioned, and some remarkable incidents are noted. Bethel had an important place in the ways of Jehovah, and it had tender associations for the hearts of the godly in Israel. Nearby was Abraham's first camping-ground when he entered the land. In that neighbourhood he pitched his tent and built his altar (Gen. 12:8). After his mistaken journey into Egypt, Abraham returned to the place where he built his altar at the first (Gen. 13:3-4). Communion with God was thus restored. It was at Bethel where Jacob rested for the night on his journey from Beersheba to Haran. The vision of the ladder set up from earth to heaven, with the angels ascending and descending upon it, and Jehovah speaking to his poor wayward servant from the top of it, is familiar to us all. Early in the morning Jacob "took the stone which he had put for his pillows and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of the place Bethel" (Gen. 28:10-22). Bethel means "house of God." After years of wandering Jacob returned thither, and learnt precious lessons concerning the God with whom he had to do (Gen. 35:1-15). Several centuries later Jehovah referred very touchingly to Jacob's second visit to Bethel: "There he spake with us, even the Lord God of hosts; Jehovah is his memorial" (Hosea 12:4-5). Mark how the Triune God appreciated the fact that "there he spake with Us." Bethel became one of Jeroboam's chief seats of idolatry. He did his utmost to prevent the people speaking with their God, as their father Jacob did. Indeed the proximity of Bethel to Jerusalem looks as though Jeroboam deliberately established Bethel as a religious centre in order to obstruct the way of the people to the sanctuary of Jehovah.

Bethel was a hot-bed of iniquity from the time of Jeroboam to the days of Josiah. In Amos 4:4, Jehovah says sarcastically to His wayward people, "Come to Bethel and transgress," But in the next chapter of the same prophet we hear a pleading voice: "Thus says Jehovah to the house of Israel, Seek ye Me, and you shall live; but seek not Bethel … Seek Jehovah, and you shall live, lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it; and there be none to quench it in Bethel" (Amos 5:4-5). When Jeroboam was granted dominion over the ten tribes because of the unfaithfulness of Solomon, Jehovah told him that if he would hearken to His commandments and walk in His ways, and do that which is right in His sight, He would be with him, and build him "a sure house" (1 Kings 11:38). But who can God trust save the Lord Jesus? Solomon was unfaithful; so likewise was Jeroboam. When the latter fled into Egypt to escape the wrath of Solomon, he saw the people there worshipping the god Apis; this probably suggested to him the golden calves that he set up in Bethel and in Dan. From the same source Aaron and the children of Israel got the idea of the golden calf (Ex. 32). Egypt is a type of the world in its independence of God; let the children of God beware of copying its ways!

Whatever services Elisha may have rendered (Timothy-like) in association with Elijah while the latter remained on earth, his testimony proper began after Elijah was rapt to Heaven. Their last journey together is full of spiritual significance. Starting from Gilgal, they proceeded west to Bethel; thence they turned back towards the east and visited Jericho; and from Jericho they passed to Jordan, and across to the other side. All these points spoke of a blessed past and an evil present. Israel's Canaan history commenced at Gilgal (Joshua 5). There their camp was formed; there the reproach of Egypt was rolled away; and thence they marched forth at the divine bidding for conquest. The associations of the place were thus very precious to a pious Israelite. But Gilgal was now one of the chief centres of national iniquity (Amos 4:4; Amos 5:5; Hosea 4:15). The place of Israel's early consecration to God had become the place of gross unfaithfulness to God. How sadly we are thus reminded of what the Church was in the beginning and of what it is today.

Bethel, meaning "House of God," was sacred as the spot where God manifested Himself to Jacob, and graciously pledged Himself to His servant (Gen. 28:10-22). Now one of Jeroboam's calves stood there (1 Kings 12:28-29), causing Jehovah to speak of the place in contempt as Bethaven — "house of folly" (Hosea 4:15).

From Gilgal he went down to Bethel, with the faithful Elisha still as his companion. Bethel had become practically, like Gilgal, the home of all the abominations of idolatry. (See Hosea 9:15, 10:5-8, 12:11; Amos 5:5-6.) From the house of God, Bethel had changed into "the king's chapel," and "the king's court" (Amos 7:13), where the word of God was no longer tolerated. But Elijah travelled back in spirit to the Bethel of the beginning, where God had appeared to Jacob, and made him in His grace the depositary of His earthly promises - "the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed." Bethel became thus to Jacob the house of God and the gate of heaven, and thenceforward the symbol, for all His believing people, of God's unchangeable faithfulness, inasmuch as He had bound Himself to Jacob and to his seed by His unconditional and absolute promises. To understand His thoughts, whether concerning Israel or the church, it is always necessary to go back to the commencement, to the original revelation of His purposes, knowing that what He has promised He will surely perform. That Elijah did so on the eve of his rapture reveals that he was now in fullest communion with the mind of God.

At Sichem Abram built an altar to the God who appeared unto him, but there was something more connected with his altar near Bethel, for there he “called upon the Name of the Lord.” God had called Abram while in Ur of the Chaldees, and had appeared unto him at Sichem, but it was not until he reached Bethel that he called upon the Name of the Lord. Here is the beginning of his communion with God, a communion that ripens and deepens so that Abraham can be called “the friend of God.” How very sorrowful it is to see Abram leave his altar at Bethel and, because of a famine, desert the land to which God had called him and go down into Egypt.

The realization of their complete lack of power brings Abijah and his people something even more important than victory: they recover Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron-but especially Bethel, the place where the faithful God had given promises to Jacob. Indeed, the way to acquire God's promises is to begin by recognizing one's self to be lost and crying out to the Lord. Our unfaithfulness has separated us from the place of promises, but if we acknowledge ourselves as lost and cry out to God, we will recover them all, for Christ has secured them for us, He, the Yea and Amen of all the promises of God. Without Bethel, Judah was morally decapitated, as it were. Moreover, Bethel was the place where one could not present himself before God without having buried his false gods (Gen. 35: 2-4). It was therefore a momentary restoration of this poor people and their poor king-a very partial restoration, for Abijah still continued to follow a path (v. 21) which had brought on the division of the kingdom.

How different was their condition! The Lord rebukes them, for they had ploughed wickedness, and reaped iniquity. The noise of war is now heard; Shalman (a contracted form of Shalmanezer, the King of Assyria ) is advancing and shall destroy all their fortresses as he destroyed Beth-arbel. (There is no further record of Beth-arbel and its destruction.) And who was responsible for all this havoc and the impending calamity? "Thus has Bethel done to you, for the evil of your great evil. In the early morning the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off." Bethel was the seat of Israel 's idolatry, it drew God's wrath and finally ended the monarchy in Israel and their national existence.

Bethel, the place of Abraham's altar, of Jacob's altar, had ere this become the scene of Jeroboam's calf, the witness of the people's apostasy from Jehovah.

Bethel

Bethel was a place of hallowed and interesting associations. Here it was Jacob had seen the ladder reaching from earth to heaven; here also the Voice of God in unconditional grace had reached the wanderer's heart.

But in the days of Elijah, Bethel, in spite of its suggestive and typical name — the house of God — had, alas! become a place of transgression and confusion. The very religious surroundings had become abominable because of established idolatry.