CHAPTER 35

(1732 B.C.)

BETHEL

¹And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there (in essence, this is what the Lord had told Jacob to do when he first came back to Canaan; to be out of the Will of God, as was Jacob, always invites disaster!): and make there an Altar unto God, Who appeared unto you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother. (Nearly ten years had passed since Jacob had come back to the Land of Promise. At that time, those ten years ago, the Lord had said to Jacob, Return unto your Land, I am the God of Bethel. The Lord did not say, I am the God of Succoth. But how slow was he to obey this command! And it cost him dearly.)

²Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all who were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments (when Jacob learns that he is to meet God publicly at Bethel, he at once feels that idols cannot be brought into fellowship with that House and, accordingly, he commands the surrender of all the strange gods that were in their hands and in their ears, and he buried them beneath the oak at Shechem; these were either brought by Jacobs servants from Mesopotamia, or adopted in Canaan, or perhaps possessed by the women taken captive during the problem of the recent past):

³And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el (now at last he goes up unto Bethel; physically, and morally, it was indeed a going-up; but how slow he had been the last ten years to obey this command! Had he gone swiftly to Bethel, when he left Syria, and had he dwelt there, as commanded, what sin and sorrow would have been avoided!); and I will make there an Altar unto God, Who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. (The Altar was a Type of Christ and the death He would die on the Cross in order to redeem fallen humanity. It was the centerpiece of mans relationship with God in Old Testament times, and it continues to be such presently in the form of the Cross. If the Cross is removed, or ignored, or set aside in any way, then it ceases to be Faith that God will recognize. The Faith that God recognizes is that which is anchored squarely in the Cross [Rom. 6:3-14; 8:1-2, 11; I Cor. 1:17-18, 21, 23; 2:2; Col. 2:14-15].)

⁴And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. (At Shechem Jacob kept his Saviour and his Salvation to himself, and permitted his family and household to retain their idols. But this cannot be suffered if God is to be recognized and publicly confessed as the God of Bethel. The strange gods must go!)

⁵And 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 (the Lord protected them, or else they would have been slaughtered by surrounding enemies).

⁶So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Beth-el, he and all the people who were with him.

⁷And he built there an Altar, and called the place El-beth-el (the God of the House of God): because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother (some thirty years before).

⁸But Deborah Rebekahs nurse died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth (the oak of weeping; Rebekah was Jacobs mother; no doubt, he was attached to Deborah, who had been a servant of his mother for many years; he would miss her greatly).

⁹And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him (which was done some ten years before, when Jacob wrestled with the Lord; it should be noted that the Lord did not appear to Jacob while he was at Succoth, except to speak to him and tell him to leave the place; the Revelation of the Lord, as it regards blessing, cannot come to us unless we are in the center of Gods Will).

¹⁰And God said unto him, Your name is Jacob: your name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be your name: and He (God) called his name Israel (the renewal of the name given to Jacob some ten years earlier at Peniel was most possibly done because the Patriarch feared that he had forfeited the Blessing; but the Gifts and Calling of God are without Repentance).

¹¹And God said unto him, I am God Almighty (El-Shaddai, the all sufficient One): be fruitful and multiply (which can only be done with the Blessings of the Lord); a Nation and a company of nations shall be of you, and kings shall come out of your loins (and so they did);

¹²And the Land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to you I will give it, and to your seed after you will I give the Land. (Satan has fought this from then until now. The latest in the long line of opposers are the Palestinians; however, let it be known, that what God says will happen, will happen. In the coming Kingdom Age, Israel will then possess all that God has promised, and in totality.)

¹³And God went up from him in the place where He talked with him.

¹⁴And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone (a Type of Christ): and he poured a Drink Offering thereon (the first mention of a Drink Offering in Scripture), and he poured oil thereon. (This Stone figures Christ the Rock of Ages, anointed with the Holy Spirit, typified by the oil, and filled with the joy of God, typified by the Drink Offering.)

¹⁵And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Beth-el (House of God).

BENJAMIN

¹⁶And they journeyed from Beth-el; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.

¹⁷And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; you shall have this son also (the midwife is speaking of the prophecy given to Rachel when Joseph was born, that the Lord shall add to me another son [30:22-24]).

¹⁸And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin. (Sorrowing nature calls him Ben-oni, i.e., child of my sorrow. Faith calls him Benjamin, i.e., son of the right hand. Prophetic picture of Him Who was to be at first the Man of Sorrows, and then the Man at Gods Right Hand.)

¹⁹And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem (she was buried where the Son of God, some 1,700 years later, would be born).

²⁰And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachels grave unto this day.

²¹And Israel journeyed (throughout the Chapter, the Patriarch is called Jacob, except in Verses 21-22, where three times the Holy Spirit names him Israel; how strange this contradiction appears to human wisdom! Jacob is his name of weakness, Israel, of strength; and yet is he only named Israel in connection with wandering and dishonor? when we are weak, He is strong [II Cor. 12:10]), and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.

²²And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his fathers concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve (with this sin, Reuben, the firstborn, forfeited the birthright; Jesus would not be born through that line, but rather through the Tribe of Judah):

²³The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacobs firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:

²⁴The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:

²⁵And the sons of Bilhah, Rachels handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:

²⁶And the sons of Zilpah, Leahs handmaid: Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padan-aram. (The twelve sons of Jacob are listed here, who would head up the Tribes of Israel, with Manasseh and Ephraim taking the place of Joseph, making the total thirteen. There would actually be thirteen Tribes, counting Levi, which was the Priestly Tribe.)

THE DEATH OF ISAAC

²⁷And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

²⁸And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years (180 years).

²⁹And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. (They laid Isaac beside his ancestral greats in the family burying-place of Machpelah, where already slept the lifeless bodies of Abraham and Sarah, awaiting the Resurrection, while his spirit went to company with theirs in the better country, even an Heavenly. Jacob was with Isaac when he died, and Esau came to the grave.)