The Book of Genesis

Hebrew Study

Explanation

After the disaster at Shechem, God speaks again: "Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there." Bethel is where God first met Jacob in the ladder dream when he fled from Esau, and where Jacob had vowed to make the LORD his God. Now God calls him back to keep that vow. Before he goes, Jacob finally does what he should have done long ago. He tells his whole household, "Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments." There were idols hidden in his camp, perhaps Rachel's stolen teraphim and more, and they had to go before the family could worship at Bethel. The people hand over their idols and even their pagan earrings, and Jacob buries them under an oak. As they journey, "the terror of God" falls on the surrounding cities so none pursue them. Jacob comes to Bethel, builds his altar, and names the place El-bethel, "the God of Bethel."

Gospel Focus

"Put away the strange gods ... and be clean, and change your garments." This is the language of consecration, and it teaches us how to draw near to God. Jacob understood that you cannot go up to Bethel with idols in your baggage. Before we worship, there must be a putting away of everything that competes with God and a cleansing of the life. The New Testament calls us to the same: "let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). The changed garments picture a changed life, the old put off and the new put on. Notice too that this cleansing had been overdue. Jacob had tolerated idols in his household for years, and only after the bitter fruit of Shechem did he deal with them. How often we leave the strange gods buried in our lives until trouble forces our hand. God in mercy calls His people back to Bethel, back to the place of first devotion, and the way back always runs through repentance and cleansing. When the idols are buried, the altar can be built.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

At Bethel God appears to Jacob again and confirms what He said at Peniel: "thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel." The new name is sealed. Then God declares Himself, "I am God Almighty," the same title, El Shaddai, by which He had appeared to Abraham, and He renews the full covenant. He promises fruitfulness, "a nation and a company of nations," the land given to Abraham and Isaac, and something new and striking: "kings shall come out of thy loins." From Jacob would come not only the twelve tribes but a royal line. Jacob responds in worship, setting up a pillar of stone in the place, pouring out a drink offering and oil, and again naming the place Bethel. God had met him here as a frightened fugitive twenty years before; now He meets him again as Israel, and every promise still stands.

Gospel Focus

"Kings shall come out of thy loins." This promise reaches far beyond Jacob's lifetime. From his son Judah would come King David, and from David's line, in the fullness of time, the greatest King of all. The royal promise given here at Bethel runs like a golden thread through the whole Bible until it arrives at Jesus Christ, of whom the angel said, "the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David" (Luke 1:32). The God who is "God Almighty" was quietly laying, in the loins of an old shepherd, the line of the coming King. See also how God confirms the new name here at Bethel, the place of the altar, not at Peniel, the place of the wound. God does not only name us in the struggle; He seals it when we come back to Him in worship. And notice the steadiness of God's covenant. Jacob had wandered, compromised, and delayed, yet God renews every promise unchanged. Our God is faithful even when we are faltering, and He keeps His word to the generations to come, "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8).

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Leaving Bethel, the family is on the road when Rachel goes into hard labor. She had once cried, "Give me children, or else I die," and now, tragically, she dies giving her second son life. With her last strength she names him Benoni, which means "son of my sorrow." But Jacob will not let his beloved Rachel's boy carry a name of grief through life, so he calls him Benjamin, "son of the right hand," a name of honor and strength. Rachel is buried "in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem," and Jacob sets a pillar on her grave that stood for generations. So Jacob loses the wife he had labored fourteen years for, and the twelfth and last son of Israel is born into her death. Joy and sorrow arrive in the very same hour.

Gospel Focus

There is deep comfort in what Jacob did with the name. Rachel, dying, called the child "son of my sorrow," but the father renamed him "son of the right hand." That is a picture of how God works. He takes what sorrow names and gives it a new name of hope, for "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Psalm 30:5). Our griefs are real, and Scripture never pretends otherwise, but God is able to write a better name over our sorrows. And do not miss where Rachel was buried: "in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem." Little Bethlehem, the place of this sorrow, would one day be the place of the world's greatest joy, for the prophet declared, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah ... out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel" (Micah 5:2). The King promised in the verses just before, who would come out of Jacob's loins, would be born in this very town. Even beside Rachel's grave, God was pointing to the Savior. Where sorrow marks the road, God is often planting the seed of salvation.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

As Israel journeys on, a shadow falls: Reuben, the firstborn, lies with Bilhah, his father's concubine, a shameful sin that Israel hears of and that will later cost Reuben his place as firstborn. Then the twelve sons of Jacob are listed together for the first time, the sons of Leah, Rachel, and the two handmaids, the whole household of Israel from which the twelve tribes will spring. Finally, the chapter closes a generation. Jacob comes home to his father Isaac at Hebron, and Isaac, "an hundred and fourscore years" old, "gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days." And in a quiet and beautiful detail, "his sons Esau and Jacob buried him." The brothers who were once bitter enemies stand together at their father's grave, still reconciled. One generation of the covenant passes, and the next carries the promise on.

Gospel Focus

The phrase "gathered unto his people" is one of Scripture's gentle hints of life beyond the grave -- and it means more than "he was buried." Scripture keeps the two apart: a man is gathered to his people at the moment of death, and then, as a separate act, his sons bury him. Nor can "his people" mean merely a shared tomb, for the very same words are spoken of Moses, whom God buried alone on a mountain with no kinsman near (Deuteronomy 32:50). The phrase reaches past the body to the person: at death Isaac was gathered to the company of the faithful gone before him. Death for the man of faith is not the end but a homecoming, a being gathered to those who have gone before and to the God who keeps them. This is why Jesus could say God "is not a God of the dead, but of the living" (Luke 20:38), for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob live to Him. And there is grace in the picture of Esau and Jacob burying their father side by side. The reconciliation of chapter 33 held; grudges did not swallow up the family at the graveside. When brothers who were once enemies can stand together in peace to honor their father, it is a testimony to the God who heals. Isaac died "old and full of days," a life not without failures but held to the end by the covenant God. That same God carries His promise, unbroken, from Abraham to Isaac to Israel, and on at last to us in Christ.