The good news of the gospel is that we don’t have to stay the way we are. No matter how many times we’ve failed the Lord, we can go home again if we truly repent and obey. It happened to Abraham (13:1–4), Isaac (26:17), David (2 Sam. 12), Jonah (Jonah 3:1–3), and Peter (John 21:15–19), and now it’s happening to Jacob.
God spoke to Jacob (v. 1). For several years, Jacob had lingered thirty miles away from Bethel and had paid dearly for his disobedience. But now the Lord spoke to him and told him to move to Bethel and settle down there. Jacob already knew that Bethel was God’s appointed place for him and his family (31:113), but he had been slow to obey. “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works” (Rev. 2: nkjv).
Jacob had built an altar on the property he had bought near Shechem and had called it “God the God of Israel” (Gen. 33:20). But God wasn’t pleased with this altar because He wanted him worshipping back at Bethel, “the house of God.” The Lord reminded Jacob of his desperate situation over twenty years ago and how He had delivered him and blessed him. At Bethel, Jacob had made some vows to the Lord, and now it was time to fulfill them.
Many of the problems in the Christian life and in local churches result from incomplete obedience. We know what the Lord wants us to do, we start to do it, and then we stop. When we don’t continue to obey God and accomplish His will, even what we’ve done starts to die. What Jesus said to the church in Sardis, He says to us, “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect [having been fulfilled] before God” (Rev. 3: nkjv).
Jacob instructed his household (vv. 2–4). It’s refreshing to see Jacob take command of the situation and boldly bear witness to what God said to him and what God did for him. These instructions applied not only to Jacob’s wives and children but also to the servants he had employed in Padan Aram. Since Jacob owned great flocks and herds, he must have needed many men to help care for them.
Jacob called for a time of cleansing for everybody, and the first thing they had to do was get rid of their idols. Rachel had stolen her father’s household idols (31:19, 34–35), and Jacob knew that other false gods were hidden in the camp. Worshipping the gods of the pagan nations was always a temptation to the Israelites. Moses had to warn them about idolatry before they entered the land (Deut. 7), and Joshua had to challenge the Israelites to abandon their idols after they had conquered the land (Josh. 24:14, 23–24). Even Samuel faced this problem in his day (1 Sam. 7:2–4), and the prophets often rebuked the nation for building the high places where they served false gods.
The second instruction was “purify yourselves and change your clothes” (Gen. 35:2). Most people today are accustomed to indoor plumbing, fragrant soap, and ample wardrobes, so we forget that the ancient nomadic people in Bible lands had none of these conveniences. For that matter, our modern hygienic practices and facilities were totally unknown even in Western civilization during most of its history. What we call necessities would have been considered luxuries by our ancestors.
But in Scripture, washing the body and changing clothes symbolize making a new beginning. Like dirt, sin is defiling and must be washed away (Ps. 51:2, 7; Isa. 1:16; 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 John 1:9). Our old garments typify the old life with its failures (Isa. 64:6), but God in His mercy gives us “new garments” so we can make a fresh beginning (Gen. 3:21; Isa. 61:10; Zech. 3:11–5; Luke 15:22; Rev. 3:18). Before God gave the law at Mount Sinai, He ordered the people to wash and change clothes, for they were about to enter into a solemn covenant with God (Ex. 19:9–15).
All the people obeyed Jacob’s commands and gave him their idols and the jewelry that were identified with pagan gods (see also Ex. 32:3; Judg. 8:24–27; Hos. 2:13). Jacob buried all of it under “the oak at Shechem” (Gen. 35:4), which was apparently a wellknown tree and might have been the one referred to in 12:6.
God protected Jacob and his household (v. 5). After the murderous assault on the Shechemites by Simeon and Levi, Jacob was afraid the people of the land would attack him (34:30), but God kept His promise (28:15) and cared for Jacob and his people as they moved toward Bethel (Ps. 105:7–15). This same “terror of God” went before Israel as they journeyed to Canaan, and prepared the way for their conquest of the land (Ex. 15:14–16; Deut. 2:24–25; Josh. 2:8–14). When God’s people are doing God’s will in God’s way, they can depend on God’s provision and protection (Isa. 41:10, 14; 44:2, 8; 43:1–5). When we fear God, we need fear no one else.
Jacob worshipped God (vv. 6–8). God had promised to bring Jacob safely back to Bethel (28:15), and He kept His promise, as He always does (Josh. 21:45; 23:14; 1 Kings 8:56). Jacob kept his part of the agreement by building an altar and leading his household in worshipping the Lord. Once again, Jacob gave a new name to an old place. “Luz” he had renamed “Bethel, the house of God” (28:19); and now “Bethel” he expanded to become “the God of Bethel.” It wasn’t the place that was important but the God of the place and what He had done for Jacob.
The Jewish people considered many places to be special because of what God had done for them there, places like Bethel, Mount Sinai, Jerusalem, the Jordan River, and Gilgal. Perhaps all of us have places that are especially meaningful to us because of spiritual experiences we had there, but a “holy site” must never take the place of the Holy God. To visit a special location and try to recapture old blessings is to live in the past. Let’s ask God for new blessings and a new revelation of Himself!
We don’t know when Rebekah’s maid Deborah (24:59) became a part of Jacob’s household, but her presence in the camp suggests that Jacob’s mother was now dead. Deborah had stayed with Isaac until Jacob drew near to Hebron, and then she went to be with the boy she had helped to raise years before. Was she the one who broke the news to Jacob that Rebekah was dead? Jacob’s tender treatment of this elderly servant is an example for all of us to follow.
God appeared to Jacob (vv. 9–15). In his first Bethel experience, Jacob had seen God and the angels in a dream (28:12), but now the Lord appeared to him in some special way and blessed him. God reaffirmed Jacob’s new name “Israel” and His own name “God Almighty” (El-Shaddai; 17:1; 28:3; 43:14; 48:3; 49:25). He also reaffirmed the promises concerning the multiplying of Jacob’s descendants and their possessing the land, assuring Jacob that nations and kings would be among his descendants. At that time, Jacob had only eleven sons, but God would give him one more son and abundantly bless all of them and increase their number.
As he had done years before at Bethel, Jacob set up a pillar and dedicated it to the Lord (28:18). He not only poured oil on the pillar, but he also poured out a drink offering of wine. The drink offering was a supplement to the regular sacrifices and was poured out on the altar as the sacrifice was burning (Ex. 29:40–41; Num. 6:17; 15:5–10, 24; 29:22–38). It was a symbol of dedication, the worshipper’s life poured out for the Lord (2 Sam. 23:16; Phil. 2:17).
Jacob’s restoration was now complete. He was back in the place of God’s choosing; he had offered himself and his sacrifices to the Lord; the Lord had spoken to him; and the covenant promises had been reaffirmed. He had come from the house of Laban to the house of God, and though he still had much to learn about his walk with the Lord, Jacob was starting to be “Israel” and live like a prince instead of a pauper.