Story 57 The Altars of God: Jacob Returns to Bethel
The children of Abraham had earned a new kind of reputation. Abraham was a man of peace, venturing into war only to protect and defend. His military might had restored his neighbors from slavery and abject poverty. He was a powerful imageof the ways of God in a corrupt world. Jacob’s sons had acted out of the vicious malice that was a mark of their times. Imagine the wailing in Shechem as the women and children found their husbands and sons dead. Imagine the horrible silence as the business and farming of their city came to a halt. Imagine the family of Jacob, watching from off in the distance, knowing the effects of Simeon and Levi’s terrible wrath. If the children of God were this captive to sin, what was to become of their covenant with God?
God came to Jacob once again. He told him it was time for his family to journey on to Bethel. As he revealed himself to Jacob, he explained that he was the same Lord who came to him all those years before as he was running away from Esau, far from the Land of Promise. This was the God whose radiant light flowed from the top of the staircase of Heaven. He was the God who promised to protect him along his journey and provide for all his needs.
Now Jacob was back in the land with a huge family and great wealth. He did not need to flee anymore. God had kept his side of the agreement. Jacob was wildly blessed beyond his imagination. But Jacob had not kept his side of the vow yet. He had promised God that if the Lord protected and provided, he would return to Bethel and build God’s house there. He also promised to give God a tenth of all his wealth. So God told Jacob to go to Bethel, settle his family, and build an altar.
These altars were very important. They were a symbol of loyalty. As Jacob set them up in the land, he was declaring that he was not a worshipper of the other gods in the region. Each altar was staking a claim for the God of Creation against all the false idols that held the people of the land captive to sin and shame. It was more than just a physical sign of Jacob’s faith. It was a spiritual declaration that was potent with the power of the Living God.
Jacob knew that many in his household were still carrying along the small statues and amulets of other gods. They were still praying to them. As his own heart was being purified, he could no longer allow the presence of idolatry in the family he led. Something had to change. The household of God had to be purified. So he said, “‘Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who has answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.’”
Do you hear Jacob’s gratitude? Do you hear his devotion? I wonder if the vicious murders that his sons committed had anything to do with Jacob’s newfound passion for the faith of his family? Whatever happened to make Jacob hunger for change, it worked. He didn’t sound like the same Jacob of the past. He was starting to sound a lot more like Abraham.
The members of Jacob’s household did just as he said. They gave him all of their idols. They took out the rings they wore in their ears as well. They were amulets to evil spirits, worn to appeal for favor and protection from the demonic forces around them. Jacob buried all these things beneath an oak tree at Shechem. Then the entire household went through a time of purification from the pollution and sin of false idols and all the evil things that worshipping them required. They were choosing to be the children of God. They were declaring total separation from the worship of Satan and his demonic powers. They had seen how terribly horrific things became when their own family members acted like they were the Serpent’s seed. They left those revolting influences and their shameful objects behind in Shechem and made their way to Bethel.
Jacob was probably still fearful of what might happen because of his son’s brutal killings in Shechem. Yet everywhere they went, the fear of God fell on the people of the region when Jacob’s clan traveled by. Nobody pursued them or tried to destroy them.
When Jacob arrived in Bethel, he built an altar to the Lord. This was the same place he had dreamt of God’s stairway. It was where he saw the angels climb up and down between Heaven and earth.
At that sacred place, the LORD appeared to Jacob once again. He said:
“‘Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel…I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.’”
Genesis 35:10-12
Wow. God promised overcome famine, war, deceit, and barren wives to build his nation! He would even overcome the sins of his people. Such was his mercy and grace! Their failures could not stop his plans. He could even use their weaknesses to help them grow in faith.
Jacob set up a pillar of stone to God right then and there to mark the amazing moment. He poured out offerings of drink and oil onto it. It was a symbol that the covenant that the Lord made with Jacob his first time in Bethel had grown and was strengthened.
Jacob and his clan journeyed towards a place called Ephrath. In the future it would be renamed Bethlehem. One of the most amazing moments in the history of the world would happen there. But that was still many hundreds of years away.
Rachel was pregnant with her second child. As they continued on their trek, she began to give birth. Things were not going well. Rachel was having a terrible time, crying out and whimpering in her weakness and pain. It looked as though she might not survive. The baby was coming, but Rachel’s strength was almost gone.
The midwife tried to comfort the dying mother. She said, “‘Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.’” And as Rachel breathed her last breath, she named him “Ben-Oni’” which means“son of my trouble.” Jacob took that name and changed it to “Benjamin” which means “son of my right hand.” By naming him this, Jacob showed the tremendous value of this infant to him. To be at leader’s right hand was to be in a place of great honor.
With Jacob’s delight came terrible grief. Jacob had lost the wife that was the passion of his heart. The family buried her in Ephrath, and Jacob put a pillar at her tomb.
When this story was written down over four hundred years later, the author added a special detail. His name was Moses, and we will read a lot about him later. He was God’s chosen servant to lead the Israelite nation back to the Promise Land. When he did, the Israelites found that the pillar that Jacob put at Rachel’s tomb was still there. It stood all those years in Bethlehem as a testimony to the life of Jacob’s beloved treasure.
Jacob and his clan journeyed on to a place called Migdal Eder. The death of Rachel turned the household upside down. She had been the chief wife of Jacob’s household, and she had all the rights and power to order the rest of the family. It was a very significant responsibility. The family culture could be completely dominated by her personality. Everyone knew their place in the family based on their relation to her because of her relationship with Jacob.
In those days of nomadic life, a person’s family was their whole life. There was nowhere else to go! Their only hope for love or status or respect came through the family lines. There were no colleges or universities to earn a degree. There was no place to go to hang out with another group of people who might like you better. There were no businesses to go work for to get away and earn a living. The family was a deeply intertwined unit, and the good and bad things in life came through family relationships. Each person was lifted to a place of honor or brought down to a place of shame by their position in the family. Rachel’s favored position with Jacob gave her tremendous power.
Rachel had often used her power poorly. Remember when Leah had to bargain with Rachel just to share an evening with her own husband? It is also clear that the sons of Rachel had a position of honor that the other sons did not. Joseph, her first born son, was hidden in the back of the family when Jacob faced Esau. Jacob named her second born as the son of his right hand. Now she was gone, and her space in the household needed to be filled. Who would take over her responsibilities as head wife? Which woman would have the most power in the house? As the family grieved the loss of Rachel, everyone wondered who would be lifted up. Would it go to Leah, Jacob’s first wife? Or would it go to Rachel’s servant Bilhah?
Now, imagine what it was like all those years for Leah’s sons to watch their mother suffer constant dishonor. Their loyalty to Leah was a very good thing, just as their loyalty to Dinah was. Loyalty is an important part of love. But having the right heart does not mean everything done in the name of loyalty is noble or righteous.
Jacob’s oldest son, Reuben, had not learned that lesson yet. He was determined to make sure that his own mother would be the chief wife of the family. But instead of turning to God, he did something despicable. He took Bilhah and had a relationship with her that belongs only between a husband and wife. He slept with the concubine of his own father. He disgraced her, making it impossible for her to take over as Jacob’s chief wife. In doing so, Reuben secured the position of chief wife for his own mother, Leah.
There was probably something else behind it, too. Everyone was wondering whose son would take over the clan when Jacob passed away. Reuben was the first son born to Jacob, and the position should have naturally gone to him. But Jacob had made his preference for Rachel’s sons very clear. Would the rule of God’s covenant family go to Joseph? Reuben wanted to make sure that didn’t happen. He did the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way. He was choosing the aggressive and faithless route of the Serpent. He was behaving like Caan and Ham.
These rules of society and the sins of the Old Testament people often seem strange to us now. It is important to remember that they lived in very different times. Four thousand years is a long time to travel back in history! We are also stretching across thousands of miles to another land, another language, and another culture! We know from the records of other nations from this time that these social rules and sins were normal for the people of that era. It is our job as the readers to try to understand the pressures and the ways of life that created the rules and the patterns.
One would hope that family of God looked different from the people around them. But they didn’t! The sin of the curse was riddled deep in their hearts just like everyone else. It could have been so different. In a house full of faith in the Lord, each person should have been able to live at peace with the position God gave them. Each person would be treated with honor and love because God said that every person is made in his image. But Jacob’s home was a place of deep division and favoritism. The people that were honored, like Rachel, were very highly honored indeed. The family members that were shamed and disgraced, like Leah, were treated with a deep shame and hatred.
Reuben was the son whose birthright gave him the largest share in his father’s inheritance. He tried to arrogantly claim those rights before his father had passed away. He slept with his father’s concubine. It was a shameful act that totally dishonored his father. Because of this, Reuben lost his birthright, and his terrible behavior was recorded for all the children of Abraham to know throughout history. Instead of being a model of righteousness for God’s holy nation, Reuben became an example of faithless sin. That has been his legacy for four thousand years and counting.
Levi and Simon were the next two sons in line to receive the incredible privilege of inheriting the status of firstborn. But they, too, had sinned greatly. Their violence against Shechem proved they were unworthy to lead the family of God. The next two sons in line were Judah, Leah’s fourth boy, and Joseph, Rachel’s oldest son. Of the twelve sons of Jacob, who would God choose to lead the family that would become his holy nation?
Jacob and his clan finally made their way to Mamre, the home of his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. He brought twelve sons to meet his father for the first time. Leah had born him Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Isaachar, and Zebulun. Rachel gave him Joseph and Benjamin. Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah gave birth to Dan and Naphtali. Leah’s maidservant Zilpah bore Gad and Asher. Imagine what a reunion that must have been as they all gathered around Isaac!
Isaac lived on to be a hundred and eighty years old. This is what the Bible says about the death of the great patriarch;
“‘Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him’” (Gen. 35:29).
The chosen family of the Most High God was fully transferred under the leadership of Jacob.