Jacob’s journey back to Hebron (Gen. 35:1-29)...
After Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi destroyed Shechem, God told Jacob to move to Bethel, where God reminded him that his name had been changed to Israel.
He then traveled to Hebron, but along the way his wife Rachel died near Ephrath (Bethlehem).
Read Genesis 35
When believers find themselves caught in the quagmire of sin and corruption, personal revival and purification are necessary.
And for Jacob this means getting back to Bethel.
35:1-5. God had seen enough. He intervened by sending Jacob back to Bethel to settle there, and build an altar there to God.
The time had come to rid the family of the stench of Shechem and their shame, but three conditions had to be met before the trip could begin:
Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.
Up to this point the only foreign gods we know about were the household idols which Rachel stole from Laban.
Now suddenly more idols appear, along with the rings in their ears, an indication that a significant portion of Jacob’s family still clung to some form of the paganism they had learned in Paddan Aram.
The purification dealt with complete washing of the body as both a literal and symbolical cleansing of the sin they left behind them.
The change of clothes depicted a new life for the return to Bethel (Gen. 41:14; Lev. 15:18; 16:23-24).
Formerly peaceful shepherds and reasonably good neighbors, Jacob’s family now carried the stigma of a pack of thugs who had to travel through alien territory.
But at least they left behind the symbol of their idolatry (quite probably including items Simeon and Levi had sacked from Shechem) under the great oak at Shechem associated with Abraham’s faith (12:6).
Unless we remove idols from our lives, they can ruin our faith.
What idols do we have? An idol is anything we put before God. Idols don’t have to be physical objects; they can be thoughts or desires.
Like Jacob, we should get rid of anything that could stand between us and God.
Thank God for His grace.
God’s grace still reigned over the patriarchal family.
We read that the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.
Even though Shechem’s rape of Dinah was wrong (Gen 34), Simeon and Levi overreacted and sinned.
Consequently, God told Jacob to move to Bethel and Hebron.
In the middle of life’s continuing problems and challenges, God reminded Jacob of his new name, Israel.
Through this reminder, God shows he is faithful to his promises.
God’s promises set believers apart.
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Monday, December 23
The Berean
by Mike Ford
Genesis 35:1-3
1 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
2 And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.
3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.”
In Genesis 28:20-22, Jacob made a vow that, if God would be with him, he would return to Bethel.
Instead, however, after leaving Laban, he stops first at Succoth for a time, then settles in Shechem, fifteen miles short of Bethel.
Perhaps he does not feel ready to go to Bethel, which means “House of God,” because some of his family still hold to their pagan gods.
Perhaps he feels that he knows best, and Shechem is a better spot (Bethel is about a thousand feet higher in elevation than Shechem).
God allows him this latitude, but in the Rape of Dinah and the subsequent murders (found in Genesis 34), it is obvious that God wants him to honor his promise to return to Bethel.
In Genesis 34:30, we see something else about Jacob:
Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me by making me obnoxious among the inhabitants of the land, . . . and since I am few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and kill me. I shall be destroyed, my household and I.” (Emphasis ours)
This verse does not put Jacob in the best light! He appears to have been just a bit self-centered. At this point in the story, he was not thinking in terms of Dinah’s best interests, only of his own.
It seems that Jacob failed Dinah in several ways. He put her outside Shechem where she should have never been. He allowed continuing worship of pagan gods in his home. He was concerned more with his personal honor and image than that of his daughter. Moreover, he left it to his sons to deal with this tragedy rather than taking a leadership role.
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The Bible is our Operations’ Manual for Life. As we study its pages, it becomes a lamp into our feet, giving us examples of things to do and things not to do, enabling us to learn from Israel’s mistakes.
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
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