April 30, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Genesis? Here’s today’s reading:
Genesis 35 (NIV)
Jacob Returns to Bethel
1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”
2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes……Continue Reading
After the terrible things that happened in Shechem a place God did not want them, Jacob is listening to God and getting his family back on the path God wants for them. They are purified and change their clothes to represent this decision.
Rachel’s death I am sure was hard on Jacob as we know how much he loved her but was likely a result of his own curse on her when she took her father’s idol without his knowledge making it even more tragic.
Genesis 35.
I have seen myself in this genealogy, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and what I see is not pretty. This year has been the most intense study of Genesis I can recall. It’s not so much about these folks, their triumphs, their failures, as it is about how I have lived, before and after Christ, if I am to be gut-level honest. The Geneva Bible has a side note where Abram negotiates with God over the number of righteous to be spared. Seems to sum up how I feel tonight.
“Hereby we learne, that cy (the) nerer we approche vnto God, the more doeth our miferable eftate appeare, and the more are we humbled.” Genesis 18:27 -reb
This time Jacob is listening to God as He tells Jacob to go to Bethel and make an altar to God. This is the same place where God revealed Himself in a dream to Jacob and Jacob made a pledge to God. The vow was this: { if God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father`s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God. And this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God`s house; and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.} Gen. 28: 20–22. God brings him back to the place where he made the vow to God. Perhaps reminding Jacob of how he was blessed. It is perhaps like a new start for now he is dedicating his family and all that are with him to God. He has made another altar to God and all the people have brought their false gods and their earrings to Jacob. They have also made themselves clean and changed their garments. Jacob buried the false gods and earrings under a oak tree. All with a new start. God even reminds Jacob that his name is now Israel and he will be a mighty nation and the land that He promised Abraham would be his and his people. Promises that God made to Abraham and are now promises to him. After when they left Bethel; Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin. Jacob goes to Isaac his father and Isaac dies and his two sons bury him. At least at this point the two brothers are still at peace with each other. At some point in time Esau took the people that were with him away from his brother, Jacob to the country. They got too crowded and didn`t have enough room for their cattle, beasts, etc. And they had many riches. May the Lord bless.
Genesis 35
After the mess his sons made God appeared to Jacob instructing him to go to Bethel and set up an altar to God.
Jacob sets things straight to go to Bethel. All were told to change clothes and give up gods and all earrings and buried them at Shechem. God saw to it that no one would harm them. God blesses Jacob again and now he is called Israel. The land of Issac and Abraham God also gave to Israel. Rachel dies in childbirth on the way to Ephrath. There appears to be no consequences that his son Reuben, slept with his fathers Bilhan. It says Israel heard about it. Esau and Jacob buried their father Isaac. Jacob (Israel) has now followed all that God told him to do.
Genesis 35
Genesis 35
Genesis 35
”And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”“
Genesis 35
So Reuben lays with his father’s concubine, Bilhah. Isn’t this also “not to be done in Israel?” Worse than Shechem who didn’t know God to know His laws.
Israel is passive, though he knows it. He does give Reuben a non-blessing.
”“Reuben, you are my firstborn, My might and the beginning of my strength, The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, you shall not excel, Because you went up to your father’s bed; Then you defiled it— He went up to my couch.“
Genesis 49:3-4 NKJV
Maybe Reuben thought he got away with it.
Genesis 35
Way to think ahead, Amy! Nicely done. -reb
How significant that Jacob sees the need for purification as God has asked him to meet Him in a special place and build an altar and worship Him. God is pure and desires for His people to be pure and He is not to be mixed with the recognition of any other god or religion. I was also struck by the fear God had fall on the towns so they would not pursue them. How nice if God enhances our witness with an awareness of His presence in our lives so unbelievers would see the reality of His glory. It is also significant that God once again reenforces the covenant He made with Jacob, the same one He made with Abraham and Isaac. He is both a covenant making and covenant keeping God. And what better way to represent the transformation that He makes in our lives than by giving Jacob a new name. How much better is the transformation that comes in us being born again! And how sad when new life is mixed with the tragedy of death. It just goes to show that God does not solve every problem or heal every disease, but works His will according to His plan. And what rest we can have in that!