Genesis 35: 1 –29
The importance of ‘Re’
35 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.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem. 5 And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. 7 And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother. 8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth. 9 Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. 10 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. 11 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. 12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.” 13 Then God went up from him in the place where He talked with him. 14 So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel. 16 Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. 17 Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; you will have this son also.” 18 And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. 21 Then Israel journeyed and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. 22 And it happened, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard about it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: 23 the sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun; 24 the sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin; 25 the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali; 26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan Aram. 27 Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt. 28 Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. 29 So Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
In my observation of things over the years I have become aware of how we all take things for granted. We do not know about things wholly. One thing I want to focus on that we in many cases do not know fully are the words in our language. For example if I asked you what does the prefix ‘Re’ mean to you? If you are truthful many would state, ‘First of all what does a prefix mean? A prefix is something that is added to a word and it comes before the word which causes a change to its meaning.
There's an increasing tendency to use "re" as a direct replacement for "regarding, about, on the matter of", but outside of "auto-generated email header" contexts (or manual replication of same) it's probably a bit too casual for many contexts. My advice to learners would be "accept it when used by others, but don't try to extend the usage beyond introductory heading contexts yourself.
However this prefix standing alone has the meaning of ‘again’ or ‘back’
In our Bibles the Holy Spirit teaches us over and over again to‘re’ do things. For example when we have drifted into mental suffering we are instructed to ‘rejoice’. The way to get out of this torture in our thinking is to go back in our minds to the time we were joyful in our walk with Jesus. Meditate on how wonderful the glow of love for the Lord God was to you.
In other situations we may have gone astray in obedience to the Lord. We have back slid. So, what are we suppose to do? ‘Return’. to God back from where you left off following the Great Shepherd. Get back on the right path. If you were driving and made the wrong turn would you keep on driving hoping you will get to the right destination? You might be going the wrong way. You should turn around and go back to where you made the wrong turn and get back on the right route. Do you agree?
Today we are going to see The Wonderful Counselor tell His anointed Jacob to do exactly what I have just mentioned. Let’s see how this works out for him.
35 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.”
Jacob is still at Shechem but it would not have too smart to remain there in view of what had happened. It is thus timely that God appears again to Jacob with the command to move on. God’s motive is, however, slightly different. He had seen that Jacob had been ready to compromise. Now He requires him to go back to Bethel to rededicate [notice the ‘re’] himself and his entire family. A dangerous and covenant-wrecking situation has been averted.
The command then is to return to where he had had his previous vision. This will take him well away from Shechem. God is calling Jacob to a new dedication of himself by re-examining his life from where he had met with God in an unusually vivid way.
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.
Jacob is travelling back to where he had seen Heaven and earth meet, where he had made a solemn covenant with God, a place he could never forget. And this causes him to take a new look at his life and family.
With self reflection Jacob knows that all is not well in his camp. Many are secretly worshipping strange gods, superstition is rife, loyalty to YHWH is in abeyance. These strange gods may indeed include the idol stolen by Rachel.
So they are to put away these gods (it is not enough to stop heeding them, they must totally be thrown away or just outright destroyed. Then they are to ritually purify themselves, including changing their clothes, in preparation for the journey to Bethel. We have no hint of the method of ritual purification but it may well have included ritual washing and a period of abstinence from sexual activity, removing the ‘earthiness’ so that they can be fit to approach Bethel and God. The re-clothing suggests a presentation of them before God having rid them of the past.
And as we see what Jacob and his family did, it is good also for us too to take time to re-examine our lives and rid ourselves of those things that have begun to hinder our walk with God. Then we too may have deeper experience of God.
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.”
Jacob had erected the pillar before at Bethel. Now he is to make an altar which is something permanent.
4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.
Jacob gathered together all their ‘strange gods’. These would include small images, amulets, and other superstitious objects, which included earrings, which had idolatrous religious connections, and which would have been bought from passing merchants. These were collected together and buried under an oak in Shechem. Such trees were often connected with important events. They represented outstanding landmarks. Thus, when they left Shechem they left their past behind them. It reminds us that God cannot be approached casually. If we would approach Him all hindrances must be removed.
Do you see anything possibly wrong in what Jacob did? I do. When we forsake anything that has gotten in the way of fully walking with the Lord we should not leave any forwarding address. Temptation is always lurking if you do not totally eliminate anything that will take you down. Jacob knew where he buried those sacrilegious items. He could always at any time go back and dig them up. Even today there are treasure seekers trying to locate this spot so they can did up these strange gods.
5 And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
They made their escape from Shechem without interference. This was because of the fear that had spread round as a result of their activities. Stories about the raid by Jacob’s sons were probably spread from mouth to mouth, expanding as they went, so that by the time the other cities heard them a large, fierce army had been involved. And this was added to and used by God. Thus they kept away, and by the time the truth was known it was too late. Jacob’s sons had made their escape. Such a terror from God is witnessed to elsewhere in our bibles. God can work in men’s minds in many ways.
6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. 7 And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.
Previously Jacob had erected a pillar as a personal witness to his personal covenant with God. He had named its site Bethel. Now he erects an altar as a place of worship for his family tribe. And he calls the site of the altar ‘El-Bethel’ which means ‘the God of Bethel’. This was in memory of the fact that he had named the place where the pillar was Beth-el (house of God) when God had revealed Himself to him there. This is a public naming, with full solemnities of sacrifice and worship, in contrast to the previous private naming. Now the name is generally recognized.
8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth.
The ceremony was marred by a sad event, the death of Rebekah’s nurse. It is probable that Rebekah had sent her nurse to keep a motherly eye on Jacob on his flight to Paddan-aram as she could not do so herself. Thus she had been with him many years. It was the end of an era. She had watched over Jacob these many years and now he has returned to Bethel her work is done. She has done what God required. The Holy Spirit reminds us that He does not forget anyone.
It may be that the death of such a faithful servant was seen as somehow a fitting offering to God for she was buried under an oak tree ‘below Bethel’. The place was thus called Allon-Bacuth - ‘the oak of weeping’, an indication of the sorrow that accompanied her departure. This speaks a lot about what happens to us when there is a revival. People wind up weeping over self reflection. You are sadden by what you have allowed to happened in your life which usually was sin against our Holy God. This place became a sanctuary where people could weep when they were enduring sorrow.
9 Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him.
This is now God’s renewal of that covenant on his return to the Promised Land at the place where he had first made His promises to him. It is the confirmation of the return of God’s chosen one from the far country. This sums up what follows. Thus Jacob’s obedience to God and detailed preparations for the pilgrimage to Bethel to build the altar to His name is rewarded with a vivid experience of the divine, a great theophany, accompanied by great promises. This is the definitive experience. In it is summed up all that has gone before. In it is summed up all his hopes for the future. Both the name Israel and the name Bethel are as it were re-consecrated in recognition of the uniqueness of this occasion.
10 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.
As we know, Jacob had already been given this name after wrestling with God at Penuel (32.28), and he had subsequently erected an altar to ‘God, the God of Israel’ (33.20). But he had delayed in returning to the family and as so often in men’s lives such life-changing events can dim with time. The idea of him as Israel has become faded. It is almost forgotten. The old Jacob reasserted itself. Thus at this crucial renewing of the covenant at Bethel the change of name is renewed and emphasized. It is emphasizing that what happened at Penuel is now to come into fruition. He is to be Israel which means ‘Governed by God’.
A change of name in ancient days was seen as having deep significance. This is why at this crucial moment in the life of Jacob and of the tribe God emphasizes his changed name. He must remember that he is no longer Jacob, but Israel. The past is behind him. The old Jacob is behind him. This is a new beginning. He is the one with whom God has striven and through whom He will carry out his purposes.
11 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. 12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”
To receive a covenant from El Shaddai means a whole new direction in life. So Jacob is confirmed as the inheritor of the greater covenant. Whenever God is mentioned under the name of El Shaddai it is in relation to many nations, not just to the family tribe.
13 Then God went up from him in the place where He talked with him.
This is confirmation that here was a physical manifestation of God.
14 So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it.
This is the second pillar that Jacob has set up. The first commemorated his first vision when he saw the angels of God ascending and descending on a ramp as they went about their heavenly business in the world, and was assured of God’s presence with him and watch over him and his participation in the covenant (27.18). It was set up in the place where he slept. This one commemorates an even greater occasion, the awesome visible manifestation of God in renewal of that covenant now that he is back in the land of promise. Again the pillar is witness to the covenant that has been made. It is set up at the very site of the theophany.
15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.
The previous naming of the place as Beth-el had been in private (28.19) and was of the spot where he had had his vision. It was an extremely personal thing and was accompanied by a personal response. Now the naming is more public and covers a wider area where the altar has been set up. We cannot doubt that the whole family was involved. Thus the wider site becomes more widely recognized as ‘Beth-el’, the house of God.
16 Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. 17 Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; you will have this son also.” 18 And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).
Doesn’t it seem the way things turn out for us are always highs and lows. Jacob had just experienced the high of having a personal visit from the Lord God Most High. Now as he travels from Bethel he is hit with a deep low in that the love of his life dies.
The journey from Bethel to Mamre is interrupted by sad experiences of which the first is the death of Rachel in childbirth. But as she dies she is able to deliver a healthy son to Jacob. She named him Benoni - ‘product of my sorrow’. Understandably however Jacob does not want a continual reminder of the loss of his beloved wife, and changes the name to Benjamin. This name, ‘son of the right hand’ is probably intended to indicate good fortune. Jacob wants him to be connected with good fortune rather than with mourning.
20 And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.
The loss of Rachel is a deep blow and when she is buried he sets up a memorial stone In Bethel Jacob at first placed a stone of remembrance just for him in experiencing God’s presence. Later, our Holy Lord God showed up personally and conversed with him. Jacob then built an altar to remind all future generations of the spot where this theophany occurred. Now, sadly Jacob is back placing a stone for his own personal reminder of the exact spot where he buried his love Rachael.
21 Then Israel journeyed and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. 22 And it happened, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard about it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:
What is significant here is that we see Jacob’s new name applied to him for the first time. He has come home as a new man. It is not Jacob who is coming home, but Israel. The contrast with ‘Jacob’ in the previous verse may well deliberately indicate that the death of Rachel brings in a new era.
The homecoming is marred. Israel (Jacob) may be coming home a new man but there is still sin in the camp. His children have been shaped by his past. His son Reuben commits a great sin, and the news reaches him. It is a sin that Israel never forgets even on his deathbed (49.4) for it would bring great shame on him. It would seem that Reuben takes advantage of Bilhah’s new insecurity, for now that her mistress is dead she may well have lost status and be vulnerable and in no position to deal with the advances of her husband’s eldest son.
Please notice the short reference statement ‘Israel heard of it.’ The total lack of comment or of any indication of Israel’s reaction speaks volumes. Israel ponders it and bides his time. He is weak with regard to his sons. It had to be mentioned because of the appalling nature of the sin, for it would color the whole of Reuben’s future. But it was passed over without comment because of deep sensitivity for the ancient leader Israel.
23 the sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun; 24 the sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin; 25 the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali; 26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan Aram.
The record finishes with a genealogy of Jacob’s sons, followed by the final homecoming and the death of Isaac.
Jacob’s sons are listed indicating first his six sons directly by Leah, then his two sons directly by Rachel, and these are followed by the names of the sons of the concubines.
27 Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt.
At last Jacob is home. He has come to take up his now rightful place as heir to the family tribe and the covenant promises, something confirmed at Beth-el. He is now in the line of Abraham and Isaac.
28 Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years. 29 So Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Isaac lives on for many years. He was not much more than one hundred when Jacob left for Paddan-aram and he had thus many years of life ahead of him but unfortunately he was blind and old before his days
After the return of Jacob their wealth of possessions and cattle and herds was so great that Esau eventually removes permanently, with all he possesses, to his well established base in Mount Seir (36.6). His visits to his family home will now be far fewer and less visited. Previously he has shared his time between assisting his father in times of necessity, lambing, sheep shearing, harvest and so on, and leading his band of warriors. Now that can be left to Jacob. But he remained in touch with his family and when his father died he came to join Jacob, and they buried him together.
