Jacob's Recall to Bethel

Narrator: Chris Genthree
 •  7 min. read  •  grade level: 10
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In the four chief biographies of Genesis, we have illustrated four great principles of God’s dealing with His people in grace.
In Abraham is presented God’s principle of election and grace; in Isaac, sonship and heirship; in Jacob, discipline; in Joseph, we get suffering and glory. Other truths have their place in each of them, but these are the leading thoughts. It is interesting to look at Bethel in connection both with Abraham, the man of faith, and Jacob, the man of experience. Bethel, and the God of Bethel, are the same, but there is an aspect peculiar to each. Bethel was Abram’s meeting-place with God, as well as Jacob’s, and the place of his altar too (Gen. 12:7-87And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. 8And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. (Genesis 12:7‑8)), but he had known him as the “God of glory” before this in Ur of the Chaldees. This was the foundation of the call which the man of faith had obeyed. Faith had brought Abram as a stranger and a pilgrim to Bethel; circumstances first brought Jacob there. Accordingly, after declension in Abram as the man of faith, there is a much speedier restoration to Bethel than Jacob found (Gen. 13:3-43And he went on his journeys from the south even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Hai; 4Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. (Genesis 13:3‑4)). But Jacob is our subject.
The God of Bethel
In Genesis 28:10-2210And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. 11And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. 16And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. 17And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 18And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. 19And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. 20And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, 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, 21So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: 22And 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. (Genesis 28:10‑22), we learn the circumstances in which Jacob first became acquainted with Bethel. His subtlety in seeking to obtain the blessing which was his, according to the promise of God, had now made him an exile from his father’s house. But Jacob, with all his obliquities and feebleness of character, was connected with God, while Esau, with every trait of generous frankness, was but a natural man, seeking nothing beyond this world.
It was to this Jacob, when he was a homeless pilgrim, a staff for his companion, and the stone for his pillow, that the God of Bethel appeared and entered into an unchangeable relationship and connection with Him.
Jacob never had a fuller revelation of God as the God of promise and grace than Bethel presented, and that too when every external circumstance was most contrary. Grace penetrates his heart, and he “vowed a vow saying, 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 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” (Gen. 28:20-2220And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, 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, 21So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: 22And 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. (Genesis 28:20‑22)). But this is not the strong grasp of faith, but the feeble hesitancy of a soul that must, through many sorrows, learn its own weakness, before it will take God only for its strength. But God is the God of Bethel, and under the power of this revelation of Himself to Jacob, He called upon him to walk and act in the scenes that lay before him.
His subsequent history, before we hear again of Bethel, is marked by hard and unrewarded service, and it seems that Jacob’s bearing under this rigorous service was but little in accordance with the suited character of one who had known the revelations of the God of Bethel. But in the midst of this scene of trial, God recalls his mind to Bethel, for God had not forgotten the promise of His grace. Now He says (Gen. 31:1313I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. (Genesis 31:13)), “I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto Me: now arise, get thee out of this land and return unto thy kindred.”
The Return to Bethel
This fresh call of God breaks the link of Jacob’s bondage in Padan Aram, but on his journey back under the hand of God, there is many an exercise of heart that lies between him and Bethel. There are the seven days’ hot pursuit of Laban, but there is God’s pillar between Jacob and Laban, as there was afterward between the trembling Israelites and Pharaoh’s pursuing hosts. But another trial awaits him, bringing to remembrance earlier sins, and leading to deeper exercises before the God of Bethel. “Deliver me” (says the trembling man) “from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. And Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good [this was the remembrance of Bethel], and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude” (Gen. 32:11-1211Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. 12And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. (Genesis 32:11‑12)).
Wrestling With God
Now comes the last effort of his wisdom in his arrangements to meet the trying hour; he is left alone with God! But it is not in the calm worship by the altar of Bethel, but rather to know a night of wrestling with Him who, because He meant to bless, must needs resist the ways and cripple the energy that had neither been subdued by the presence of grace nor subjected to God by the power of faith! “There wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when He saw that He prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint” (Gen. 32:24-2524And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 25And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. (Genesis 32:24‑25)). “He had power over the angel and prevailed,” but it was with the distress of the wrestler—dreading lest the blessing should escape—that “he wept and made supplication to Him” (Hos. 12:44Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Beth-el, and there he spake with us; (Hosea 12:4)). He had found God and obtained the blessing, but this is not worshipping by the anointed pillar with the God of Bethel. It is God at Peniel, and when he meets his brother Esau, he finds how God had bowed his brother’s heart, without the presents that were meant by poor Jacob to bribe his love!
Shechem
He comes to Shechem and erects an altar there, and calling it El-Elohe-Israel. He is now a worshipper of “God the God of Israel,” but God in Shechem is not God at Bethel, as Jacob has to learn. Why does he linger here and purchase a piece of ground, when God had called him to Bethel and showed him there his title to all the land as his inheritance? Alas! this fresh attempt to stop short of the place to which God had called him ministers still further to his experience. If her father has purchased a possession here, why may not Dinah his daughter “go out to see the daughters of the land”? Her corruption ensues, followed by Simeon and Levi’s treachery and revenge, which destroy the poor pilgrim’s “green spot in the desert.” But God appears, and He said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: and let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem” (Gen. 35:1-41And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. 2Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: 3And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. 4And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. (Genesis 35:1‑4)).
Back to Bethel
In all of Jacob’s experience with Laban there had been no fresh revelation of God, but after this trial, when he contemplated journeying to Bethel according to God’s call, then suddenly Jacob realizes that the things of idolatry that had gathered around him in Padan Aram must not be associated with a return to Bethel. The false gods, the earrings and the filthy garments may remain without rebuke in Syria under Laban’s hard service, but when the God of Bethel recalls us to the brightness of His grace, then the false gods can no longer be retained. At this point Jacob is back again in blessed fellowship with Bethel and the God of Bethel, and how freely does the fountain of grace, love and faithfulness pour forth its streams to refresh his weary heart! It is the God of Bethel still, in spite of all his forgetfulness and wanderings. “God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him.  ... And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with Him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel” (Gen. 35:9,14-159And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him. (Genesis 35:9)
14And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. 15And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Beth-el. (Genesis 35:14‑15)).
Such is the effect of the truth of God. It may be known and believed as a revelation, but how different when the same truth is held in living fellowship with God and in moral conformity to him!
G. V. Wigram (adapted)