(Gen. 33, 34, 35)
“And 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.”— Gen. 35:1.
THOUGH the number of papers received during August has fallen below the average, it is not too much to believe that quite a number of our Class are or have been away, enjoying a country or seaside holiday, and were perhaps unable to get the current number of “THE SPRINGING WELL.” Some, it may be, have not yet returned. Well, dear ones, “out of sight” does not always mean “out of mind.” So Cousin Edith will think of those whose papers are missing as absent, and would commend each to the care and blessing of the Lord.
Though the meaning of the word “Beth-el” (house of God) has been correctly given by ALL who have sent in their answers, its position on the map of Palestine has not been, as a rule, clearly indicated, the replies in some cases being so far off the lines as to suggest it might be well for all of us to look up the geography of Bible lands a little during our next holidays: still, by putting several answers together, we get a fairly good idea of the place and its position in the Land.
The name “Beth-el” was given by Jacob to the place where God first appeared to him in a dream. Up to that time it had been known as Luz. The seal of Divine approval seems to have been set upon the new name by some words we find in chapter 31:13, “I am the God of Beth-el.” The site of the ancient city is about ten miles north of Jerusalem. “It stands,” says one who has visited its ruins, “on a rocky ridge between two valleys, but still higher ground seems to shut it in on every side except the south.” If we open our Bibles at Amos 5:5, we read, “Beth-el shall come to nought.” At the present time about twenty houses roughly put together with stones taken from the heaps of ruins that surround them mark the spot.
It was conquered under Joshua, and given to the tribe of Benjamin (Josh. 12:9, 18 as: Judges 1:22). At the division of the kingdom Beth-el fell to the lot of Israel, and it was there that Jeroboam set up one of the golden calves. There seems to have been a school for the sons of prophets at Beth-el in the time of Elisha, but it remained a place of idol-worship till the reign of the pious king Josiah (2 Kings 13:15-19).
We might linger much longer over Beth-el and its history, but must pass on. If Jacob could not be trusted, God might; and all His ways of patient grace with Jacob seem to have had one object—to strip him of self-confidence. Ever onward, and upward, until at the close of his pilgrimage he becomes, as we have already seen, a worshipper (Heb. 11:21), He gives, as we read his history, an impression of having been a man who loved to make his own arrangements: his well-laid plans must have cost him much time and thought. But he forgot, as we are so apt to do, that God (who was known to him as the “God of Beth-el”) had already said, “I am with thee, and will keep thee, and will not leave thee,” and He had a purpose of blessing which none might hinder, and even Jacob’s own self-will or failure could not turn aside.
Ample proof of this is found in his conduct during the years in which he dwelt with Laban, also in the way in which he divided his household, cattle, etc., in expectation of a meeting with Esau; but again and again God comes in “a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). But Jacob must learn his lesson (so must we); and the man who, when he saw the ways of God, ways which he could not understand, had said in bitterness of soul, “All these things are against me” (Gen. 42:36), could at last, as by faith he looked forward to the coming of the promised Deliverer (Gen. 49:18), joyfully exclaim, “I have waited for Thy salvation O LORD,” for God had marvelously blessed him.