Ge. 35: Jacob's Refuge; Birth in Bethlehem

In spite of Jacob's fear, God yet again proves His faithfulness and His covenant in chapter 35. Still reeling from his sons' devastating Shechem offensive, Jacob is visited by God and told to go back to Bethel, the place where he had that weird Angel Stairway Dream back in Gen. 28:12. Why would God tell Jacob to go back there?

I believe because Bethel was established as a place of refuge. Jacob found a place to rest there in fleeing Esau. He had a meaningful encounter with God there, in which God grabbed a hold of Jacob's attention by conferring upon him the covenant He had made with Jacob's forefathers. This was a new chance for Jacob's family to go back to that place after many years, and sort of recenter, refocus, and refresh themselves. It would be a time of purging, of cleanliness.

They changed their clothes, rid themselves of any foreign Gods or charms they may have been taking with them, and set out for Bethel.

Verse 5 is amazing. Can you imagine being in that caravan, making your way to Bethel, and as verse 5 says, "The terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them." What deliverance! The towns? No one came after Jacob out of fear. I wonder if this is similar to the fear that God put into the animal kingdom in regard to man waaay back in Gen. 9:2. God has certainly established Himself as the protector of those who fear him. Lets not forget that these towns may have had an interest in exacting vengeance on Jacob (Gen. 34:30). When you know without a doubt you can have no fear, what amazing opportunities open up to you, and you can focus on the beautiful things of life, and what God has planned.

Jacob arrived there, and built another altar to God, calling it El Bethel, or God of Bethel, in a display of humility and rededication.

Verse 8 mentions the death of Rebekah's nurse, and that she was buried under the old oak tree in Bethel...not sure what that's all about. Maybe this was in time past...and they remembered Deborah. Or maybe she was traveling with the posse. Not sure. If I had to guess, I'd say this is a current (for the time of the story) event.

God appears to Jacob again, and reiterates the covenant, and the name Israel. God repeats the covenant. When I see repetition in the Bible, it seems to be either important, a challenge or both. I don't remember precisely, but I think Isaac got a review. I know Abraham did.

Verse 11, where God says, "I am God Almighty..." Wow. If that sends my spine a-quiver, then I can't fathom being there at that time with God saying it directly into my ear. Whether God was yelling it, or whispering it, I imagine there would be no difference in awe.

Hmm.

Anyway, God blesses Him, and tells him to be fruitful and multiply. And Jacob set up another pillar, oiled it up real nice, and called it Bethel. Again.

While Israel was traveling from Bethel to Ephratah, a very pregnant Rachel went into labor. And there was great difficulty in childbirth for Israel's offspring. Birth pains, big time. "Don't be afraid, you have another son," the midwife said to Rachel. Rachel called her son Ben-Oni because she was dying. Israel renamed him Benjamin. So the child's name goes from meaning "son of my trouble" to meaning "son of my right hand." So, a pretty important son is born with trouble in Bethlehem, where Rachel is buried.

Israel moves on to Midgal Eder. While they were there, Leah's oldest, Reuben goes in a sleeps with Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant. Israel, cool as ever, heard about it, as the Bible says, but the Bible doesn't report anything further.

Rather there is a genealogy of Jacob.

With Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun
With Rachel: Joseph, Benjamin
With Bilhah: Dan, Naphtali
With Zilpah: Gad, Asher

Finally, Jacob makes it home to his father Isaac in Mamre. Isaac live to be 180 years old. And Jacob must have reconciled with Esau and explained his little detour in chapter 33, because they both bury their father.

Isaac: 2038 - 2218

Ge. 28: And He's Dreaming a Stairway to Heaven

After hearing Rebekah badmouth Canaanite women, Isaac figures its probably a good idea to tell his boy Jacob in chapter 28 to go instead to Paddan Aram where his brother-in-law Laban lives. With God's blessing, Isaac tells him to go marry one of his cousins.

Isaac tells Jacob, "May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham."

What an awesome blessing. Isaac was definitely listening when Father Abraham had something to say about the covenant with God. He knew about the innumerable descendants that would come from his line. Isaac was probably just as eager as Abraham to see this come about, imploring his youngster Jacob to be fruitful.

Esau found out about this blessing, and the Bible says that he realized how displeasing Canaanite women were to his parents. So he goes and marries a daughter of Ishmael. I don't know if this is out of respect for Isaac, as sort of a last ditch, genuine desperate attempt to regain favor in his father's eyes, or if he simply wanted to appear righteous. This girl he marries was still outside of the blessing, as she came from Ishmael's line. So even when he tries to go make it right, its still a screw up. Sad really.

Jacob leaves Beersheba and hits the road to Haran. He finds a nice rock on the side of the road, rests his head on it, falls asleep. Thank God for ingenious people with useful brains who were able to conceive of my tempurpedic pillow. Anyway, Jacob has the most wonderful dream.

He dreamed he saw a stairway resting on earth that reached into heaven. Along this stairway were angels ascending and descending. What a glorious sight that must have been. I wonder what the staircase looked like? Was it gold or something with cool rails and glowing in the night? Or maybe it was marble.

What's important was that the LORD was standing above it, and He spoke to Jacob, saying "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying." Here God affirms to Jacob the covenant that he made with Abraham and later with Isaac. It was a seedling covenant that is slowly starting to take root. Abraham and Isaac were both men who were faithful to God and called upon Him wherever they were.

God continues... "Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Now that is a pretty powerful promise. If God says something like that to me, I must admit a certain amount of pride in myself would begin to set in. As if God would bless me so profoundly for something I did. I would also wonder why on earth God would choose me for this grandiose plan that I probably have no ability to fathom. I can't even think of my own kids, let alone my descendants being like the dust of the earth (working on the assumption that by "dust of the earth" He means numerically. Also, with that great of a number, it would seem that at some point a person would start to lose his significance, just being one in a sea of millions...

Jacob awakens from his dream in awe of what he had just dreamt. "Surely God must be in this place, and I was not aware of it!" He exclaims. What an amazing realization. I can't think of too many times when I was able to say it. Not because I don't believe God is or is not in a certain place...I don't walk around saying...yeah, God is here, but definitely not over there. It's because I don't look for Him to be there. Because I know it in my head, but rarely know it in my heart. Jacob treated the place where he had the dream as sacred, as the house of the LORD, even the gateway to "heaven." I'm not sure what the concept of heaven was at that time, but it was probably just as mysterious and baffling as it is to me today as I write this.

The next morning, he sets his pillow stone up as a pillar, pours oil on it and names the place Bethel, which means "House of God." It was at this place that Jacob made a vow to God in that if God watches over, protects, clothes and feeds Jacob on his journey to Uncle Laban's, then the Lord will be His God. Apparently Jacob was still kind of on the fence with this whole God thing until God spoke to him in the dream. Rebekah wasn't exactly a shining example of a Godly woman, but Isaac probably instilled Jacob's moral compass and knowledge of who God was. Jacob offers a tenth to the LORD as a sign of his commitment to him. His house would be God's house. So God reaches down to a sinful man, a man who may or may not have been begrudgingly following his dying father's wishes to marry a non-Canaanite on this journey, and offers an amazing and life-changing promise.