Back to Bethel — TDW Kids

Jacob's family had come to a very low point. Something terrible had happened at Shechem (Genesis 34): Jacob's daughter Dinah was harmed, and two of her brothers, Simeon and Levi, took violent revenge on the whole city. Jacob was afraid: “they will gather themselves together against me and kill me” (34:30). God speaks. Into that fear, God speaks: “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” (35:1). Back to the beginning. Bethel was where Jacob, running from home, had dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven and heard God say, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go” (28:15). Jacob had promised then that the stone he set up “shall be God's house” (28:22). More than twenty years had passed, and he had settled at Shechem instead. A gentle call. God does not scold Jacob. He reminds him of who God is: the God who appeared to him when he had nothing. When life goes wrong, God often calls His people back to the place where they first met Him, and to the promises He made there.

In 35:1 God speaks to Jacob at one of the lowest points of his life, right after the events of Genesis 34. The crisis. At Shechem, Dinah was violated (34:2), and Simeon and Levi answered with deceit and a massacre (34:13, 25). Jacob's response is fear for his own survival: “I shall be destroyed, my household and I” (34:30). God's covenant family was acting no differently from the Canaanites around it. God speaks first. Jacob did not ask for help, yet God came to him: “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there” (35:1). Bethel was where Jacob had made his vow (28:20-22), promising that the stone pillar “shall be God's house.” More than twenty years later he had settled at Shechem instead. God graciously called him back to the place of his promise. “Who appeared to you.” God reminds Jacob of their history together: He is the God “who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.” Jacob had been terrified of Esau, and God had protected him and turned Esau's anger into an embrace (33:4). The same God could protect him now from the cities he feared. Going up. The verb “go up” (alah, say: ah-LAH) is the ordinary word for traveling into the hill country, and it is also the word later used for going up to worship. Bethel lies higher than Shechem, so Jacob was climbing a real road. At the same time, he was coming back to the God who had met him there.

Jacob's family had been living near the city of Shechem. But terrible things happened there. Something very bad happened to Jacob's daughter Dinah. Then two of her brothers did something violent and wrong. Jacob was afraid the people nearby would attack. Then God spoke to Jacob. “Get up and go to Bethel.” Do you remember Bethel? That is where Jacob saw the ladder to heaven. God promised to be with him there. Now God was calling Jacob back. God had not forgotten His promise. He still wanted Jacob to come close. And He had not forgotten Jacob.

Jacob's family had a very sad time at Shechem. Then God said, “Go to Bethel.” God met Jacob there long ago.

Jacob tells his household and everyone with him: “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments” (35:2). Idols in the family. Where did the idols come from? Rachel had stolen “the household idols that were her father's” (31:19). Others may have come with the people and goods brought from Shechem. Whatever they were, the family of God's promise had other gods hidden among them. Ready to worship. Washing and changing clothes showed that the family was getting ready to meet God. Jacob explains why: “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” (35:3). Buried under the tree. “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” (35:4). They did not keep the idols just in case. They left them behind. God protects. “The terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob” (35:5). The attack Jacob feared in 34:30 never came.

In 35:2-5 Jacob leads his whole household in turning back to God. Three commands. “Put away,” “purify yourselves,” and “change your garments” (35:2). The first is about the heart and its worship; the second and third are outward signs. Later, at Sinai, God told Israel to wash and put on clean garments before He came down (Exodus 19:10-14). The outward washing showed an inward turning. The foreign gods. Elohei hannekar (say: eh-loh-HAY hah-neh-KAR), “gods of foreignness,” would include Rachel's stolen teraphim (31:19, 32) and perhaps images taken with the plunder of Shechem (34:29). Joshua 24:23 uses almost identical words at Shechem centuries later: “put away the foreign gods which are among you.” Samuel repeats the call (1 Samuel 7:3). The earrings. The family gave up their earrings along with the idols, so the earrings were probably tied to the false gods, perhaps worn as charms. Whatever they meant, nothing connected to the false gods was kept. The terror of God. Chittat Elohim (say: khee-TAHT eh-loh-HEEM) in 35:5 is a God-sent dread that held back the surrounding cities. Jacob feared his family would be wiped out (34:30); God answered that fear without a battle. The protection came after the household put away its idols, but it was grace, not a reward. God had been gracious to Jacob long before Jacob obeyed.

Jacob knew his family was not ready to meet God. Some of them had false gods called idols. Idols are made-up gods that cannot see or hear. Rachel had even stolen idols from her father Laban. So Jacob said, “Put away the false gods.” “Wash yourselves and change your clothes.” The family brought their idols to Jacob. They brought their earrings too. Jacob buried everything under a big tree. Then they set out for Bethel. God made the people around them afraid. So nobody chased Jacob's family. Jacob had been afraid of an attack. God kept them safe on the way.

The family had pretend gods called idols. Jacob said, “Put them away.” They buried the idols under a tree.

“So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him” (35:6). El Bethel. Jacob “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” (35:7). Bethel means “house of God.” El Bethel means “the God of the house of God.” Years before, Jacob had been amazed by the place: “How awesome is this place!” (28:17). Now he names the altar after God Himself. Deborah. Then something sad happened: “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” (35:8), which means “oak of weeping.” Deborah had left home with Rebekah long ago (24:59). She had served Jacob's family for a lifetime. The family wept for her. Faithful people. This Deborah is mentioned only twice in the Bible, and only once by name. She was not a ruler or a prophet. She was a servant who cared for a family for a lifetime. God noticed, and the Bible remembers her name.

In 35:6-8 Jacob arrives at Bethel, worships, and grieves. Luz and Bethel. Verse 6 gives both names, as 28:19 did: Luz was the Canaanite city, and Bethel was the name Jacob gave to the place of his vision. Jacob arrives “he and all the people who were with him,” the whole household now walking together. From place to Person. In 28:19 Jacob named the place Bethel, “house of God.” In 35:7 he names the altar El Bethel (say: el beyt-EL), “God of Bethel.” Jacob's heart has moved from the holy place to the God who met him there. The verb “appeared” in 35:7 is plural in Hebrew. It may point back to the angels Jacob saw in 28:12, or it may simply match the plural form of the word Elohim. Deborah. Rebekah's nurse (24:59) is named only here. She had come from Haran with Rebekah long ago and served the family ever since, and at some point she joined Jacob's household. She is buried under an oak called Allon Bachuth (say: ah-LONE bah-KOOTH), “oak of weeping.” The family named the place for their tears because they loved her, and God's Word remembers her too. Worship and loss together. The return to Bethel is not a victory parade; it includes the grief of losing someone who had served the family for decades. Later in Genesis 35, Rachel dies (35:19) and so does Isaac (35:29). God meets His people in sorrow as well as in joy, and He is near to the brokenhearted.

Jacob and his family came safely to Bethel. It was the same place God met him long ago. Jacob built an altar there. An altar is a place to worship God. He named the place “God of Bethel.” Jacob was not just thinking about the place. He was thinking about the God he met there. Then something sad happened. Deborah died. She had cared for Jacob's mother Rebekah for many years. She was very old. The family buried her under an oak tree. They called it the Oak of Crying. God cares when we are sad.

Jacob built an altar at Bethel. He worshiped God there. Deborah, a kind helper, died. The family cried.

“Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him” (35:9). The new name again. God says, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name” (35:10). God had already said this at the Jabbok (32:28). Now He says it again, at Bethel, after the idols are gone. The new name is confirmed. God Almighty. “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” (35:11). God used the same name, “Almighty God,” when He spoke to Abraham (17:1). “Be fruitful and multiply” goes all the way back to creation (1:28). The land. “The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land” (35:12). Jacob now holds the same promise as his father and grandfather. A pillar again. Jacob sets up a pillar of stone, pours a drink offering and oil on it, and calls the place Bethel (35:14-15), just as he did the first time (28:18-19). But now he is not a runaway. He is Israel, home, worshiping the God who kept every promise.

In 35:9-15 God appears to Jacob at Bethel a second time and gathers up all His covenant promises. The name confirmed. 35:10 repeats the new name from 32:28, but this time without the wrestling and without the words “for you have struggled with God.” At Peniel the name came out of a struggle; at Bethel God simply declares it. Now that the idols are gone, God settles the matter: Jacob is Israel. God Almighty. “I am God Almighty” (Shaddai, say: shah-DYE) repeats the self-introduction of 17:1 to Abraham, and Isaac had used the same name in blessing Jacob (28:3). “Be fruitful and multiply” is the creation command of 1:28, now carried by one family. “Kings shall come from your body” echoes 17:6. The land. 35:12 names the three generations: Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob and his descendants. God did not change the promise; He handed it on. The pillar and the drink offering. 35:14 adds a drink offering (nesek, say: NEH-sek) to the oil of 28:18. It is the first drink offering in Scripture. Jacob's vow of 28:20-22 has come full circle: God has been with Jacob, kept him, fed and clothed him, and brought him back in peace, and Jacob worships at the place where he promised he would.

Then God came to Jacob again at Bethel. God blessed him. “You will not be called Jacob anymore,” God said. “Your name will be Israel.” Then God said, “I am God Almighty.” That means nothing is too hard for Him. “Your family will grow into a nation.” “Kings will come from your family.” “I give you the land I gave Abraham and Isaac.” God was repeating His big promises. Jacob set up a stone where God talked with him. He poured oil on it to honor God. And he named the place Bethel again.

God came to Jacob again. He said, “Your name will be Israel.” Jacob set up a stone to thank God.