CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 35:2. The strange gods.] These were such as the teraphim that Rachel had hidden (Genesis 31:19), and possibly other idolatrous images used by the Shechemites.—
Genesis 35:4. Ear-rings.] “The ear-rings were connected then, as they are now, with incantations and enchantments, and were idolatrous in their use. (Hosea 2:13.) (Jacobus.) The oak which was by Shechem. “In the repetition of this same act of purification by Joshua (Joshua 24:26) mention is again made of an oak (or terebinth) at Shechem. The Hebraists tell us that we must not understand by this term any particular tree, but one tree among many.” (Alford.)—
Genesis 35:7. El-beth-el.] God of Bethel. “Jacob adds to it here the name of God, repeated as indicating a repeated manifestation. (Genesis 32:30).” (Jacobus.) God appeared unto him. Heb. There God was revealed unto him. It is not the same word as appeared in Genesis 35:1. The verb is plural, probably to indicate that it was the vision of God accompanied by the holy angels.—
Genesis 35:8. Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse.] This nurse had accompanied her from Mesopotamia to Canaan. (Genesis 24:59.) She was such a nurse as performed the functions of a mother in giving suck. Allon-bachuth. “The oak of weeping.”—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 35:1-15
JACOB’S SECOND JOURNEY TO BETHEL
I. It was undertaken at the call of God. God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel.” (Genesis 35:1.) We need not suppose that he heard the voice of God outwardly speaking to his ear of flesh, but rather that inward voice of God which speaks to the conscience. A strong conviction had grown up within his soul which could no longer leave him at rest. Jacob had now tarried at Shechem for eight years, and he had not yet performed the vow which he made at Bethel. The sense of a solemn duty rests upon him, growing stronger until it really becomes to him the voice of God urging him to action.
II. It was accomplished in the spirit of obedience and consecration.
1. Obedience. Jacob and his people went up to Bethel at God’s command. In order that he might preserve the purity of God’s worship, he puts away from his company all the remains of idolatry. (Genesis 35:4.) By getting rid of these possible sources of temptation, he would be able to render to God a pure offering of service and worship. He intended that the performance of his duty should be extensive and complete.
2. Consecration. He erected an altar unto God, as he had been commanded. (Genesis 35:1-7.) And here he consecrated himself afresh to the service of his God. These outward aids to devotion would make God more deeply felt, and His presence more definitely realised. If we form part of a spiritual history of close and intimate dealings with God, we must have our sacred places. They are so to us, and for our sakes alone; for God, who fills all space, does not require such aids. Jacob erects a pillar of memorial, pours an offering upon the stone, and anoints it with oil. (Genesis 35:14.) And God, who is essentially present everywhere at the same moment, met Jacob at Bethel. Thus to His saints God is not a cold abstraction, or a vaguely diffused Spirit of the universe, but a living—a felt Presence.
III. It was accompanied by the Divine protection. God who commanded Jacob also protected him on his journey. The people were kept from pursuing after the sons of Jacob, which they naturally would have done in order to avenge the slaughter of the Shechemites. (Genesis 35:5.)
IV. It was followed by increased spiritual blessing.
1. The old promises were renewed. All what God had formerly said to him by way of promise was now consolidated and confirmed. (Genesis 35:9-12.) Jacob’s name had been changed to Israel, and now this honour is here renewed. (Genesis 35:10.) This was to him an assurance that he should still go on to prevail. In order to confirm his faith, God’s all-sufficiency to fulfil His promises is assured. “I am God Almighty.” (Genesis 35:11.) Jacob acknowledges this confirmation of his faith and hope by repeating his former acts of devotion. (Genesis 35:14-15.) God may appear unto us by the revival of old truths as well as by the revelation of new ones. We may glorify Him, not by absolutely new modes of obedience, but by doing our first works. We may make the old life, and the scenes and circumstances of it, altogether new by a fresh consecration.
2. He has increased knowledge of God. He now knows God as the Almighty (Genesis 35:11)—like Abraham of old. (Genesis 17:1.) Thus our knowledge of God increases as we go on. It comes as the reward of long and faithful service.
3. His religious character is purified and raised. Jacob was a selfish man, and his religion, at first, partook too much of the spirit of barter. (Genesis 29) His language formerly was that of one who was ready to drive a bargain on advantageous terms; for though we may not press his words too far, yet surely there was a trace of this spirit in them. “If God will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, then shall God be my God.” Now he is grateful that God has accomplished His word. He knows the truth of that word, and that God shall be his God. He was answered in the day of his distress, and God had been with him throughout all his journey. (Genesis 35:3.) This is serving God, because it is true happiness to do so, a higher motive than that which he first started with, but not the highest of all. It falls short of that higher stage of godliness which leads the believer to say in all things “Thy will be done.”
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 35:1. Take the phrase “and God said” literally, and then we must believe that God spake to Jacob but does not speak to us; then we must look upon Him as a different God from what He was to Jacob; but no, He is the same. God is not extinct, but a living God; His voice is now no more silent than in Jacob’s time. If He seem silent, the fault lies in us, our ears are become dull of hearing, we want faith.—(Robertson.)
This is not the first time that God tells him of that vow, and calls for its performance. (Genesis 31:13.) It is with us as with children—eaten bread is soon forgotten. Deliverances, commonly, are but nine days’ wonderment at most; and it is ten to one that any leper returns to give praise to God. If anything arouse and raise up our hearts to thankful remembrance of former mercy it must be the sense of some present misery, as here.—(Trapp.)
Genesis 35:2. To Gideon began his reformation at his father’s house. David also would walk wisely in the midst of his house; and this he calls “a perfect way,” a sign of sincerity. (Psalms 101:1.)—(Trapp.)
God’s service must be entered upon with due preparation. This is one of the first principles of religious service, and is expressed in the idea of baptism which preaches to us, “Be clean and change your garments.” The saints must wash their hands in innocency, and so compass God’s altar.—(Psalms 26:6.)
Genesis 35:3. He had become so comfortably settled as to be careless about this vow, until charged with it solemnly by God Himself. “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.” True reformation as an evidence of repentance is a preparatory to public consecration.—(Jacobus).
Genesis 35:4. When going to perform his vow he puts away these idols. But wherein lay the evil? Not in the use of forms and symbols, for these were afterwards given to the Jews by God. Idolatry consists in this: The using of forms and images which give unnecessarily ideas of God; unnecessarily I say, for though all our notions are inadequate they ought not to be unnecessarily so. So Jacob buried the images under the oak. It was most wise. It was not sufficient to say: Let them not be worshipped, let the gold be kept merely for ornament. He knew human nature better; he knew that the same feelings would be suggested again wherever they were seen. And in our own day the things which have been the symbols of idolatry must be parted with. We may say that crucifixes and stone altars, and lighted candles are nothing in themselves; but if they give the idea of localizing God, or in any way degrade His pure worship, then they must at once be buried. Happy for England is it that she has resolved to throw away all such things.—(Robertson).
Genesis 35:5. The kind care which God exercised on this occasion was no less contrary to the parent’s fears than to the deserts of his ungodly children; and its being extended to them for his sake, must appal their proud spirits and repress the insolence with which they had lately treated him.—(Fuller).
Genesis 35:6-7. There are sacred places, not sacred for their own sake, but sacred to us. Where we have loved and lost, where we have gained new light and life, the church where our forefathers worshipped, the place where we first knew God—these are by instinct hallowed. Hence we are told that God met Jacob in Bethel, not that He came down from another place, for He is everywhere, but that Jacob experienced a feeling of awe, a feeling that God was then specially near to him.—(Robertson).
Genesis 35:8. This notice of the death and burial of Deborah shows—
1. That old and faithful servants were esteemed in the household of Jacob, as they were in Abraham’s household. The venerable nurse, Deborah, may be regarded as the counterpart to the aged Eliezer.
2. That the bond between master and servant was one of affectionate attachment and sympathy, not of lucre or slavery. The one rendered faithful service, the other afforded generous sustenance and protection. Such relations were not degraded by the commercial spirit, but elevated by the nobler spirit of humanity.
3. The undying love of Jacob for his mother. The loving regard in which Jacob held Deborah is remarkable when we consider that she belonged not to his family, but to that of Isaac. It is probable that Jacob visited his father, and finding that his mother was dead, he took her faithful old nurse to his own home. We hear nothing of her since the time when she left Padanaram with her young mistress. Jacob tenderly cherished all that belonged to his mother. He was one of those men who lived in the past, rather than in the future.
4. The sacredness of sorrow for the dead. Deborah was now about 180 years old, and had lived through three generations of the family. Now this last tender link, connecting the wandering son with his beloved and doating mother, was snapped asunder by death. This grave renewed the heavy griefs of past years, and we do not wonder that Jacob called the tree which marked this grave, Allon-bachuth, “the oak of weeping.”
Genesis 35:9-12. At Bethel He renews the change of name, to indicate that the meetings here were of equal moment in Jacob’s spiritual life with that at Penuel. It implies also that this life had been declining in the interval between Penuel and Bethel, and had now been revived by the call of God to go to Bethel, and by the interview. The renewal of the naming aptly expresses this renewal of spiritual life.—(Murphy.)
Abraham and Isaac had each only one son of promise. Now the time of increase is come. Jacob had already eleven sons and one daughter, and the number of sons was to be increased to twelve; and from this time the increase is rapid. Twenty-six years after this he goes down to Egypt with seventy souls, besides the wives of his married descendants, and two hundred and fifteen years after that he leaves Egypt with one million and eight hundred thousand, which was a nation and a congregation of nations, while “kings” were to come afterwards.—(Jacobus.)
Genesis 35:13-15. Here for the first time we meet with the libation. Wine and oil are used to denote the quickening and sanctifying power of the Spirit of God.—(Murphy.)