God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there. Genesis 35:1-15 Jacob's second journey to Bethel T. H. Leale. I. IT WAS UNDERTAKEN AT THE CALL OF GOD. II. IT WAS ACCOMPLISHED IN THE SPIRIT OF OBEDIENCE AND CONSECRATION. III. IT WAS ACCOMPANIED BY THE DIVINE PROTECTION. IV. IT WAS FOLLOWED BY INCREASED SPIRITUAL BLESSING. 1. The old promises were renewed. 2. He has increased knowledge of God. 3. His religious character is purified and raised. ( T. H. Leale. ) The second journey of Jacob to Bethel F. W. Robertson, M. A. I. REFRESHING OF EARLY RECOLLECTIONS. 1. Respecting this pilgrimage to Bethel, observe, first, that it was done by Divine direction — "God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel." Let us not imagine that a voice spoke articulately. There were simple modes of thinking in those days; men had not learnt to philosophize on their mental operations. They strongly felt an impulse within them. They knew that it was a higher one, and in the simple poetry of thought they said, "God is speaking." The voice that spoke to Jacob was the voice within him, the voice of conscience — the same voice that speaks to us. 2. Observe, secondly, Jacob's preparation for this act of remembrance. He puts away the strange gods from his household. 3. The third thing we mark here is the consecration of the place (ver. 1). It is not in reference to God, but for a help to our own feelings that we consecrate certain spots of earth and buildings. 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. In this meeting of Jacob with God, there are two facts to observe.(1) The first is that since he was last at Bethel he had increased in the knowledge of God. He knew Him then only as God, now he knows Him as the God Almighty (ver. 11). This is but a type of our own life; our knowledge of God must always be progressive.(2) Another thing we perceive, that in these twenty years there had been a growth in his personal religion. Once it had been but a selfish religion — he adopted a system of barter with God; if God will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, then shall God be my God (chap. Genesis 29.). Now there is a higher step, it is gratitude; God has done it, and now God shall be his God (ver. Genesis 35:3) — a higher motive, but not the highest; he has yet to learn to serve Him, not in happiness, but in misery; to serve Him in trial, because He is God, and to learn to say simply and believingly, "Thy will be done." II. THE GATHERING OF HIS DISFORTUNES. 1. The first of these was one not so keenly felt — the death of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse. He buried her at Bethel, under an oak (ver. 8), and the story gives us an interesting view of the ancient relation between master and servant. 2. But Jacob's second blow was of a different kind — Rachel dies, his early and youthful passion, his beloved wife, the only one whom, with all his strength of affection, Jacob loved, and whose children were dearer for her sake to him than all the others. Even his father and fondly indulgent self-sacrificing mother he seems to have regarded with coldness. From this moment he becomes a mourner for the rest of his life; and yet we can see the infinite good of this. Jacob was a selfish, comfort-loving man; these sorrows drew him out of himself to think of something higher. 3. The last blow was the death of Isaac. ( F. W. Robertson, M. A. ) Jacob's return to Bethel M. Braithwaite. I. GOD REMINDS OF HIS BENEFACTIONS. "God, that appeared to thee," &c. 1. An incident of the past brought to mind. 2. The place of future dwelling indicated. 3. Continual worship required for continued favours. The altar should not be absent from the home. II. THE BENEFACTOR'S WILL OBEYED (vers. 2, 3). 1. An immediate response. "Then." 2. A proposal for preparation. "Put away" — wrong thoughts, desires, purposes, practices. 3. A summons to Divine service. Self-devotion first, then concern for all whom we can influence. III. THE BENEFACTOR'S GOODNESS ACKNOWLEDGED. 1. He declared God's supremacy. 2. He owned God's kindness. 3. He realized God's presence. ( M. Braithwaite. ) Lessons from the life of Jacob G. Deane, B. Sc. I. EVERY SPIRITUAL HISTORY HAS ITS SPECIAL PLACES, WHERE MEMORY LOVES TO LINGER, AND WHERE SPIRITUAL POWER PERTAINS. II. SPECIAL MERCIES DEMAND SPECIAL REMEMBRANCE. III. THE TEXT MAY BE APPLIED TO A DEVOUT REMEMBRANCE OF THE TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF OUR EARLY CHRISTIAN LIFE. 1. Diligence in searching the Scriptures. 2. Fervour of private prayer and devotion. 3. Careful cultivation of the public means of grace. 4. Ardour of Christian zeal and work. The strong man grows stronger by exercise, so the robust Christian is always an active one. IV. BETHEL WAS THE SCENE OF "VOWS" WHICH HAD BEEN PARTIALLY NEGLECTED AND FORGOTTEN. Prosperity has turned more heads than Jacob's. V. "DWELL THERE." A picture of a man of activity and business retiring to spend the leisure of age amidst the contemplations of religion and the memories of its power. ( G. Deane, B. Sc. ) Jacob sent to Bethel Homilist. I. GOD'S COMMAND TO WORSHIP. 1. This intimates that God places man in the most favourable circumstances to obey His commandments. 2. It intimates the employment of man's highest and noblest faculties. 3. It implies the necessity of having the consciousness of God's presence. 4. It suggests the spirit of entire dependence upon God. II. THE NECESSARY PREPARATION TO OBEY THIS COMMAND. 1. A willing heart. 2. A determination to have all obstacles removed. 3. A sincere love for the pure. III. THE RESULT OF POSSESSING A WORSHIPPING SPIRIT. 1. A manifestation of Divine power. 2. Safety in the midst of foes. ( Homilist. ) Forgetfulness of God's goodness The Evangelical Preacher. I. HERE IS A REFERENCE TO JACOB'S PAST EXPERIENCE OF JEHOVAH'S KINDNESS. "The God that appeared to thee." 1. His fleeing from the wrath of an enraged brother. 2. The manifestation of God to him as his Friend. 3. His consecration of himself to God. II. HERE IS A CALL FOR GRATITUDE TO GOD FOR HIS PAST KINDNESS. "Arise, and go to Bethel." 1. God was peculiarly kind to Jacob. He had given him more than he asked — two wives, ten children, and large possessions (chaps. 29., 30., 31.). 2. God had subdued the anger of his brother, even though Esau had kept it up twenty years. 3. Jacob returned to his own country, but forgot his vow. He settles down for eight years before he visits Bethel, and not then until visited by a domestic affliction, and God thereby reminded him of his neglected duties; then he and his household went up to Bethel, and paid his vows, and had a renewed instance of God's favour. III. HERE LEARN A LESSON OF GRATITUDE TO THE GOD OF ALL YOUR MERCIES. For this is recorded for that purpose. 1. How many mercies have you to be thankful for! Not only common, but special mercies. 2. Many a place has been a Bethel to the Christian's soul. 3. Think of your vows and resolutions, and carry them out, and you will have renewed seasons of enjoyment, and fresh instances of the Divine favour. ( The Evangelical Preacher. ) The forgotten vow I. THE VOW MADE. II. THE VOW FORGOTTEN. A common occurrence. III. THE VOW CALLED TO REMEMBRANCE. 1. The Lord is never at a loss for means in order that His ends may be gained. 2. Mark the way in which He acts here. (1) First a gentle hint — "Arise, go to Bethel." (2) Then the command, "and make there an altar." 3. Has not the Lord brought your vows to your remembrance? (1) Failure. (2) Sickness. (3) Conscience. IV. THE VOW PAID. Lessons A. F. Barfield. 1. How soon the influences of the most impressive scenes may pass away. 2. God's forbearance when the performing of the vow is so long delayed. 3. By acting rightly ourselves, we influence others. 4. Bethel was to Jacob the house of God, and he went there. So it is right for you, in a particular place and in a marked manner, to perform your vow. ( A. F. Barfield. ) Jacob returning to Bethel J. Bradley, M. A. I. JACOB WAS NOW IN A MOURNFUL STATE OF MIND, AND YET A VERY COMMON ONE. 1. Forgotten mercies. 2. Forgotten vows. II. Let us look now at THE COMMAND GIVEN TO JACOB IN HIS FORGETFULNESS. 1. The Lord remembers our promises and vows. 2. The Lord often reminds His people of their forgotten mercies and vows. He did so in this case again and again. III. We come now to our third point — THE OBEDIENCE THE PATRIARCH RENDERED TO THE DIVINE COMMAND. 1. Here is something to surprise us. There were strange gods, we find, in the house of Jacob at this time; yes, idols in the house of almost the only man in the world who worshipped the true God; and he knew they were there, and tolerated them. Well may we ask, how was this? We must go back for an answer. The Rachel whom he so tenderly loved, and for whom he had so patiently waited and laboured, was an amiable and affectionate woman; but she wanted one thing, and that one thing was a decided love for the Lord God of Israel. She had been brought up in an idolatrous country, and she herself was half an idolater. Accordingly, when he married her, he introduced a worshipper of false gods into his house; she had her secret idols, and she brought them with her. Here began, perhaps, Jacob's own forgetfulness of God, and here undoubtedly began much of the ungodliness and wretchedness of his children. Shall I say that we may learn here the vast importance of the connections which we form in the days of our youth? that there is a loud warning given here to the pious young never to let their affections wind round one who does not plainly and decidedly love the Lord? to let the heart break rather than give the heart to an idolater? I had rather speak to men like this patriarch, men who have households, children, and servants. I would say to them, Dear brethren, look through your houses" and ask, "Are there no idols here? Is there nothing here that takes God's place in our hearts or our children's? Is there nothing here that is opposed to God's will and law, and tends to God's dishonour?" Bad books, bad company, dangerous amusements, practices which the world does not condemn nor even some of those who profess to live above the world, but such as will not bear the trial of Scripture for one moment, such as you would see the evil of in a moment did they not in some way or other fall in with your taste or interest — these are all idols; these will lead to irreligion and ungodliness in your houses: these will bring down on you God's displeasure and judgments. Mischief will rise up in your families from these things, and through your families God will smite you for them. 2. There is something also here to instruct us. It is the promptitude and decision of the patriarch's obedience. ( J. Bradley, M. A. ) A call to religious observances D. Wilson, M. A. I. JACOB CALLED TO SERIOUS CONSIDERATION. Bethel was forgotten. How often is it forgotten by us! Time wears out the impressions of mercies received. Afflictions come upon us, public calamities, and the approach even of pestilence; we are alarmed and distracted, but we never think of our vow, and of raising our altar, and beginning a thorough, speedy downright conversion to God as the God of mercies. Brethren, we should often turn back the book of our lives. We are fond of reading many books, but no book would be so profitable as the book of our past history. II. THE PROMPT OBEDIENCE TO THE DIVINE ADMONITION WHICH JACOB RENDERED. The pious man, the conscientious master of a house, loses no time when Providence concurs with his own conviction of duty, in rousing him to religion, and in reminding him of his past neglects and family derelictions; and, therefore, we find Jacob addressing his household, and all that were with him, thus: "Put away the strange gods," &c. 1. Jacob addresses his household as one who well knew that he was answerable to God for it. 2. He exhorts them to put away the strange gods that were among them. Alas! idols will enter the best family, in spite of Jacob, because they are the creatures of the human heart, and they regard not Jacob's prohibition. Therefore, when providences are moving, when conscience is awakened, when every heart trembles, then Jacob must say to his family — and every head of a family, every master, every parent, must say unto his household — "Put away the strange gods that are among you." For whatever takes the place in our heart of the Lord God, is a strange god and an idol; whatever takes the place of God's name is an idol; whatever takes the place of God's revelation, God's truth, is an idol. A strange god! "Covetousness, which is idolatry." A strange god! The world is the strange god of the worldly-minded. Talents, beauty of person, dress, pleasure, are the strange gods of the young. 3. But besides putting away their strange gods, Jacob called his family to purity of heart. "Be clean, and change your garments." 4. Family prayer. The preceding led up to this.(1) Scriptural exhortations to this duty.(2) But, further, family prayer comes under the promise, "Where two or three are met together in My name, there am I in the midst of them."(3) The third argument is, the example of the saints in every age.(4) But the fourth argument is, that family prayer, like social, rests on the nature of man. We are destined to live in society, and are bound together by mutual wants and sympathies; and, therefore, man's religion, like his nature, must be social.(5) Once more, the duties of the head of a household towards his family cannot be discharged without its observance. You wish to train up your children in the fear of the Lord; but is it possible to do so while you neglect to afford them an example of what you wish them to practice. ( D. Wilson, M. A. ) At Bethel again W. S. Smith, B. D. I. THY ADMONITION FROM GOD. How common a fault it is, to put off some religions duty to what we think a more convenient season! Then, oftentimes, God reminds us by some affliction — some loss — some calamity — of our want of earnestness, and bids us do what we had long left undone in His service. II. THE PURIFICATION OF JACOB'S HOUSEHOLD. 1. The strange gods were to be given up and put away. 2. They were, moreover, to cleanse themselves and to change their clothes. Outward signs of inward consecration and cleansing. III. THE FULFILMENT OF JACOB'S VOW. IV. THE RENEWAL OF GOD'S PROMISE. 1. God reminds Jacob of his recent change of name. 2. God reminds Jacob of His own Almighty power. 3. God renews the Abrahamic promise in its threefold form of — (1) An on reaching blessing; (2) A promised numerous seed; (3) A promised possession of the land. ( W. S. Smith, B. D. ) Family reformation; or, Jacob's second visit to Bethel There are critical times in mast families; times when much decision of character will be needed on the part of the father to guide things aright. Even the heathen outside began to smell the ill savour of Jacob's disorganized family, and the one alternative was — mend or end. If you notice, Jacob himself was in a bad way. His business was to remain in Canaan a mere sojourner, dwelling in tents, not one of the people, but moving about among them, testifying that he looked for "a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." He expected to inherit the land, but, for the time being, he was to be a stranger and a sojourner, as his fathers Abraham and Isaac had been. Yet at Succoth we read that he built booths — scarcely houses, I suppose, but more than tents. It was a compromise, and a compromise is often worse than a direct and overt disobedience of command. He dares not erect a house, but he builds a booth and thus shows his desire for a settled life; and though it is not ours to judge the purchase of land at Shechem, still it looks in the same direction. Jacob is endeavouring to find a resting-place where Abraham and Isaac had none. I will not speak too positively, but the patriarch's acts look as if he desired to find a house for himself, where he might rest and be on familiar terms with the inhabitants of the land. Now the Lord his God would not have it so. Children of God cannot mix with the world without mischief. The world does hurt to us and we to it when once be begin to be of the world and like it. It is an ill-assorted match. Fire and water were never meant to be blended. The seed of the woman must not mix with the seed of the serpent. A stand must be made. Something behoves to be done, and Jacob must do it. The Lord comes in, and He speaks with Jacob, and since the good man's heart was sound towards God's statutes, the Lord had only to speak to him and he obeyed. He was pulled up short, and made to look at things, and set his house in order, and he did so with that resolution of character which comes out in Jacob when he is brought into a strait, but which at other times is not perceptible. I. First, then, WHAT WAS TO BE DONE? 1. The first thing to do was to make a decided move. God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there." You must hasten away from Shechem, with its fertile plains, and make a mountain journey up to Bethel, and dwell there. You have been long enough near these Shechemites; mischief has come from your being so intimate with the world. You must cut a trench between yourselves and the associations you have formed, and you must go up to Bethel and remain there awhile. Every now and then we shall find it necessary to say to ourselves and to our family, "We must come out from among worldlings, we must be separate. We are forming connections which are injurious to us, and we must snap the deceitful bonds." 2. Now they must revive old memories. "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." A revival of old memories is often most useful to us, especially to revive the memory of our conversion. Then you must come back to your first hours of communion. Where you lost your joy you will find it, for it remains where you left it. Then go back mourning and sighing to Bethel, and pray that the old feelings may be revived in you. 3. But now, again, Jacob must keep an old vow. I do not quite remember how many years old that vow was, but I suppose some thirty or so; yet he had not kept it. Be very slow to make vows, brethren — very slow. They should be but very seldom presented, because all that you can do for God you are bound to do as it is; and a vow is often a superfluity of superstition. But if the vow be made, let it not wait beyond its time, and complain of thee to thy God. An old and forgotten vow will rot and breed most solemn discomfort to thy heart; at first it will gnaw at thy conscience, and if thy conscience at last grows hardened to it, others of thy powers will suffer the same petrifying process. Moreover, a vow forgotten will bring chastisement on thee, and perhaps the rod will fall upon thy family. 4. It appeared to Jacob, next, that if he was to fulfil his vow, it was necessary to reform his whole house; for he could not serve the Lord and worship other gods. He said to all that were with him — to his sons first, and then to his hired servants and the rest — "Put away the strange gods that are among you." Yes, it must come to that. If I am to get back to my old position with God I must break my idols. And then next he said, "Be clean." There was to be, I suppose, a general washing, indicative of purgation of character by going to God with repentance and seeking forgiveness. Jacob also said, "Change your garments." This was symbolic of an entire renewal of life, though I fear me they were not all renewed. At any rate this is what was symbolized by "Change your garments." Alas, it is easier to say this to our families than it is to get them to do it. And do we wonder? Since it is so much easier for ourselves to say than it is for ourselves to do. Yet, beloved, if your walk is to be close with God, if you are to commune with the God of Bethel, you must be cleansed. 5. Well, then, the next and last thing which they were to do was to celebrate special worship. "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." When we get wrong and feel that there must be a decided change, we must set apart special times of devotion. Family prayer is the nutriment of family piety, and woe to those who allow it to cease. I read the other day of parents who said they could not have family prayer, and one asked this question: "If you knew that your children would be sick through the neglect of family prayer, would you not have it? If one child was smitten down with fever each morning that you neglected prayer, how then?" Oh, then they would have it. "And if there was a law that you should be fined five shillings if you did not meet for prayer, would you find time for it?" Yes. "And if there were five pounds given to all who had family prayer, would you not by some means arrange to have it?" Yes. And so the inquirer went on with many questions, and wound up with this: "Then it is but an idle excuse when you, who profess to be servants of God, say that you have no time or opportunity for family prayer!" Should idle excuses rob God of His worship and our families of a blessing? Begin to pray in your families, and especially if things have gone wrong get them right by drawing near to God more distinctly. II. And now I come to my second point — WHAT HAPPENED IN THE DOING OF IT? Well, several things happened, and one or two of those were rather surprising. 1. The first was that all heartily entered into the reforming work. I am sure they did, because the fourth verse says, "They gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hands" — all of them — "and all their earrings which were in their ears." He had not said anything about their earrings. Was there any hurt in their earrings? For a woman to wear an earring is not such a dreadful thing, is it? Perhaps not, but I suppose that these earrings were charms, and that they were used in certain incantations, and heathenish customs. Now, as soon as Jacob speaks they all give up their idols and their earrings. I like this. It is a blessed thing when a man of God takes a stand, and speaks, and finds that his family are all ready to follow. Perhaps it was the fear that was upon them just then, the fear of the nations round about which made them so obedient. I am not sure it was a work of grace; but still, as far as outward appearance went, there was a willing giving up of all that could have grieved the Lord. And you will sometimes be pleased, Christian friends, when things get wrong and you determine to set them right, to see how others will yield to your determination. You ought to take courage from this. 2. Another circumstance happened, namely, that protection was afforded him, immediate and complete. "They journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob." "When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him"; and now that Jacob has determined to set things right he walks unharmed. You do not know how much of personal trouble which you are now bearing will vanish as soon as you determine to stand out for God. You do not know how much of family difficulty that now covers you with dread will vanish when you yourself have feared the Lord, and have come forth decidedly and determinedly to do the right. 3. In the next place the vow was performed. They came to Bethel, and I can almost picture the grateful delight of Jacob as he looked upon those great stones among which he had lain him down to sleep, a lonely man. He thought of the past, rejoiced in the present, and hoped for the future, for now he had come to be with God and to draw near to Him. 4. But what else happened? Why, now there came a death and a funeral. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died. Her name means a bee. And we have had old nurses ourselves, have we not, who have been like busy bees in our household. The good nurse died when they seemed to want her most, but it was better for her to die then than that she should have departed when Dinah's shame and Simeon's crime had made the household dark. It was better that she should live to see them purged from idols and on the road to her old master Isaac, for then she would feel as if she could say, "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." The moral of the incident is that the Lord may heat the fire all the more when He sees the refining process going on, and we must receive the further trial as a token of love and not of anger if He smites us heavily when we are honestly endeavouring to seek His face. III. Now we close with the third head, namely, WHAT FOLLOWED THEREON. All this putting away of idols and going to Bethel — did anything come of it? Yes. 1. First, there was a new appearance of God. Read the ninth verse. "And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him": this was a new appearance of God. It is worth while to have been purged and cleansed, and to have done anything to be favoured with one of those Divine visits in which we almost cry with Paul, "Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell: God knoweth." A clear view of God in Christ Jesus and a vivid sense of Jesus' love is a sweet reward for broken idols and Bethel reformations. 2. The next thing that came of it was a confirmation to Jacob of his title of prince, which conferred a dignity on the whole family. For a father to be a prince ennobles all the clan. God now puts upon them another dignity and nobility which they had not known before, for a holy people are a noble people. You that live in God's presence are in the peerage of the skies. Such honour have all the saints who follow the Lord fully. God help us to keep close to Jesus, and enjoy daily communion with Him. 3. And then, next, there was given to Jacob and his family a vast promise, which was, in some degree, an enlargement of a promise made to Isaac and to Abraham before. "I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins." I do not remember anything said to Abraham about a company of nations, or about kings coming out of his loins, but out of the loins of Israel, a prince, princes may come. God puts upon His promise a certain freshness of vastness and infinity now that Jacob has drawn near to Him. Brethren, God will give us no new promise, but He will make the old promises look wondrously new. He will enlarge our vision so that we shall see what we never saw before. Have you ever had a painting which hung neglected in, some back room? Did it one day strike you that you would have it framed and brought into a good light? When you saw it properly hung on the wall did you not exclaim, "Dear me! I never noticed that picture before. How wonderfully it has come out"? And many and many a promise in God's Word will never be noticed by you till it is set in a new frame of experience. Then, when it is hung up before you, you will be lost in admiration of it. 4. I will not detain you except to say that you may also expect very familiar communion. Notice the thirteenth verse, "God went up from him in the place where He talked with him." Talked with him! Talked with him! It is such a familiar word. God talking with man. We say "conversing" when we are speaking in a dignified manner; but "talking!" Oh that blessed condescension of God when He speaks to us in the familiar tones of His great love in Christ Jesus. There is a way of converse with God which no tongue can explain: they only know it who have enjoyed it. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) The revival E Craig. 1. Observe, a season of prosperity is too frequently a season of religious decline. The religion of the Gospel, though it is a scheme of mercy, is a system of discipline. An undisturbed enjoyment of the goods of this world has, at the best, a sensualizing tendency. Now it is in these circumstances of repose — of gradual yielding to allowed indulgence — of lethargic sinking into spiritual self-complacency and inactivity, that men are apt to forget the vows of their distress, and, even within the sphere of their own influence and authority, to suffer sin around them without marking it with that holy indignation with which, at one time, it would have been reprobated and discountenanced. Without meaning to justify any thing decidedly wrong, the declining Christian, from the consciousness of his own listless and unprosperous state, and from a false application of the very principle of justice, deals more leniently with the faults of those around him than he would have done formerly, and remains silent when he ought to administer reproof. In the midst of comforts and indulgence we lose something of that holy jealousy, circumspection and activity, to which the heavy pressure of affliction and temptation had given birth. 2. But observe that God will not suffer His people to sink habitually into this state of spiritual sloth. He will, in His own time, deal strictly and retributively with the true Israel. We see this in the case of Jacob. Painful and humiliating as was the visitation to which he was exposed, yet the whole evil might easily be traced to one source. The disgrace of his daughter, the fraud and cruelty of his sons, the dishonour and danger of his whole family, and the stain brought upon the cause of God and truth, might be all fairly attributed to his incautious sojourning among an unenlightened and careless people, at a time when he should have hastened to Bethel for the performance of his vow. The more we are enabled to look into the history of individual Christians, the more we shall find that their respected afflictions are especially calculated to correct the prevailing evil of their characters; and that they may be traced to close connection with some of their prominent moral defects. The naturally proud man is frequently touched in the very core of his pride. The covetous man is often annoyed by worldly anxieties and losses. Still even the afflictions which are permitted to arise out of a Christian's errors have a merciful intention. Their specific object is the more ample sanctification of his soul and body. They are to work out for him "the peaceable fruits of righteousness." 3. But observe, that when God really calls a man to a review, and a cleansing of his ways, He makes him serious and in earnest. Any attempts at reformation which originate in merely human effort, are in their extent partial, and in their duration transitory. And it is indeed a beautiful sight when we see the soul of a sincere Christian thoroughly awakened by the dispensations of providence, and by the quickening power of the Spirit of grace, to renewed devotion and activity for God. When the command comes with power into the soul, "Arise, and go up to Bethel," then there is no more parleying, delaying, or excuse. The same spirit is shown in the conduct of Jacob. He appears at once to have been roused to aim strenuously at the revival of religion both in himself and his family; and he addresses himself without delay to the confession of his neglect, to the performance of his duty, and to a close inspection into the state of his household, that they also, in whatsoever thing they had sinned against the Lord, should be thoroughly reformed and corrected. Such a work of revival is the work of God; and wherever it occurs, it will be marked by certain characteristics which cannot easily be mistaken; for they savour too strongly of that heaven from whence alone grace and holiness flow, to be fairly attributed to any other source. The call of God to renewed devotion produces a sincere surrender of all idolatrous attachments, either to the things or the persons of this world. "Put away your strange gods. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them in the oak which was Shechem." The call of God produces a cessation from all impurity of the flesh and of the spirit. The reviving call of God will appear in an honest endeavour

Benson Commentary Genesis 35:1 And God said unto 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. Genesis 35:1 . God said, Arise, go up to Beth-el — This was a word in season to comfort his disquieted mind, and direct him to a safer place. Make there an altar — Consider and pay thy vows there, made in the time of thy distress. Jacob had said in the day of his distress, If I come again in peace, this stone shall be God’s house, Genesis 28:22 . God had performed his part, and given Jacob more than he then desired, namely, “bread to eat, and raiment to put on;” but it seems, if he had not forgotten his vow, he had at least deferred the performance of it, waiting, probably, for a fit time for that purpose; or an admonition from God concerning the proper season of paying it. And dwell there — That is, he was not only to go himself, but to take his family with him, that they might join with him in his devotions. Genesis 35:2 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: Genesis 35:2 . Put away the strange gods that are among you — This is evidently a mistranslation; the Hebrew ???? ???? means, not the strange gods that are among you, but the gods of the stranger that is among you, alluding probably to the captive Shechemite women, who now made a part of his household, or to other Gentiles who had joined themselves to his family, and who might secretly worship idols. Thus, like a good man, and a good master of a family, he takes care not only for himself, but for all his family, to keep them from the exercise of a false religion, and to engage them, as far as he could, in the profession and practice of the true. And be clean — Cleanse yourselves by outward and ritual washing, (compare Exodus 19:10-14 ,) which even then was in use, and was considered as an emblem of cleansing the soul, by repentance, from all those impure lusts and vile affections, whereby a man becomes polluted in the sight of God. This, no doubt, Jacob had chiefly in view; namely, that they should cleanse their hands from blood, and from their late detestable cruelty, and purify their hearts from those evil dispositions which had given birth to such abominable wickedness, that they might be fit to approach God in his worship. And change your garments — In token of your changing your minds and manners. Genesis 35:3 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. Genesis 35:3 . Who answered me in the day of my distress — He considers God’s gracious promise then made to him, and the assurance of his favour toward him, and care of him, impressed by God upon his mind, as an answer to his prayers, although he had then seen no success, nor any accomplishment of God’s word to him. Genesis 35:4 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. Genesis 35:4 . They gave unto Jacob all the strange gods — Rather, the gods of the stranger; and all their ear-rings — Either because they had been abused to idolatry and superstition, and were therefore to be destroyed, (Deuteronomy 7:57 and Deuteronomy 12:3 ,) or for fear they should be so abused. For the Holy Scriptures insinuate, and other writers expressly affirm, that divers heathen nations did wear ear-rings for the honour of their idols, and with the representations or ensigns of their idols engraven upon them, such as the rings and vessels mentioned by Maimonides, marked with the image of the sun and moon. Jacob hid them under the oak — In a place only known to himself. It is probable they were first melted or broken. Genesis 35:5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. Genesis 35:5 . The terror of God — A great terror from God; was upon the cities — Especially the cities nearest to Shechem, so that, although, humanly speaking, they were able, they were restrained from pursuing or destroying Jacob and his family. Nothing less could have secured them, considering the number, power, and rage of their enemies. God governs the world more by secret terrors on men’s minds than we are aware of. Genesis 35:6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is , Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. Genesis 35:7 And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother. Genesis 35:7 . He built an altar — And, no doubt, offered sacrifice upon it, perhaps the tenth of his cattle, according to his vow, I will give the tenth unto thee. And he called the place — That is, the altar, El-Beth-el — The God of Beth-el. As when he made a thankful acknowledgment of the honour God had done him in calling him Israel, he worshipped God by the name of El-elohe-Israel; so now he was making a grateful recognition of God’s former favour at Beth-el, he worships God by the name of the God of Beth-el, because there God appeared to him. Genesis 35:8 But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth. Genesis 35:8 . Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died — It appears, on computation, that this event took place not less than a hundred and twenty-five years after Rebekah’s marriage with Isaac. No doubt Rebekah was now dead, and this old nurse, who had come with her into Canaan, ( Genesis 24:59 ,) and had tarried with her while she lived, was, after her death, taken into Jacob’s family, in which, as she was a person of great prudence and piety, her presence and advice must have been very useful. Hence her death is recorded in Jacob’s history, rather than in Isaac’s. Now, while they were at Beth-el, she died, and died so much lamented, that the oak, under which she was buried was called Allon-bachuth, the oak of weeping. Genesis 35:9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. Genesis 35:10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. Genesis 35:10-11 . He called his name Israel — So he had been named by the angel that wrestled with him, ( Genesis 32:28 ,) and the change of his name, then made, is here confirmed and ratified by the Divine Majesty, to encourage him against the fear of the Canaanites, and to assure him that, as he had prevailed over Esau, so he should now prevail over those of whom he was afraid. And he here renews and ratifies the covenant with him by the name of El-Shaddai, God all-sufficient, to fulfil his promises in due time, and to protect and provide for him at the present. Two things are here promised him; 1st, That he should be the father of a great nation; great in number, a company of nations shall be of thee. Every tribe of Israel was a nation, and all the twelve, a company of nations; great in honour and power; kings shall come out of thy loins. 2d, That he should be master of a good land, ( Genesis 35:12 ,) the land that was given to Abraham and Isaac being here entailed on Jacob and his seed. These two promises had also a spiritual signification, which we may suppose Jacob himself had some notion of; for, without doubt, Christ is the promised seed, and heaven is the promised land; the former is the foundation, and the latter the top-stone of all God’s favours. Genesis 35:11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; Genesis 35:12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. Genesis 35:13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. Genesis 35:13 . God went up from him — In some visible display of his glory, which had hovered over him while he talked with him; or by withdrawing the signs of his special presence, as Genesis 17:22 , and Jdg 13:20 ; as, on the contrary, God is said to come down, not by change of place, but by some signal manifestation of his presence and favour, Exodus 3:8 ; Numbers 11:17 . Genesis 35:14 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. Genesis 35:14 . And Jacob set up a pillar — When he was going to Padan-aram he set up that stone which he had laid his head on for a pillow; but now he took time to erect one more stately and durable, probably inserting that stone in it. And in token of his intending it for a sacred memorial of his communion with God, he poured oil, and the other ingredients of a drink- offering, upon it. And he confirmed the name he had formerly given to the place, Beth-el, the house of God. Yet this very place afterward lost the honour of its name, and became Beth-aven, a house of iniquity; for here it was that Jeroboam set up one of his calves. It is impossible for the best men to entail so much as the profession and form of religion upon a place. Genesis 35:16-17 . She had hard labour — Harder than usual. Rachel had said when she bore Joseph, God shall give me another son, which now the midwife remembers, and tells her, her words were made good. Yet this did not avail; unless God command away fear, no one else can. We are apt in extreme perils to comfort ourselves and our friends with the hopes of a temporal deliverance, in which we may be disappointed; we had better ground our comforts on that which cannot fail us, the hope of eternal life. Rachel had passionately said, Give me children, or else I die; and now she had children (for this was her second) she died. Genesis 35:15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel. Genesis 35:16 And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. Genesis 35:17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. Genesis 35:18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin. Genesis 35:18 . As her soul was departing — ???? ????? , when her soul was going out, namely, of the body: an argument this of the soul’s immortality, especially if compared with Ecclesiastes 12:7 ; from which places collated, we learn both whence it goes, and whither it goes. She called his name Benoni — The Song of Solomon of my sorrow. Thus, by her own confession , the gaining her desire became her sorrow: a lively instance this of the folly of inordinately desiring any thing temporal: the object obtained generally becomes a source of sorrow to us. But his father called him Benjamin — The son of my right hand. As near, dear, and precious to him as his right hand, which is both more useful and more honourable than the left, Psalm 80:17 ; or, instead of his right hand, the staff, stay, and comfort of his old age. Jacob seems to have given him this name rather than the other, because he would not renew the sorrowful remembrance of his mother’s death every time he called his son by name. It may be observed, that both names were remarkably verified in his posterity; the tribe of Benjamin being remarkably brave and active, and yet involved in more sorrowful disasters than were experienced by any of the other tribes. Genesis 35:19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. Genesis 35:19 . Rachel was buried in the way to Ephrath — Not in the city, though it was near; for in ancient times their sepulchres were not in places of resort, but in places separated and out of the cities, Matthew 27:60 ; Luke 7:12 . If the soul be at rest, the matter is not great where the body lies. In the place where the tree falls there let it lie. Genesis 35:20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. Genesis 35:20 . Jacob set a pillar upon her grave — As a monument, or memorial of her life and death, and as a testimony of her future resurrection. That is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day — Unto the time when Moses wrote this book. But it was known to be Rachel’s sepulchre long after, 1 Samuel 10:2 , and Providence so ordered it that this place afterward fell into the lot of Benjamin. Jacob set up a pillar in remembrance of his joys, ( Genesis 35:14 ,) and here he sets up one in remembrance of his sorrows. Such is human life with the generality of mankind, a checkered scene! sorrows and joys follow one another in rapid succession. Happy they who, through that faith which is the evidence of things not seen, rise superior to them both, and have their conversation in heaven, where such changes have no place! Genesis 35:21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar. Genesis 35:21 . Israel journeyed, and spread his tent — Though a prince with God, yet he dwells in tents; the city is reserved for him in the other world. Genesis 35:22 And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it . Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: Genesis 35:22 . When Israel dwelt in that land — And probably was absent from his family, which might be the unhappy occasion of these disorders. Though, perhaps, Bilhah was the greater criminal, yet Reuben’s crime was so provoking, that for it he lost his birthright and blessing, chap. Genesis 49:4 . Israel heard it — No more is said: that is enough: he heard it with the utmost grief and shame, horror and displeasure. No doubt he forsook Bilhah’s bed upon it, as David afterward acted in a like case. The sons of Jacob were twelve — Moses makes this observation here, because Benjamin being now born, Jacob had no more sons. When he says, ( Genesis 35:26 ,) which were born to him in Padan-aram, he speaks by a synecdoche, a figure of speech often used in Scripture, whereby that which belonged to the greater part is ascribed to all. They were all born there except Benjamin, the place of whose birth had been just mentioned. Genesis 35:23 The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun: Genesis 35:24 The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin: Genesis 35:25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali: Genesis 35:26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padanaram. Genesis 35:27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. Genesis 35:27 . Jacob came unto Isaac his father — Probably to dwell with or near him; bringing, it seems, his family with him. We can hardly suppose that this was the first visit he paid him since his return from Mesopotamia. Without question he had often visited him, though the Scripture be silent as to this particular. Genesis 35:28 And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. Genesis 35:28-29 . The days of Isaac were a hundred and fourscore years — He lived the longest of all the patriarchs, even five years longer than Abraham. He was a mild and quiet man, and these qualities probably contributed no little to his health and long life. Isaac lived about forty years after he made his will. We shall not die an hour the sooner, but abundantly the better, for our timely setting our heart and house in order. Isaac gave up the ghost and died — Although it appears by computation that he did not die till many years after Joseph was sold into Egypt, and, indeed, not till about the time he was preferred there; yet his death is here recorded that his story might be finished, and the subsequent narrative proceed without interruption. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him — Solemnized his funeral in an amicable manner, being now perfectly united in brotherly affection. This is mentioned to show how wonderfully God had changed Esau’s mind, since he vowed his brother’s murder, upon his father’s death, Genesis 27:41 . God has many ways of preventing ill men from doing the mischief they intended; he can either tie their hands, or change their hearts. Genesis 35:29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Genesis 35:1 And God said unto 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. JACOB’S RETURN Genesis 35:1-29 "As for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way."- Genesis 48:7 The words of the Wrestler at the brook Jabbok, "Let me go, for the day breaketh," express the truth that spiritual things will not submit themselves to sensible tests. When we seek to let the full daylight, by which we discern other objects, stream upon them, they elude our grasp. When we fancy we are on the verge of having our doubts for ever scattered, and our suppositions changed into certainties, the very approach of clear knowledge and demonstration seems to drive those sensitive spiritual presences into darkness. As Pascal remarked, and remarked as the mouthpiece of all souls that have earnestly sought for God, the world only gives us indications of the presence of a God Who conceals Himself. It is, indeed, one of the most mysterious characteristics of our life in this world that the great Existence which originates and embraces all other Beings should Himself be so silent and concealed: that there should be need of subtle arguments to prove His existence, and that no argument ever conceived has been found sufficiently cogent to convince all men. One is always tempted to say, how easy to end all doubt, how easy for God so to reveal Himself as to make unbelief impossible, and give to all men the glad consciousness that they have a God. The reason of this "reserve" of God must lie in the nature of things. The greatest forces in nature are silent and unobtrusive and incomprehensible. Without the law of gravitation the universe would rush into ruin, but who has ever seen this force? Its effects are everywhere visible, but itself is shrouded in darkness and cannot be comprehended. So much more must the Infinite Spirit remain unseen and baffling all comprehension. "No man hath seen God at any time" must ever remain true. To ask for God’s name, therefore, as Jacob did, is a mistake. For almost every one supposes that when he knows the name of a thing he knows also its nature. The giving of a name, therefore, tends to discourage enquiry, and to beget an unfounded satisfaction as if, when we know what a thing is called, we know what it is. The craving, therefore, which we all feel in common with Jacob-to have all mystery swept from between us and God, and to see Him face to face, so that we may know Him as we know our friends-is a craving which cannot be satisfied. You cannot ever know God as He is. Your mind cannot comprehend a Being who is pure Spirit, inhabiting no body, present with you here but present also hundreds of millions of miles away, related to time and to space and to matter in ways utterly impossible for you to comprehend. What is possible, God has done. He has made Himself known in Christ. We are assured, on testimony that stands every kind of test, that in Him, if nowhere else, we find God. And yet even by Christ this same law of reserve if not concealment was observed. Not only did He forbid men and devils to proclaim who He was but when men, weary of their own doubts and debatings, impatiently challenged him, "If thou be the Christ tell us plainly," He declined to do so. For really men must grow to the knowledge of Him. Even a human face cannot be known by once or twice seeing it; the practised artist often misses the expression best loved by the intimate friend, or by the relative whose own nature interprets to him the face in which he sees himself reflected. Much more can the child of God only attain to the knowledge of his Father’s face by first of all being a child of God, and then by gradually growing up into His likeness. But though God’s operation is in darkness the results of it are in the light. "As Jacob passed over Peniel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh." As Jacob’s company halted when they missed him, and as many anxious eyes were turned back into the darkness, they were unable still to see him; and even when the darkness began to scatter, and they saw dimly and far off a human figure, the sharpest eyes among them declare it cannot be Jacob, for the gait and walk, which alone they can judge by at that distance and in that light, are not his. But when at last the first ray of sunlight streams on him from over the hills of Gilead, all doubt is at an end; it is Jacob, but halting on his thigh. And he himself finds it is not a strain which the walking of a few paces will ease, nor a night cramp which will pass off, nor a mere dream which would vanish in broad day, but a real permanent lameness which he must explain to his company. Has he missed a step on the bank in the darkness, or stumbled or slipped on the slippery stones of the ford? It is a far more real thing to him than any such accident. So, however others may discredit the results of a work on the soul which they have not seen-however they may say of the first and most obvious results, "This is but a sickness of soul which the rising sun will dispel; a feigned peculiarity of walk which will be forgotten in the bustle of the day’s work"-it is not so, but every contact with real life makes it more obvious that when God touches a man the result is real. And as Jacob’s household and children in all generations counted that sinew which shrank sacred, and would not eat of it, so surely should we be reverential towards God’s work in the soul of our neighbour, and respect even those peculiarities which are often the most obvious first-fruits of conversion, and which make it difficult for us to walk in the same comfort with these persons, and keep step with them as easily as once we did. A reluctance to live like other good people, an inability to share their innocent amusements, a distaste for the very duties of this life, a harsh or reserved bearing towards unconverted persons, an awkwardness in speaking of their religious experience, as well as an awkwardness in applying it to the ordinary circumstances of their life, -these and many other of the results of God’s work on the soul should not be rudely dealt with, but respected; for though not in themselves either seemly or beneficial, they are evidence of God’s touch. After this contest with the angel, the meeting of Jacob with Esau has no separate significance. Jacob succeeds with his brother because already he has prevailed with God. He is on a satisfactory footing now with the Sovereign who alone can bestow the land and judge betwixt him and his brother. Jacob can no longer suppose that the chief obstacle to his advance is the resentment of Esau. He has felt and submitted to a stronger hand than Esau’s. Such schooling we all need: and get, if we will take it. Like Jacob, we have to make our way to our end through numberless human interferences and worldly obstacles. Some of these we have to flee from, as Jacob from Laban; others we must meet and overcome, as our Esaus. Our own sin or mistake has put us under the power of some whose influence is disastrous; others, though we are not under their power at all, yet, consciously or unconsciously to themselves, continually cross our path and thwart us, keep us back and prevent us from effecting what we desire, and from shaping things about us according to our own ideas. And there will, from time to time, be present to our minds obvious ways in which we could defeat the opposition of these persons, and by which we fancy we could triumph over them. And what we are here taught is, that we need look for no triumph, and it is a pity for us if we win a triumph over any human opposition, however purely secular and unchristian, without first having prevailed with God in the matter. He comes in between us and all men and things, and, laying His hand on us, arrests us from further progress till we have to the very bottom and in every part adjusted the affair with Him-and then, standing right with Him, we can very easily, or at least we can, get right with all things. And it should be a suggestive and fruitful thought to the most of us that, in all cases in which we sin against our brother, God presents Himself as the champion of the wronged party. One day or other we must meet not the strongest putting of all those. cases in which we have erred as the offended party could himself put them, but we must meet them as put by the Eternal Advocate of justice and right, who saw our spirit, our merely selfish calculating, our base motive, our impure desire, our unrighteous deed. Gladly would Jacob have met the mightiest of Esau’s host in place of this invincible opponent, and it is this same Mighty One, this same watchful guardian of right Who threw Himself in Jacob’s way, Who has His eye on us, Who has tracked us through all our years, and Who will certainly one time appear in our path-as the champion of every one we have wronged, of every one whose soul we have put in jeopardy, of every one to whom we have not done what God intended we should do, of every one whom we have attempted merely to make use of; and in stating their case and showing us what justice and duty would have required of us, He will make us feel, what we cannot feel till He Himself convinces us, that, in all our dealings with men, wherein we have wronged them we have wronged Him. The narrative now prepares to leave Jacob and make room for Joseph. It brings him back to Bethel, thereby completing the history of his triumph over the difficulties with which his life had been so thickly studded. The interest and much of the significance of a man’s life come to an end when position and success are achieved. The remaining notices of Jacob’s experience are of a sorrowful kind; he lives under a cloud until at the close the sun shines out again. We have seen him in his youth making experiments in life; in his prime founding a family and winning his way by slow and painful steps to his own place in the world; and now he enters on the last stage of his life. a stage in which signs of breaking up appear almost as soon as he attains his aim and place in life. After all that had happened to Jacob, we should have expected him to make for Bethel as rapidly as his unwieldy company could be moved forwards. But the pastures that had charmed the eye of his grandfather captivated Jacob as well. He bought land at Shechem, and appeared willing to settle there. The vows which he had uttered with such fervour when his future was precarious are apparently quite forgotten, or more probably neglected, now that danger seems past. To go to Bethel involved the abandonment of admirable pastures, and the introduction of new religious views and habits into his family life. A man who has large possessions, difficult and precarious relations to sustain with the world, and a household unmanageable from its size, and from the variety of dispositions included in it, requires great independence and determination to carry out domestic reform on religious grounds. Even a slight change in our habits is often delayed because we are shy of exposing to observation fresh and deep convictions on religious subjects. Besides, we forget oar fears and our vows when the time of hardship passes away; and that which, as young men, we considered almost hopeless, we at length accept as our right, and omit all remembrance and gratitude. A spiritual experience that is separated from your present by twenty years of active life, by a foreign residence, by marriage, by the growing up of a family around you, by other and fresher spiritual experiences, is apt to be very indistinctly remembered. The obligations you then felt and owned have been overlaid and buried in the lapse of years. And so it comes that a low tone is introduced into your life, and your homes cease to be model homes. Out of this condition Jacob was roughly awakened. Sinning by unfaithfulness and softness towards his family, he is, according to the usual law, punished by family disaster of the most painful kind. The conduct of Simeon and Levi was apparently due quite as much to family pride and religious fanaticism as to brotherly love or any high moral view. In them first we see how the true religion, when held by coarse and ungodly men, becomes the root of all evil. We see the first instance of that fanaticism which so often made the Jews a curse rather than a blessing to other nations. Indeed, it is but an instance of the injustice, cruelty, and violence that at all times result where men suppose that they themselves are raised to quite peculiar privileges and to a position superior to their fellows, without recognising also that this position is held by the grace of a holy God and for the good of their fellows. Jacob is now compelled to make a virtue of necessity. He flees to Bethel to escape the vengeance of the Shechemites. To such serious calamities do men expose themselves by arguing with conscience and by refusing to live up to their engagements. How can men be saved from living merely for sheep-feeding and cattle-breeding and trade and enjoyment? how can they be saved from gradually expelling from their character all principle and all high sentiment that conflicts with immediate advantage and present pleasure, save by such irresistible blows as here compelled Jacob to shift his camp? He has spiritual perception enough left to see what is meant. The order is at once issued: "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." Thus frankly does he acknowledge his error, and repair, so far as he can, the evil he has done. Thus decidedly does he press God’s command on those whom he had hitherto encouraged or connived at. Even from his favourite Rachel he takes her gods and buries them. The fierce Simeon and Levi, proud of the blood with which they had washed out their sister’s stain, are ordered to cleanse their garments and show some seemly sorrow, if they can. If years go by without any such incident occurring in our life as drives us to a recognition of our moral laxity and deterioration, and to a frank and humble return to a closer walk with God, we had need to strive to awaken ourselves and ascertain whether we are living up to old vows and are really animated by thoroughly worthy motives. It was-when Jacob came back to the very spot where he had lain on the open hillside, and pointed out to his wives and children the stone he had set up to mark the spot, that he felt humbled as he cast his eye over the flocks and tents he now owned. And if you can, like Jacob, go back to spots in your life which were very woful and perplexed, years even when all continued dreary, dark, and hopeless, when friendlessness and poverty, bereavement or disease, laid their chilling, crushing hands upon you, times when you could not see what possible good there was for you in the world; and if now all this is solved, and your condition is in the most striking contrast to what you can remember, it becomes you to make acknowledgment to God such as you may have made to your friends, such acknowledgment as makes it plain that you are touched by His kindness. The acknowledgment Jacob made was sensible and honest. He put away the gods which had divided the worship of his family. In our life there is probably that which constantly tends to usurp an undue place in our regard; something which gives us more pleasure than the thought of God, or from which we really expect a more palpable benefit than we expect from God, and which, therefore, we cultivate with far greater assiduity. How easily, if we really wish to be on a clear footing with God, can we discover what things should be cast revengefully from us, buried and stamped upon and numbered with the things of the past. Are there not in your life any objects for the sake of which you sacrifice that nearness to God, and that sure hold of Him you once enjoyed? Are you not conscious of any pursuits, or hopes, or pleasures, or employments which practically have the effect of making you indifferent to spiritual advancement, and which make you shy of Bethel-shy of all that sets clear before you your indebtedness to God, and your own past vows and resolves? "But," continues the narrative, "but Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died": that is, although Jacob and his house were now living in the fear of God, that did not exempt them from the ordinary distresses of family life. And among these, one that falls on us with a chastening and mild sadness all its own, occurs when there passes from the family one of its oldest members, and one who has by the delicate tact of love gained influence over all, and has by the common consent become the arbiter and mediator, the confidant and counsellor of the family. They, indeed, are the true salt of the earth whose own peace is so deep and abiding, and whose purity is so thorough and energetic, that into their ear we can disburden the troubled heart or the guilty conscience, as the wildest brook disturbs not and the most polluted fouls not the settled depths of the all-cleansing ocean. Such must Deborah have been, for the oak under which she was buried was afterwards known as "the oak of weeping." Specially must Jacob himself have mourned the death of her whose face was the oldest in his remembrance, and with whom his mother and his happy early days were associated. Very dear to Jacob, as to most men, were those who had been connected with and could tell him of his parents, and remind him of his early years. Deborah, . by treating him still as a little boy, perhaps the only one who now called him by the pet name of childhood, gave him the pleasantest relief from the cares of manhood and the obsequious deportment of the other members of his household towards him. So that when she went a great blank was made to him: no longer was the wise and happy old face seen in her tent door to greet him of an evening; no longer could he take refuge in the peacefulness of her old age from the troubles of his lot: she being gone, a whole generation was gone, and a new stage of life was entered on. But a heavier blow, the heaviest that death could inflict, soon fell upon him. She who had been as God’s gift and smile to him since ever he had left Bethel at the first is taken from him now that he is restored to God’s house. The number of his sons is completed, and the mother is removed. Suddenly and unexpectedly the blow fell, as they were journeying and fearing no ill. Notwithstanding the confident and cheering, though ambiguous, assurances of those about her, she had that clear knowledge of her own state which, without contradicting, simply put aside such assurances, and, as her soul was departing, feebly named her son Benoni, Son of my sorrow. She felt keenly what was, to a nature like hers, the very anguish of disappointment. She was never to feel the little creature stirring in her arms with personal human life, nor see him growing up to manhood as the son of his father’s right hand. It was this sad death of Rachel’s which made her the typical mother in Israel. It was not an unclouded, merely prosperous life which could fitly have foreshadowed the lives of those by whom the promised seed was to come; and least of all of the virgin to whom it was said, "A sword shall pierce through thine own soul also." It was the wait of Rachel that poetical minds among the Jews heard from time to time mourning their national disasters -Rachel weeping for her children, when by captivity they were separated from their mother country, or when by the sword of Herod, the mothers of Bethlehem were bereaved of their babes. But it was also observed that that which brought this anguish on the mothers of Bethlehem was the birth there of the last Son of Israel, the blossom of this long-growing plant, suddenly born after a long and barren period, the son of Israel’s right hand. Still another death is registered in this chapter. It took place twelve years after Joseph went into Egypt, but is set down here for convenience. Esau and Jacob are, for the last time, brought together over their dead father-and for the last time, as they see that family likeness which comes out so strikingly in the face of the dead. do they feel drawn with brotherly affection to greet one another as sons of one father. In the dead Isaac too, they find an object of veneration more impressive than they had found in the living father: the infirmities of age are exchanged for the mystery and majesty of death; the man has passed out of reach of pity, of contempt: the shrill, uncontrolled treble is no longer heard, there are no weak, plaintive movements, no childishness; but a solemn, august silence, a silence that seems to bid on-lookers be still and refrain from disturbing the first communings of the departed spirit with things unseen. The tenderness of these two brothers towards one another and towards their father was probably quickened by remorse when they met at his deathbed. They could not, perhaps, think that they had hastened his end by causing him anxieties which age has not strength to throw off; but they could not miss the reflection that the life now closed and finally sealed up might have been a much brighter life had they acted the part of dutiful, loving sons. Scarcely can one of our number pass from among us without leaving in our minds some self-reproach that we were not more kindly towards him, and that now he is beyond our kindness; that our opportunity for being brotherly towards him is forever gone. And when we have very manifestly erred in this respect, perhaps there are among all the stings of a guilty conscience few more bitterly piercing than this. Many a son who has stood unmoved by the tears of a living mother-his mother by whom he lives, who has cherished him as her own soul, who has forgiven and forgiven and forgiven him, who has toiled and prayed, and watched for him-though he has hardened himself against her looks of imploring love and turned carelessly from her entreaties and burst through all the fond cords and snares by which she has sought to keep him, has yet broken down before the calm, unsolicitous, resting face of the dead. Hitherto he has not listened to her pleadings, and now she pleads no more. Hitherto she has heard no word of pure love from him, and now she hears no more. Hitherto he has done nothing for her of all that a son may do, and now there is nothing he can do. All the goodness of her life gathers up and stands out at once, and the time for gratitude is past. He sees suddenly, as by the withdrawal of a veil, all that that worn body has passed through for him, and all the goodness these features have expressed, and now they can never light up with joyful acceptance of his love and duty. Such grief as this finds its one alleviation in the knowledge that we may follow those who have gone before us; that we may yet make reparation. And when we think how many we have let pass without those frank, human, kindly offices we might have rendered, the knowledge that we also shall be gathered to our people comes in as very cheering. It is a grateful thought that there is a place where we shall be able to live rightly, where selfishness will not intrude and spoil all, but will leave us free to be to our neighbour all that we ought to be and all that we would be. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.