Back to Bethel

We are wrapping up our women’s studies in Genesis and last week we looked at chapter thirty-five. If you are a bible student you can probably say like me, that you can be familiar with particular passages but then suddenly something jumps out that really grabs your attention. This chapter was truly a “wait, what?”, moment as I was studying and preparing to teach. It was not new to me at all, instead it was a timely revelation when the familiar became a fundamental place to stop and reflect.

Jacob and his family had just experience perhaps one of their lowest moments in their journey. Chapter thirty-four reveals that his daughter Dinah was raped as a result of her desire to go and “visit” the ungodly women where she had recently moved with her family in the city of Shechem. Dinah’s brothers (Jacob’s sons) decide to avenge their sister, by murdering and looting the city. Jacob finds himself ashamed, but only concerned with how this all will effect his reputation in Shechem. I must confess, this is my least favorite chapter in the Bible. But then, when we are sympathetic toward Dinah and horrified by her brothers and bewildered by Jacobs lack of spiritual leadership in his home, God steps in.

In chapter thirty-five God speaks to Jacob and reveals to him not only the reason for his troubles but the remedy for restoration. In verses 1-3 we read, “Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments; and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” 

Remember Bethel? (Read Genesis 28:10-19) This was the place where God had come personally to Jacob in a dream, Bethel was a holy place. In Genesis 13:3 Abraham built an altar when he arrived in the land; after his trip to Egypt, he returned to Bethel. The Bible seems to infer that “Bethel” is a type of a place we go to dedicate, and rededicate ourselves to the Lord. For me, my daily Bethel, is at my kitchen table where I start the day in quietness, prayer, reading the bible. My Bethel is where I ask God what David asked of God in Ps 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”  Weekly, my Bethel is at church, where I worship, confess my sins, reaffirm my faith, and strengthened by fellowship with other believers. It is that place where I am refreshed by the presence of God’s people and our faith in Christ.

Jacob and his family needed to get back to Bethel. It was never God’s will for Jacob to settle his family in Shechem in the first place. Little did he know how costly that detour would become. In preparation to get back to Bethel, Jacob calls his family together, and prepares them for the trip.

1. Put away foreign gods Does this surprise you? Does he now know about Rachel’s stolen gods? Did any of the sons bring along some gods from Shechem? Jacob knew it all had to go because if you truly want spiritual revival, renewal in your life, really want to start over, you have to get rid of anything that competes with God being first. We talk about getting rid of the idols in our lives, yet they are so often like Jacob’s family hidden, secret. We don’t carry around wooden statutes, we don’t worship relics, but we do have our own idols, yet at times they’re so hard to see.

It was Scott Hafemann who said, “Idolatry” is the practice of seeking the source and provision of what we need either physically or emotionally in someone or something other than the one true God. It is the tragically pathetic attempt to squeeze life out of lifeless forms that cannot help us meet our real needs.

2. Purify yourselves –pure heart, pure bodies, why? Because as followers of Christ our bodies are the temple of God! 2 Corinthians 6:16 says, “And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For you are God’s temple, the home of the living God, and God has said of you, “I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.”

3. Change your clothes –throughout scripture garments/cloths often symbolize character. Rom 13:14 tells us,”But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in in regard to its lusts.” Here they are told to change the clothes that had been polluted in Shechem, it was time to put on new clothes associated with holiness.

The emphasis of Bethel was more than just the physical location. It was significant because of the God who Jacob met there. He had come back to Bethel in obedience to God. And now he could freely worship Him.

TRUTH: WITH GOD, IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO START OVER. Even if you’ve wasted many good years, even if you’ve messed up terribly, even if you feel like a failure, it’s never too late with God. Get back to Bethel and be renewed by His grace, mercy and unfailing love through Christ. Get back to Bethel and awaken the soul satisfying purpose to which God created you for. To know Him, to love Him and to offer your life for His glory this side of heaven.