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RETURN TO BETHEL
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14
Genesis 35:1-9

Psalm 17:1-7

 

Fear the Lord. and

depart from evil.

 

RETURN TO BETHEL
 
The sons of Jacob had set the example 3,500 years ago. No males were spared. Following the slaughter came the plunder. Read Genesis 34:28-29. Prophetically, Jacob said to his sons, “Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land… they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house” (Gen 34:30).
 
At the slaughter of Shechem, Jacob must have been stunned by his sons’ wickedness and violence. If the family was to survive, the kind of life they lived had to stop! God appeared to Jacob in his distress, and ordered him to move on to Bethel, the memorable place of blessing. Shechem and its attractions had proved to be a snare. A clean-cut severance was necessary, if the nation was to be established on a right footing.
 
And how was the nation to be built except the sons of Jacob come into a position of blessing? Bethel, house of God, was where their father had received the covenant blessing. There, Jacob set up a pillar of remembrance and vowed his allegiance to God. Jacob’s sons had to also appear before God at Bethel. But before that, a purging of sin was necessary. Jacob had to get right with God, and his sons as well. All the strange gods, images and articles of heathen worship and related ornaments were surrendered to Jacob by everyone in the household, and buried in Shechem. Then God granted them safe passage through the land.
 
At Bethel, Jacob built an altar and they assembled before the Lord in worship. He called the place Elbethel: God of Bethel. God had more than blessed Jacob, far beyond his hopes earlier expressed, to keep him, give him bread to eat and raiment to put on (Gen 28:20). When God calls, there is no doubt or ambiguity. Any uncertainty in Jacob’s mind was completely dispelled by God at this meeting at Bethel. There, God affirmed His previous promise to Jacob that he was to be bearer of the covenant. It could not be done until Jacob returned to Bethel and there fulfilled his vow in solemn worship, with his sons.
 
THOUGHT: God minces no words.

PRAYER: May we set up our Bethel wherever we go.

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