Genesis,
chapter 35
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. 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: 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.
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. 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.
Jacob’s
tribe consists of not only himself and his wives, one of which had stolen her
father’s household idols, but their children, servants, and their Canaanite
captives. There would have been quite a mix of idols and gods among them. God
calls a halt and intends to shake all these things out. He orders Jacob to
build an altar to Him, where Jacob had vowed to serve God in return for His
protection in chapter 28.
18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and
took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and
poured oil upon the top of it. 19 And he
called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz
at the first. 20 And Jacob vowed a vow,
saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and
will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21 So that I come again to my father’s house in
peace; then shall the LORD be my God: 22
And this stone, which I have set
for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will
surely give the tenth unto thee.
God
had reminded Jacob of this event when He told Jacob to leave Laban with his
family.
Genesis
31:13 I am the God of Bethel, where thou
anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get
thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.
For
not the last time a leader that God has selected will tell his people to put
away their foreign (strange) gods. Jacob is sanctifying his people for God,
setting them apart for God’s purpose.
Genesis
18:19 For I know him, that he will
command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way
of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham
that which he hath spoken of him.
Joshua
24:15 ¶ And if it seem evil unto you to
serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which
your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of
the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve
the LORD.
Deuteronomy
7:25 The graven images of their gods
shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on
them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an
abomination to the LORD thy God.
This
is a recurrent theme in God’s ministry of reconciling man to Himself. Notice
verse 4. Not only the images that Rachel and probably many of the servants had
in their possession but also their earrings were given and buried out of their
sight. Jewelry played a part in ancient worship. Earrings were not merely
ornamentation for both men and women but were, scholars tell us, sometimes
amulets and charms to protect the openings of the face and head from entry by
evil spirits. They were clearly part of the idol worship of the ancient world,
the spiritual system that developed after the Flood. If you have difficulty seeing that side of
facial jewelry just look at the hundreds of occult earrings on a website like
Etsy.com. Some verses of note regarding men and women wearing earrings and of a
possible link to their occultic practices are;
Exodus
32:1 ¶ And when the people saw that
Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves
together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before
us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt,
we wot not what is become of him. 2 And
Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of
your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. 3 And all the people brake off the golden
earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4 And he received them at their hand, and
fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they
said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt.
Judges
8:24 And Gideon said unto them, I would
desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his
prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 25 And they answered, We will willingly give
them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of
his prey.
Here
is this passage in chapter 35, though, we have a very clear indication that
something linked the earrings to the household gods that must be put away. Oak
trees also play a part in ancient worship.
Ezekiel
6:13 Then shall ye know that I am the
LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars,
upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green
tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to
all their idols.
The
reference to changing their garments also bears some note. Changing garments
signified a change of heart and clearly has a religious significance.
Zechariah
3:4 And he answered and spake unto those
that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto
him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with change of raiment.
Revelation
19:8 And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the
righteousness of saints.
And
Jacob’s fears did not come to fruition. The towns by which he and his family
passed were terrified of them and made no effort to attack them.
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. 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. 8 But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was
buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.
9 And God appeared unto Jacob again,
when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. 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. 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; 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. 13 And God went up from him in the place where
he talked with him. 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. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where
God spake with him, Bethel.
Luz
and Bethel are the same place.
Genesis
28:19 And he called the name of that
place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
Jacob
builds an altar and calls the place ‘the God of the House of God’, Elbethel. El means God and Bethel means house of God.
Genesis
28:16 ¶ And Jacob awaked out of his
sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
17 And he was afraid, and said, How
dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and
took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and
poured oil upon the top of it. 19 And he
called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz
at the first.
Rebekah’s
nurse, mentioned when Rebekah left her family to marry Isaac, dies at this
point in the narrative. Strong says that Allonbachuth means, “oak of
weeping.” It is likely that Jacob had visited his former home and carried this
elderly nurse with him, as his parents were now dead.
Genesis
24:59 And they sent away Rebekah their
sister, and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant, and his men.
We
are now reminded of God’s appearance to Jacob and his renaming to Israel.
Genesis
32:28 And he said, Thy name shall be
called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and
with men, and hast prevailed.
We
are now given more detail of the blessing and the promise that God bestowed on
Jacob. This is a similar device in the narrative to Paul’s Damascus road
conversion where on other occasions in which it is related we get more
information. It is important to take both accounts when we try to imagine what
went on here. Another possibility to consider is that in this visit to Bethel
these events occur a second time. So, you can view these as a recap or you can
see them as a second event of God’s repeating His blessing and His promise.
Either way would satisfy the demands of the overall narrative.
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. 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. 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. 19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to
Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. 20 And
Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto
this day.
Jacob
and his family now leave Bethel and we have a tragedy of great importance to
Jacob. His beloved Rachel dies in hard labor, giving birth to Benjamin. Here we
have a statement that is helpful in understanding what happens to the soul at
death. It leaves the body. This is not the proverbial ‘rocket science’ although
some commentators make it so.
What
is the soul? First, it is one of the three parts of which a human being is
composed.
1Thessalonians
5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
From
all indications as you read the over the several hundred verses in which the
word is found it is the seat of our self-identify, our will, and desires. It
was created by God.
Isaiah
57:16 For I will not contend for ever,
neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
It
leaves the body upon death and can be deposited in Hell.
Psalm
86:13 For great is thy mercy toward me:
and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
It
is God who decides when the soul and body separate, when death is to be.
Luke
12:20 But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things
be, which thou hast provided?
One
difference between that of the Old Testament and that of the Covenant of Grace
after Christ’s resurrection that reveals what we call ‘eternal security’ is
that until Christ’s Resurrection the soul is shown to be responsible for the
sins of the flesh, the body. Sacrifice, an animal substitute for Christ, is
required, the innocent dying for the guilty, in order to cleanse those sins.
After the Resurrection, for the Christian, God severs the flesh, the body, from
the soul so that it is free from the eternal consequences the sins of the flesh
bring about.
Colossians
2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins
of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
You
do not become a child of God by your own power.
John
1:12 But as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his
name:13 Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Nor,
as the verse quoted from Colossians shows, do you keep your salvation by your
own strength. Telling people that if they are truly delivered from Hell and
eternal suffering by their faith in Christ, which is a gift from God….
Ephesians
2:8 For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
…that
they can, by their own will, lose their salvation is a dangerous delusion and a
wicked blasphemy that renders God ineffectual in salvation. These same people
usually do not believe they have an authoritative Bible because the God who
cannot preserve them could not preserve His words. Beware of so-called “free
will” churches. They typically are trying to control you in some way and not
afraid to deceive you in the process. After all, if I can lose my salvation I
would need them to keep me in the fold, right? Keep me on the straight and
narrow? If the Holy Spirit is too weak to do that, what’s next, killing someone
in God’s name because He is too weak to do it Himself and needs your help?
Nevertheless,
Rachel’s soul left her body at the body’s death, as yours will if the Lord
tarries. She gave her child a name that reflected her anguish and sorrow but
Jacob gave him the name that lasts for us and gives a tribe of Israel its name.
Genesis
35:21 ¶ And Israel journeyed, and spread
his tent beyond the tower of Edar. 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: 23 The sons of
Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar,
and Zebulun: 24 The sons of Rachel;
Joseph, and Benjamin: 25 And the sons of
Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali: 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.
27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father
unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac
sojourned. 28 And the days of Isaac were
an hundred and fourscore years. 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.
Reuben
was Leah and Jacob’s firstborn. He had sex with Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, given to
Rachel by her father, Laban. Rachel had herself given Bilhah to Jacob to wife (Genesis 30:4) or to bear
children on her mistress’s behalf. In this unseemly arrangement Bilhah was not
considered a full, legitimate wife but a
concubine, an inferior legal status for a woman. Women had little, if any,
rights in this culture and a servant concubine would have almost no rights. We
have seen Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid, used in such a way, as well, with really
only God’s mercy assisting her. As all reality and events and behaviors are
either part of God’s direct and perfect will as what He prefers to happen or a
part of His permissive will in that He permits it for a reason often unknown to
us we can examine this condition in the light of those facts. God does not
create culture or civilization but He manipulates and modifies them to achieve
His purposes in spite of man’s wicked condition. There is nothing particularly
Godly about this setup for God already gave His direct will, what He wants,
early on. A single man and a single woman unite as one flesh. There is no
allowance for harems, concubines, secondary wives, girlfriends, mistresses, or
any of the other sinful things man desires.
Genesis
2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one
flesh.
However,
God will use this condition for His purpose of creating the people of Israel.
Here
Reuben is said to have sinned, not against Bilhah, but against Jacob, who
possesses her as a secondary wife or concubine. Under the Law given to Moses as
the Hebrew’s civil and religious regulations we have the following command.
Leviticus
20:11 And the man that lieth with his
father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely
be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
While
under the spiritual rules given to Christians, which can have no proper civil
significance as Christ’s order cannot be enforced by the civil magistrate
without violating the principle of a willing heart, the offender is to be
banned from the congregation until repentant to keep from polluting the
attitudes and behavior of the church.
1Corinthians
5:1 It is reported commonly that there
is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among
the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. 2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather
mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but
present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning
him that hath so done this deed, 4 In
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my
spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus. 6 Your glorying is not good. Know
ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Here,
Jacob’s sons are listed. From these men the children of Israel will issue. It
is also mentioned that Esau and Jacob buried their father Isaac. Isaac is said
to give up the ghost. This is a
reference to his spirit. Here is a reference to Jesus’, who was fully man and
fully God, human spirit or ghost, lowercase
s and g. Here the human spirit
belongs to and ascends to God.
Luke
23:46 And when Jesus had cried with a
loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having
said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Again,
not only the soul leaves the flesh at death but here we see the spirit leaves,
as well. Notice Solomon’s question in Ecclesiastes that suggests mankind
doesn’t know what he thinks he knows.
Ecclesiastes
3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that
goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
God
uses the spirit of man as one means to examine him from the inside-out.
Proverbs
20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of
the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.
The
Godhead consists of a soul (God the Father), the seat of self-identity and
will, a Spirit (the Holy Ghost called the Holy Spirit or Spirit of God when
referencing acting on physical reality), the very mind of God, and a body, a physical
presence, (Christ or the Word by which all things were created and are held
together). It is important to understand that only God’s three parts can act
independently although guided by one will. If either our soul or spirit leave
us as humans we physically die. Jesus, being fully man and fully God, was not
only the physical image of the invisible God but, as a human, possessed a
lowercase spirit or ghost which He surrendered when He gave
up his brief temporal existence before rising from the dead.
In
these last two passages we’ve studied we have seen that the soul and the spirit
or ghost both leave the body at death. Neither is said to be extinguished or
ceases to exist. When a person’s body dies the unique “I,” that sense of self-identity,
the thoughts, mind, and heart that make them who they are, the soul and the
spirit, are not there but have departed.
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