Passage: Genesis 35

The Big Idea

After the disaster at Shechem, God doesn’t scold Jacob. He comes to him with grace: “Get up, go back to Bethel, live there, and build an altar.” Bethel is where Jacob first met God, where it all began with simple faith. God’s cure for a drifting, self-sufficient heart is always the same: go back to the place where it’s all about Him and His sacrifice, and stay there. Jacob immediately becomes the leader his family needed. Then God reminds him of his new name and the promises he already had.

A Nation That Forgot God

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called for a national day of fasting and prayer. His proclamation said:

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God… Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

That was Jacob. And it’s often us.

“Arise, Go to Bethel” (Genesis 35:1)

God said to Jacob, “Get up, go up to Bethel and live there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from Esau.”

The last chapter was awful: Jacob’s failure to lead, his daughter violated, his sons slaughtering a city. This is the man God chose as the namesake of His people for thousands of years? Really, God?

Then I look at myself. I’ve fallen back more times than I’ve stepped forward. Sometimes I hear voices shouting, “You’re terrible!” and my own conscience agrees.

How do we get past that? Listen to what God says instead.

The world, the enemy and our own hearts will point to our sin. But the Holy Spirit points to Jesus, to what He did, not to how we’ve failed.
When you sin, confess it and remember what Jesus did on the cross to pay for it. “That was wrong. But I won’t let it keep me from coming to Jesus now.”
Don’t let sin keep you away from Him. Run back to Him, because He’s running after you (Luke 15:20).

God came to Jacob, His wandering man, to help him. He never leaves His people, no matter how bad it gets. He goes after His lost sheep. How many times has He come after you?

“You’ve been selfish and worldly, consumed with business, discouraged by your failures and broken over your family. You’ve let the world shape you. But I am with you. You don’t deserve it and you didn’t earn it. But I’m with you.”

Bethel, dwell and altar

Bethel was where Jacob first met God, where he first believed, where his life began to change. It began with faith: believing God’s words.
Dwell there. To dwell is to abide, to remain. Jesus said to abide in Him, because a branch can’t bear fruit by itself (John 15:4). The Christian life isn’t growing more independent from help; it’s learning to depend on God’s help more and more.
Build an altar. An altar was where sacrifices were offered, a reminder that sin requires a sacrifice. Building one was an act of faith. Worship Me for the sacrifice. That’s how hearts get fixed: only by the sacrifice and love of Jesus. That’s why remembering the Lamb of God at the Lord’s Table does wonders in our hearts.

I love how consistent God’s message is. From Genesis to Revelation He says, “Trust Me and stay with Me. I’ll take care of you, because I love you.”

Jesus told the church in Ephesus they had left their first love: “Remember where you’ve fallen from, repent and do the first works” (Revelation 2:4-5).

It started as a love story: you heard of His love and believed.
Now let His love be the power in the relationship. There’s always more of His love to learn.
When we drift, the path back is clear: remember it’s all about Jesus and His sacrifice, turn from self-sufficiency and sin, and do the first works: simply believe. Ask God for help and believe He will give it.

Paul asked the Galatians whether they received the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith. Having begun by the Spirit, were they now trying to be perfected by the flesh (Galatians 3:2-3)? Jacob started by believing but drifted back to his flesh. It’s always grace. We never need to save ourselves, whether in justification or in sanctification. The Spirit does both.

A Leader Again (Genesis 35:2-5)

Jacob told his household, “Get rid of the foreign gods among you, purify yourselves and change your clothes. Let’s go up to Bethel, and I’ll build an altar to the God who answered me in my distress and has been with me wherever I’ve gone.”

Immediately Jacob is a different man. Surrendered to the Lord, and the first thing we see is leadership.
He became like a walking Bible, speaking the words God had just spoken to him.
When a man surrenders to God, his influence on his family is huge.
He drew their attention back to what really mattered.

They handed over their foreign gods and the earrings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem.

Earrings? Does God have something against looking good? No. In that culture these were connected to pagan gods and worldly values (Hosea 2:13). It was a heart issue, not a fashion issue: “You love these things more than Me.”

As they traveled, a terror from God fell on the surrounding cities, and no one pursued them.

God was so good to this disobedient follower. It’s almost as if his sins had been washed away…

Back at Bethel (Genesis 35:6-15)

Jacob arrived at Bethel, built an altar and called the place El-Bethel, “God of the house of God,” because God had revealed Himself there.

Jacob followed through by faith.
And his little community was growing. Amazing how God uses flawed people to grow His family.

Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died and was buried under an oak below Bethel, named “the oak of weeping.” We’ve never met her before, but she was clearly dear to them.

Then God appeared to Jacob again and blessed him: “Your name is Jacob, but you won’t be called Jacob anymore. Your name will be Israel.” He said, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will come from you, and kings will descend from you. The land I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you and your descendants.”

No “I told you so.” No “Where have you been?”
God simply reminded Jacob who he really was.
He does the same with us: You’re justified by My Son. You’re My child. You’ve been given everything you need (2 Peter 1:3). Just ask.
There was nothing new Jacob needed to learn, only to be reminded of God’s Word and encouraged to believe it.

Jacob set up a stone pillar, poured out a drink offering and oil on it, and again named the place Bethel.

Jacob’s life was now poured out to God, thankful and dependent. Paul said near the end of his life that he was being poured out like a drink offering (2 Timothy 4:6).
It’s a beautiful picture of Jesus too, whose life was poured out on the altar of the cross, building God a house, His church.

Sorrow on the Road (Genesis 35:16-29)

On the way toward Ephrath (Bethlehem), Rachel went into hard labor. The midwife told her not to fear; she was having another son. As she was dying, she named him Ben-Oni, “son of my sorrow,” but Jacob named him Benjamin, “son of my right hand.” Rachel was buried on the way to Bethlehem.

Years earlier Rachel had cried, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” She thought children would make her happy. She did have real blessings, but her focus on herself often kept her from enjoying them.
People still die when you’re serving God. We still live in a broken world until Jesus returns. The Psalms help us here, with laments for the hard days and songs of hope for what Jesus will do. We need both.

Jacob’s family still wasn’t perfect: Reuben slept with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it. The chapter lists Jacob’s twelve sons. Then Jacob came home to his father Isaac at Hebron. Isaac died at 180, and Esau and Jacob buried him together.

So often it takes a death to bring divided people back together. In your conflicts, you can choose to end them by being the one who dies: dying to your need to win. Do you want the relationship, or do you want to be right?

Grace Takeaway

Jacob learned that dwelling at Bethel means dying to yourself and trusting God alone. Wherever you’ve drifted, God isn’t waiting with a lecture. He’s calling you back to the place where it all began, where it’s all about Jesus and His sacrifice. Humble yourself, put away whatever has competed for your heart, and go back to Bethel. Then stay there.

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