Continuing my chronological Bible study:
(Genesis 35:1) And God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother."
In the last chapter, Jacob's sons Simeon and Levi had just deceived and killed Shechem and his father Hamor and all the men in their city because of Shechem's rape of their sister, Dinah. Once again, Jacob found himself in a place where he was not safe where someone might want to kill him, so God told him to go to Bethel. God reminded Jacob that that is where He appeared to Jacob when he fled for his life from Esau. In sending Jacob back there, God was sending Jacob back to the place where he made a vow to God; God was reminding Jacob of his vow from Genesis 28:20-22, that if God was with him, protected him, gave his provisions, and allowed him to go back to his father's land in peace, then Jacob would recognize that the Lord was his God and he would tithe a tenth to him. Jacob had declared that the pillar he had set at Bethel would be God's house. God had certainly done His part in protecting and blessing Jacob; now it was time for Jacob to return to God and remember his vow.
(2) Then Jacob said to his household and to all who 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 to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which I went."
After God spoke to him, Jacob then told his wives and children and all the servants and those of his household to put away all their strange gods and cleanse and purify themselves. The word translated as "strange" is as a stranger or a foreigner, so should be thought of as "foreign" gods. His family had obviously picked up foreign idols living in this pagan land. Rachel herself had stolen gods from her father's house if she still had them at this time. Dinah had wanted to be worldly and see what those other young women experienced and may have picked up some of their idols. It could be the servants who had the strange gods, Cannanite servants who came into service later, like the ones Jacob's family acquired through the plundering of Shechem's city. Jacob announced that it was now time to put away all those foreign idols and get cleansed and go to Bethel where Jacob would make an altar to God, and he stressed that this is the God who has been with him when he was in distress and wherever he went.
(4) And they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and all their earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
All of the household of Jacob did indeed give up their foreign gods. The earrings they handed over were surely not regular jewelry worn by women but were the kind that were worn as amulets or charms decorated with magical characters and images of some pagan god, as was the practice back then. When you think about it that way, Dinah could have easily picked up that fashion statement when she went out into the world to see what the other young women were doing. Think about how many bad symbols and images and customs a young girl could pick up in our present culture! These earrings were symbols of pagan gods and had no place in Jacob's family. I'm not sure why he hid them in a particular place. I am assuming he buried them to hide them from anyone who might return to retrieve them, and he purposely left them in (or by) Shechem and away from his household and Bethel and their altar to God.
(5) And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.
Despite Jacob's fear that what his sons had done to the Shechemites would make him despised by the other Canaanite cities and make his family easy prey to their enemies, God protected Jacob and his company as they traveled. For whatever reason God projected to them, the people of these cities greatly feared what Jacob and his God might do to them, and they let his family be.
(6) So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people who were with him.
The place was formerly called Luz, but Jacob had named it Bethel. He and his family and all who were with him came safely to Bethel.
(7) And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.
As instructed by God, there Jacob built an altar in the place where God had appeared to him when he had fled from Esau. He now called the place El Bethel, which meant "God of Bethel" or "the God of the House of God".
(8) But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak, and the name of it was called Allon Bachuth.
There is much speculation among Biblical scholars as to how Rebekah's nurse came to be with Jacob and his family, but the passage doesn't say that the nurse was specifically with them when she died. I believe this may have been merely an explanation of another name by which this place was also known, something the early reader would have understood better than we do now. Because a beloved nurse also died and was buried at Bethel, the place was also known as Allon Bachuth, which literally meant "oak of weeping".
(9) And God appeared to Jacob again, when he came out of Padan Aram, and blessed him. (10) And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name." And He called his name Israel.
It seems to me that verse 9 is a continuation of the thought started in verse 7--Jacob built the altar because that is where God appeared to him when he fled from Esau and he also appeared to him when he came out of Padan Aram, and that is when He told him he would be called Israel. It seems to me that this is a retelling of how Jacob first came to call this place Bethel. God had brought Jacob back to this place so that Jacob would remember all that God had done for him.
(11) And God said to him, "I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be from you, and kings shall come out of your loins. (12) And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and to your descendants after you 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, a pillar of stone, and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. (15) And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.
I still believe this is a retelling of the original meeting with God when he named this place Bethel, which meant "House of God". However, most of the Biblical scholars I have read believe God is renewing His covenant with Jacob. It is certain that God wanted Jacob to return here so that he would remember his vow to God, and to remember God's promise to him, even if He did not speak to him again, but He probably did; who am I to argue with those scholars? It doesn't change the essence of this passage; God either told Jacob again or made sure it was all clear in his mind and his heart again. He renewed the Abrahamic covenant and promised Jacob that he and his descendants would inherit this land and that nations and kings would come from him.
As I am following a chronological Bible study designed by Skip Andrews, I am now going to Genesis 38:
(Genesis 38:1) And it came to pass at that time that Judah departed from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah.
There is some discrepancy among Biblical scholars as to when Judah started his own family, but it is of Mr. Andrews's opinion that it happened after, or maybe about the time of the rape of Dinah, and before the birth of Benjamin. As I am already in the midst of this chronological order, I don't want to change now and risk missing anything, so I will continue with this assumption. As Dinah wanted to go explore the customs of the other young women in the world, so it looks as if Judah desired to meet and make friends with new people--he departed from his brothers.
(2) And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shuah, and he took her, and went in to her.
Shuah was the name of the Canaanite, not the daughter. It appears that Judah took the daughter of Shuah to be his wife, with hers and her father's consent, and not by force, but we can be sure that Judah did not consult his father, as the marriage to a Canaanite woman would have been greatly discouraged.
(3) And she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er.
Judah's firstborn son was Er, a name that literally meant "watchful".
(4) And she conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan.
The daughter of Shuah bore Judah another son, and called his name Onan, which literally meant "strong". I don't know if there is any significance to this, but the scripture said that Er was named by his father Judah, and Onan was named by his mother.
(5) And she conceived yet again and bore a son, and called his name Shelah, and he was at Chezib when she bore him.
Judah's wife bore him a third son, and his name was called Shelah, which literally meant "request" or "petition", according to my sources, Strong's and Brown-Driver-Briggs. However, Dr. John Gill, in his commentary, said it signified "tranquil, quiet, peaceable and prosperous, and is a word that comes from the same root as Shiloh, that famous son of Judah that should spring from him". I saw that Albert Barnes wrote that it meant either "request" or "rest". I then did a little more digging and saw that there is another word "shelah", perhaps pronounced a little differently, but spelled the same way, which did mean "at rest" or "at ease". I really don't know which meaning was meant by the parents of Shelah, other than Dr. Gill's opinion, but at least I know why there could have been such discrepancy in the meaning of the name. Shelah was born at Chezib, which I read in one old commentary, would have been important to the early reader and descendants of Shelah. The birthplace of the other two sons was not mentioned because they did not have any children.
In my chronological study, it is assumed that Judah married a Canaanite woman and had children about the same time as the rape of Dinah, and may be one of the reasons that Jacob saw "sin in the camp" and recognized his family's need to return to Bethel and remember their Lord. Now the study returns to Jacob and his family leaving Bethel.
(Genesis 35:16) And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to go to Ephrath, and Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor.
Jacob and his family now left Bethel after they had returned for Jacob to build an altar and remember his vow to the Lord. There was just a little way to go to Ephrath, which we learn in a later verse is the same as Bethlehem. I will reflect on the meaning of the name when it is mentioned again in that verse. Meanwhile, they were almost to Ephrath, or Bethlehem, when Rachel went into hard labor.
(17) And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said to her, "Do not fear; you will have this son also."
The midwife may have just been trying to comfort Rachel with these words, but she was surely aware of Rachel's words at the birth of Joseph, that "the Lord shall add to me another son", especially since the meaning of the name Joseph was "Jehovah has added" or "let Him add". Now the midwife comforted Rachel with the words that she would indeed have another son.
(18) And it came to pass, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni, but his father called him Benjamin.
Rachel died in childbirth, but she did give birth to another son she called Ben-Oni, which literally meant "son of my sorrow". She probably named him this because of the pain and sorrow with which she brought him into the world, or maybe because of her sorrow when she realized she was going to leave him and this world as she was dying. I can't help but think of how Rachel had so desperately wanted children that she had told Jacob to give her children or else she would die (Gen. 30:1), and now she died giving birth to one. I can certainly understand why Jacob would rename the child, so that the name was not a constant reminder of the pain and sorrow with which the boy's mother died. He renamed the child Benjamin which literally meant "son of the right hand", which meant someone very dear and much loved. The child would be as his right hand or maybe he literally meant the child was the son of his right hand, the son of someone very dear to him.
There is something else, something rather amazing when I think about it, in this scripture. The verse did not merely say that Rachel died; it said her soul "was departing". The soul departed from the body "for she died". Her body obviously didn't depart or go anywhere, but her soul is said to have departed. Is this not beautiful proof that there is an immortal spirit in man that exists separately from the body? Indeed Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return to God who gave it."
(19) And Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.
So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, a name which literally meant "fruitfulness". Brown-Driver-Briggs' Hebrew Definitions defines it as "ash-heap: place of fruitfulness". I don't know whether the name of the place was always Ephrath, or if Jacob called it that because out of the ash heap of pain and sorrow came fruitfulness, but it came to be better known as Bethlehem, which literally meant "house of bread", and it was the birthplace of our savior, Jesus Christ, the bread of life.
My chronological study now takes me to Genesis 48:
(Genesis 48:7) And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was but a little way to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem.
This was Jacob's retelling of the event of Rachel's death to his son Joseph when he was an adult with children of his own. I do find it interesting that Jacob recalled the time as "when I came from Padan", even though he had already left Padan, journeyed to Succoth where he built a house and booths (though this must have been a brief stay), went to Shalem, a city of Shechem, where he bought land and had to have lived for awhile before the rape of Dinah because she couldn't have been more than a little girl when they first left Padan. I had read that Demetrius the Chronographer, a chronicler of Jewish history who lived in the third century B.C., seemed to have written with preciseness as he gave the date of every incident in Jacob's life, even giving a birth month and year for each of his children. He reported that Jacob had lived with Rachel for 23 years when she died. Jacob worked the second seven years for Rachel after she became his wife and then worked an additional six years for Laban for the speckled cattle; therefore it was ten years after he left Padan Aram that Rachel died. I guess a little 10-year detour away from where God would have him is unimportant at the end of Jacob's life. However, if this is the way that this time is thought of, as when Jacob "came from Padan", then I can see why scholars believe that God appeared to Jacob "again, when he came out of Padan Aram" (Genesis 35:9), and renewed his covenant with him.
Now back to Genesis 35:
(Genesis 35:20) And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.
The monument or pillar on Rachel's grave continued to stand to the day of the writing of this book in Genesis, and it is mentioned even later as a landmark in the book of 1 Samuel, the tenth chapter.
(21) And Israel journeyed and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.
After he buried Rachel, Jacob, or Israel, as he was now called by God, moved on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Edar, the name which literally means "tower of the flock", and was said to be a shepherd's watchtower about a mile from Bethlehem. Some scholars have written that this was the place where the angel came to the shepherds and reported the birth of Christ.
(22a) 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 about it.
During the time Jacob dwelled in that land, his oldest son Reuben lay with Rachel's maid, Bilhah, who had become Jacob's concubine and the mother of some of his children. I purposely divided this one verse into two parts because it is said that there was a great blank pause here in the original text. I don't know why it would have been transcribed as one verse. The early commentaries look at the pause as there was nothing else that could be said about this despicable act. Jacob heard about it and surely received the news with great grief of heart and was not able to speak of it. However, he did remember the incident when he blessed his sons when he was old (Gen. 49:4). The 1599 Geneva Bible Translation Notes points out that this shows "that the fathers were not chosen for their merits, but only by God's mercies, whose election was not changed by their faults."
(22b) Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: (23) The sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun; (24) The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin; (25) And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali; (26) And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, were Gad and Asher; these were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan Aram.
The twelve sons of Jacob, who became the twelve patriarchs, heads of twelve tribes, are named. A general statement is made that they were all born in Padan Aram, but of course, we know that Benjamin was born on the road, thought of as "on the way" when Jacob "came from Padan" (Gen. 48:7).
(27) And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, to the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.
Finally Jacob made it "from Padan Aram" back to his father's land. Most scholars assume he must have surely visited his father before this time as he had been in the land for ten years, and he was now returning, either because of the death of his mother or because his father was getting very old. However, as this is the first mention in scripture, and the fact I have found the whole ten-year trip "from Padan Aram" sort of suspect, I am taking scripture literally here and assuming he is just now getting back "from Padan Aram" and to the land of his father. It certainly appears that Jacob thought of it that way when he referred back to it (Genesis 48:7). Mamre was a plain that belonged to a man probably of the same name as gathered from another scripture (Gen. 13:18), and where we were told that Abraham once lived. The plain was near the city called Kirjath Arba (Gen. 23:2) or just Arbah here, and the city was also called Hebron.
I haven't seen any indication that the early scholars saw this as I did. Oh sure, they all saw that Jacob had seen his need to get back to God and remember his vow to Him, but I see a little more. I believe that perhaps Jacob was lax and took his time in getting back to his father's land which was what God had told him to do. That may be why he had so many problems with his children in the land--Dinah going off to see the other girls in the land and subsequently being raped, Judah associating with the Canaanites and marrying a Canaanite woman, and Reuben sleeping with his concubine--all these things occurring before Jacob finally made it to his father in Mamre. Perhaps if Jacob had just gone straight back to his father as God had told him to do and when He said He would be with him (Gen. 31:3), maybe none of these things would have happened. Perhaps they dawdled in the Canaanite land too long. Not only did Jacob need to remember his vow to God, but he had to be reminded to do as God had told him. He needed to remember what God had done for him and of God's promise to be with him and of his promise to make God his Lord. God did His part and was always with Jacob, but Jacob had forgotten his vow and let his family get involved with foreign gods and they had to be spiritually cleansed. I believe the point of this chapter is that Jacob sort of got off track for about ten years. I believe that he saw it that way and that is why when he spoke of this time later in life, it was just a detour on the way from Padan Aram back to the land of his father. It must be pointed out that God was still with Jacob during that ten years and protected him from being killed by the Canaanites after the Shechem ordeal, just as God may help us through some stupid mistakes. God is still with us, but things would be easier and a lot less messy if we would just do it His way the first time. And thankfully, God will mercifully remind us of that fact and prompt us to get back to Him!
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