Finally We See Israel
Genesis 35 is a much cooler chapter than it seems at
first. At first glance, it seems like a
chapter about Jacob moving his family and then experiencing a bunch of
death. But there are some really neat
thoughts within this chapter that I think we can bring out pretty easily and
meaningfully. And for once, we get to
focus on Jacob fully changing!
God comes to Jacob, and Jacob finally listens. Notice that it was actually back in Genesis
31 that God identifies to Jacob that He is the God of Bethel? All this time, Jacob should have been going
to Bethel and he really hasn’t been. He’s
been acknowledging God in his life, but not really devoting himself to what God
wants him to do. But now God finally
gets a true hold over Jacob. Now God
gives Jacob no choice. Finally Jacob
finally listens to God. Jacob finally
makes the trek back to Bethel to meet his God ultimately.
Before he does, notice that Jacob buries the household gods
of Rachel, Leah, the servants, and his kids.
In truth, I suspect that they were partially his own gods as well, since
we know Jacob hasn’t fully been God’s up until this point. There is a really neat symbol, here. The only true place for sin to be dealt with
is the grave.
We know this truth from Christianity, of course. Jesus ultimately deals with sin through His
death and He gives proof that it’s been dealt with through His resurrection. God will deal with our sin ultimately through
our own deaths. It should not surprise
us that when Jacob spiritually “cleans house” he buries the false gods in the
earth. To move ahead with where God
wants us to go, we have to first go and die to our old self.
Plentiful Death
There is even more here in this chapter. Since we are talking about burials, let’s
look at just how many burials we see here in Genesis 35. Notice that four times we speak of death,
burials, and graves. We see the idols’
grave, Deborah’s grave, Rachel’s grave, and Isaac’s grave. I don’t think it is coincidence that all of
these stories are lumped into such close proximity to each other.
Actually, I think there is a point being made here. I don’t mean to be saying that Deborah,
Rachel, and Jacob die because Jacob comes back to God. But I do mean to say that so much death
surrounding Jacob points to the fact that true change is not easy. True repentance and coming back to God
implies dealing with loss and difficult change.
True repentance and following God means that we do actually have to put
the old Adam to death so that the new Adam can live.
Jacob’s Change
Now let’s look at this experience that Jacob has. He goes back to Bethel. Notice that I didn’t say he goes to Bethel. He goes back to Bethel. This is not a new place for Jacob; it is an
old place where he had the vision of the ladder in Genesis 28. So often we hear of people thinking that the
Christian faith has to be all new things in an all new direction. For that moment of conversion, that is often
true. But if we are talking about
someone who has backslidden it really is more the case that a person needs to
actually return to their roots in their faith!
In returning to Bethel, Jacob is coming back to the place where he was
last closest to God. But again, in
order to do that he has to put away those false gods and false ways that he’s
picked up along the way.
So I also feel like I need to come back and speak again about
Deborah’s, Rachel’s, and Isaac’s death.
I meant what I said earlier that I do not believe that the deaths were
associated to Jacob’s return to God. However,
I should also say that a return to faith is not guarantee against troubles and
sorrow, either. Great spiritual experiences
do not shelter us from the realities of the world. Great spiritual experiences do help propel us
through the realities of the world.
Jacob is certainly better able to cope with the loss of one of his wives
and the loss of his father now that he is on the right path with God. Nobody ever said life was easy. But with God life can be endurable.
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