No. 1.
THERE is no place in its early history of deeper interest than Bethel, whilst its later history serves to show the powerful tendency in man to corrupt the blessings of God; so that his “table becomes his snare.”
Jacob starts a fugitive from his father’s house, justly fearing the resentment of his brother Esau, whom he had supplanted by falsehood and deceit, in obtaining the blessing from their father Isaac.
“And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set, and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and, behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and, behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth ... and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou gout, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. 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. And he called the name of that place Bethel.” Hallowed place indeed! Never was Jacob more truly honored of God, than on this occasion, when, a homeless, houseless pilgrim, he sees open intercourse between heaven and earth, as though it were for his sole protection and blessing. He had but a staff in his hand, and no companion, yet was he not to journey alone. Without flocks or herds, he was rich in heaven being opened over him. Nor was this all―his eyes were not only strengthened for the vision, but his ears were opened to take in “exceeding great and precious promises;” and of these while some reached into the remote future, and one took up and made over to him the promise made to Abraham, then to Isaac, that grand comprehensive promise, the sure ground of all promises, “In thee, and in thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed,” there was another of direct present application to the homeless pilgrim― “And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest....for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” Well might Jacob feel amazement at having heaven brought so near to him, even as the disciples did on the Mount of transfiguration. Blessed as it is, there is, nevertheless, something solemn and fearful in first coming in contact with heaven. It makes us feel what it is to be of the earth earthy, and that were not heaven the region of pure grace, as well as of unsullied holiness, it could not be the place for us. “How dreadful is this place.” Jacob must learn under God’s own hand the blessedness of the house of God, and return to Bethel in quiet repose of soul, without “being afraid with any amazement,” either at having heaven brought so near to him, or at “the exceeding great and precious promises” made to him. (Gen. 28:10-2210And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. 11And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. 16And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. 17And 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. 18And 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. 19And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. 20And 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, 21So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: 22And 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. (Genesis 28:10‑22).)
But how does Jacob start from Bethel after such a vision of the glory of God watching over him, and such unconditional and specific promises made unto him? The answer of Jacob to all these gracious promises of God, is but the answer of us all, even “an evil heart of unbelief;” and it required twenty years of severe discipline to teach Jacob that what God promised, He was able also to perform. God had absolutely said, “Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest.” But Jacob must needs vow a vow, and put God on His trial, and not accept Him as his God till after he had fully proved Him. What losers we are by not receiving God in the gracious way in which he presents himself to us. “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go * * so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God; and this stone which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that Thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto Thee.”
Jacob started from Bethel without the consciousness of his highest blessing, even the presence of the Lord. We, like him, are ready to take less than God gives, and seek to be satisfied with some blessing short of the Lord Himself, “in whose presence is fullness of joy, at whose right head are pleasures for evermore.”
But God “cannot deny Himself;” He was with Jacob every step of his way, however unconscious Jacob was of His presence. In all Jacob’s servitude with Laban, whom God used to correct the subtlety of Jacob, by making him feel what it was to be imposed on by another, the Lord was with him. When Laban would have overreached Jacob in his hire, God overruled it for Jacob’s increase; for “I” (said the Lord,) “have seen all that Laban doth unto thee. 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.” But with this special warrant of his return, “Jacob steals away unawares to Laban the Syrian,” so slow are we to act in confession of obedience to God. Laban pursues and overtakes Jacob, but God is with Jacob to prevent Laban doing him harm. “It is,” said Laban, “in the power of my hand to do you hurt; but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.” Surely God could have inclined Laban to dismiss Jacob in peace, had Jacob boldly avowed that he was about to return into the land of his father in obedience to God, but Jacob trusted in “fleshly wisdom,” instead of “the grace of God.” But God was with Jacob the way he went, and gave him a visible token of His presence. “And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him; and when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host; and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.” But this was not sufficient to quell Jacob’s fear of his brother Esau. A guilty conscience needs not only the sense of God’s power to protect, but of His grace to pardon and abound over all our sins. Distress leads Jacob to plead with God, to put Him in remembrance of His promises made to him both in Syria and Bethel. (Gen. 32:9-129And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: 10I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. 11Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. 12And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. (Genesis 32:9‑12).) He pleads with Him as the God of his father Abraham, and the God of his father Isaac, but he had not yet received Him as his God, although he had the warrant from God Himself at Bethel to do so. Blessed indeed is it to say with the Apostle, “my God,” but this we shall hardly truthfully do until we have been somewhat tutored in the same school as that in which Jacob was now about to be tutored. Instead of looking to God to dispose the heart of Esau kindly towards him, he thought to “appease Esau with a present.” After all his prudential arrangements, Jacob is left alone. When a solitary wanderer from his father’s house, he had the vision and promises of God at Bethel; but now in his return to Bethel, he has to learn what it is to be alone with God after another fashion. “And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day, and when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh.” Visions, and promises, and mercies by the way, had not availed to work in Jacob dependence on God, any more than threatening’s and severity subsequently availed to bring Pharaoh into obedience to God. The flesh, whether in its wisdom, strength, or goodness must be thoroughly crushed, ere we really depend on God, or give to Him His rightful place, as “the Almighty.” When Jacob’s thigh was put out of joint, he must needs hang upon God or fall. He must cleave to Him, and get a blessing from Him, or be lost forever. Never had Jacob prevailed with God or man till “he halted on his thigh.” With God he prevailed, got the blessing, saw His face and lived, and then he prevails with man, finding kindness instead of hostility in Esau. Jacob had never known the full blessing of Bethel, had he not learned the painful lesson of Peniel. And so with ourselves. When first brought to God through faith in the blood of Jesus, we start as Jacob did from Bethel with heaven opened over us, and more than even Bethel promises, for the name of the Father was not then revealed; but how little do we apprehend either our dignity or our blessings, and still less that the cross of Christ is “the wisdom and power of God.” We must be beaten out of self-confidence in its varied phases, to learn truthfully that “the flesh profiteth nothing,” and that “Christ is all.” Our many disappointments in ourselves, our many failures, the constant struggle within, under the blessed teaching of the Spirit, lead us to acquiesce in the true doctrine of the cross, “Our old man is crucified with Him.” The history of man in relation to God tells most plainly that man is irreclaimable. God may strive with him, yet he “prevails” not. The oracle given before the flood, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that He also is flesh,” has only been receiving proof upon proof for four thousand years. Whether God deals with the flesh in judgment or in mercy, its incorrigibility is made manifest. The judgment of the flood improved it not, the giving of the law abundantly manifested its evil, the ministry of prophets reclaimed it not. “There was no remedy.” Yes, God’s only Son shall come, He shall win them back by persuasion and affection, as well as astonish them by divine power and wisdom―they will surely reverence Him. No; they murder Him. The Cross is the full witness to man’s incorrigibleness; but it bears another and a different witness. It tells of God not striving with man, but executing the judgment due to him on Jesus. God delivered Him for our offenses, and raised Him again for our justification. The Cross is to us Peniel. God has there broken and judged the flesh; we can see God, and live. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.” “We are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
After Esau had parted from Jacob in brotherly kindness, Jacob, glad to get rest by the way, buys a parcel of a field from the Shechemites, and tarries there, and builds an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel. He stops short of Bethel; but it was not to his honor. His daughter Dinah is defiled, and Simeon and Levi dishonor themselves by cruelty and perfidy. Jacob had not earned the name of Israel either to choogie the place of his own sojourning, or the place of God’s altar. But how graciously does God rebuke the lingering pilgrim! “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 Esau thy brother.” God is a “faithful God,” and at Bethel will prove to Jacob, that what He hath said He does, what He hath promised He fulfills. Jacob may forget his vow, and linger on the way, but the mercy and truth of God must be shown in their enduring character. Jacob is aroused to holy jealousy. All the Bethel promises flash upon him, as he is about to draw nigh to “the gate of heaven.” If the Lord had not been with me, now may Jacob say, when I served with Laban, and when I fled from him, when I met with Esau, and when I dwelt at Shalem, surely I had perished. Such is the way of our unbelieving hearts, that we have not the happy consciousness of God’s being with us according to His promise. But there are seasons when He allows us to look back on the past, and see that He “abideth faithful,” even when we have refused to see His hand. “Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean.” Every false confidence must be given up; the God of Bethel will endure no rival. Strange gods had hitherto been housed, even in the family of Jacob. (Gen. 31:3434Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not. (Genesis 31:34).) “Arise, and let us go up to Bethel, and I will there make an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.” Halting on his thigh, stript of every refuge of lies, how strong is Jacob now, how truly is he Israel, with what conscious safety does he go on his way! “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.”
“So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel * * * and he built there an altar, and called the place El-Bethel, because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.”
There was no terror in the place now, although the place was the same. Twenty years had passed over Jacob’s head since he first visited Bethel, and Jacob bad learned to know the God of Bethel. He had built no altar there at first, for God was in much measure unknown to him. He had had thoughts indeed of the house of God, but now be has to do with the God of the house of God. This lesson is an important one. Men, for the most part, stop short of God Himself, busied though they may be about places, and other accidents of worship. But when God is our Teacher, He teaches us what He Himself is, and that it is with Him we have to do. His ways are various, grappling with us to break down self-confidence, as with Jacob at Peniel, or letting us prove the folly of our own ways, as Jacob did at Shalem; but He is always merciful, gracious, and faithful “Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” Here is our Bethel. But how little de we know of the blessedness of being there, and how needed God’s tuition and discipline to teach us that “in His presence is fullness of joy.” It is “eternal life to know the Father, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.”
“And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-Aram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob; thy name shall not be called Jacob any more, but Israel shall be thy name.” That name God had given him in the memorable night of Peniel, before he met Esau. Never was Jacob stronger than he was then in conscious weakness. But Jacob knew not the strength he had in the Lord. He met with Esau, and prevailed; he journeyed, and the terror of God was in all the cities round about him. After this experience of what God was to him, and the strength he had in the Lord, God graciously repeats the new name, which He had given him. The trembling sinner, broken down before God, with every plea silenced, so that he only clings to the cross of Christ for remission of sins, righteousness, and life, has the name and privilege of the Israel of God. But he little knows the dignity he possesses. He is filled with a sense of his own worthlessness, and goes halting on his way. He is surprised to find what a strength there is in the knowledge of the cross, till one enemy and another is overcome by it. God speaks again to the sinner who has, by faith, laid hold on the cross of Christ: “Be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus.” “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.”
Jacob also again gave the name of Bethel to Luz, with a meaning he little knew when he had given the same name to the same place twenty years before.
“And God went up from him in the place where He talked with him. 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. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.”
It was the place where God spake with him, the place where God had proved His faithfulness to Jacob, the place where grace had abounded over all Jacob’s sin and folly.
Such is Bethel, the house of God, to Jacob then, and to ourselves, who are brought nigh by the blood of the cross.