“AND JACOB journeyed to Succoth, and built him a house, and made booths for his cattle.” v. 17. Jacob was perhaps following the pattern of a thoughtful shepherd, but it was not a land where he should have built himself a house. Abraham “dwelt in tents,” considering himself a stranger and sojourner in this world. Not content with such Jacob settled down once more in a place where he did not belong. Too often this is the pattern of many of God’s people in our own day — stopping short of what God would have His children enjoy and looking instead for satisfaction in the things of the world.
“And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padaram; and pitched his tent before the city. And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father.”
Again moving southward, he was once more overtaken by the scene before his eyes and “spread his tent” before the city of Shalem, occupied by a heathen Hivite, who was “prince of the country.” The Lord Jesus spoke of Satan as “the prince of this world,” and Jacob’s further delay in Shechem is a lesson to all that the prince of this world will provide bad influences and trouble for all who do not resist him. Jacob did not belong in Shalem. When called by God to leave Padan-aram, he was told: “Return unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred.” Chap. 31:3. How much safer for a believer to place himself in the company of “his kindred,” that is, those of like precious faith, than to “pitch his tent” in the atmosphere of this world. Being in the company of those who are subject to Satan, is to be in a very dangerous position, Jacob was not yet prepared to return to the land of his kindred, nor to go back to Beth-el for he had not judged nor put away an evil that was present in his household. Rachel had stolen some of her father’s images and although the story thus far has said no more about them, We find later that they had influenced the whole family. Thus they were all ensnared in idolatry and clinging to other customs connected with the old ways. Jacob knew of this but did not compel his family to break from them, as he should have done. This seriously dimmed his appreciation of what God would do for him and contributed to his reluctance to move on. These unjudged things made him more comfortable at Shem than he would be at Beth-el, the house of God.
We need to separate our own hearts from this world, Christian reader, and not to cling to attractions that may become idols to the heart. Not until the things of this world are abandoned can there be true enjoyment of God in His goodness and the heavenly position He gives His own. He searches the heart and desires full devotedness to Him. The Christian’s behavior will reflect the measure in which he enters into this truth.
ML-12/18/1966