The God of Bethel

Jacob’s Ladder by William Blake, 1805

How many times have I read Genesis? Yet there is always more to learn - more detail, more meaning to discover. In eternity, I hope to sit with a circle of rabbis at times, talking Torah at length. We will never exhaust the mysteries of scripture. If our destiny is to know God and enjoy Him forever, then studying the story He so carefully crafted will remain a window into His mind.

This is the Torah verse which grabbed me this week:
”I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a memorial stone, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’” - Gen. 31:13

The names by which Lord makes Himself known are always significant. In this case, why not address Jacob as “the God of Abraham and Isaac” as He had before? The Lord could have dazzled Jacob by revealing Himself as the Creator of the Universe. He could have frightened the patriarch with the mystical answer He gave to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.” Instead, God chose to refer to the place where He first revealed Himself to Jacob.

“I am the God of Bethel.”

At Bethel, Jacob saw God in a dream. In the dream, the Lord conferred upon Jacob and his children the Promise given to Abraham. Jacob was awed. He said “surely this is the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” but he still had his doubts- just as there were some who worshiped Jesus at His ascension, and still doubted. Jacob made a vow to the Lord at the place he named Bethel (the house of God), but that vow was full of conditions.

“If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God.”

When God identified Himself, as the “God of Bethel,” He was calling Jacob’s vow due. But He was doing so much more! In choosing that name, the Lord intentionally connected Jacob’s story’s with Abraham’s, for it was at Bethel that Abraham first made an altar in the Promised Land. More importantly, by calling to mind Jacob’s encounter at Bethel, the Lord was pointing forward to the story of His own Son - the one who would perfectly fulfill and embody Israel’s calling.

Jesus intentionally called upon Jacob’s story to reveal Himself to those with “eyes to see and ears to hear.”

Jesus, like Jacob, “had no where to lay His head.”

When Jesus called Nathaniel, He told the young disciple, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:51

Jesus told his disciples in John 10, “ I am the gate for the sheep,” and “I am the Good Shepherd.”

Though I had never thought of this before, I am suspect this metaphor of the Good Shepherd also points back to Jacob. The Lord gave Jacob visions in which sheep would breed and produce various kinds of offspring - speckled, striped and black. He grew rich under Laban, taking only the sheep which the Lord had promised. It makes me think of the way Jesus’ speckled and mottled flock has grown to cover the earth, incorporating Gentiles into the flock. But Jesus tells us that only those who are drawn by the Father (born of the Father) can recognize His voice - just as only those sheep God foreknew belonged to Jacob’s flock.

Bethel is an important place throughout scripture. It is mentioned 66 times in the Old Testament. In the coming month, I hope to study its significance in greater detail. Today I will close with one last observation about the role which Bethel played in Jacob’s life. After Jacob had lived in Shechem for several years, the Lord called him back to Bethel. This call was a full consecration of all the tribes of Israel. Jacob, in obedience to the Lord, instructed his whole family and all their servants to put away their household idols. Apparently, they had been influenced by the inhabitants of Canaan. You might recall that Rachel still had some attachment to a local deity when she left Laban’s house. She stole an idol from her father’s house and hid in her saddle bag. But now Rachel, pregnant once again with Jacob’s son, disavowed her idols and followed her husband to the land of God’s choosing. She was cleansed and favored and full of life - a feminine type of Israel. She was with Jacob when the Lord again confirmed his name as Israel. She was at Israel’s side when he built an altar to the Lord. Then the family journeyed on to Ephrath (Bethlehem.) But before they arrived, Rachel was overcome with labor pains. She gave birth to a son in agony, and then she died.

Recently the Church commemorated the Massacre of the Innocents - the baby boys of Bethlehem who died in Herod’s wrath. Matthew tells that story and recounts Jeremiah’s prophecy,

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

I am struck by the fact that the Lord knew where Rachel would die. He knew, and He cared, and He chose Rachel to foreshadow a difficult chapter in His Son’s story. Perhaps it is even true that He designed elements of nativity story to honor her. It is impossible this side of eternity to unravel the mysteries of foreknowledge - but we do know that none of these details are accidental. We know that the God who created the universe is intimately interested in the stories of His children, and that is both a humbling and beautiful truth.

I am still pondering all the connections between Israel’s stories and Bethel. I have no profound conclusions to offer. But I do take comfort in the end of Jeremiah’s prophecy, for inasmuch as Rachel is a type of Israel, this word applies to all of her children.

Thus says the Lord:
“Keep your voice from weeping,
    and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work, (for the suffering, I believe)
declares the Lord,
    and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. (a promise of the resurrection)
 There is hope for your future,
declares the Lord,
    and your children shall come back to their own country….

Is Ephraim my dear son?
    Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
    I do remember him still.
Therefore my heart yearns for him;
    I will surely have mercy on him,
declares the Lord.