COME AS A CHILD LESSON 88 RETURNING TO BETHEL

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

The things that happened with Dinah did not make Jacob a happy father.  

The things his sons did to defend her had only brought troubles upon Jacob’s family in the land.  

It was probably a huge relief that there would be no mixing of peoples because of it; but this was only because Simeon and Levi had killed every man in the area that was not a descendant to Jacob!  They had obtained justice for one man's sins by killing many innocent men.  That isn't a very godly way to go about things! 

Jacob thought the other tribes nearby would hear of this and be very disturbed and decide to ban together against his family in the land.  He knew it was probably only a matter of time.  At a loss of what to do next, Jacob got down on his knees and sought God’s help.

God answered Jacob’s prayers by telling him to return to Bethel in the land of Canaan, where God had blessed him before.  Jacob had wrestled with God in that very place just before meeting Esau and he had previously seen the ladder to heaven there with the angels ascending and descending.  

We all have a Bethel in our lives.  A place in time  where and when God prevailed over our humanness and showed us His good and godly plans for us.  If we forget this and lose our way, God usually instructs us to go back to that sacred place.  We need to revisit the place where He instructed us in righteousness and holiness and there He shows us who he has meant for us to be all along.  It often takes several trips back to Bethel for the lessons of God to sink down into our hearts and souls enough so that we can be obedient enough to let God pour out more blessings on our days.  When we find we can LIVE in that place in righteousness, it becomes a permanent home in our hearts and the sacred enters the ordinary through the everyday events of our lives.

This was probably the most holy place on earth to Jacob. The people in the area seemed to be calling Bethel "Luz" at this point.  We have discussed the mysteries and legends around the land of Luz in previous lessons.  

Jacob still called it Bethel.  He knew the place was especially holy; and he knew he needed to clean up his family in order for them to be able to enter this land and walk on this sacred ground.  

What happened to Jacob in this part of the story happens to a lot of Christians.  You sin ,(Jacob stole Esau's birthright and deceived his father); you need to move away from all that God has given you because you have held on to that sin, (Jacob had not reconciled with Easu); you leave and go to live with pagans instead of God's people.  Then while you are there you maybe come to your senses and try to make things right where you are and you can't quite get there because everyone you have surrounded yourself with is pagan. 

 Your children are born in a pagan land and they pick up pagan practices and ways from those they have grown up with.  It is very, very hard to change this unless you come clean from your sin, (Jacob faced God and Esau) and begin to teach your household Godly ways and begin to live in righteousness. 

 The very first thing that has to happen is that your household idols must be destroyed.  I wonder how many in Jacob's household wanted to hold on to them?  It would have been so much better if they had never known of them! 

We live and learn and so did Jacob.  He was determined to work through this.  Jacob had changed, and he could be just as stubborn about his change as he had been about his deceptions.  He wanted his family clean before they entered Bethel!

He gathered them together and commanded them to give him all of their foreign gods, which they did.  They also had earrings in their ears that seemed to be inappropriate and Jacob took them too and put them with the idols and he buried it all beneath the oak tree at Shechem.

That old tree had seen some history by now! 

So Jacob told everyone in his family to purify themselves and to change their clothes.  He informed them that he was taking them to Bethel, the place where he would build an altar to God and they would worship.  He also stated that at Bethel God had previously answered his prayers when he had been in distress,  and Jacob noted to everyone that God had been with him everywhere that he had been since his experiences at Bethel.  It is almost like Jacob looked at Bethel as a place of safety and refuge that was sacred and hallowed and he was expressing this to his family so they would understand where they were going. 

When Jacob gathered everyone together, all cleaned up and idol free, they set out on the journey.  The scriptures say the terror of God fell on all the towns around them and they were not harmed in any way as they traveled through the land.  Of course, I'm sure the rumors of what Simeon and Levi had done to those Shechemites helped a little too!  That still didn't mean they did the right thing.  God has a way of turning evil and using the outcome to bring some good somewhere.  It keeps the godly from totally losing hope in many hopeless situations.  It always increases shattered faith among the people.

When they arrived at Bethel (Luz) Jacob built an altar to God exactly in the spot where God had revealed Himself to Jacob as he was fleeing from his brother.  Jacob called this place El Bethel, which means “God of Bethel.”

Shortly after they arrived in Bethel Rachel’s nurse, Deborah, died.  Deborah had lived with and faithfully served Rachel all of her life; and she had selflessly left her home land and family and everything she knew to go with Rachel when she married Jacob.  This must have been a great loss to Rachel.   Even though Deborah’s title was servant, she had been like a Mother to Rachel.  Jacob buried Deborah beneath a great oak just outside of Bethel.  They named the area Allon Bakuth, which means “Oak of Weeping.”

Has God called you to be a servant too?  If so, be a servant like Deboarh, one that loves like a mother, one that is faithful in all things, one that blesses a family in a million little ways and one that will be very missed when they are called away from life's journey.  Deborah seems to have been the servant of all servants, a female example similar to Eliezer, the exemplary male servant of Abraham.   

As Jacob and all of his family worshiped God upon first entering Bethel; God appeared to Jacob again.  Jacob was reminded of all the things that God had said to him before.  God had changed his name from Jacob to Israel, and God had said “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number.  A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants.  The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.  God reminded Jacob of these things he already knew as he worshiped at Bethel, then the scriptures say “God went up from him.”  

Jacob set up a stone pillar in that place and poured out a drink offering to God.  He also poured oil on the stone and he called the place, Bethel, which means “House of God.”