GENESIS

Notes on Genesis 35

• Genesis 35:1 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 the face of Esau thy brother.

When we desire to pray and be renewed in the spirit of God we can call it "Going back to Bethel." Jacob needed a spiritual renewal after the incident with Dinah and Shechem.

• Genesis 35:2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:

By this time Jacob knew that some of them had brought with them strange gods from the land they came from. It was time to live for God and put away the images. We are not to make images or likenesses of who we think God looks like. Even images of Mary, Jesus or those the Middle Age church considered to be saints, is forbidden. It is forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments. It is a stumbling block and a hindrance. By the way, all believers in Jesus are considered saints. There is to be no hierarchy among believers is Jesus.

God would not allow the children of Israel to see him, He would not allow them to know the place of Moses' burial. He knew their tendency to idolize people who were great among them and their tendency to make images to worship in place of God or thinking it represents God. Jesus told us that the time has come to worship God in spirit and in truth. We are not to bow down to images or representations of God but to worship in spirit and in truth. This includes any Christian church that uses images as a point of contact or to represent Jesus, Mary or God. We are not to worship images period.

No image can represent God, no earthly man can represent God except for the God who came into the flesh, Jesus Christ. We worship Him and not an image of Him. We are not to worship Mary or pray to her. The real Mary would never accept our worship. There is a good reason why God forbade us to use images in worship. The reason is that associated with those images is a spirit but is not the spirit of God, it is Satan. God makes rules for our good. If we worship an image we open the door for deception. We may feel something and think it is God when it is not. It is dangerous to use images in worship.

• Genesis 35:3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
• 4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

It is interesting that they removed their earrings also. It must have been associated with idolatry. I read that they were used as charms that supposedly kept away evil spirits. How little do we realize that false religion opens the door to evil spirits, it does not keep them away.

I don't think this forbids ordinary earrings we wear today but if one has doubts, we don't have to wear earrings but we must be careful not to judge those believers in Christ who feel free to wear them. God looks on the heart. Our motives, our worship and how we really live is within us and that is what He sees which is why we can't always judge one another. God looks at what is within us, not how we look on the outside, even though I'm not big on jewelry myself.

• Genesis 35:5 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.

The children of Israel were always protected by God when they were obedient. It was only when they forsook God and broke His commandments that the hedge around them was removed and the devil was allowed to bring evil upon them. It's not that God does these things; it's that people have a free will and can choose not to abide in His presence.

• Genesis 35:6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.
• 7 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.
• 8 But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.

Allon-bachuth was an oak of weeping. They wept for this nurse who had been with them so long.

• Genesis 35:9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him.
• 10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
• 11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;

This was literally fulfilled in king David and will be fulfilled in full at the literal Second coming of Jesus Christ.

• Genesis 35:12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
• 13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.
• 14 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.
• 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.
• 16 And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor.
• 17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.
• 18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin.

The name of Benjamin means, son of my right hand. Here we have the death of Rachel in childbirth. I wonder sometimes if barren women may be barren for a reason. There could be something physical that would cause problems if they had children.

• Genesis 35:19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.
• 20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.
• 21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.

Rachel is buried in Bethlehem, the town in which Jesus was born in latter times.

• Genesis 35:22 And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

This type of thing was not done among those that feared God. It would have been like having relations with his own mother or step mother. Since Bilhah was Rachel's servant who Rachel gave to Jacob in order to have children by her, it was considered one of Jacob's wives or concubines. No other man was supposed to lie with her.

When it came time for Jacob to die, this act affected the prophesy given to Reuben in Genesis chapter 49.

• Genesis 49:3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
• 4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

Sin affects our future and our children's children. The tribe of Reuben did not excel. That tribe also was not one chosen to bring forth the Messiah.

If we all could only stay within the bounds that God originally planned for us, we would live in peace and not have so much trouble. One wife, one husband unless one dies is the best way to live in peace and have no one feel unloved or unwanted. There would be no rivalry or jealousy. I am speculating that Perhaps Bilhah was feeling lonely and neglected and was open to the attraction Reuben gave her.

• Genesis 35:23 The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulon:
• 24 The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:
• 25 And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:
• 26 And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padan-aram.
• 27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.
• 28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and fourscore years.
• 29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Jacob got to see his father, Isaac before he died. Nothing is said of Rebecca so it is assumed that she died when he was gone. Perhaps though she still lived but is not mentioned.
Isaac lived to be 180 years. He was a good man and obedient to God except for his favoritism to Esau. I see a man who was good. The scripture doesn't record Isaac having any other wives as Abraham and Jacob did. Perhaps he remembered the trouble Abraham and Sarah had with Hagar and avoided such, not wanting to have to send one child away.

I notice the term, "gave up the ghost". It shows that when a person dies, his spirit and soul depart and only the body dies. When the soul and spirit leave that causes the body to die. I don't understand it fully but I know that souls and spirits live somewhere and remain awaiting the resurrection of the body. Jesus would not have had to come and die for sins if the only thing he was saving was the natural body. At death, it would all end. He came to save the soul from eternal punishment in hell called the second death. the worm dies not indicates that the soul and spirit never die but live somewhere, either heaven or hell. DC

Genesis 36