Genesis 35:6 - Meaning and Application

Jacob and his group arrived safely at Bethel, and we are told what happened there.

He built an altar, and no doubt offered sacrifice on it, perhaps the tenth of his cattle, as he had promised, “I will give the tenth to you” (Genesis 28:22). Along with those sacrifices, he offered praise for past mercies, especially the mercy that came back to mind when he saw this place again. He also prayed that God would keep showing favor to him and his family. He called the place, or more exactly the altar, El-beth-el, which means “the God of Bethel.” As he had once honored God as El-elohe Israel, “the God of Israel,” when God gave him the name Israel, so now he honors God as the God of Bethel, because God had appeared to him there. The comfort believers find in holy worship does not come so much from Bethel, the house of God, as from El-beth-el, the God of the house. Worship is empty if we do not meet with God in it.

There Jacob buried Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, the woman who had cared for Jacob’s mother (Genesis 24:59). It seems likely that after Jacob came to Canaan and his family lived near Shechem, he often went to visit his father Isaac at Hebron. Rebekah was probably already dead, but her old nurse lived on. Jacob brought her into his household, likely to help his wives and teach his children. While the family was at Bethel, she died, and she was mourned so deeply that the oak where she was buried was called Allon-bachuth, “the oak of weeping.” Old servants who have been faithful and useful in a family should be respected. Jacob’s family honored this nurse at her death, even though she was not related to them and was very old. We do not know where death will meet us, perhaps even at Bethel, the house of God. So we should always be ready. Family trouble can come even when a family is turning back to God and putting religion in order. So rejoice, but do so with trembling.

Then God appeared to Jacob there, to approve his altar, answer to the name he had given, “the God of Bethel” (Genesis 35:7), and comfort him in his sorrow over Deborah’s death (Genesis 35:8). God will appear in grace to those who are faithful in duty. He confirmed Jacob’s changed name, which the angel had already given him when he wrestled with Jacob (Genesis 32:28). Here the divine Majesty, the visible glory of God, confirmed it. There it had encouraged him against Esau. Here it strengthened him against fear of the Canaanites. Who can be too strong for Israel, a prince with God? Those who have been given such honor should not give way to fear and discouragement.

God also renewed and confirmed his covenant with the name El-shaddai, “God Almighty,” or “God all-sufficient” (Genesis 35:11). He is able to keep his promise at the right time, and to sustain and provide for Jacob in the meantime. Two promises are repeated here, both of which had been given before. First, Jacob would become the father of a great nation, great in honor and power, “a company of nations” would come from him. Each tribe of Israel was like a nation, and the twelve tribes together were a company of nations. Kings would also come from his line. Second, he would receive a good land (Genesis 35:12), described by the names of Abraham and Isaac, to whom it had been promised, rather than by the Canaanites who then lived there. The land promised to Abraham and Isaac is now passed on to Jacob and his descendants. He will not be childless without land, which often happens to the poor, and he will not have land without children, which often troubles the rich. He will have both. These promises also pointed forward to spiritual truths. Jacob likely understood this in part, though not as clearly as we do now. Christ is the promised seed, and heaven is the promised land. Christ is the foundation, and heaven is the top stone, of all God’s blessings.

Then God went up from him, or from over him, in some visible display of glory that had hovered there while he spoke with Jacob (Genesis 35:13). The sweetest times believers have with God in this world are short. They come and go quickly. In heaven, our sight of God will last forever. There we will always be with the Lord, but it is not so here.

Jacob then set up a memorial of this event (Genesis 35:14). He raised a pillar. When he was going to Padan-aram, he had set up the stone on which he slept as a pillar. That fit his low condition and hurried flight. Now he took time to make a more lasting and noticeable monument, probably placing that earlier stone within it. To show that he meant it as a sacred memorial of his fellowship with God, he poured oil and the other parts of a drink offering on it. His vow had been that this stone would be God’s house, meaning it would be set apart for God’s honor, as houses are meant to honor those who build them. Here he carried out that vow by anointing it and giving it to God.

He also confirmed the name he had already given the place, Bethel, “the house of God” (Genesis 35:15). Yet this same place later lost the honor of that name and became Beth-aven, “house of wickedness,” because Jeroboam set one of his calves there. No human being, not even the best one, can guarantee that a place will keep the outward form of religion forever.