Schoolmaster to Christ
GENESIS CHAPTER 35
Schoolmaster to Christ
GENESIS CHAPTER 35
Scripture Reading: Genesis 35 (KJV)
"And God said unto Jacob. Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there." This confirms the principle on which we have been dwelling. When there is failure or declension, the Lord calls the soul back to Himself – "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen; and repent and do the first works" (Rev. 2:5). This is the Divine principle of restoration. The soul must be recalled to the highest point; it must be brought back to the Divine standard. The Lord does not say, 'remember where you are;' no; but 'remember the lofty position from whence you have fallen.' Only when we learn how far we have declined, can we retrace our steps.
In other words, it is when recalled to God's high and holy standard, that we are led to see the sad evil of our fallen condition. What a fearful amount of unjudged moral evil had gathered around Jacob's family, until his soul was roused by the call to "go up to Bethel." Shechem was not the place to detect this evil. The atmosphere of that place was too impregnated with impure elements to allow, with any degree of clearness and precision, a soul to discern the true character of evil. But the moment the call to Bethel fell on Jacob's ear, "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, 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."
The very mention of "the house of God" struck a chord in the soul of the patriarch; in the twinkling of an eye, it carried him over the history of twenty eventful years. It was at Bethel he had learned what God was, and not at Shechem. Hence, he must get back to Bethel, and erect an altar on a totally different base, and under a totally different name. His altar at Shechem was connected with a mass of uncleanness and idolatry.
Jacob could speak of "El-elohe-Israel," while surrounded by a quantity of things utterly incompatible with the holiness of the house of God. It is important to be clear regarding this point. Nothing can keep the soul in a path of consistent, intelligent separation from evil except the sense of what "the house of God" is, and what becomes that house. If we merely look at God in reference to self, we shall not have a clear, full, Divine sense of all that flows out of a due recognition of God's relation to His house. There are some who deem it a matter of little or no importance to be mixed up with impure materials in the worship of God, provided they themselves are true and upright in heart. In other words, they think they can worship God at Shechem; and that an altar, named "El-elohe Israel," is just as elevated, just as much according to God, as an altar named "El Bethel." This is evidently a mistake. The spiritually minded student of God’s Holy Word will at once detect the vast moral difference between Jacob's condition at Shechem, and his condition at Bethel; and the same difference is observable between the two altars. Our ideas, regarding the worship of God, must, of necessity, be affected by our spiritual condition; and the worship that we present will be low and contracted, or elevated and comprehensive, in direct proportion of our apprehension of God’s character and relationship.
The name of our altar and the character of our worship, expresses the same idea. El-Bethel worship is higher than El-elohe-Israel worship, for this simple reason: it conveys a higher idea of God. To speak of Him as the God of His house gives us a more elevated thought of God, as opposed to the God of a solitary individual truth. There is beautiful grace expressed in the title, "God, the God of Israel;" and the soul should always feel happy in looking at the character of God; graciously connecting Himself with every separate stone of His house, and every separate member of the body. Each stone in the building of God is a “lively stones” as connected with the "Living Stone," having communion with the living God," by the power of "the Spirit of life." But while all this is certainly true, God is the God of His house; and when, by an enlarged spiritual intelligence, we are able to view Him as such, we enjoy a higher character of worship than that which flows from merely apprehending what He is to ourselves individually.
But there is something else in Jacob's recall to Bethel. He is told to make an altar "unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother." He is thus reminded of "the day of his distress." It is often good for our minds to be led in this way back to that time when we were brought down to the lowest step of the ladder. Thus Saul is brought back to the time when he was "little in his own eyes." This is the true starting point for all of us. "When thou wast little in thine own eyes," is a point in time of which we often need to be reminded. It is then that the heart really leans on God. Afterward we begin to fancy ourselves to be something, and the Lord is obliged to teach us afresh about the nothingness of our human nature. When we first enter on a path of service or testimony, we have a sense of personal weakness and incapacity, and consequently, lean on God – earnestly, fervently appealing to Him for help and strength. Afterward we begin to think that being so long in the work we can get along by ourselves; at least we seem to lose that sense of weakness; that simple dependence on God. Then our ministry becomes a meager, flippant, wordy thing, without unction or power – a thing flowing, not from the exhaustless tide of the Spirit, but from our own wretched minds.
From verses 9-15, God repeats His promise to Jacob, and confirms the new name of "prince," instead of "supplanter;" and Jacob again calls the name of the place "Bethel." Verse 18 provides an interesting example of the difference between the judgment of faith and the judgment of human nature – the latter looks at things through the hazy mist surrounding it; the former looks at them in the light of the presence and counsels of God. "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." Nature called him, "the son of my sorrow;" but faith "the son of the right hand." We should earnestly desire that our souls be governed by God, and not by our nature.
