Deeper Commentary
Gen 35:1 God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there.
Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face
of Esau your brother- God wished to restimulate in Jacob memories of
how God had been with him from others who sought to kill him in the past.
And He works in our lives according to the same pattern. God was asking
Jacob to perceive that the promise that he would return home in peace had in
fact been fulfilled; and Jacob needed to respond. Jacob had promised that
"this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house" (Gen.
28:22). It seems Jacob had somewhat forgotten that wonderful incident (Gen.
31:13 also sounds like a reminder), and his promise of response. This is why
God uses the name "Bethel", house of God, rather than Luz, the local name of
that place. Jacob didn't need to build a house for God, Bethel; God had
already done that in building Jacob a house in the sense of a family, by His
grace. David had to learn the same lesson. But what God wanted was grateful
sacrifice in response; and this God is our God.
Gen 35:2 Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him,
Put away the foreign gods that are among you- They were "foreign" in
that they had taken them with them when fleeing Laban.. Just as Israel took
the idols of Egypt with them through the Red Sea. But Rachel
and Leah were from Haran; Rachel had taken her father's gods with her. Now
they were being asked to perceive the land and people of their birth as
"foreign" and strange. They were being asked to perceive the land promised
to Abraham, which they had entered now many of them for the first time, as
their native land; and to reject their birth culture and gods as "foreign".
The same radical reorientation is experienced by all who truly identify as
Abraham's seed. The moment of truth came during Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel. He realized then that in our relationship with God, it's all or nothing. And after that, he firmly rejected the ways of the world in his own life and that if his family; he made them bury all their idols. This connection between the night of wrestling and Jacob's rejection of idols is hinted at in 1 Kings 18:31; here, Israel openly renounce their idolatry and claim to turn to Yahweh with their whole heart. To celebrate this, "Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob unto whom the word of Yahweh came saying, Israel shall be thy name". The change of name that night,
and its repetition here after they throw their idols away, is associated with Israel's rejection of idolatry. And then finally, at the very end, Jacob realizes his earlier idolatry and confesses it, and emphasizes his utter conviction that there is only one God, the God of his fathers, Yahweh, the God of Messiah, his very own God. Jacob resigned the things of this world for the sake of what was implicit in the promises, when he told his family
to throw away their idols. These household teraphim would have been the property deeds to Laban’s property, but because of what God had promised him at Bethel all those years ago, Jacob was willing to resign all that hope of worldly advantage. The
reference may specifically be to idols which they had just looted from
Shechem in Gen. 34.
Purify yourselves, change your garments- The garments were presumably used for pagan rituals. The young Joseph may well have had to do this, and the same words are used of how he did so later when leaving prison and going before Pharaoh (Gen. 41:14). So much in Joseph's life repeated; and it was as if God was weaving a theme with him concerning his clothes, which are mentioned at several critical points in his life. The connections for Joseph would've continued, as he reflected how he had been saved out of his "anguish" (Gen. 42:21), the same word translated "distress" in :3, just as his father and indeed Joseph and all the family had been at this time.
Gen 35:3 Let us arise, and go up to Bethel- The language of arising and going is all careful obedience to the command received in :1, and echoes the call of Abram to leave Ur and go where he was told.
I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went- As noted on :1, Jacob is aware of his promise in Gen. 28:22 and wishes to recognize that God has returned him in peace. But he had to recognize that by faith, because he was at this point fearful that the surrounding tribes would wipe him out in revenge for the murders at Shechem. He reasons that God's past deliverance of him must encourage them that He would continue to do so. The Hebrew word for "distress" is often used about the anguish and distress which befell Israel / Jacob because of their sins; and yet by grace they were delivered from them. All those deliverances are based upon this deliverance of Israel / Jacob and his sons from the consequences of their shameful actions at Shechem. And this looks forward to Israel's latter day deliverance likewise. Jacob shall be saved from his final day of distress at the hands of the peoples of the eretz (Jer. 30:7), and yasha, "saved", is a form of Yehoshua, Jesus- for He will be the final source of that great salvation by grace. But it requires a like repentance, of casting away their idols and self reliance. And yet God was with Jacob in the way he went... even before Jacob had accepted Yahweh as his God. This is the grace all God's Israel have known- that He is "with" us even before we come to Him.
The LXX uses the same word as the New Testament does for
“tribulation” in several passages pregnant with latter day significance:
“The day of my [Jacob’s] distress” at the hands of Esau (Gen.
35:3)
“The anguish of his [Joseph’s] soul” at the hands of his half
brethren and the Ishmaelites (Gen. 42:21)
“I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many
evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in
that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among
us?” (Dt. 31:17)- a passage in the Song of Moses regarding Israel’s latter
day tribulations.
“Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of
rebuke, and blasphemy” (2 Kings 19:3)”- Sennacherib’s Assyrian invasion at
this time was a clear prototype for the latter day invasion described in
Ezekiel 38 and elsewhere.
“The time of Jacob’s trouble” from which he will be delivered
(Jer. 30:7)
“There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since
there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people
shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book”
(Dan. 12:1). This time of trouble is specifically for Israel in the last
days.
Gen 35:5 They travelled, and a terror of God was on the cities that
were around them, and they didn’t pursue the sons of Jacob- "Terror"
is literally 'dismay' and this is commonly used to describe the terror /
dismay that came upon the Canaanites as Israel approached them. The
primary audience of Genesis was Israel in the wilderness; they were being
encouraged to ditch the idols they had brought from Egypt, as Jacob's sons
did with the idols they brought from Mesopotamia; and to believe that
their more powerful enemies would likewise be stunned with dismay, just as
the earlier inhabitants of Canaan had been at this time.
Gen 35:6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him- As noted on :1, God specifically spoke of Bethel and not Luz, in order to help Jacob see that his plan to build a "house of God" at the place where he had slept (Gen. 28:20-22) was inappropriate; God had already done that. All Jacob had to do was offer grateful sacrifice. The stress on "in the land of Canaan" is perhaps to show that indeed God had returned Jacob to his father's house in peace; although Jacob was at that point surrounded by his enemies. But he had to believe that with God's abiding help, he was indeed at peace. Or perhaps he now understood "peace" as not meaning peace in this world, in which we must have tribulation, but peace with God.
Gen 35:7 He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El;
because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his
brother- See on Gen. 33:11. As noted on :1 and :6, Jacob now accepts
the new name for Bethel, realizing that it was the grace of God's
revelation to him which meant that effectively God had built His own
house; and Jacob's response was to recognize that and offer grateful
sacrifice. "Revealed" translates a word used often in the Pentateuch to
mean 'expose naked', to denude, multiple times used in the phrase "uncover
nakedness". This in Hebrew is a shocking, radical idea. That God revealed
Himself naked as it were to Jacob, that night he laid down alone when
fleeing from Esau. The denuding was in showing what God is really and
essentially about- which is pure grace, offering to a man who didn't yet
fully believe in Him to preserve him and return him home, and do him good
at his latter end.
Gen 35:8 Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and its name was called Allon Bacuth- Why the mention of this, and the stress on such great grief for her (Allon Bacuth = "oak of weeping")? Perhaps because she had been the de facto mother figure for Jacob. We note that little is said of Rebekah apart from her stellar commitment to the leading of the Spirit when invited to go and marry Isaac. Her evil plan for Jacob to get the birthright blessings reveals very much that is faithless and unspiritual; and she has no other recorded behaviour in the record. If indeed she was a distant mother to her children, hence the note about Deborah, this might explain some things. Deborah is presented as being buried under an oak just as it was beneath an oak that the idols were buried (:4). Again, one could suspect that this pagan symbol was being somehow taken over by Jacob's family.
It could be that she was the wet nurse for Rebekah, who went with her mistress in the expectation that Rebekah would soon produce children, and she would be the wet nurse for them. She is simply anonymous in Gen. 24:59: "They sent away Rebekah, their sister, with her nurse". Her faith in the fulfilment of the promises would have been tested for 20 years. No woman's death is recorded in the OT unless she is significant. It could be that she, the obscure, the lowest of the low servant [as a wet nurse was], is given the honour of a mention just as "Quartus, the [slave] brother" is mentioned amidst the list of erudite believers in Rom. 16. To demonstrate how God is the God of the small and insignificant, and their deaths are as significant to Him as those of the more notable. But contra this is the possibility that she had come to Jacob's family with news of his mother's death, and remained with Jacob. In this sense, she would've effectively become a surrogate mother to him. It could be that she had been Rebekah's nurse in the sense that she had breast fed Jacob and Esau. So Jacob saw in her a mother figure. His deep grief at her passing reflects how he was indeed a mumma's boy. It has been observed: "It is entirely in keeping with the sentiments of the narrative as well as the marriage customs and practices of the times for Rebekah to give her wet nurse Deborah to her favoured son Jacob. Thus, Deborah could have joined Jacob’s retinue at any time that Rebekah chose to award ownership of her dowry slave woman to Jacob". So she may even have gone with Jacob when he fled from Esau; she would have been present at Bethel when Jacob first slept there. And had to have all that scaffolding removed to come finally to total relationship with God. Deborah was buried beneath an oak / terebinth in Bethel- and we've read in :4 that this was where they had just buried their idols. It was as if the loss of the scaffold of Deborah led Jacob to deeper commitment to Yahweh, symbolized by burying his idols. Hence the connection between burials beneath an oak within this chapter. These things happened at Bethel, the very place where Jacob had promised to make Yahweh his God if he returned there. And so it was no accident that his surrogate mother died there.
We see that in this chapter, the deaths of Rachel and Isaac are also recorded. And the apparently insignificant Deborah ranks amongst them. But maybe that's because she was a surrogate mother to Jacob. The place is named in memory of the intense weeping for Deborah, just as the place of his beloved Rachel's burial gave rise to the naming of the place as 'Rachel's pillar'. 'Allon Bacuth' can mean 'Another / double mourning' as well as 'the oak of mourning'; lending weight to the Jewish tradition that Deborah had come to tell Jacob of his beloved mother's death. The mention of Deborah's death at this point is hard to otherwise understand. Thus he mourned for them both. If the loss of his mother was indeed prominent in Jacob's mind, this would explain why God now reminds him that his real name is Israel and not the name Jacob which his mother had given him. The loss of parents at whatever age is still a removal of our scaffolding, prodding us towards the intimacy with God which He so seeks.
Jacob had apparently reached that point when he wrestled with
the Angel, and ended up clinging to the Angel, begging for the blessing of
grace and forgiveness for who he was and how he had been. But he had
slipped away from it. But I suggest that when Deborah died and he quit his
idols for good, he returned to that intensity of personal relationship
with God. This would explain why the wrestling with the Angel with tears
is somehow associated with Bethel in Hos. 12:5, as if the tears of weeping
for Deborah were connected with the tears of weeping in the Angel's arms
and grip: "Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: wept, and made
supplication unto him:
he found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us”. Jacob didn't wrestle
with the Angel at Bethel [but at Mahanaim / Peniel]; but the connection is
because it was there at Bethel, at the funeral of Deborah, that his
weeping for his surrogate mother turned into a weeping for God's grace and
forgiveness, just as he had done in Gen. 32. "Deborah" means 'bee' or
'source of honey'; and she had provided milk to Jacob in his infanthood.
She dies as soon as Jacob is established in the promised land, a land of
milk and honey. Perhaps we are to deduce from this, again, that she had
been a crutch for him; and now she was removed, so that he would
experience God's promises for himself.
Gen 35:9 God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan Aram,
and blessed him- This may not be strictly chronological, in which
case it is not a description of the name change being repeated a second
time. Whether that is the case or not, the idea is that God appeared to
Jacob "again" as He had done at Bethel, where God denuded Himself to Jacob
(see on :7). The idea would then be that this amazing self revelation of
God at Bethel was repeated when Jacob's name was changed. This could refer
to the night of wrestling, or to some new appearance when the name change
was repeated. The 'denuding' of God was in showing the very barest essence
of Himself; which was grace, to call Jacob "Israel", by grace.
The blessing alludes to God's earlier promise at Bethel: "I will not forsake you until I shall have done" what I promised. But those promises will only have their total fulfilment at the Lord's return and Jacob's resurrection. So although death is unconsciousness, in that we feel nothing; God does not forsake us at death. All His working amongst the nations to bring about the time of His Son's return is done for us, because He has not forsaken His dead people. Death itself is not, therefore, a being forsaken by God.
We see too God's grace. It seems Bethel was an existing
shrine; and Jacob says that if indeed Yahweh returns him in peace, he will
accept Yahweh as his God and make a house to God there, Bethel would
become a shrine devoted to Yahweh rather than the gods it currently
served. Jacob never does this; instead, God offers to multiply Jacob's
descendants so that He builds Jacob a house- a house of people.
Exactly as He responded to David's desire to build Him a physical house.
Gen 35:10 God said to him, Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be
Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel. He named him Israel- As
noted on :9, this may not be a repeat of the name change, but rather a
historical reference to the name change on the night of wrestling. If it
is a repeat, the suggestion would be that just as Jacob appears to have
somewhat forgotten about the significance of God's appearance at Bethel 20
or 40 years previously (see on :1), so he was failing to appreciate the
wonder of the name change.
Jacob’s name change being repeated may reflect God's perception that Jacob had changed;
or it could be that he was being encouraged to accept it still, to accept that it was really true. 2 Kings 17:34 criticizes men
for worshipping Yahweh but also their own gods; they are rebuked with the
comment that God had made a covenant with "the children of Jacob, whom he
named Israel". The suggestion is surely that when Jacob became Israel, he
quit the life of half-hearted service to God. This was the decision he
came to that night when he wrestled with the Angel, and his name was
changed. Then he realized that there were only two ways, the way of the
flesh and the way of God (cp. Mt. 6:24; 7:13,14; James 3:11,12). It is for
this reason that soon after the wrestling incident and change of name,
Jacob purges his family of their idols (:2). Once he has done this, God
now reminds him the second time that his name has been changed. Like
Jacob, we find it very hard to ascertain our spiritual growth; the very
construction of our natures makes 100 % accurate self-examination
impossible (Ps. 19:12; Prov. 14:12; 1 Cor. 4:4 RSV). It's not only that we
fail to perceive all our errors; we also fail to realize when we have made
a significant turn for the better in our lives. Yet God perceives this, as
He did with Jacob that night when He renamed him. This perhaps the hardest
struggle we have; to really grasp the height of God's positive perception
of us. It took Jacob, spiritual hero that he was, 50 years; for only in
his final speeches does Jacob openly use the term Israel about himself. And a like
joy, that almost child-like playing around with that 'new' name he'd
received 50 years back, should characterize our spiritual maturity.
Gen 35:11 God said to him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and
multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings
will come out of your body- See on Gen. 43:14. The command to be
fruitful and multiply recalled the command to Adam and to Noah. It was as
if Canaan was now a new land for them to populate; as it were, empty of
anyone else. This promise was given only once Jacob had openly renounced
idolatry in his family. At this point, Jacob already had plenty of sons
and probably grandchildren. His sons had been old and strong enough to
destroy Shechem. So Jacob is being led to realize that the essential
fulfilment of the promises was not in immediate material things. He was
being led to realize that the fruitfulness in view was yet future, and the
promise of "kings" was only going to be fulfilled in the future. For his
sons never became kings but remained as shepherds all their days. It may
even be that "kings" was to be read as an intensive plural, hinting at the
one great Messianic King who was to come. Likewise it is hard to see any
immediate fulfilment of the idea that from one nation would come "a
company of nations"; indeed, the idea is apparently contradictory. How
could one nation be a company of nations... The fulfilment was and is in
the way that peoples from all nations can be baptized into Jacob's great
seed, the King, the Lord Jesus, and be counted as part of the one nation
of God's people. And who knows how much of this Jacob perceived as he
mulled over this strange promise.
God is almighty, and therefore He will and can fulfil His promises. The command to be fruitful and multiply is that of Gen. 1:28. Jacob was being encouraged to make a new start. He is told to multiply, to have more children. But apart from Benjamin, he apparently disobeys this. He did make some kind of new start by casting away idols, but as with so many of our new starts, it was incomplete.
Gen 35:12 The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your seed after you will I give the land- Again, upon closer examination, these words were pregnant with future implication. The land was not given to Abraham and Isaac in their lifetimes; they died without possessing it, let alone eternally. It was given to Abraham in the sense that it was 'given by promise' (Gal. 3:18); the promise of future inheritance was seen as the gift in this life. And as the land had thus been 'given' to his fathers, so it was given to Jacob.
Gen 35:13 God went up from him in the place where He spoke with him-
Why is this mentioned? Perhaps to invite us to see the Angel ascending
away from Jacob, recalling to his mind the vision of the stairway to
heaven in Gen. 28:12,with Angels ascending and descending upon it,
directly from him to heaven. But the same term is used of God going up
from Abraham (Gen. 17:22); clearly Jacob is being assured that he is the
seed of Abraham with the very same promises made to him. All Abraham's
seed go through the same reassurance.
Another reason why "God went up from him" is the complete the clear allusions to the promises to Abraham in Gen. 17:
Yahweh ‘appeared’ to Abram (17:1)= God ‘appeared’ to Jacob again (35:9)
I am ‘El Shaddai’ (17:1) = I am ‘El Shaddai’ (35:11)
Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram, but thy name shall be
Abraham (17:5) = Thy name shall not be called anymore Jacob, but Israel
shall be thy name (35:10)
And I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make you nations
(17:6) = be fruitful and multiply, a nation and a company of nations shall
be of thee (35:11) [we note here how "I will make you fruitful"
required Jacob to act, to "be fruitful". But he apparently has no other
children apart from Benjamin. But despite not obeying the condition, Jacob
still receives the blessing, by grace]
And kings shall come forth from you (17:6) = And kings shall come out of
thy loins (35:11)
And I will give to you and to your seed after you the land of your
sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession (17:8)=
And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it and
to thy seed after thee will I give the land (35:12)
And God went up from Abraham (17:22) = And God went up from him (:13).
The clear similarities were to confirm to the doubting Jacob
that indeed, he was the seed of Abraham; and the promises to Abraham had
indeed been made to him too. We too have moments in our pilgrimage when
that truth is reaffirmed to us. We became Abraham's seed at baptism, heirs
according to the promise; but the personal truth of it has to be
reaffirmed to us, we must be persuaded again that what we are in theory
and status is in fact to be felt reality for us.
Gen 35:14 Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He spoke with him,
a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on
it- There are a few hints that the way of thinking associated with a life of idolatry was still in Jacob. Thus he set
up pillars to God and also put a pillar over Rachel's grave (:20); something which was later forbidden under the Law because of its evident association with idolatry (same word in Lev. 26:1; Dt. 12:3; 16:22; 2 Kings 3:2; 10:27). He had done this previously, in a way his forefathers are not recorded as doing (Gen. 28:18,22; 31:45,51,2).
However, this was done at this moment in time as a genuine sign of his
devotion to God. Instead of building a house to God as he had earlier
promised, by turning the pillar he had earlier set up into a temple (Gen.
28:22), he simply repeated what he had done there 40 years ago- he just
set up a piece of rough stone as a makeshift altar, recognizing that this
was all he was, rough stone; and that was in fact all God wanted. The
anointing of the rock with oil was later understood by Jacob as pointing
forward to the Messianic seed, Jesus the good shepherd; for he ends his
days with reflecting upon "the shepherd, the stone of Israel / Jacob" who
would 'come out of' him (Gen. 49:24).
Gen 35:15 Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him Bethel- God had already referred to the place by this name (:1), in allusion to how Jacob had promised to build God a house there, but by grace God had built him a house / family there. Only now does Jacob accept this, and refer to Luz as Bethel. It's rather like his slowness to accept his renaming from Jacob to Israel. It had to be twice repeated to him, and even then, only at the end of his life did he openly use the word about himself.
Gen 35:16 They travelled from Bethel. There was still some distance to
come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labour-
The fact
Rachel did just before Ephrath or Bethlehem, where Messiah was to be born,
may be another hint at her unspirituality. She didn't make it to Christ.
We wonder why they were travelling when Rachel was about to give birth.
Perhaps they travelled because they were still fearful of the vengeance of
the tribes because of their massacre of Shechem. If they had trusted in
God's protection, they would have remained in one place at least until
Rachel had given birth. Perhaps it was this lack of faith and the stress
connected with fearing death at the hands of the surrounding tribes which
contributed to Rachel's pregnancy complications and untimely death.
Gen 35:17 When she was in hard labour, the midwife said to her, Don’t
be afraid, for now you will have another son- The reference was to
Rachel's proud boast when Joseph had been born some years before, that
Yahweh would give her "another son" (Gen. 30:24). She must have struggled
in those years as she failed to fall pregnant. God had not promised her
another son; she presumed upon that. And getting pregnant now much later
in life was not without its risks, and led to her death. The "don't be
afraid" may well be a reference to Rachel's fear that her proud boast that
Yahweh would add another son would not be fulfilled. Or perhaps
"Don't be afraid, you have had another son" addresses Rachel's fear she
had 'only' brought forth a female. Sadly she died in slavery to others'
perceptions- that ultimate worth in life for a woman was in how many sons
she produced for her husband. And yet she died having been out performed
in that metric by her despised sister. It was the tragic death of all
those who will only compare themselves amongst themselves. And so she died
in "sorrow", naming the child 'son of my sorrow / bitterness', her sorrow that she
hadn't 'made it'. She had earlier told Jacob: "Give me children, or else I
will die" (Gen. 30:1). She had nothing else in her worldview apart from
being the mother of many sons. And she died giving birth to her second
son, consumed by sorrow, and bitterness that she had not produced more
sons than her sister. And so many die like this, in the bitterness of
broken dreams, because they would not set their sights on spiritual
ambitions rather than those in mere conformity to the metrics of success
in their culture. Be it home ownership, second home ownership, career,
wealth etc.
The Hebrew here means 'You have had another son'. The gender of the child was apparent to the midwife. It has therefore been suggested that Rachel died of complications associated with a breech birth. And we can ponder the effect that had upon Benjamin.
Gen 35:18 It happened, as her soul was departing (for she died)-
The soul of a person is their life, and at times the idea of soul and
spirit are interchangeable; the idea is that as she breathed her last, she
used her last bitter breaths to name the child Benoni.
That she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin- There is a strange appropriacy in Rachel dying in childbirth; for in great unspirituality she had asked Jacob [who had served 14 years for her, so great was his love for her] to give her children or else she would die (see on Gen. 30:1). We do tend to get what we really want, with all its consequences. Rachel dies not in joy that Yahweh had given her another son (Gen. 30:24), but rather in depression, naming the child "son of my sorrow". She passes from the scene a bitter woman, who was ultimately unfulfilled and untouched by the unusual love of Jacob for her, let alone the love of God. Jacob tried to reverse this shameful naming, by calling the son Benjamin, the son of his right hand, almost implying favouritism in the very name.
Gen 35:19 Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (the same
is Bethlehem)- As noted on :16, Rachel didn't quite make it to the
birthplace of the Messianic seed, the Lord Jesus. She was buried by the
roadside, rather than in the family grave where Leah was buried along with
Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebekah (Gen. 49:31). Jacob sadly
recognized that the love of his life for whom he had been obsessed for 14
years and made such huge problems for himself... was not really one of the
faithful family, and had no real heart for the things of the promises.
Gen 35:20 Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar
of Rachel’s grave to this day- Pillars were later forbidden because
of their pagan associations, but it's left an open question as to whether
there were such associations with Rachel. However the others of the
faithful family were buried in a cave (Gen. 49:31); no mention is made of
a pillar. It was Rachel who so loved her father's idols that she felt she
couldn't live without them, and therefore stole them. So perhaps the
paganic associations of a pillar were appropriate for her.
Gen 35:21 Israel travelled, and spread his tent beyond the tower of
Eder- This is the "tower of the flock" associated with Bethlehem in
the Messianic prophecy of Mic. 4:8. Rachel died before reaching Bethlehem;
Jacob went there and beyond. I have suggested this may hint at her lack of
Messianic appreciation, and in this case, Jacob would be presented here as
having what she lacked in this respect.
Gen 35:22 It happened, while Israel lived in that land, that Reuben
went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it.
Now the sons of Jacob were twelve- It could be that with
Rachel's death, it became clear that Jacob favoured the sons of Rachel and
Joseph, although one of the youngest sons, was effectively now the
firstborn for Jacob; even though Reuben was the firstborn. He therefore
rapes Bilhah as an expression of his anger with his father, and also as an
expression of power; we recall how Absalom slept with his father's wives
publically in order to demonstrate his power, rather than doing so from
lust. I suggest that Reuben's action was likewise not from lust, but
rather he used sex as it is still often used in primitive societies- as a
demonstration of power. It was for this reason that at the end of his
life, Jacob stripped Reuben of the birthright and effectively gave the
double portion intended for the firstborn to Ephraim and Manasseh,
Joseph's sons. Sadly, Jacob never fully learnt to forget the whole 'thing'
about the blessing of the firstborn that he and his mother had been so
wrongly obsessed with gaining. And Reuben too didn't learn the lesson. We
too can come to our deathbeds with elements of weakness, no matter how God
has sought to help us overcome them. And yet like Jacob, we are still
saved by grace.
As with the incident concerning Dinah and Shechem, Jacob comes over as being informed of the matter but not doing much. He did however strip Reuben of the birthright, although apparently only at the very end of Jacob's life.
The Hebrew of this verse has a strange pause in the middle of it, suggesting we need to pause and consider how awful was the thing Reuben had done. Paul may well have the incident in mind when he rebukes the Christian church in Corinth for a brother sleeping with his father's wife, which Paul says is unheard of amongst the Gentiles (1 Cor. 5:1). But, it was heard of amongst the people of God- Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, had done it. And so the theme develops that the people of God are often more immoral than the unbelieving world around them; but are saved by grace, not their good works. This seems so true of the Abraham family, whose 'faithful' members often contrast poorly with the more decent and ethical unbelievers amongst whom they lived. The point is that the people of God aren't necessarily good people, although they ought to be; they simply throw themselves upon God's grace.
We will note in the Joseph story that it is Reuben and Judah who show compassion to Joseph, seeking to save him from being murdered by the other brothers; and proactive in responding to the feelings of Jacob their father about Benjamin. But it is Reuben and Judah whose gross failings are recorded at this point; here we read of Reuben's gross sexual misbehaviour, and we will read of Judah's in Gen. 38. But it was those two who, whilst never apparently expressing repentance in a public way, were thereby so touched by God's grace that they became compassionate to others.
Gen 35:23 The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi,
Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun- The list is of twelve tribes, and this
number rather stuck throughout the Biblical record. And this raises the
question as to whether Jacob's attempt to incorporate Joseph's two sons
Ephraim and Manasseh as his personal sons... was really accepted as
legitimate by God. Because in this case, there would have been 14 tribes
of Israel. Reuben is still called the firstborn, right after the
note in :22 that he had slept with his father's concubine, for which Jacob
demoted him from being firstborn. On the stones on the High Priest's
shoulders which bore the names of the tribes, Reuben's name comes first
("You shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the
children of Israel: six of their names on the one stone, and the names of
the six that remain on the other stone, in the order of their birth",
Ex. 28:9,10). We also later read things like "The sons of Reuben the
firstborn of Israel" (Ex. 6:14); "These are the names of the children of
Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s
firstborn" (Gen. 46:8); "The children of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn" (Num.
1:20; 26:5). It's as if God did not accept Jacob's obsession with
rearranging the firstborn- an obsession he had momentarily quit after
wrestling with the Angel, whose face appeared as that of Esau. Jacob was
weak in this matter right to his death. And God as it were took no notice
of Jacob's machinations about the firstborn. Perhaps this is also why in
:29 we read the "Esau and Jacob his sons buried him"; Esau the firstborn
is named first. It could equally be that Reuben repented; God forgave him,
but Jacob didn't.
Gen 35:24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin- We wonder why
Benjamin is listed amongst the 12 sons born to Jacob in Paddan Aram (:26).
I think that the answer is that quite simply, Semitic writing and culture
is not so strictly accurate as Western and other cultures today. There are
no footnotes pointing out exceptions; numbers and situations are rounded
up; "all" is used in a very general sense. This is difficult for
literalists to cope with, but it is of such pathetic literalism that has
arisen so much of the petty criticism of the Biblical text.
Gen 35:25 The sons of Bilhah (Rachel’s handmaid): Dan and Naphtali-
The order is: Sons of Leah, sons of Rachel, sons of Rachel's handmaid,
sons of Leah's handmaid. Perhaps the order is an attempt to demonstrate
that the sons of the handmaids were finally accepted as legitimate sons of
Jacob, although the sons of the proper wives are put first as if to
reflect that God never fully accepted the handmaids as Jacob's
legitimate wives.
Gen 35:26 The sons of Zilpah (Leah’s handmaid): Gad and Asher. These
are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram- See on
:24. The impression is being given that the people of Israel / Jacob were
formed outside the land of promise, and then brought into it. Just as Adam
was as it were introduced into Eden, and Abraham likewise brought into the
land. It was again so relevant for the wilderness generation, who had been
born in Egypt and were being brought into the eretz as they heard
Genesis first read to them.
Gen 35:27 Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba
(which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners- This
is presented as his first meeting with Isaac after returning from Laban,
but quite some years had passed now, around 10-14. The promise that God
would return him to his father's house in peace was not therefore
fulfilled at this point; it was fulfilled in him coming to his father's
house in the sense of his family, Esau, in peace- in peace with God
through forgiveness, most importantly. I think that is how Jacob came to
understand it, otherwise we would expect to read of him making some
symbolic visit to his "father's house" immediately after meeting Esau
acceptably. However, the father's house to which he returned in
peace may well refer to the family, rather than any literal "house". His
peace with Esau was the fulfilment of that promise, to return him in peace
to his father's house.
Gen 35:28 The days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years-
This meant that he would have lived until the time Joseph supposedly died.
The record is not in strict chronological sequence, as the story of Joseph
is told separately, and this concludes "the generations of Isaac" (Gen.
25:19).
Gen 35:29 Isaac gave up the spirit, and died, and was gathered to his
people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him-
"Full of days" rather than full of years could mean that his days had been
filled with significance, rather than living the same day over and over
year after year. The term is clearly not the same as just meaning "old".
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