God Blesses and Renames Jacob

Story: God Blesses and Renames Jacob

Passage: Genesis 35:1-15

Characters: God, Jacob

Summary: God told Jacob to return to Bethel and live there. Jacob told his family to purify themselves and get rid of foreign gods. As they journeyed, God terrified the people around them and they did not pursue Jacob. Jacob came to Bethel and built an altar. Rebekah’s nurse died. God appeared to Jacob and renamed him Israel again. He repeated the promise of nations coming from him. God gave him the land around him. God left and Jacob poured oil and a drink offering on the pillar and called the place Bethel.

Notes: I suspect that God wanted Jacob to go to Bethel in the first place instead of Shechem. That would explain why Jacob’s time in Shechem was so bad. Jacob shows he had completely turned to follow God when he had his family get rid of idols. They willingly did so which shows how when the head of a house follows God, the family does too. Jacob built an official altar to God in bethel and called it God of Bethel. Bethel means house of God if you remember. We know nothing else about Rebekah’s nurse, but she must have been important to be named in the passage. They obviously mourned for her. I wonder if they picked her up in their group while with Laban. God appeared and reaffirmed His covenant with Jacob now that Jacob was back in Bethel. This was the place Jacob’s spiritual journey had begun and it was where God planned on it ending. God officially named Jacob Israel here. Jacob poured out a drink offering. Drink offerings were usually wine. By pouring that out on the altar, Jacob was giving even his possessions to God and showing that God was his utmost priority.

Questions: How many idols did Jacob’s family have? How willingly did they get rid of them? What made Deborah so important? Was Jacob initially supposed to go to Bethel?

Lessons: The main lesson I see here is the importance of being a spiritual leader. As in the importance of being a spiritual leader if you are a leader in general. Jacob was the head of his family and when he committed to God, his family did. If you are a husband or a father, your spiritual example has a huge impact. If you are a political leader or a manager at work, your example makes an impact. It is important to always conduct yourself in such a way that people can see Christ through