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From Eternity Past
direction to all, “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.”
Jacob Relates His Earlier Bethel Experience
With deep emotion, Jacob repeated the story of his first visit to
Bethel and how the Lord had appeared to him in the night vision. His
own heart was softened; his children also were touched by a subduing
power. He had taken the most effectual way to prepare them to join in
the worship of God when they should arrive at Bethel. “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.”
God caused a fear to rest upon the inhabitants of the land, so
that they made no attempt to avenge the slaughter of Shechem. The
travelers reached Bethel unmolested. Here the Lord again appeared to
Jacob and renewed to him the covenant promise.
From Bethel it was only two days’ journey to Hebron, but it brought
to Jacob a heavy grief in the death of Rachel. Twice seven years’
service he had rendered for her sake, and his love had made the toil
light. Deep and abiding that love had been.
[135]
Before her death, Rachel gave birth to a second son. With her
parting breath she named the child Benoni, “son of my sorrow.” But his
father called him Benjamin, “son of my right hand,” or “my strength.”
At last Jacob came to his journey’s end, “unto Isaac his father unto
Mamre,... which is Hebron.” Here he remained during the closing
years of his father’s life. To Isaac, infirm and blind, the kind attentions
of this long-absent son were a comfort during years of loneliness and
bereavement.
Jacob and Esau met at the deathbed of their father. The elder
brother’s feelings had greatly changed. Jacob, well content with the
spiritual blessings of the birthright, resigned to the elder brother the
inheritance of their father’s wealth, the only inheritance Esau sought
or valued. No longer estranged, they parted, Esau removing to Mount
Seir. God, who is rich in blessing, had granted to Jacob worldly wealth,
in addition to the higher good that he had sought. This separation was