Genesis 35

The vicinity of Shechem was not to be the final place for Jacob to lay his head. The murder of the Shechemites excited Jacob's fears concerning his safety in a land of potentially hostile neighbors. But then, how is it that the people of God can find safety and security anywhere in this world? Even in our own souls a battle is raging, and we can be our own worst enemies. We long for a place where our sin is gone and where we can dwell in peace with God.

Meanwhile, we have to live somewhere. The Lord directed Jacob to Bethel, the place where Jacob had made a commitment to the Lord on his way to Aram. God had helped him thus far, with Esau, with Laban, ... Surely the Lord would help him again. Jacob instructed his household to put away all their foreign gods, a great step in the right direction. They would try to leave the past behind in Shechem, purifying themselves, as they headed out for Bethel, the house of God.

God did carry them through their most immediate danger. The Lord caused all the peoples that Jacob feared in the wake of the murder of the Shechemites to fear Jacob and Jacob's God. They all let Jacob and his family go without pursuing them.

Jacob had become Israel, and God not only commanded Jacob to be fruitful and to multiply, He also blessed him with descendants and possessions in a world where your neighbors may be thinking way too much about how they can take the things that you own. It was the Lord's settled intention that a company of nations would come from Jacob. Jacob's descendants would have the land of Canaan, though they surely did not have it yet. But God's promise stood firm. It would be accomplished.

Generations come and generations go. People live their years in this world of danger, and then they are gone. Despite all that the Lord had done for Jacob, this great man could not keep his beloved Rachel alive. She died in childbirth as young Benjamin, the brother of Joseph, was born.

Not only was death unstoppable, so was sin. Jacob's own son Reuben lay with Bihah, his father's concubine. His second and third sons, Simeon and Levi, had murdered the men of Shechem. Jacob knew these things about his family. You can relocate from Shechem to Bethel, but you cannot get away from sin and death unless the Lord will provide the way to heaven for mankind.

Despite the futility of life in this fallen world, Jacob had twelve sons. They would live on, and have children of their own. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher would not just be the names of individual men, with all their shortcomings and offenses. They would be tribes.

Isaac would ultimately breath his last, and Esau and Jacob would bury him in hope. This is the life that God has given to the sons of Adam. But Jacob and the Israel that would come from him would be more than just the descendants of Adam. They would form an Old Covenant community with a special way of life, and a peculiar worship given to them from God.

All of these people in the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came from Aram. They traveled back there to find wives. They were given the land of Canaan, but it was not exactly theirs yet. They had to live as strangers in a strange land. They received the promises of God, but they could not even really settle anywhere or accommodate the cultural practices and religions of all of the other peoples around them. God was for them, and He caused their neighbors to fear them. Yet the way that God was for them was not to immediately make every trial into an obvious triumph.

They were sinners and saints, and they needed a Redeemer. They could not save themselves.

There are two facts that we see in all the history of Israel: First, the people of the promise could not solve their own sin problem. Second, they could not stop death. They also could not find any place to lay their head where they could finally say, “I am safe and I am free.” They were God's chosen people, but they needed His hand to rescue them.

Then what was the point of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? What is the benefit of being blessed by God as His chosen people if you still sin and you eventually end up in a grave just like everyone else?

Perhaps it will help us to remember that Abraham is, Isaac is, and Jacob is. They are alive now. The Redeemer would come through their family line. This one descendant of Israel would find the way back from sin and death for us.

That is why people are alive today in heaven. Jesus died, Jesus rose again, and Jesus ascended into heaven. We live because of Him. He is the Savior that we could never be for ourselves.

It is frustrating that we still face the troubles that come with sin and death during our days on earth. Nonetheless Christ has won the battle for us. The way to a life of true and everlasting freedom has been found.