Family Reformation–or, Jacob’s Second Visit to Bethel

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there."
Genesis 35:1.

THERE are critical times in most families–times when much decision of
character will be needed on the part of the father to guide things
aright. They say there is a skeleton in every closet and, if so, I
would add that occasionally the unquiet spirit takes to troubling the
household and needs to be laid low. There are times when the evil in
the hearts of the children and in the nature of the parents becomes
especially energetic and brings about difficulties and perplexities, so
that if a wrong turn were taken, the most fearful mischief would ensue.
And yet, if there is Divine Grace in the hearts of some or all of the
family, a strong and gracious hand at the helm of the ship may steer it
right gallantly through the broken waters and bring it safely out of
its dangers to pursue its journey much more happily in the future.

Now, such a crisis had come to Jacob's family–things had reached a sad
pass and something had to be done. Everything seemed out of gear and
matters could not continue any longer as they were. All was out of
order and threatened to become much worse. Even the heathen began to
smell the ill savor of Jacob's disorganized family and the one
alternative was mend or end. A stand must be taken by the head of the
house. There must be reform in the household and a revival of religion
throughout the whole family. If you notice, Jacob himself was in a bad
way. His business was to remain in Canaan a mere sojourner, dwelling in
tents, not one of the people, but moving about among them, testifying
that he looked for "a city that has foundations, whose Builder and
Maker is God."

He expected to inherit the land, but, for the time being, he was to be
a stranger and a sojourner as his fathers Abraham and Isaac had been.
Yet at Succoth we read that he built booths–scarcely houses, I
suppose–but more than tents. It was a compromise and a compromise is
often worse than a direct and overt disobedience of a command. He dares
not erect a house, but he builds a booth and thus shows his desire for
a settled life. And though it is not ours to judge the purchase of land
at Shechem, still, it looks in the same direction. Jacob is endeavoring
to find a resting place where Abraham and Isaac had none. I will not
speak too negatively, but the Patriarch's acts look as if he desired to
find a house for himself where he might rest and be on familiar terms
with the inhabitants of the land.

Now the Lord his God would not have it so. The chosen family was
intended, by the Divine purpose, to dwell alone and maintain a peculiar
walk of separation. The seed of Abraham was ordained to be, in the
highest sense, a Nonconformist tribe, a race of separatists! Their God
meant them to be a distinct people, entirely severed from all the
nations among whom they dwelt and so they must be. But the inclination
to be like their neighbors was very manifest in Jacob's family. The
spell of Esau's greatness had, no doubt, affected the clan of Jacob.
They had, from the Patriarch, himself, down to the youngest child, made
very willing obeisance before "my lord Esau," and the homage paid was
not without its effect.

That obeisance was an act which, from some points of view, we cannot
condemn, but it was scarcely becoming in one who was a Prince with God
and elect of the Most High–and its effect could not have been
elevating. The sons seem to have taken very readily to paying homage to
profane Esau, though they were not little children, but young men. They
bowed before their noble-looking uncle with his grand band of warriors
and were, perhaps, fascinated by the charms of so warlike a member of
the family, whose sons were dukes and great ones in the land. It added
importance to the shepherds to feel that they were related to a great
captain!

Now that they had come to Shechem and their father had purchased a
piece of land there and had built booths, they felt themselves to be of
some importance–and they must go visiting, for everybody loves
society. And now comes the mischief of it. Jacob's only daughter must
visit with the prince of the people. The daughter of Israel is invited
to the dances and the assemblies of the upper circles of the land. It
is winked at by the father, possibly, and the brothers aid and

abet it. She is often away at the residence of Shechem, the fine young
Hivite prince, a very respectable gentleman, indeed, with a mansion and
estates. But there comes an evil matter of it not to be mentioned.

Then her brothers, in their hot anger, run into a sin that was quite as
evil as Shechem's crime, by way of making some amends for their
sister's defilement. With dastardly treachery they slay the whole of
the Shechemites and so bring the guilt of murder upon a family which
ought to have been holiness unto the Lord! Children of God cannot mix
with the world without mischief! The world does hurt to us and we to it
when once we begin to be of the world and like it. It is an
ill-assorted match. Fire and water were never meant to be blended. The
seed of the woman must not mix with the seed of the serpent. It was
when the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and
took of them as they pleased, that the deluge came and swept away the
population of the earth.

Abundant evil comes of joining together what God has put asunder. The
corpses of the Shechemites and the indignation of all who heard of the
foul deed were the direct result of the attempt to blend Israel with
Canaan! And now Jacob's household is filled with fear and the old man,
himself–a grand man and a Believer, but a long way off from being
perfect–cries out to his sons, in great distress, "You have troubled
me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the
Canaanites and the Perizzites! And I, being few in number, they shall
gather themselves together against me and slay me. And I shall be
destroyed, I and my house." To this his sons only replied, "Should he
deal with our sister as with an harlot?"–taking his rebuke in a rough
fashion and by no means showing any sense of shame.

They do not appear to have been the worst of his sons and yet their
rage and cruelty were most terrible. And when they were charged with
their crime they justified it. Wretched, indeed, was the condition of
Jacob's household! That family was badly arranged from the very
beginning. Polygamy needed not to be denounced in so many words in
Scripture, because the specimens given of it are all so thoroughly bad
that no one can doubt that the thing is radically vicious in its
mildest form. It worked shockingly in the case of Jacob. His wife
Rachel, whom he loved so well, had, I fear, been the cause of the
introduction into the family of idolatry in the form of teraph, or
symbol-worship. She had learned it from her father, Laban, and secretly
practiced it. And if Jacob was aware of it, he did not like to say
anything to her, his darling, the queen of his soul.

Those bright eyes which had charmed him years ago–how could he dim
them with tears? The children of Leah took up their mother's cause and
the sons of the handmaids sided with each other–and this made trouble.
The many mothers of the family created difficulties and complications
of all sorts, so that the household was hard to arrange and keep in
good order. It was not what a believing household should be and it is
not amazing at all that affairs so thoroughly went awry that it
appeared as if even the salt was losing its savor and the good seed was
dying before it could be sown in the earth and made to bring forth
fruit! A stand must be made. Something had to be done and Jacob must do
it.

The Lord comes and He speaks with Jacob. And since the good man's heart
was sound towards God's statutes, the Lord had only to speak to him and
he obeyed. He was pulled up short and made to look at things and set
his house in order. And he did so with that resolution of character
which comes out in Jacob when he is brought into a strait, but which at
other times is not perceptible. We shall take up this incident at this
time and may God grant that we may find practical teaching in it for
ourselves and for our families, by the guidance of His gracious Spirit.

Notice, first, God having appeared to Jacob–what was to be done?
Secondly, what happened in the doing of it? And thirdly, what followed.

I. First, then, WHAT WAS TO BE DONE? The first thing to do was to make
a decided move. God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell
there." You must hasten away from Shechem, with its fertile plains, and
make a mountain journey up to Bethel and dwell there. You have been
long enough near these Shechemites. Mischief has come from your being
so intimate with the world. You must cut a trench between yourselves
and the associations you have formed and you must go up to Bethel and
remain there.

Every now and then, dear Brothers and Sisters, we shall find it
necessary to say to ourselves and to our family, "We must come out from
among worldlings. We must be separate. We are forming connections which
are injurious to us and we must snap the deceitful bonds. We are being
led into habits and customs in the management of the household which
are not such as God would approve. We are doing this to secure favor of
one and doing that to escape frowns from another–and we are not
walking straight with the Lord–therefore, to bring us back to our
moorings, we must come

right out and go to Bethel, to the place where God met with us at the
first. We must go to our first trysting place and meet with our Lord
again, cost whatever the journey may.

"Though some may feel it to be a cross, yet we must begin again and
work upon the old lines. Back to our old Puritanism and precision we
must go and renew our vows. Let us go right away from worldliness and
get to the Bethel of separation and draw near to God again." Have you
ever found, Beloved, when you have been very deep in business and very
much in the world that you begin to feel heart-sick and cry, "It won't
do, I must get out of this! I must retreat into a holy solitude and
enjoy a little quiet communion with God"? Have you not sometimes felt,
concerning your family, "We are not serving the Lord aright, nor
becoming more holy or devoted. Everything appears to be going downhill.
We must steer the other way. We must alter our present declining state,
in the name of God, or else we cannot expect to have His blessing." I
know that you have come to such a place and have resolved to take a
decided step. May the Lord help all of us when we see clearly that
something is to be done. May we have Grace to end sinful hesitation and
set about amendment at all hazards.

Now they must revive old memories. "Go up to Bethel and dwell there.
And make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto you when you fled
from the face of Esau, your brother." A revival of old memories is
often most useful to us, especially to revive the memory of our
conversion. The memory of the love of our espousals, when we went after
the Lord into the wilderness and were quite satisfied to be denied and
disowned of all–so long as we might but dwell near to Him–that memory
is right good for us! It is well to recall that hallowed hour when we,
for the first time, set up a family altar and with our dear ones bowed
before the Lord! Then we felt that the separated place was a very sweet
one and we were most glad to get right away from the world and to live
with Christ and in Christ and for Christ and like Christ.

We cannot help blushing as we remember those early days. We did not
think that we should have fallen so far short of our ideal. Let the
recollection of Bethel, then, come over us to make us remember the
loving kindness of the Lord and mourn over our own spiritual
declensions. Are you singing–

"What peaceful hours I once enjoyed,

How sweet their memory still,

But they have left an aching void

The world can never fill"?

Then you must come back to your first hours of communion. Where you
lost your joy you will find it, for it remains where you left it! If
you have neglected your prayer closet. If you have ceased from the
searching of the Word of God. If you have departed from a close walking
with Christ and if you and your families have fallen into a very low
state, so that strangers who look in would hardly know whether yours is
a godly house or not–if it is so, then go back mourning and sighing to
Bethel and pray that the old feelings may be revived in you. God grant
they may!

And may you, in addition, be led to cry, "How could I have departed so
much from the living God? How could I have played the fool and gadded
about so much when I might have rested still, in peace, if I had lived
near to God?" This, then, was the work which was to be done by Jacob.
He had to, first, make a decided move and, secondly, to revive old
memories! Have you any call to the same course of action? If so, see
you do it. But now, again, Jacob must keep an old vow. I do not quite
remember how many years old that vow was, but I suppose some 30 or so.
Yet he had not kept it. He was much younger when he knelt and said, "If
You will be with me," and so on, "then this place shall be God's
house."

He has forgotten that vow, or at least he has not fulfilled it all
these years. Be very slow to make vows, Brothers and Sisters–very
slow. They should be but very seldom made because all that you can do
for God you are bound to do as it is–and a vow is often a superfluity
of superstition. But if the vow is made, let it not wait beyond its
time and complain to your God. An old and forgotten vow will rot and
breed most solemn discomfort to your heart. At first it will gnaw at
your conscience. And if your conscience, at last, grows hardened to it,
others of your powers will suffer the same petrifying process.
Moreover, a forgotten vow will bring chastisement on you and perhaps
the rod will fall upon your family.

The connection between Jacob's not going to Bethel and the mischief
that happened to his daughter, Dinah, and the sinning of his sons, Levi
and Simeon, may not be distinctly traceable, but I feel persuaded that
there was a connection– the sin of omission in the father led on to
sins of commission in the sons. With the sins of his children, the Lord
chastened Jacob for his breach of promise. Note that the Lord does not
remind Jacob of his wrong, nor chide him for it, but He

puts him in a position in which he will remind himself of it. It is so
gentle–I was going to say so courteous of our God– He is so gentle,
so tender, that He would rather His servant should remember the vow
than be distinctly told of it in so many words. See, then, Jacob is
bound to go and do according to his solemn pledge.

Now, dear Friend, it may be that part of the business you and I have to
do in order to set our families right is to remember something we said
we would do years ago but which we have not done. We have had the
ability for a long while, but the willingness has not been with us. Let
us now bestir ourselves and clear our consciences in the matter. God
alone knows of it–let not this secret thing lie festering in our
hearts and grieving the Holy Spirit! I speak, I believe, very closely
home to some of my hearers. Perhaps the message is sufficiently
distinct and I had better say no more. Let your own hearts remember
your neglected promises.

It appeared to Jacob, next, that if he was to fulfill his vow, it was
necessary to reform his whole house, for he could not serve the Lord
and worship other gods. He said to all that were with him–to his sons
first and then to his hired servants and the rest–"Put away the
strange gods that are among you." Yes, it must come to that! If I am to
get back to my old position with God I must break my idols–

"The dearest idol I have known, Whatever that idol be, Help me to tear
it from its throne, And worship only Thee."

The idols of the family–the acts and deeds of the young folk which
would grieve God, the doings of the elder ones which are inconsistent
with a profession of faith in Jesus, the ill tempers that have been
indulged, the divisions of heart which have come up in the family–all
that is sinful and unlovely must go, if we are to get right again.
There must be a general breaking and burying of idols, or we cannot
worship the God of Bethel!

And next Jacob said, "Be clean." There was to be, I suppose, a general
washing indicative of purgation of character by going to God with
repentance and seeking forgiveness. Jacob also said, "Change your
garments." This was symbolic of an entire renewal of life, though I
fear they were not all renewed. At any rate, this is what was
symbolized by, "Change your garments." Alas, it is easier to say this
to our families than it is to get them to do it! And do we wonder since
it is so much easier for ourselves to say than it is for ourselves to
do! Yet, Beloved, if your walk is to be close with God. If you are to
commune with the God of Bethel, you must be cleansed. The Lord cannot
commune with us while we wallow in sin. "What accord has Christ with
Belial?"

Sin must be put away! The best Believer that lives must wash his feet
if he is to draw near to God as he has done before. All this Jacob was
to undertake and to him, who had become so lax with his family, it was
no small work to screw up his courage and say to Rachel and all of
them–"Put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean. And
change your garments." Well, then, the next and last thing which they
were to do was to celebrate special worship. "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."

When we get wrong and feel that there must be a decided change, we must
set apart special times of devotion. We must say to our soul, "Soul,
Soul you have fed so little lately. This leanness of yours comes of
neglecting spiritual feasting. Come, you must humble yourself! You must
lay yourself low before God. You must approach the Lord with lowly
reverence and beg to be refreshed with His Presence. You must set apart
more time for feeding upon Christ and upon His Word. You must never be
quiet till you become, again, full of Divine Grace and of the Holy
Spirit." In families it is often well, when you see that things are
wrong, just to call the household together and say, "We must draw near
unto God with peculiar earnestness, for we are going astray. We have
not given up family prayer, but we must now make it special and with
double zeal draw near unto God."

I am afraid that some of you neglect family prayer. If you do I am sure
it will work evil in your households. The practice of family prayer is
the castle of Protestantism. It is the grand defense against all
attacks by a priestly caste who set up their temples and tell us to
pray there and pray by their mediation. No, but our homes are temples
and every man is a priest in his own house! This is a brazen wall of
defense against superstition and priestcraft! Family prayer is the
nutriment of family piety and woe to those who allow it to cease!

I read the other day of parents who said they could not have family
prayer. Someone asked this question, "If you knew that your children
would be sick through the neglect of family prayer, would you not have
it? If one child was

smitten down with fever each morning that you neglected prayer, what
then?" Oh, then they would have it. "And if there were a law that you
should be fined five shillings if you did not meet for prayer, would
you find time for it?" Yes. "And if there were five pounds given to all
who had family prayer, would you not by some means arrange to have it?"
Yes. And so the enquirer went on with many questions and wound up with
this last one–"Then is it not just an idle excuse when you, who
profess to be servants of God, say that you have no time or opportunity
for family prayer?"

Should idle excuses rob God of His worship and our families of a
blessing? Begin to pray in your families and especially if things have
gone wrong, get them right by drawing near to God more distinctly. Did
I hear you say, "We do not want to be formalists." No, I am not afraid
you would be! I am afraid of your neglecting anything that tends
towards the good of your household and your own spiritual growth and,
therefore, I pray you labor at once to acquaint yourselves with God and
be at peace. Draw near the Lord, again, more thoroughly than you have
done before, for it is the only way by which the backslidings of
persons and families are at all likely to be corrected! God grant a
blessing with these words by the power of His Holy Spirit.

II. And now I come to my second point–WHAT HAPPENED IN THE DOING OF
IT? Well, several things

happened and one or two of those were rather surprising. The first was
that all heartily entered into the reforming work. I am sure they did,
because the 4th verse says, "They gave unto Jacob all the strange gods
which were in their hands"–all of them–"and all their earrings which
were in their ears." He had not said anything about their earrings. Was
there any harm in their earrings? For a woman to wear an earring is not
such a dreadful thing, is it? Perhaps not, but I suppose that these
earrings were charms and that they were used in certain incantations
and heathenish customs. It must have been a very sad discovery to
Jacob, who himself could not have endured it, to find that wicked
superstitions had come into his tents through his winking at the
teraphs.

The evil had gone on in secret and though suspected, was not actually
under Jacob's eye. I dare say he was not quite sure that the teraphs
were in the tent and did not want to be quite sure, because it was
Rachel, you know, who had them, and she–well, she was Rachel–and she
had been brought up so differently from Jacob that perhaps Jacob
thought he must not press her too severely upon the point. Perhaps he
said to himself, "When I talk with her she does not seem at all
idolatrous. I believe she is a good woman and I must remember how she
was brought up. And as she comes from a high-church family I must let
her have her little symbols–I do not know for sure that she has a
teraph–I have never absolutely seen it." But there it was and it was
the nucleus of superstition! She and those around her had become
corrupted with the superstitions of the heathen–and these earrings
were the indication of their superstitious feeling, if not the
instruments of divination!

Now, as soon as Jacob speaks, they all give up their idols and their
earrings. I like this. It is a blessed thing when a man of God takes a
stand and speaks, and finds that his family are all ready to follow.
Perhaps it was the fear that was upon them just then–the fear of the
nations round about which made them so obedient. I am not sure it was a
work of Divine Grace, but still, as far as outward appearances went,
there was a willing giving up of all that could have grieved the Lord.
And you will sometimes be pleased, Christian Friends, when things get
wrong and you determine to set them right, to see how others will yield
to your determination. You ought to take courage from this. Perhaps the
very person of whom you are most afraid will be the most ready to yield
and the most eager to help!

You have been afraid of Rachel, but she has such love for you that she
will do anything for you and give up her teraphs at once. The sons who
were so rough in speaking to you when you spoke in your own name and
spoke about yourself and said, "You have made me to stink," and so on,
will answer very differently when you speak in God's name! There will
be such a power going with God's Word that they will yield freely and
heartily. They did so in Jacob's case. All of them gave up their idols
and they buried them in the earth beneath the oak. Would God a day
would come to old England when all the crucifixes and priestly
vestments–and the whole ruck of the symbols and emblems of
superstition–could be buried under some grand old Gospel oak, never to
be disinterred again! If we do not see this in the nation we will at
least secure it in our own houses.

Another circumstance happened, namely, that protection was afforded
him–immediate and complete. "They journeyed and the terror of God was
upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue
after the sons of Jacob." In their way were many cities and, as it
were, hemmed them in and the people might have turned out and cut the
little tribe of Israel to pieces. But a message had gone forth from the
Lord of Hosts, saying, "Touch not My anointed,

and do my Prophets no harm." And so they journeyed in safety. "When a
man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace
with him," and now that Jacob has determined to set things right, he
walks unharmed!

You do not know how much of personal trouble which you are now bearing
will vanish as soon as you determine to stand up for God! You do not
know how much of family difficulty that now covers you with dread will
vanish when you, yourself, have feared the Lord and have come forth
decidedly and determinedly to do the right thing. No danger shall
befall the man who walks with God, for with such a Companion malaria
breathes health and curses become blessings! But you know not where you
are going and into what thick woods you plunge when you once forsake
the Lord and walk contrary to His mind. The Lord your God is a jealous
God and if you do not respect His jealousy and walk before Him with
holy fear, you shall be made to feel His wrath! Since He has known you,
only, of all the people of the earth, for that very reason He will
chasten you for your iniquities. This plague of evils shall be stopped
when you purge out your idols, but not till then!

In the next place the vow was performed. They came to Bethel and I can
almost picture the grateful delight of Jacob as he looked upon those
great stones among which he had lain down to sleep, a lonely man.
Perhaps he searched for the stone that had been his pillow. Probably it
still stood erect as part of the pillar which he had reared in memory
of the goodness of God and the vision he had seen. There were many
regrets, many confessions, many thanksgivings at Bethel! "With my staff
I came to this place, but now I am become two bands. Look, my sons!
Look, Rachel! Look, all of you– this is the spot where, when I fled
from Esau with nothing but my staff and wallet, I laid down and the
Lord appeared to me! And He has kept me all my life long! Come, help me
as I put together the unhewn stones to make an altar. And this great
stone, behold we will pour oil on the top of it and we will together
sing the praises of El-Beth-el–the God of the House of God, the God
who is a House for His people, the God who has a household of which we
form a part–the God under whose wings we seek refuge."

I have no doubt that Jacob and his house spent a very happy time at
Bethel, where mourning softened thankfulness and joy sweetened
penitence–where every sacred passion in the Patriarch's soul found
vent and poured itself out before the Lord. He thought of the past,
rejoiced in the present and hoped for the future, for now he had come
to be with God and to draw near to Him. But what else happened? Why,
now there came a death and a funeral. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died.
Her name means a bee. And we have had old nurses, ourselves, have we
not, who have been like busy bees in our household? Dear old Deborah
nursed our mother and nursed us and is still willing to nurse our
children! We do not grow that sort of people, now, they tell me. I am
afraid we do not grow the same kind of masters and mistresses that they
used to have in years gone by, either!

I am not sure about it, but I believe that if there were more Rebekahs
there would be more Deborahs. Somehow I think we are generally about as
well treated as we treat others and we get measured into our bosoms
very much that which we ourselves measure out. There may be exceptions
and there are, but that is the general rule. Well, dear old Deborah had
left Laban's house and gone with Miss Rebekah when she went into the
far country to be married. She had taken care of her mistress' two
boys, Jacob and Esau, and had set her heart on the same boy that the
mother loved so well and she had sorrowed with Rebekah when he, having
grown up, had been compelled to save his life by fleeing from his
father's household.

I cannot tell when she came to live with Jacob. Perhaps Rebekah sent
her to live with her favorite son because she thought there were so
many in the family that somebody was needed to look after them all–a
person old and discreet to come between Jacob and the perpetual jars of
the household. No doubt Jacob often found it pleasant to make the good
old soul a confidante in his troubles. And now she dies and they bury
her under the oak which they call the oak of weeping–Allonbachuth. Is
it not strange that when you are trying to get right, there comes a
great sorrow? No, it is not strange, for you are trying to purge out
the old leaven–and the Lord is going to help you. You are trying to
set everything right with Him and He comes and takes away one of the
best people in the house who helped you most of all–one of the
staunchest old Christian people that you ever knew–whom you wanted to
live forever!

And He does it not to hinder but to help you in your labor. He knows
best–a touch of the pruning knife was needed by the vine of Israel
that it might bring forth more fruit. The good nurse died when they
seemed to need her most, but it was better for her to die then, than
that she should have departed when Dinah's shame and Simeon's crime had
made the household dark. It was better that she should live to see them
purged from idols and on the road to her old master Isaac,

for then she would feel as if she could say, "Now let Your servant
depart in peace, according to Your Word, for my eyes have seen Your
salvation."

The moral of the incident is that the Lord may heat the fire all the
more when He sees the refining process going on and we must receive the
further trial as a token of love and not of anger if He smites us
heavily when we are honestly endeavoring to seek His face.

III. This is what happened while they were doing it. Now we close with
the third head, namely, WHAT FOLLOWED. All this putting away of idols
and going to Bethel–did anything come of it? Yes. First, there was a
new appearance of God. Read the 9th verse. "And God appeared unto Jacob
again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed Him." This was a new
appearance of God. Some of you will not understand what I say, but I
leave it to those who know the Lord–there are times when God is very
near to us. I wish it were always so, but some of us can mark out
epochs in our spiritual history in which we were wonderfully conscious
that God drew near to us. We felt His Presence and were glad. The Lord
seemed to put us in the cleft of the rock and make His Glory pass
before us.

I have known such times. Would God I knew them more often! It is worth
while to have been purged and cleansed and to have done anything to be
favored with one of those Divine visits in which we almost cry with
Paul, "Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell: God
knows." A clear view of God in Christ Jesus and a vivid sense of Jesus'
love is a sweet reward for broken idols and Bethel reformations!

The next thing that came of it was a confirmation to Jacob of his title
of Prince which conferred a dignity on the whole family. For a father
to be a prince ennobles all the clan. God now puts upon them another
dignity and nobility which they had not known before, for a holy people
are a noble people. You that live in God's Presence are in the peerage
of the skies. "He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts the
needy out of the dunghill that He may set him with princes, even with
the princes of His people." He first makes them princes and then, to
crown it, He makes them princes of princes, because if all His people
are princes, it follows that those who are princes among His people are
princes among princes! The Lord has a way of conferring high spiritual
dignities upon those who seek to order their households aright and to
keep their hearts clean and chaste before Him. Such honor have all the
saints who fully follow the Lord. God help us to keep close to Jesus
and enjoy daily communion with Him.

And then, next, there was given to Jacob and his family a vast promise
which was, in some degree, an enlargement of a promise made to Isaac
and to Abraham before. "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A
nation and a company of nations shall be of you and kings shall come
out of your loins." I do not remember anything said to Abraham about a
company of nations, or about kings coming out of his loins, but out of
the loins of Israel, a prince, princes may come. God puts upon His
promise a certain freshness of vastness and infinity now that Jacob has
drawn near to Him. Brothers and Sisters, God will give us no new
promise, but He will make the old promises look wondrously new! He will
enlarge our vision so that we shall see what we never saw before!

Have you ever had a painting which hung neglected in some back room?
Did it, one day, strike you that you would have it framed and brought
into a good light? When you saw it properly hung on the wall, did you
not exclaim, "Dear me! I never noticed that picture before. How
wonderfully it has come out"? And many and many a promise in God's Word
will never be noticed by you till it is set in a new frame of
experience. Then, when it is hung up before you, you will be lost in
admiration of it! Sin makes the promises to be like old pictures coated
over with dirt. There must be a cleansing of ourselves and then it will
be like a careful cleaning of the picture, from which no tint suffers,
but all receive a new bloom.

God will make His Bible seem a new book to you. You will find joy in
every page and your soul shall dance for joy as you see the great
things which God has prepared for you, yes, and for your children,
also, if they are walking in the truth, for, "the promise is unto us
and to our children, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call."
With Jacob, by the new appearing of the Lord, the inheritance was
confirmed, for thus runs the Scripture–"The land which I gave Abraham
and Isaac, to you I will give it and to your seed after you will I give
the land." So, dear Friends, all the blessed Covenant of Grace with all
the promises shall be made distinctly and clearly yours when you have
gone to Bethel and, with holy decision, drawn near to the Lord your
God!

I will not detain you except to say that you may also expect very
familiar communion. Notice the 13th verse, "God went up from him in the
place where He talked with him." Talked with him! Talked with him! It
is such a familiar word.

God talking with man. We say "conversing" when we are speaking in a
dignified manner, but, "talking!" Oh that blessed condescension of God
when He speaks to us in the familiar tones of His great love in Christ
Jesus! There is a way of conversation with God which no tongue can
explain–they only know it who have enjoyed it! Brethren, there are
fellowships with God to be enjoyed of which a large number of
Christians have no idea. He who humbles Himself to behold the things
that are in Heaven and earth dwells with lowly ones! Idols broken,
garments changed, altars built and the soul kept near to God–and then
"the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will show
them His Covenant." This is so inestimably precious a gift that I urge
you to seek after it, urging myself most of all.

The chapter closes with the death of Rachel and so, perhaps, when we
get nearest to God there may come another trial. The old tradition was
that no man could see God's face and live. It was not true, but it
contained a truth, for scarcely can a man enter the secret place of
thunder and have communion with God without special trial. Yes, it is
even so, for "even our God is a consuming fire." He asks the question,
"Who shall dwell with the everlasting burnings?" And the answer is, "He
that has clean hands and a pure heart, that shuts his ears from hearing
of blood" and so on. "He shall dwell on high."

When we come to dwell with Him who is fire, the fire must burn and we
must feel it. That hallowed flame will consume much that our unhallowed
flesh would like to keep and there will not be a burning without our
enduring sharp smarts and pain. God's furnace is in Zion and His fire
is in Jerusalem. He will purify the sons of Levi as silver is purified.
"Who shall abide the day of His coming? For He will be as a refiner's
fire and like fuller's soap." Yet if we are in a right state, that is
exactly what we need! O that our sinfulness were wholly burned up!
Trial is welcomed if sin may but be conquered! Even Rachel may die if
Jesus lives in us but the more!

Lord, give us Grace and Your Presence–even if we pass through the
furnace a thousand times in consequence thereof. Hear us, for Jesus'
sake! Amen.