ARISE, GO UP TO BETHEL

Back to Bethel! What memories and what regrets would the return to Bethel revive for Jacob! Once before he had fled to Bethel to escape from family troubles, and, in spite of his deceit­ful ways with his father and his brother, God had blessed him there and had renewed to him the promises made to Abraham and to Isaac, Gen. 27. 15-36; 28. 10-15. Jacob had there made promises too but sadly these promises had not been kept and there were strange gods in his household in denial of his pledge to the Lord at Bethel, Gen. 28. 20-22. He had not honoured the vow which he had made at Bethel. How then would this com­mand affect him, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel’?

Surely he would remember his vow, and also his failure to keep it, but he must now return to the place of his earlier experi­ence with the God of Bethel who had been with him in his times of distress and had preserved him. Now, because of the terrible act of two of his sons, it would be unsafe for him to stay at Shechem and in grace the Lord commands him to go up to Bethel, Gen. 34. 25-30. Notice, that although Bethel was south of Shechem the word was, ‘go up to Bethel’. As it was with Jerusa­lem, it was a going up to higher moral ground.

As an immediate token of repentance, Jacob commands that the strange gods among them must be put away. In fairness to Jacob it must be said that these gods were probably not his per­sonally, but they were in his household and he was responsible. The house must be purged of them. There must also be a change of the garments which had been soiled by idolatry. Ceremonially at least, it was required that the household of the man who was going up to Bethel must be clean. At Bethel he would build an altar and renew his vows to the God of Bethel.

So often the place of blessing is the very point from which the believer, in complacency, begins to depart. It is good to stop, to reflect, to repent, and to return. It will usually mean a going right back to the point of departure. As Jacob would recall the faithfulness of God through difficult times, and retrace his own pathway, what thoughts would fill his heart? Do we too need to hear the command, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel’?