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Bible History of the Old Testament |
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No. 22 Genesis 32 - 36 - Continued Jacob Settles At Schechem - Death of Rachel Jacob Finally Makes It Back To Hebron
With the worries of the first meeting in many years behind them, Esau returned to Mount Seir to await a visit from his brother. Jacob turned in a northwesterly direction to Succoth, which afterwards became a part of the tribe of Gad, and is still a place east of the Jordan. Here he probably stayed for a long time, because we read in the Bible that "he built him an house, and made booths for his cattle". The name Succoth means "booths". Then at last Jacob crossed the Jordan once more and came in peace to the city of Shechem, but many great changes had taken place in the country since he had been there last. The words "come again in peace" used by the Bible seem to indicate that God had fulfilled what Jacob had asked him for many years ago. When Abram entered the land and made this his first resting-place, there was no city there. But now the district was all cultivated, and a city had been built probably by Hamor the Hivite, the father of Shechem, who named it after his son. Jacob bought a field to start settling down from "the children of Hamor". This was the same land that he gave to his son Joseph, and also the place where Joseph was buried before the children of Israel took his bones with them when they left Egypt. Many centuries after Joseph, Jesus sat by the well that he had dug and told the poor sinning woman of Samaria about the "water that she could drink where she would never thirst again." Here also Jacob erected an altar and called it El-elohe-Israel, "God, the God of Israel." His stay at Shechem proved to be a sore trial for him, though. Dinah, his daughter, was about 15 years of age when she "went out to see the daughters of the land." Josephus, the historian, says that she went to take part in a feast of the Shechemites. She suffered a terrible thing because of her thoughtless and irreverent participation in the heathen festivities. What happened, led to the ruin of Dinah herself, and then to a proposal of an alliance between the Hivites and Israel that there was no way that Israel could participate in. Then in the end her two brothers Simeon and Levi tried to get revenge for her rape by trying to terminate the whole male population of Shechem. This must have been something that affected Jacob very deeply, because even many years later on his deathbed he spoke these words about Simeon and Levi: "Simeon and Levi are brethren; Their swords are weapons of iniquity, O my soul, come not thou into their council; Unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united!" Genesis 49: 5-6 After everything that had happened, it was quite clear that Jacob and his family must move from Shechem. It was then that God directed him to return to Bethel and fulfill the promise which he had there made on fleeing from the face of Esau his brother. About 10 years must have passed since the return of Jacob from Mesopotamia, and yet he still had not paid his vows unto the Lord. From what follows, we can think that the reason for this delay had been that the family of Jacob had not been purged from idolatry, and that before this Jacob had been too weak to remove from his household all the foreign idols. This had made it morally impossible for him to go back to Bethel. But now we read "he said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments" (this was a symbol of purification): "and let us arise, and go up to Bethel." And all the teraphim and idolatrous "charms" were buried deep below a terebinth-tree which was by Shechem. Another touching thing is recorded upon their arrival at Bethel. "Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak, and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth (the oak of weeping)." Her long and faithful service in the household deemed her worthy of mentioning in the Book of God. From this, we infer that Rebekah (Jacob's mother) was dead also, and there may have been some conversing between Isaac and Jacob since his return to Canaan, though Scripture does not mention it. At Bethel, God again appeared unto Jacob. He once more bestowed on him the name of Israel and the covenant-promises that He had previously given to him. Jacob finally paid his vow unto the Lord there also. From Bethel they continued their journey towards Mamre, the place of Isaac's residence. It was on the way there that Rachel died giving birth to his 12th son. His mother wished him to be named Ben-oni, "the son of my sorrow", but Jacob couldn't do that and named him Benjamin, meaning "son of the right hand, son of old age, or son of happiness", because this made his family complete with the birth of the twelfth son. From Jeremiah 3 1: 15 we gather that Rachel actually died in Rameh because "Jacob set a pillar upon her grave there." Even at the time of Samuel, Rachel's grave was a landmark that was well known. Another crime further stained the family of Jacob at Migdal Eder. Because of this crime, Reuben was deprived of his privileges as the firstborn son. (Gen. 49:4) At last Jacob came back to the land of Hebron, where his father and grandfather had lived. This was his journey come full circle. Here scripture pauses to record the death of Isaac at the age of 180 years. That event took place 12 years after Jacob came back to Hebron. Isaac had indeed lived to share his son's sorrow when Joseph was sold into Egypt, and only had died ten years before Jacob and his sons settled into Egypt. Now from this point, the main interest centers on Joseph, the oldest son of Rachel, with whose life the progress of sacred history is identified. As Jacob was 77 years old when he went into Mesopotamia, he must have been 108 on his return to Hebron. Isaac was at the time 168 years, since Jacob was born when he was 60. For more information from this book, go to the archives page at my site www.cathydeaton.com There are other articles of interest there also. This text is taken from the book Bible History Old Testament written by Alfred Edersheim. This book has been used by permission.
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