06.6.7. The Return to Bethel
VII. -- THE RETURN TO BETHEL
WE have seen how attainments, through resting in them, may become a snare to the elect, and lead to grievous defilement. Now again we see how falls may help us on. Jacob’s rest brought shame: the shame advanced and freed him. Such is our path, and such the grace of God, that our falls and mistakes may be a means to nurture our true growth; as a tree extracts fresh strength from the soil which is enriched by its own decaying leaves and fallen blossoms. In this way are we led on; by blessings learning our weakness; by weakness, the riches of our God.
Thus Dinah’s fall advanced Jacob. He could not, amidst such shame and conflict, rest longer where he was. And by this self-same thing, what zeal is wrought in us, what vehement desire and clearing of ourselves, yea, what fear and carefulness (2 Corinthians 7:11)! But Jacob is helped by other means. God’s word comes directly commanding him to go up to Bethel (Genesis 35:1). Such a word of God comes, often as we are faint and fail, and, by recalling God’s purpose, effects a change, first in ourselves, then in our position. For "Jacob said to 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; 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. And they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hands, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem" (Genesis 35:2-4). So the word both leads us on and sanctifies. The uncleansed cannot advance, for certain stages are only reached as we are sanctified. But by the word true servants judge themselves. Before God speaks, idols may be suffered: when His voice is heard, they are confessed and put away. The progress now is very marked. There is advance in reference to each of the blessings enjoyed by the elect servant. Of these the first is "the everlasting hills" of promise, and in these "the blessings of heaven above and of the deep which lieth under:" the second is "the wife of youth," "blessings of the breasts and womb," the fountain from whence springs forth the stream of Israel: the third is the Lord Himself, "the God of thy fathers, even the Almighty who shall help and bless thee" (Genesis 49:25-26). Here there is advance respecting each of these, involving trial and grief, yet real blessing also.
First, Jacob’s advance opens to his view lengths and breadths of the land as yet unknown (Genesis 35:6; Genesis 35:16; Genesis 35:21). There is true progress in the knowledge and possession of what the Lord has promised him; not without apparent danger, but "the terror of the Lord was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob" (Genesis 35:5). Thus, when, under a sense of failure and defilement, we again press on, fields on fields of promise open to us, which we have heard of, but till now have never realised. The Canaanite is indeed upon this ground, that is false spirituality, ready to assail and wound us in the way. (Note: For the Canaanite, see above, on Genesis 34:1-31) But God preserves His own. "So Jacob came to Bethel, he and all the people with him, and built an altar, and called the place El-bethel." So far from losing by his advance, it gives him deeper acquaintance with and insight into the treasures of the "everlasting hills."
Here, on the ground where he had seen earth joined to heaven, with angels of God ascending and descending upon man, the elect receives fresh revelations. "The Lord appeared," saying "I am God Almighty," and promising afresh possession of the land, not to Jacob only, but to his seed after him (Genesis 35:9-12). In struggles of spirit, Jacob had met the Lord, and had asked to know the name of Him who wrestled with him (Genesis 32:29). But until now, that name, revealed to faith (Genesis 17:1), in the toil of service had not been apprehended. "God Almighty" had not "appeared" to Jacob. Now He appears, revealing Himself by the name which alone could quiet the busy worker. And as Abraham, hearing this name, was content at once to give up the strength of the flesh, and to judge himself by circumcision; so Jacob by the same blessed name is freed: henceforth his hand ceases to lay hold, to allow the Almighty to effect and order all for him.
Then at this stage three women are removed, whose life directly or indirectly had affected Jacob more than any others. Deborah, Rachel, and Bilhah, the first the nurse, the second the wife, the third the handmaid, are all now taken from him. The first two die; the last is defiled; for Reuben, Leah’s first-born, "went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine" (Genesis 35:8; Genesis 35:16-19; Genesis 35:22).
What has been said of Sarah’s death will explain the inward fact expressed by the death of these women. (Note: See on Genesis 23:1-20) Men are always certain minds: the women, the affections or principles of truth with which they are united. These, whether men or women, all die out; that is, they pass away as outward forms, thereby to be more spiritualised. This is what now takes place with Jacob’s nurse and wife. Those truths or affections, which are set forth by these women, now as outward forms die and pass away; not to perish, for truth never perishes, but through the dissolution of the outward form to exist in a higher and purer way; while Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, who represents that lower and servile principle, by which nevertheless some good fruit has been brought forth, is now defiled by Jacob’s first-born, that is, by the unlawful workings of other fruits of true service. (Note: See on Genesis 29:1-35 respecting Bilhah and Reuben. These things are all but ineffable, and cannot fully be expressed.) Deborah, the nurse, dies first. A nurse is one whose office it is to care for babes and sucklings. Deborah therefore is that which serves such as have need of milk. As having belonged too to Laban’s house, and been engaged with Rebekah before she left Padan-Aram, Deborah would partake of the character of that land, and so be rather outward and natural, such truth in fact as babes and sucklings need. Now, having fulfilled her work, she passes away. Rachel too, as an outward form, now departs in bearing fruit; even as that spiritual principle, which she represents, is changed from an earthly form to a spirit through its very fruitfulness; giving birth to another form of life, which is indeed "a child of strength," though at first it seems "a child of sorrow." (Note: Benoni, the name which Rachel gave to her son, means, "son of my sorrow;" but his father called him Benjamin, that is, "son of the right hand." As to the "right hand," compare Psalms 80:17 and Psalms 110:1.)
Few, however, will apprehend this. Adam’s way, in trusting the creature more than God, in listening to the tempter, in choosing knowledge more than life, in hiding from God, or in laying the blame on some other, will be known by all who have come to themselves; for old Adam is in all his progeny. The picture therefore will be plain. But the form of life set forth in Jacob is not in all, much less that stage of it which is here presented to us. Still this stage, though attained by few, is to be reached. Let us not judge it impossible, simply because as yet it is beyond us. Rather let us press on that we may know it; and such as cannot follow here now may follow hereafter.
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Such is this scene within. Without, the details will to not a few be more manifest. In this view we see how the very fall of the Church awakens some to further progress. True servants cannot rest where pollution is made manifest. Then comes some word of God, recalling His purpose, which leads to the putting away of idols and uncleannesses. Thus are the elect stirred up afresh, and pass on to know yet more of God and of their own privileges. Then comes fresh grief, for surely it is a grief to find bodies we have loved, and which in different ways have helped us, as outward bodies ready to be dissolved, or, what is worse, to be defiled by some in Israel. Yet this too must be known by true servants, when they come to some of the higher stages in heavenly things. The outward Church is found to be corrupted by the first-born sons, who should have been its help and safeguard; who, puffed up with pride, usurp another’s place, to their own great loss and to the shame of all in Israel; (Note: See Gloss. Ordin. in loco.) while the true Church is seen as an outward form to die, only to live a higher life with God and in God. Some true servants have seen and known all this. It is well, that, ere they see it, they are from Jacobs made Israels, and know the Lord as "God Almighty."
------------ The dispensations too reflect this scene. After the defilement of the first wife’s daughter, that is, the Jewish dispensation, the Spirit of Christ as Worker led on the elect to greater knowledge and enjoyment of heavenly places. There Rachel, the beloved wife, dies; that is, the Church, as an outward form, in due time is seen to pass away; while the Worker yet survives through many griefs to see Joseph’s glory and dominion over all the land of Egypt. A little while, and our eyes shall see that glory, and the things which now distract us shall for ever pass away. As we can bear it, bring us into that day, O Lord; and while darkness is yet safer for us, be Thou, yea, and for ever, our everlasting dwelling-place.