The scenes of Bethel, and the mention of its name, recalls much that is of interest and instruction to the believer in our Lord Jesus Christ who understands that “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). Although the name of Bethel is first mentioned in connection with Abraham, it would seem to have received its name from Jacob, for in Genesis 28:19 it is written, “And he (Jacob) called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.” We are told that the name Luz means “curve” or “bending,” but such a name was altogether unsuited to the place where Jacob made his first personal acquaintance with the God of his fathers, and where he learned of God’s great interest in him.
Abraham and Bethel
Having come into the promised land, on reaching Sichem, the Lord appeared to Abram, saying, “Unto thy seed will I give this land” (Gen. 12:6-7), and there Abram built an altar unto the Lord who had appeared to him. From thence Abram moved on “unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east” (verse 8). The Spirit of God seems to indicate to us in these names that God’s pilgrim is passing through a world upon which His judgment rests, for Hai means “an heap,” but also that God has a dwelling place where His people can have communion with Him, and through which there can be a witness for Him to all men.
At Sichem Abram built an altar to the God who appeared unto him, but there was something more connected with his altar near Bethel, for there he “called upon the Name of the Lord.” God had called Abram while in Ur of the Chaldees, and had appeared unto him at Sichem, but it was not until he reached Bethel that he called upon the Name of the Lord. Here is the beginning of his communion with God, a communion that ripens and deepens so that Abraham can be called “the friend of God.” How very sorrowful it is to see Abram leave his altar at Bethel and, because of a famine, desert the land to which God had called him and go down into Egypt.
Egypt brought material gain from the world to God’s pilgrim, but it was a time of spiritual loss, and of reproach, but how good it is to see him retracing his steps and returning, not to Sichem, but to Bethel, “unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning…unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the Name of the Lord” (13:3-4).
It is not Sichem, but Bethel that God accounts as the “beginning,” and as “at the first” of Abraham’s relations with God, for it was there that he first called upon the Name of the Lord, and when he returns there he again called on the Name of the Lord. How good it is that God should take pleasure in communion with His own, valuing their calling upon His Name. Calling on the Name of the Lord is what marks the believer in the Lord Jesus, as is seen in such Scriptures as Acts 9:14, 21; 22:16; 2 Timothy 2:22.
Jacob and Bethel
On his way to Padan-aram, Jacob went towards Haran, taking the same route as Abraham, but in the opposite direction. While still within the land of promise the Lord appeared to him in a dream, not chiding him with deceiving his old father, or reproaching him for cheating his brother, but promising him rich blessings, and assuring him of His protection. When he awoke Jacob thought the presence of God to be a dreadful place, as it must be to an awakened sinner, but as he came to himself, aware of God’s great goodness to him, he set up the stone that had been his pillow, and made it a pillar, anointing it with oil, and he called the name of the place Bethel, the house of God.
This was the beginning of Jacob’s personal acquaintance with God, and he looked forward to the time when he would come back to the land in peace, and be in touch with God at Bethel. For twenty long years Jacob was to be in Padan-aram, blessed of God, but also undergoing divine government for his sins against his father and brother, yea against the God who, in spite of all that he was, loved him dearly. Jacob greatly valued God’s blessing which Esau did not really value, or he would not have sold his birthright, but Jacob should have waited to be blessed in God’s way, and not have acted as he did.
After twenty years of divine discipline Jacob is instructed by the Lord to return to the land, and is assured of the Lord’s presence with him (Gen. 31:3). On the way he has to meet the angry Laban, the angels of God, and the Lord Himself before he meets his brother Esau (Gen. 31:25–55; 32:1-2, 24–30; 33:1–15). Like his father Abraham, Jacob erected his first altar at Shechem (Gen. 12:6; 33:20), but although he called it El-elohe-Israel, “God, the God of Israel,” he had to learn by the sorrowful experience at Shalem, a city of Shechem, that this was not the place for one who raised a pillar to God at Bethel. Neither Succoth, nor Shechem, where Jacob had a house and a field, could compare with Bethel where God first made Himself known to Jacob.
When Abraham left the land, and went down to Egypt, it was to Bethel he returned, for there it was he first called on the Name of the Lord, and back to Bethel Jacob must also come, so that we read in the first verse of Genesis 35, “And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother,” Jacob had recognised Bethel as God’s house, and God told Jacob that He wanted him to dwell there. What a privilege this was for Jacob, to be called of God to dwell where He dwelt.
On receiving such a call, Jacob at once becomes aware of the holiness that becomes the house of God, so says to his household, “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” (Gen. 35:2-3). The influence of Padan-aram had affected the house of Jacob, but now he realised that idolatry and all uncleanness must be put away before they came to God’s dwelling place. Having cleansed his house, Jacob journeys, and is protected from the nations around by “the terror of God.” Coming to Bethel, Jacob builds his altar, and God appears to him, blessing him, and calling His name Israel, a prince with God.
Idolatry at Bethel
Almost as soon as Jeroboam had been established on the throne of Israel he turned to idolatry, making two golden calves, and setting them up at Bethel and Dan, using almost the same words as had been used when the golden calf had been set up at the foot of mount Sinai, “behold thy gods, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (1 Kings 12:28). The idolatry of Jeroboam remained with Israel until they were led into captivity, and was an outstanding cause of it, even as it is written, “Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin…they departed not from them until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day” (2 Kings 17:21–23).
While Jeroboam was standing beside his idolatrous altar in Bethel, God brought a prophet from Judah to pronounce His judgment against it, naming Josiah of the house of David as the executor of His judgment, a judgment which was carried out to the letter by Josiah more than three hundred years later (1 Kings 13:1–5; 2 Kings 23:15–18). The disobedience of the man of God through listening to the falsehood of the old prophet of Bethel, and the judgment that overtook him for his disobedience, are a solemn reminder of the great danger of listening to men, whatever they may have been, or whatever their pretensions, rather than to the voice of God.
Hiel of Bethel
It was hardly surprising that the idolaters of Bethel were ignorant of the word of God, or utterly careless regarding what they knew of it, and in the days of king Ahab did “Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho” (1 Kings 16:34). Whether ignorant or wilful, Hiel defied the God of Israel, and brought upon himself the curse of God’s servant Joshua who, on the fall of Jericho, adjured Israel, saying, “Cursed be the man before the Lord, that rises up and builds this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it” (Joshua 6:26). The curse pronounced fell upon Hiel, for his sons died as Joshua had predicted more than five hundred years before. What a solemn lesson this is for those who wilfully or ignorantly neglect the word of God.
Elijah at Bethel
God’s faithful servant Elijah was about to pass from earth to heaven, but he had a journey to take before being taken up, and as he went forth from Gilgal he was accompanied by Elisha. The first stage of Elijah’s last journey on earth was disclosed in his words to Elisha, “Tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord has sent me to Bethel” (2 Kings 2:2). Bethel had the name of God’s house, but it had been corrupted by the idolatry of Jeroboam, and by the kings who came after him. Like that which professes to be the house of God today it was corrupt, and there was little there for the pleasure of God. Into the city where God’s glory had been set at nought He brought His servant Elijah, and all who saw him that day knew that he had been faithful to Jehovah, the God of Israel, in the midst of the ruin.
There were “sons of the prophets” in Bethel, and they evidently had knowledge of what was about to happen, for they said to Elisha, “Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today?” (verse 3). In spite of all the idolatry at Bethel there were some who knew Jehovah, the God of Israel, and who were instructed in some little measure in the knowledge of His ways. If the sons of the prophets at Bethel sought to detain Elisha they were unsuccessful, for Elisha had tested him by saying at Gilgal and at Bethel, and would also say at Jericho, “Tarry here, I pray thee.” Are we not, by this, reminded of the journey of the Son of God, as He took His way to heaven? There was a testimony for God in His presence at Jericho, and it was laid hold of by the blind man, and by Zacchaeus (Luke 18:35–43; 19:1–10). The Lord Jesus then, like Elijah here, was passing through Jericho for the last time.
Elisha at Bethel
Having witnessed the ascension of his master to heaven, and having received a double portion of his spirit, Elisha comes from the Jordan with Elijah’s mantle, the witness of the divine power that took his master to heaven and that rolled back the waters of death. At Jericho, Elisha is the instrument of divine grace that healed the waters of Jericho, removing the cause of the barrenness. God’s judgment had been executed on Hiel, according to His word, but now the curse is removed and blessing is brought to the scene where the judgment was. So shall it be with this poor world when the Lord Jesus comes to remove its curse.
At Bethel quite another feature is in evidence, for as God’s servant went up there “there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up thou bald head” (2 Kings 2:23). If the curse was removed from Jericho, it fell upon the mocking children of Bethel. How very solemn it was the natural children of Abraham and of Israel, who had been in communion with the Lord at Bethel, should be found as mockers of a servant of the Lord. They mocked at him personally, and mocked the message he brought of the man who ascended to heaven. The sorrowful influence of the idolatry that had reared its evil had, in the place that was called God’s house, was manifested in the young. The attitudes of their parents was seen in the children, and the presence of the sons of the prophets, and the presence of Elijah in passing through, had not turned away the evil that Jeroboam had introduced.
God’s judgment fell upon the mocking children, and as surely will it fall upon the mockers of these last days who say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:3-4). Christendom professes the Name of the Lord as Bethel professed to be the house of God, but instead of faithfulness to the Lord there is mocking at the great truths that centre in the Son of God. Some deny the deity of Christ, some refuse His vicarious death, while others deny the truth of His ascension, like those at Bethel, and others reject the testimony of Christ’s return.
There are many lessons for us to learn from Bethel, some telling of the wondrous grace of God, grace that called Abraham from His abode of idolatry to call upon His Name at Bethel, that gave to such as Jacob the promise of rich blessings; but while there is this wondrous grace there is also the severity that deals with the idolaters, the presumptuous like Hiel, and the mockers, so that we can understand what is meant by the Scripture, “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God” (Rom. 11:22).
R. 29.4.69