Back to Bethel

The Story

Years earlier, Jacob had run away from home with nothing but a staff. His brother Esau wanted to kill him. On his first night alone, he slept with a stone for a pillow and dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven. God promised to be with him, to protect him wherever he went, and to bring him back home.

Jacob named that place Bethel, “the house of God.”

Now, many years later, Jacob was back in the land. He had two wives, many children, large flocks, and a lot of scars. Some of his family’s choices had brought shame and danger.

Then God spoke to him again. “Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there.”

Jacob gathered his household. Put away your foreign gods, he told them, and clean yourselves up. “Let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; 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.”

They gave him their idols, and he buried them under an oak tree. As they traveled, God caused a terror to fall on the cities around them, so no one chased them.

At Bethel, Jacob built an altar. And God appeared to him again, blessed him, and repeated the promise He had made to Abraham and Isaac.

Reflection