have plenty, my brother; let what you have be your own” (Gen 33:4-5, 8-9). So Esau accepted a gift from Jacob and even offered to ride along to protect them on their journey but Jacob refused saying: “What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.” So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. Jacob journeyed to Succoth, [“booths” in Heb.] and built for himself a house and made booths for his livestock; therefore the place is named Succoth. Succoth is also the name for the Lord’s Feast of Tabernacles instituted by Moses in the wilderness years later.
Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments;” (Gen 35:1-2). An altar (Heb. mizbe<ah, from a word meaning “to slay”) means any structure of earth (Ex. 20:24) or unwrought stone (20:25) on which sacrifices were offered. An altar is a type of Christ in that it is erected for the sacrifice of an animal for one purpose or another. After Christ no altars were necessary since Christ was the sacrifice for once and all time. We smile a little at Peter as he wanted to build 3 altars to commemorate the transfiguration. “And as these were leaving Him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles: [altars] one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not realizing what he was saying” (Luke 9:33). “So Jacob built an altar there, and called the place El-bethel, [the God of Bethel] because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled from his brother” (Gen 35:7).
“Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name.” Thus He called him Israel. God also said to him, “I am God Almighty [Heb El Shaddai] Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from you. “The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, And I will give the land to your descendants after you” (Gen 35:9-12). Here and in many places we have spoke of previously, God is speaking futuristically to Jacob. Physical Israel, compared to other nations at the time, was, in mass, a very small nation. Yet God is speaking, both to Abraham, Isaac and now Jacob, of many nations with Kings and people as numerous as the sand of the seashore. God’s vision reached beyond this point in history to the day in which we are living. There will be a conversion of all nations when it is over. Isaiah says: “For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). And: “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ For all will know Me, From the least to the greatest of them” (Heb 8:11). “But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. “Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isaiah 60:2-3). This all had limited fulfillment in the days of physical Israel but with the fulfillment of the coming spiritual Israel the fulfillment will be beyond our imagination.
It happened that Rachel died in childbirth, while giving birth to Benjamin, the 12th son of Israel. Some say she died because she had sinned before the Lord because she had hid Laban’s idols in her saddlebag when Jacob had told his family to get rid of them. “When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the household idols [Heb teraphim] that were her father’s…Now Rachel had taken the household idols [Heb teraphim] and put them in the camel’s saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them. She said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the idols” (Gen 31:19, 34-35). Teraphim are statues or figurines representing household gods; false gods who were to protect the house and inhabitants. According to many ancient and modern interpreters, talismanic, cultic, and legal significance accrued to their possession. Laban’s angry reaction when he thought Rachel had the teraphim suggests their idyllic importance. Idols in your saddlebag has come to mean, in Christianity, a person hiding things in his/her heart and does not reveal them to God by repentance. In Rachel’s case it showed her bond to the old ways when Jacob was heading in a new direction, towards the Lord and His plan.
Next came Joseph, Jacob’s 11th son mothered by his favorite wife Rachel. The ministry of Joseph is one of the most significant appearances of Christ in the Old Testament. “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a varicolored full robe [the coat of many colors]. His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms” (Gen 37:3-4). Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. His dream was: “we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.” Then his brothers said to him, “Are you actually going to reign over us? Or are you really going to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Now he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, “Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” He related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?” His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind” (Gen 37:7-11).
The brothers devised a plan against Joseph. Joseph, the young brother, was sent to his brothers tending sheep. Being alone in an isolated place, they argued whether to kill him or throw him in a pit. However a Midianite caravan of merchants were going by and they decided to sell him into slavery. They killed an animal, soaked Jacob’s coat in it and returned to Jacob with the story that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. Meanwhile, the Midianite merchants sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard (Gen 37:18-36).
Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. He was so faithful that Potiphar gave him charge over all his household as well. However Potiphar’s wife desired Joseph and tried many times to persuade Joseph to lay with her. Joseph refused. One day, as Joseph resisted her advances. he accidently left a torn piece of his garment with the woman. She screamed and reported to the other slaves that Joseph had made advances toward her. When his master heard the words of his wife, saying, “This is what your slave did to me,” his anger burned. So Joseph’s master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer (Gen 39:7-21).
Joseph was in jail 11 years. To show how the Lord works, often not in the ways of men, the following occurred: “the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was furious with his two officials,…So he put them in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, in the jail, the same place where Joseph was imprisoned” (Gen 40:1-4). Both men had dreams while in jail. The cup bearer had a dream that Joseph interpreted as meaning he would soon be restored to the Pharaoh at his old job. Joseph told the cup bearer to tell Pharaoh what had happened in hopes of gaining favor and being released. However the cup bearer, when he was released, forgot all about Joseph. The chief baker
