Genesis 31:13
I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and made a solemn vow to Me. Now get up and leave this land at once, and return to your native land.'"
Sermons
God's RemindersA. Fuller.Genesis 31:13
LessonsG. Hughes, B. D.Genesis 31:13
The God of BethelD. Wilson.Genesis 31:13
The God of BethelA. Fuller.Genesis 31:13
The God of BethelSpurgeon, Charles HaddonGenesis 31:13














And the man increased exceedingly, &c.

I. The PROMISE TO GUIDE, protect, and bless fulfilled in connection with the employment of ordinary faculties and instrumentalities. Jacob's craft partly natural, but in this instance specially assisted that he might be helped in an emergency. The "supplanter" in this case represented the better cause.

II. HUMAN DEVICES only apparently, and not really, thwart the purposes of God. Jacob represents the people of God. The victory is appointed them. Their interests must be served by the kingdoms of this world, though for a season the advantage appears on the side of the mere calculating, selfish policy. The true wisdom is that which cometh from above.

III. INCREASE in the best sense is God's promise. It will be sent as he wills and when he wills, but will be found the true answer to prayer and the true manifestation of love. On all that belongs to us the blessing rests. Spiritual prosperity carries with it all other. Though the individual may be called to suffer for the sake of the community, the promise to the Church must be fulfilled. "It is our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom." "The meek shall inherit the earth." - R.

I am the God of Bethel.
I. THE GOD OF BETHED IS A GOD OF PROVIDENCE, of a special gracious Providence towards His people; and of this as exercised through a Mediator, by the ministry of angels.

1. He is the God of Providence, extending to all the creatures He has made. God did not make the world, and then leave it, confining Himself to heaven, as some would have Him. Though His throne be above, His kingdom ruleth over all. He is no unconcerned spectator of what is done; but like a skilful pilot sits at the helm, and steers the world to what course it shall move. His providence is often mysterious, but nevertheless real and universal.

2. God exercises a special gracious providence about His servants. God has a regard to all the works of His hands; but it is spoken with an emphasis, "Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy." Upon every one of this number His eye is fixed with satisfaction and delight.

3. God employs His angels as the ministers of His providence in the world, particularly as to His people. Not that God needs the agency of any of His creatures, but for the honour of His majesty He is pleased to use them.

II. THE GOD OF BETHEL IS THE GOD OF PROMISE. And as it is here declared by Himself, I am the God of Bethel, it plainly denotes —

1. That He takes delight in the promises He hath made to His people, and the covenant engagements in which He stands to them.

2. These words, "I am the God of Bethel," being spoken twenty years after the promises and appearances there, were first made, God intimated by them, that He was the same now as heretofore; as able to guide and guard, as formerly.

3. God proclaims this to tell His servant that all the mercies he enjoyed came from His hand and love, as his God in covenant; and that under this notion, he was still to look to Him for all he should further need.

III. At Bethel Jacob vowed a vow, which was in confirmation of his covenant with God: and so God's styling Himself the God of Bethel denotes in general that HE TAKES SPECIAL NOTICE OF THE SOLEMN TRANSACTIONS OF HIS SERVANTS, what promises and vows they make to Him and where. Particularly He is the God of Bethel, i.e., of His house, of every place appointed for His worship, as observing who there vow and dedicate themselves to Him, and who do not; in what manner any vow unto Him, whether in truth and with the heart, or deceitfully and with guile. God cannot be ignorant of what is done, and where; but He would be considered as particularly observing what passes at Bethel, i.e., in His hoarse, and at His table there, now under these New Testament ages.

1. God takes notice who tarries away from His house that ought to be there; and He takes notice too, in what dress every individual comes thither.

2. God is the God of Bethel, as approving His people's dedicating themselves by vow, in confirmation of their covenant to Him. This is their reasonable service, and what His promises and grace should readily lead them to.

3. God is the God of Bethel, as He is ready to reward His servants who make conscience of keeping their engagements, and walk in a sense of the vows of God upon their souls.

IV. And now as THE USE of all.

1. How desirable is a special relation to the God of Bethel, as the God of Providence, and of this as in a peculiar manner exercised about His people.

2. As the God of Bethel is ever mindful of His promises, His people can never want encouragement to come to His throne of grace.

3. Does God style Himself the God of Bethel, as denoting His strict observance of what passes in His house? What seriousness becomes us in all religious duties and services, or when, in a way of worship, we have to do with God?

4. Is the God of Bethel to be conceived of, as a witness to all our solemn transactions and engagements? how great must be the sin and folly of being formal and insincere in vowing to the Lord, or in pretending, either to enter into or confirm our covenant with Him, when leaving our hearts behind?

5. Does God as the God of Bethel remember the vows there made, with what confusion will they appear before Him who have omitted to perform their promises?

(D. Wilson.)

I am the God of Bethel! When at Bethel, the Lord said, "I am Jehovah, God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac." He might have said the same now; but it was His pleasure to direct the attention of His servant to the last, and to Him the most interesting of His manifestations. By giving him hold of the last link in the chain, he would be in possession of the whole. The God of Bethel was the God of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac; the God who had entered into covenant with the former, had renewed it with the latter, and again renewed it with him. What satisfaction must it afford, to be directed by such a God!

(A. Fuller.)

"I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and vowedst a vow unto Me." It is not only necessary that we be reminded of God's promises for our support in troubles, but of our own solemn engagements, that the same affections which distinguished the best seasons of our life may be renewed, and that in all our movements we may keep in view the end for which we live. The object of the vow was, that Jehovah should be his God: and whenever he should return, that that stone should be God's house. And now that the Lord commands him to return, He reminds him of his vow. He must not go to Canaan with a view to promote his own temporal interest, but to introduce the knowledge and worship of the true God. This was the great end which Jehovah had in view in all that He did for Abraham's posterity, and they must never lose sight of it.

(A. Fuller.)

1. God sets Himself out to His saints distinctly and eminently from the misconceits of Him by nations.

2. God is the God of Bethel to His Jacobs, of sweet providences and precious promises to His saints.

3. God's providence and promise may justly cause souls to dedicate and vow themselves to Him.

4. Souls devoting of themselves to God, engageth them to follow Him at this call.

5. God is forced to put His saints in mind of their engagement sometimes before they think of it

6. God's call alone is the just ground of the egress and regress of His servants, for blessing, and with

7. God will surely call in His set time to His saints for their returning to the place of rest.

8. Preparation and execution to go where God calleth, is due from saints to the call of God (ver. 13).

(G. Hughes, B. D.)

I. Does not that mean, first, that our God is the God of our early mercies 2 Bethel was to Jacob the place of early mercy. Let us look back upon our early mercies. Did they not come to us, as they did to him, unsought and unexpected, and when, perhaps, we were unprepared for them?

II. Does it not mean, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ? What is "Beth-el" but "the house of God." And the house of God, the true Bethel, is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, for "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."

III. Still further let us remember that this God of Bethel is the God of angels. We do not often say much about those mysterious beings, for it is but little that we know of them. This, however, we know — that angels are set by God to be the watchers over His people. We shall not come to harm if we put our trust in God. "I will lay me down to sleep, for Thou makest me to dwell in safety." These angels were also messengers. "Are they not all ministering spirits? " and are they not sent with messages from God? Moreover, they are our protectors. God employs them to bear us up in their hands, lest at any time we dash our foot against a stone. We do not see them, but unseen agencies are probably the strongest agencies in the world.

IV. Notice, once more, that the God of Bethel is the God of our vows.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

People
Aram, Isaac, Jacob, Laban, Leah, Nahor, Rachel
Places
Canaan, Euphrates River, Galeed, Gilead, Jegar-sahadutha, Mizpah, Paddan-aram
Topics
Anoint, Anointed, Anointedst, Arise, Bethel, Beth-el, Birth, Depart, Forth, Hast, Kindred, Leave, Native, Nativity, Oath, Oil, Pillar, Return, Standing, Turn, Vow, Vowed, Vowedst
Outline
1. Jacob, displeased with the envy of Laban and his sons, departs secretly.
19. Rachel steals her father's household gods.
22. Laban pursues after him, and complains of the wrong.
34. Rachel's plan to hide the images.
36. Jacob's complaint of Laban.
43. The covenant of Laban and Jacob at Galeed.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Genesis 31:13

     4488   oil

Genesis 31:1-24

     5095   Jacob, life

Genesis 31:10-13

     1409   dream

Genesis 31:11-13

     4140   angel of the Lord

Library
Gen. xxxi. 11
Of no less importance and significance is the passage Gen. xxxi. 11 seq. According to ver. 11, the Angel of God, [Hebrew: mlaK halhiM] appears toJacob in a dream. In ver. 13, the same person calls himself the God of Bethel, with reference to the event recorded in chap. xxviii. 11-22. It cannot be supposed that in chap xxviii. the mediation of a common angel took place, who, however, had not been expressly mentioned; for Jehovah is there contrasted with the angels. In ver. 12, we read: "And behold
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Appendix xvi. On the Jewish views About Demons' and the Demonised,' Together with Some Notes on the Intercourse Between Jews and Jewish Christians in the First Centuries.
IT is not, of course, our purpose here to attempt an exhaustive account of the Jewish views on demons' and the demonised.' A few preliminary strictures were, however, necessary on a work upon which writers on this subject have too implictly relied. I refer to Gfrörer's Jahrhundert des Heils (especially vol. i. pp. 378-424). Gfrörer sets out by quoting a passage in the Book of Enoch on which he lays great stress, but which critical inquiries of Dillmann and other scholars have shown to be
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

How the Rude in Sacred Learning, and those who are Learned but not Humble, are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 25.) Differently to be admonished are those who do not understand aright the words of the sacred Law, and those who understand them indeed aright, but speak them not humbly. For those who understand not aright the words of sacred Law are to be admonished to consider that they turn for themselves a most wholesome drought of wine into a cup of poison, and with a medicinal knife inflict on themselves a mortal wound, when they destroy in themselves what was sound by that whereby they ought,
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Epistle Xlix. To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch .
To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch [35] . Gregory to Anastasius, &c. I received the letters of thy Fraternity, rightly holding fast the profession of the faith; and I returned great thanks to Almighty God, who, when the shepherds of His flock are changed, still, even after such change, guards the faith which He once delivered to the holy Fathers. Now the excellent preacher says, Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor. iii. 2). Whosoever, then, with love of
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

The Great Shepherd
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. I t is not easy for those, whose habits of life are insensibly formed by the customs of modern times, to conceive any adequate idea of the pastoral life, as obtained in the eastern countries, before that simplicity of manners, which characterized the early ages, was corrupted, by the artificial and false refinements of luxury. Wealth, in those
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

And He had Also this Favour Granted Him. ...
66. And he had also this favour granted him. For as he was sitting alone on the mountain, if ever he was in perplexity in his meditations, this was revealed to him by Providence in prayer. And the happy man, as it is written, was taught of God [1112] . After this, when he once had a discussion with certain men who had come to him concerning the state of the soul and of what nature its place will be after this life, the following night one from above called him, saying, Antony, rise, go out and look.'
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

A Treatise of the Fear of God;
SHOWING WHAT IT IS, AND HOW DISTINGUISHED FROM THAT WHICH IS NOT SO. ALSO, WHENCE IT COMES; WHO HAS IT; WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS; AND WHAT THE PRIVILEGES OF THOSE THAT HAVE IT IN THEIR HEARTS. London: Printed for N. Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, over against the Stocks market: 1679. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and "a fountain of life"--the foundation on which all wisdom rests, as well as the source from whence it emanates. Upon a principle
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Meditations for the Morning.
1. Almighty God can, in the resurrection, as easily raise up thy body out of the grave, from the sleep of death, as he hath this morning wakened thee in thy bed, out of the sleep of nature. At the dawning of which resurrection day, Christ shall come to be glorified in his saints; and every one of the bodies of the thousands of his saints, being fashioned like unto his glorious body, shall shine as bright as the sun (2 Thess. i. 10; Jude, ver. 14; Phil. iii. 21; Luke ix. 31;) all the angels shining
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Genesis
The Old Testament opens very impressively. In measured and dignified language it introduces the story of Israel's origin and settlement upon the land of Canaan (Gen.--Josh.) by the story of creation, i.-ii. 4a, and thus suggests, at the very beginning, the far-reaching purpose and the world-wide significance of the people and religion of Israel. The narrative has not travelled far till it becomes apparent that its dominant interests are to be religious and moral; for, after a pictorial sketch of
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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