Fri.’s Devo - Bethel

God told Jacob to go back to the angel’s camp where he saw them climbing the ladder from heaven to earth and where he wrestled with one of them. There, in Bethel he was to build an altar. Bethel means the “house of God”.
Yesterday we read where Levi and Simeon ticked off the whole region by killing all the men of Hamor but today we read that God put terror in the land so that no one pursued them.
God told Jacob to get rid of all their foreign gods and when he built the altar in Bethel, Rebekah’s nurse died and was buried there. Jacob hadn’t been able to mourn his mother’s death, but he was able to mourn his mother’s maid who was probably like a mother to him.
When Jacob returned to Bethel, God changed his name to Israel and told him that nations and kings would come from his descendants. He built another altar there and poured oil on it. Upon leaving Bethel, Rachel went into labor and died having Benjamin. She named him Ben-Oni meaning “son of my trouble”, but Jacob changed it to Benjamin meaning “Son of my right hand. She died outside of Bethlehem, the place where the Son of God’s Right Hand would be born many years later. Jacob buried Rachel in the same cave that Abraham, and Sarah, were born. (See Genesis 49:31) Jacob stayed with Isaac in Hebron till he died at the age of 180. Both Esau and Jacob buried their father then parted.
We have a list of Esau’s descendants who formed the Edomites, their kings and their chiefs. They ruled in the hill country of Seir in Canaan.
In Matthew, we find the Pharisees wanting Jesus to conform to their law. They considered picking heads of grain to be “work” so the fact that the disciples were picking the grains of corn because they were hungry made them breakers of the law. Jesus reminded them that the priests were exempt from that law because they ate the shewbread and lived. He was trying to explain to them that priests were anyone who believed he was the Messiah and followed him. He was the Lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus got to demonstrate what was to happen on the Sabbath in the next town. There was a man there with a shriveled hand and the Pharisees asked Jesus if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus explained that to do good on the Sabbath was not work it was good works. He healed the man’s hand and the Pharisees left to plot his death. (This is looking a lot like Congress!)
Lord, help us to see the bigger picture and put our confidence in your plan. It is always good!