Are you going up to Beth-El (the House of El)?

The Temple Mount or the House of El (Hebrew: Beth-El), and the likely spot where the Temple of Solomon stood, and the possible site of the actual holy of holies.

Genesis 35:1–15, Go up to Bethel. Jacob, twenty years earlier, had left Canaan in disgrace fleeing eastward into exile (as his descendants would do generations later), where in captivity to Laban he pays the price for being a deceiver.

In captivity, Jacob prospers and finally is able to return to the Promised Land.

En route westward back to Canaan, he goes through a wilderness experience, as the children of his namesake would do several generations later.

What type of individuals does YHVH not permit and permit to enter into the Land of Promise? The answers are in Hebrews 4:1–11 where the writer speaks of doubt and unbelief, faith, hardness of heart versus resting in YHVH and not in the works of our flesh. (Read it.)

To come home, like the prodigal son, to the home of his earthly parents and to that of his Heavenly Father (Beth-el or House of El) what was required of Jacob? He had to manifest brokenness, humility, a new identity, repentance, and make restitution for past sins committed against others (Gen 34).

Will YHVH similarly break our stiff necks, refine and purify us to become suitable for the Master’s use in his spiritual house? Are you fighting the process that YHVH is working in your life to prepare you for your spiritual Bethel?

Jacob got hit again and again until his carnal will was finally broken, his heart was circumcised and he died to the willfulness of his flesh and scheming to bring YHVH’s will to pass in his life. (Have other notable personages of Scripture tried the same things and had their will broken before they were useful to YHVH? Remember Moses when he murdered the Egyptian? What did YHVH do with him for 40 years?)

Remember, neither the uncircumcised in heart nor flesh will enter into the spiritual house of Elohim (Ezek 44:9), which is the ultimate Promised Land.

Where are you in this spiritual process?

The Promised Land belongs to those (i.e. the seed of Jacob) who pass the wilderness tests of YHVH (Gen 35:12).

Who is that seed? (Read Rom 4:16; 9:8, 11; Gal 3:7, 9, 14, 28, 29.)

Are we not following exactly in our father Jacob’s footsteps leaving our exile and captivity in Babylon (false religious systems, which contains a mixture of both good and evil, see Rev 18:4), returning westward across the Jordan into the land of Promise, to our spiritual inheritance, to the ancient and good paths of the Torah faith (Jer 6:16, 19), which is defined in terms of YHVH’s covenants with Israel (Eph 2:12–14)? Is not YHVH calling out a growing remnant of believers in Yeshua to do just that in our time? Do you see that Jacob’s life is a prophetic road map of what each individual believer must go through to obtain his spiritual inheritance? His life is a prophetic picture of what all Israel, collectively, must go through, as well.

 

6 thoughts on “Are you going up to Beth-El (the House of El)?

  1. I pretty much agree with this whole post EXCEPT where you say Jacob “pays the price for being a’ DECIEVER’. If you go back to the parsha it states that it was all Rebecca’s idea.Jacob said he didn’t want to go through with and incur Esau’s wrath but Rebecca said “Let it be upon me”. She in turn became a tpye of Yeshua in that she knew that the Serpent had decieved Adam for the ‘Birthright’ in the Garden, and there they were again with the Serpent (manifested at the time in Esau) was going to retain the birthright and Rebecca knowing exactly what was happening HAD TO ACT or the world would be a very different place today. So she staged a deception to decieve the deciever. Satan used deception to steal humanity’s birthright so She just did what she had to do get it back.Isaac was ‘hard of seeing’ at the time so he was intent on blessing Esau who “Despised his Birthright”. Plus, in one of the prophets it sais , “Jacob have I Loved and Esau have I hated” Rifkah (Rebecca) knew what the Creator’s Will was and engineered the whole thing.
    Jacob WAS NOT A DECIEVER! This notion is yet Another age old lie sewn by the evil one to cause yet more pain and suffering to the HOLY CREATOR’s ‘First born Son, Israel.

    • You make some good points. However, the fact remains that each person is responsible for his or her own actions. Blame shifting isn’t an acceptable defense against sin biblically. The Bible teaches that each person is responsible for his own sins. Even if someone else persuades me sin and I sin, I am still guilty for my own sin. Period.

      Having said this, if Rebekah convinced Jacob to go along with her plot to lie and deceive, that now makes each of them a liar and deceiver. I have not bought into any ago-old lie as you falsely accuse. I’m simply reading the evidence of the text and, based on what the Bible teaches, calling black black and white white.

      It is the Jewish sages who have the tendency to gloss over their heroes and turn their sins and either turn a blind eye or turn them into meritorious acts of virtue. I have seen this again and again as I have read their writings. I could give examples and quotes.

      The beautiful thing about the Bible is that it lays out the truth as sit is. It glosses nothing. Moses was a murderer and a divorcee who remarried, David was a murderer and adulterer, Nathan gave a false prophecy, Peter denied Yeshua thrice and Paul was a murderer and Jacob deceived and lied. The beautiful thing is that all of these people repented, overcame their sins and YHVH used them mightily. The Bible is the story of the YHVH Elohim’s unfailing love for his people and his redemption of sinners. This is also the story of the new spiritual man being rebirth out of the old sinful and carnal man. There is hope and redemption even for liars and deceivers like Jacob.

      Blessings!

  2. Does Yakov mean “deciever” or is it the root of the hebrew word “heel”? I will let the Word of Elohim decide not traditional anti semetic “Christianity”. The real proof is in the pudding, not in the interpretations and traditions of men. The Torah is written with many codes and one must often read between the lines. Jacob had issues and sins, but the father of our “Yeshua Nation” would Never be named “Deciever” but “Heel”. Please allow me to glide you to the FIRST Messisnic Prophesy of the Bible:

    Genesis 3:15

    “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his HEEL.”

    This obviously was not written by some sages who were ‘glossing’ over sins, but by the Holy Spirit.

    Rebecca had but an hour or so? to act. Yakov was also choosing to ‘honor his mother’ (one of the 10 Utterances (Commandments) knowing on some conscious or subconscious level that his mother was right in determining that the only way to fix a very wrigged and deceptive situation was through a deception. They were decieving Satan himself! (who is no push-over):

    1 Corinthians 2:8

    “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

    But, if you want to go teaching that Jacob was a deciever, be my guest. I suggest you do more research first and pray very hard about it because as you say, the Word dosen’t lie, but men do. You wouldn’t want to end up on the wrong side of history as Martin Luther slid into eventually. Good luck with that.

    Blessings!

    • I never said the name Jacob means “deceiver.

      I have never read Martin Luther, and don’t know what he teaches.

      I go by what the biblical definition of sin is. Sin is sin. Lying and deception are sin. Period.

      I don’t believe for a minute that Isaac was Satan himself as you seem, in some metaphorical way, to suggest.

      Anyway thank you for your thoughts on this issue. Iron sharpens iron.

      I think we have exhausted this subject, so we’ll end the discussion now.

      Blessings.

      • I said “Esau” represented the Serpent not Issac. (Or that the Serpent was activated in Esau’s plan) but you are right. NEXT SUBJECT! Thank you for your patience and longsuffering 🙂

      • Glad you clarified that, even though you make no mention of Esau in your post.

        BTW, my first name is James (James Nathan Lawrence), which is a derivative of Jacob/Ya’acov. So I know the etymology of the name.

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