Genesis 35:9 Commentary and Bible Study

God appears again to Jacob, and renews the promises, the patriarchal promises, and gives him all the assurances of blessing, and Jacob sets up a pillar at the place where he meets with him. This could be read as a recapitulation of God’s previous appearance in chapter 28, because many of the details are the same – the terms of God’s promises, the pillar set up by Jacob, the naming of the place as Bethel – but Moses tells us this was a fresh appearance, and there are differences also. On this occasion Jacob is given the name Israel, a confirmation of what had taken place before. That renaming of Jacob had not happened at Bethel when he fled from Esau, but at Peniel when he wrestled with the angel twenty years later. There are then elements of both previous appearances in this new revelation from God. It is confirmatory in nature, and Candlish comments that ‘it is as if all the intervening space of years were obliterated, save only for his grateful remembrance of the Lord’s kindness and faithfulness in fulfilling all his promises so abundantly.’ Jacob has been told to return to Canaan, and now he has come home, and God confirms that all the intervening years with their twists and turns have done nothing to weaken God’s resolve to bless him.Jacob has been made a new man by the Lord because he has prevailed with God in prayer. His old name, Jacob, continues to be used from this point in Scripture, but the new name, Israel, is used also. He must not forget what he was – a supplanter and a twister – even though God has made him a new man – a prince with God. God is with him and for him and blessing him, and that transforms his life and his eternal future. But the blessing is not for him alone, but for all his descendants. God Almighty is speaking to him and making these promises – just as Isaac had prayed when he sent him to Padanaram (Genesis 28:3) – and so Jacob need not doubt that God’s word will come to pass. The covenant made with Abraham to bless his physical descendants with earthly blessings, and his spiritual seed with eternal blessings in Christ, is confirmed to Jacob also. Looking far into the future God tells him that a nation – Israel – and a company of nations – the elect among the Gentiles just as Abraham had been promised (Genesis 17:4). Kings shall come from him. This includes those kings in the line of the royal seed through David, but surely also the kings and priests represented by every true believer (Revelation 1:6; 5:10). The land is given to the physical seed as a token of heaven, promised to the spiritual seed. The theophany which Jacob saw returned to heaven confirming the divine origin of the revelation. Jacob sets up a pillar and pours a drink offering and oil on it as an offering to God. He also names the place Bethel. Calvin comments that this may have been a new pillar to commemorate this further appearance, but equally it could refer back to what had been done before.