Jacob safely arrives in Shechem Gen. 33:18 which is in the land of Canaan, ‘The Promised Land.’ There he erects an altar and calls it, “El-elohe-Israel,” ‘To the God of the God of Israel.’ Now Jehovah, Elohim, El Shaddai is no longer just the God of his fathers Abraham and Isaac, He is the God of Jacob! He is the personal God of Israel, the ‘Prince with God!’ Since the Peniel River experience where he met God face to face and God changed his name from Jacob to Israel and he found favor in the eyes of the LORD and in the eyes of Esau, Gen. 33:4. Remember it wasn’t the gift that softened Esau’s heart, although it may have helped, it was the all-night prayer meeting on the Jabbok River that changed the Isaac brothers for life. Now Jacob becomes an altar builder like his ancestors before him and builds one in Gen. 33:20. Notice in v.18 he pitched his tent and in v.20 he built an altar, sound familiar? Just like his grandfather, everywhere Abraham had a tent, God had an altar! Prayer, Worship, Sacrifice, the necessary components of an altar to the God of Israel, “I love it!” No longer is he dependent on man, but on God. Shechem is the same place Abraham stopped on his way to the ‘Promised Land’ in Gen. 12:6 and he also built an altar there. The word Shechem means neck, shoulders, place of burden and comes into play quite a bit in the Older Testament. It is a good place to rest after the long, hot journey through the desert but Jacob camped and settled there, ouch!

He pitched his tent, he built his altar, he bought some property, and he unknowingly sold his daughter! Be careful about camping outside the city gates, your children will be infected, not affected, infected like Lot’s. You may have the power and strength to resist the temptation but they may not, and his sons Levi and Simeon slew all the men of Shechem and took their sister Dinah out of Shechem’s house. However, the point of this chapter is prayer and that God obviously became very personal to Jacob on the bank of that river and he began to build altars to ‘El-Elohe-Israel.’ El means strength or might, especially the Almighty, All Powerful One; Elohe is the singular form of Elohim which is the personal name for God; and Israel is two words, El being the name for Almighty God again and the first part meaning to prevail or to have power as a prince. So, Jacob built an altar and prayed to, “El-The Almighty One, Elohe-The God of, Isra/el, The Prince with God or God’s Prince” or “To the God, The Almighty God of Israel.”

“Then God said to Jacob, Arise, go to Bethel, and dwell there; and make there an altar unto God, who appeared unto you when you fled from the face of Esau, your brother.” Gen. 35:1. That’s where he started when he fled to Paddanaram over 20 years earlier. He makes a full circle, back to Bethel, and back to the ‘House of God.’ God always brings us back to the starting place, back to the point, place or person we ran from. Jacob tells his family and his household to put away their foreign gods, their earrings, change their clothes, and purify themselves for they are going to worship the true God in Bethel. There Jacob builds a second altar ‘El-Bethel’ or “To the God of the house of God.” God was a personal God to Jacob since the river of Peniel and remember an altar must have three things, ‘Sacrifice – Worship – Prayer.’ What a time of communion and reunion this must have been for Jacob and Jehovah! This is actually the first recorded ‘Revival’ we have in the Scriptures and it has all the earmarks of a revival; it is preceded by gross iniquity, it’s initiated by a word from God, there’s a forsaking of all that is displeasing to God, followed by obedience to God’s will and word, God’s past blessings are remembered, it’s accompanied by a new revelation of God’s character, God’s promises are renewed, a higher spiritual life is sought and given, and many commit their lives to the LORD’s service and are protected and provided for.

Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse dies and is buried and they mourn for her, Gen. 35:8. She must have been with Jacob, although no mention is ever made of his mother. His name is officially changed to Israel, by God in v.10 and God speaks to him and blesses him as El Shaddai in v.11 and confirms the Abrahamic covenant which God also gave to his father Isaac, “Be fruitful and multiply, a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee and kings shall come out of thy loins, and the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went up from him…” Just like He did from Abraham. Then Israel sets up a pillar/altar and pours oil and wine on it and called the place, “Bethel – God’s House” and since our Lord called God’s house ‘The House of Prayer’ we have those three elements of an altar: Sacrifice, v.14; Worship, v.2-3; Prayer, 7. 7, 13-14; What an experience, God is fine tuning this heel-catcher, this conniver, this sly businessman; Oh, he could make the speckled bear striped and the striped bear speckled and turn two shekels into four like magic, but could he get his children to follow his God, or his wives to stop fighting like cocks?

Deborah dies in v.8, Rachel dies giving birth in v.19, Isaac dies in v.29, there is a lot of mourning and prayer in this chapter. Jacob sets up a pillar on Rachel’s grave v.20 and mourns, the heartache he must have felt, when it rains it pours. Two of his sons kill all the males in Shechem and Dinah his daughter is raped in Gen. 34, and Reuben commits adultery with Bilhah one of his concubines, Wow! How much can a frail human being take? What could have prepared him for all of this? Paddanaram, Laban’s labor camp, Galeed/Mizpah; No, the Peniel experience, where he met God face to face, where the God of Abraham and Isaac became the God of Jacob or Israel, ‘El Elohe Israel’ his personal God and Jacob became became a ‘Prince with God’ “Israel.” He knew how to wrestle with men in business, how to make a shekel or two and always come out on top, but there on the river bank, alone, scared, in the night, desperate, and destitute he learned how to wrestle with God in prayer and to give God His way and let Him come out on top! He learned how to commune, how to trust, how to hang onto God, how to wrestle, how to pray like his life depended on it because it did! What has happened to that tenacity in our prayer lives? Why don’t we pray through any more or have prayer vigils or pray and fast; instead we have a moment of prayer, or we mention you in prayer, or we bring you up in prayer, or put you on a prayer list. Jesus said, “My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer.” Mark 11:17 & Isa. 56:7. Then why is there so little importance put on it in our churches today? “…Between The Lines…”

“Father, help us, prepare us for what the future holds; We are desperate and destitute like Jacob and scared; Teach us to pray, to wrestle, to hold on until You bless us; and as tribulations come our way and we know they will come, may we cling closer to You and hold on tighter and not let go until You bless us.” In ha shem Yeshua we pray. Amen!

“Portraits of Prayer in Genesis” – Jacob the Angel Wrestler – Part #5