We are now on the path of Genesis 35:1. The verse is also set in the context of Israel becoming a
distinct nation as we have earlier seen.
Here, God told Jacob to move to Bethel, which was in
the Promised Land of Canaan. It
immediately brings to mind Genesis 12:1-3 where God told Abram
to leave his native country of Haran for Canaan. Again, in Genesis 26:1-6, we see God telling
Isaac to remain in Canaan.
The crimson thread that ran through all these accounts
was that the patriarchs took God at His word.
They trusted God despite the circumstances with the end result of God
establishing the Abrahamic Covenant with them.
Contrast this with Numbers Chapters 13 to 14. In
those chapters, it was recorded that the Israelites refused to enter the
Promised Land of Canaan. Although God
had already planned out everything for the Israelites to enjoy in the Promised
Land, they chose to go with what they saw rather than what God had promised.
Does it not resonate with Genesis 3:6 where Eve made a
decision by sight rather than by faith?
Notice that this happened before the Fall. It means that the propensity to go by sight
has nothing to do with sin or the sinful nature. It is probably due to naivety
just as how infants tend to be more intrigued by what they see rather than what
the parents say. They have yet to learn and understand the love of their
parents for them.
In the words of the other ten of twelve spies whom
Moses sent to check out the Promised Land as written in Numbers 13:21-33, “We are not able to go up against the people of
Canaan, for they are too strong for us. The land through which we went, in
spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men
of great stature. There we saw the Nephilim and we were like
grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” As a result, that generation of
Israelites died in the wilderness without entering the Promised Land except for
Joshua and Caleb who took God at His word.
In the light of the above, we see Jacob trusting God
in the same way his father and grandfather did.
Therefore, the thrust of Genesis 35:1 is:
“Jacob trusted God”
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