V.1-8. And God said unto Jacob, Arise, and go to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God, which appeared unto thee, when thou fledst from thy brother Esau. Then said Jacob unto his Hanse, and to all that were with him: Put away from among you the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourselves, and change your garments, and let us arise, and go to Bethel, that I may build there an altar to God.
Make unto the God that heard me in the time of my affliction, and was with me in the way that I went. So they gave him all the foreign gods that were under their hands, and their earrings; and he buried them under an oak that stood by Shechem, and they went to her. And the fear of God came upon the cities that were round about them, that they pursued not after the sons of Jacob. So came Ja-
He went to Kob in Lus, in the land of Canaan, which is called Bethel, and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar, and called the name of the place Bethel, because there God was revealed unto him, when he fled from his brother. Then Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and was buried under Bethel, under the oak tree, and was called the Lamentation Oak.
In this legend we hear nothing but lamentation and heartache, without sometimes being told how he builds an altar and prays. But, as I have said more, the main thing in it is that he has often heard God's word. Where this is, the works also apply, however small they are. So here he tells how God called him to build an altar for the sake of God's redeeming him, so that his children would not be slain. For they had made it so that the whole land was hostile to them, as he also complains in the previous chapter, v. 30: "You have made it so that I stink in the sight of the inhabitants of this land; now when they gather against me, they will strike me, and I will be destroyed with my house." Therefore he is no longer safe in the land, so that God must call him away.
(2) Thus God always throws His own into trouble and all kinds of dangers, but does not let them perish therein. He had the promise that his seed should become great and overtake the land; and here it is not far off that they would all be slain; and [it] would also have happened, if God had not caused a fear to come, as the text says, upon the cities that lay about, that they should not pursue after the sons of Jacob; so that he saves them in a moment and helps [them] from it. These are Jacob's fortresses to protect him, and the iron wall that God builds around him. For he helped very soon; it cost but a wink of the eye, and he slew the whole world. When he wants to strike, he lifts up the inside and strikes the heart first; when that is taken, there is no strength left.
003 Now at this word, that God would call him to go and build an altar, Jacob set out in joyful faith, and was not afraid to go through the midst of the enemies. For
It is shown that Jacob was once again in great fear, that he did not know where to go out, because he was in the midst of the enemies, and yet he was not allowed to stay in the place of Shechem, that God Himself must come and strengthen and comfort him through His word, so that he is no longer afraid.
4 Then he preached a sermon and said what God had commanded him, which is the proper office of a priest. And here you see that he preached not only to his household, but also to others who followed him because of the word; just as afterwards some Gentiles joined the Jews and learned God's word from them. For this is what the text says: "Then Jacob spoke to his household, and to all who were with him"; that is, that Jacob was at the same time the supreme pope or bishop, and almost alone received the word of God and led the spiritual regiment.
But what did he preach? That, as it says in the text: "Put away the foreign gods" 2c., we want to build an altar, praise and thank God, who has helped and redeemed us. To build an altar to God is not to find or seize God with our works, but [it] was only a place where one could come together to preach and praise God; just as God's house does not mean that we build a house for Him, but because, as said above [Cap. 28, § 12 f.], He dwells there before, and we come to Him there. How then does he dwell there? So that he speaks there. For where his word is preached, there he will surely be found; but where it is not, there is not his house, if they build churches one upon another.
6 So Jacob did not build an altar out of his own devotion, but out of God's command. So do you also. For it is not in our power to honor his name or to set up a service for him, but he must say it beforehand and say, here or there one should preach and serve me; as he says in Exodus 20:24, "In the place where I make remembrance of my name, there will I come to thee, and bless thee," that is, where I let my gospel of my grace and goodness be preached to glorify my name, not where you build or dedicate churches. For who are
Do you dare to bind God to a place? He wants to come first, out of pure grace and goodness, and set up holy places. Therefore the mere altar is much more precious than if we built churches of pure gold and brought all the saints there; for here is God's word, which is more valid than all the world.
(7) But what is it that Jacob is called to put away the strange gods, and to cleanse himself, and to put on other garments? What the foreign gods are, I have said enough above [Cap. 31, § 23 ff]. But Jacob, though he was holy and full of the Spirit, yet he could not bring himself to have no idols among his company, however few they were. This was nothing else than that some wanted to serve God with false worship, as we do with our own works. For he will have no worship but that which he himself hath commanded and ordained. Therefore he commanded them to leave off and put away all such false ways of serving God; for this would have been nothing, if they had put away idols from themselves, and the heart had nevertheless remained idolatrous.
(8) The other two pieces belong to the outward manner and deeds. But would you say, "Do you not see that we are commanded here to cleanse and wash externally, and to put on other garments? It is not valid to say that one must understand it spiritually and look at the interpretation, because no necessity forces it, but must let it remain outwardly and bodily. Answer: We also want to let it stand, but we say thus: Although salvation and faith or Christianity do not stand in such outward things, it cannot happen without them, just as Paul says in 1 Cor. 8:8: "Food does not promote us in the sight of God; if we eat, we are not better for it; if we do not eat, we are not less for it." We must eat and drink to sustain life, so that we can preach and serve our neighbor.
(9) So we may also say, No outward thing promotes or helps us before God; yet we must keep outward things and things that serve to keep people to the word of God; as, to keep a place, a place, a place, and a place.
Choosing to preach the Word of God and to perform the sacraments 2c. Therefore, all this should be left free. So this church is no better than any other house; but it is not fitting that one should eat, drink, or dance here, and the like; for there must be order and distinction among the people, where one does this or that, which neither promotes nor hinders in the sight of God.
010 Therefore it is as much for Jacob to say, Purify yourselves, and change your garments, as for me to say, If ye will hear preaching, leave your levity, your eating and drinking at home, and stand up bravely. He also says: "The main thing we do is to go and build an altar, preach and call on God; for this purpose it is good that you throw away idols and practice fine, honest deeds.
(11) After this he says how they have put away the idols, and remembers no more the other two things. [It is also to be known that the garments which the Scripture calls to be taken off were those which they adorned themselves with in honor of the idols, as the earrings which they give away here, and Jacob buries with the idols under a tree. For it has been a common way and ornament in the lands to wear earrings and bracelets, and to put on such ornaments in honor of their idols. What it meant, we will hear later. According to history, it was because they had no sign on them to indicate that they were attached to any idol, as now the priests, monks and nuns are attached to their clothes, caps and plates.
(12) So he comes with all that he has with him to the land of Canaan, to Bethel, not far from Jerusalem, where God had also appeared to him before, and builds an altar there, so that the place afterwards, as said above [Cap. 28, § 17], became a cause of the greatest idolatry among the Jews. For the false worship never ceased until Israel was taken away. This alone caused them to fall upon this example, saying, "God dwelt in that place in particular, because He had appeared there twice to Jacob, and had commanded him to build an altar. If the pope now has such strong examples and scripture
Who would stay before him? When he now comes there, Rebekka's nurse died; then mourning and lamentation arise. He is now delivered from the hands of the child, but now his own misfortune follows, as we shall see.
V. 9-29. And God appeared unto Jacob again after he was come out of Mesopotamia, and blessed him, and said unto him, Thou art called Jacob, but thou shalt no more be called Jacob, but Israel shalt thou be called; and so he is called Israel. And GOD said unto him, I am the Almighty GOD, be fruitful and multiply; nations and peoples' houses shall come from thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. And the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give it to your seed after you. So God departed from him from the place where He had spoken to him. And Jacob set up a stone mark in the place where he had spoken with him, and poured drink offerings 1) thereon, and sprinkled oil upon it. And Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken unto him Bethel. And they departed from Bethel, and there was a way of the fields from Ephrath, and Rachel bare the child, and the birth was grievous to her. And when she was sore in childbirth, the wailing mother said unto her, Fear not: for thou shalt have this son also. But when her soul went out, and she died, she called his name Benoni 2). But his father called him Benjamin 3). So Rachel died, and was buried by the way of Ephrath, which is now called Bethlehem: and Jacob set up a mark over her grave, which is Rachel's sepulchre unto this day. And Israel went out, and pitched a tent on the other side of the tower of Eber. And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in the land, that Reuben went and slept with Bilhah his father's concubine. And this came before Israel. Now Jacob had twelve sons. The sons of Leah were these: Reuben, the firstborn son of Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel were: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel
1) Marginal gloss: libation. This was wine, as will be seen sufficiently in the following books.
2) Side note: Ben Oni is called the son of my pain.
3) Marginal gloss: Ben Jamin is called the son of the right.
Maid: Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant: Gad and Esser. These are the sons of Jacob, which were born unto him in Mesopotamia. And Jacob came to Isaac his father to Mamre, to the capital which is called Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac were strangers. And Isaac was an hundred and fourscore years old, and was sick, and died, and was gathered unto his people old and full of life. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
(13) Now there is another sermon that God speaks to him, as he spoke to him before in the same place when he went out. But why does he say, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but you shall be called Israel"? Because he had just given him the name long before, when he fought with the angel. The name had not yet come out, but here it is shouted out and made clear that he and all his family were called Israel. But he was always called not only Israel, but also Jacob, as we see in the prophets. Now he made him a new rich promise, that from Jacob, who was so lowly and wretched before the world, mighty kings should yet come. It was fulfilled slowly afterwards, because his seed had to be the least servants in the land of Egypt for a long time.
014 And it came to pass, as he departed, that his heart was troubled, because Rachel died in childbirth, his dearest wife, for whom he had served so many years, that he could not bring her home, but died in the way. This has also been a hard cross for him. [He] saw great sorrow in her, as the text indicates, that she was very angry about the child, that it came from her alive; therefore she gives the child a name of sorrow before she dies, and calls him Ben Oni, a son of my sorrow. As if she should say: He shall bear the sign that I gave birth to him with sorrow and pain, that it cost me my life. The father also gives him a name and calls him Ben-Jamin, a son of the right hand, that is, his most beloved son, because he is now born in his old age and takes his mother's place.
4) Walch and the Erlangeners: will.
(15) But before he forgets this sorrow, another misfortune befalls him, that his first son Reuben sleeps with his stepmother. I think this is a piece of the holy man's son; how could he cause greater sin and shame, and do more harm to the father? St. Paul has put on great vice [1 Cor. 5, 1]: "Such fornication, as even the Gentiles know not of to say that one hath his father's wife," 1) but has tempered himself, that he might not say of the Jews. It did not work out well for this Reuben either, that he had to hear a hard word from his father at the end, and both, the priesthood and regiment, which was due to the first son, had to be deprived.
(16) God makes us see what pious children we are, if he does not keep us in his hand without ceasing, so that no evil or virtue is too much for us. But the pious Jacob has to eat it all up and suffer that his own children do him more harm than the strangers and his enemies. Think for yourself how it hurt him that neither his daughter nor his own wife remained unchanged. From this we shall see what a true Christian being is, that God always sends one cross over another to his own, so that they may be able and willing to suffer, so that the old Adam may well be subdued and grow weary of life.
17) In the last place the twelve sons of Jacob are told again for Benjamin's sake, who was born last; after that he writes how Jacob came again to his father Isaac, that he still sees him before his death, and buries him himself with his! Brother. But of Rebekah he writes nothing more; [she] may have died before, for he had now been three and twenty years without, and nearly a hundred years old. Thus we have the Isaac there; is still a little left of Jacob's legend.
Now let us also go through the secret interpretation of this chapter. First, Jacob goes to Beth El, that is, God's house, or God's dwelling place; before they get there, he preaches to them how they should put away their idols, which he takes along with the earrings and bracelets and buries them.
1) Erlanger: has.
under an oak tree. In this story is sweetly signified the preaching of the gospel, which happens nowhere but where God dwells. The same gospel always rejects the silver idols, that is, the doctrine of men, or such worship as God has not ordained, which is nothing but a pure idolatry, as we have heard. For he will not suffer any other service to be accepted before him than that which he himself teaches us and calls us, that our hearts may be sure that it pleases him. Those who do not have his word cannot do such service, but what they do, they do out of their own conceit and dream. These are actually images made with hands, that is, their own works and invented human doctrine, all of which the gospel condemns and does not want to suffer.
(19) Those then who hear and accept the gospel cast away such idols and their earrings; that is, when they hear that their works and worship are worthless, they themselves help to condemn idolatry. The earrings, which were commonly worn in the countries, mean nothing, but the sermons, which they had previously worn in their ears and boasted about, they now tear away and bury them under the earth, so that they can no longer do any good or harm.
020 When Jacob came to Beth El, he set up a stone mark where God had spoken to him, and poured drink offerings and oil on it. It was a goodly building, having neither roof, nor vault, nor house, but a bad stone, where Jacob had lain: neither was it more acceptable unto God than our most glorious temples and churches, because he had commanded Jacob. The stone now, as is also said above in chapter 28 [§ 38], means Christ, on whom we lie down, and safely rest and sleep on it. It is now erected at BethEl, that is, where one preaches God's word, there one erects the Lord Christ as the foundation stone. Therefore the raising up is nothing else than preaching the gospel, which alone points to Christ; therefore nothing else is to be preached. From this, where Christ is preached correctly, conclude that there is certainly a house of God.
(21) What does the drink offering mean? In the following books of Moses, namely in the third, it is often said about drink offerings or pouring sacrifices, because the priests took breadcrumbs or cakes and poured wine on them, and usually also added oil [Ex 29:40, Deut 23:13, 18, 37]. How does this work in the Gospel? What the Scriptures say about sacrifices, we cannot interpret much, but to the preaching ministry in Christianity, and take the reason from St. Paul, Rom. 15, 15. f.: "I have written to you (says he) a little thirstily, to remind you, for the grace that is given me of God, that I should be a minister of Christ among the Gentiles, to offer the gospel of God, that the Gentiles might become a sacrifice acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit." Now when I teach that the old Adam is to be killed in Christ, and perish with all that comes from him, I pour wine on the stone, that is, I confess that our thing is of no account, but must all be killed according to the flesh; that as wine makes men drunk, so the gospel, if it be rightly understood and apprehended, makes men esteem not goods, honor, and life, and causes all things to be taken from them, and their thing to be condemned; whom then the world takes for fools.
(22) Now this is a preaching of the gospel, that all that we are is damnable, as Christ says in John [Cap. 16:8], "The Holy Spirit will punish the world for sin, righteousness, and judgment"; who then believe this, they are poured out with the pungent wine. After this follows the other, that they also pour oil on it. This is the other preaching of the mercy and grace of God, that we may be comforted. Where this happens, there is a real BethEl, where God truly dwells. This is the summa of the whole preaching ministry that leads the two pieces. For no man can have a good conscience that God dwelleth in his heart, except he first let the old Adam die, that he ask not after that which greatly esteemeth flesh and blood. Such watering, that is, this preaching shall now last forever, as long as we live and the world stands. Behold, this is set before us here in the fathers with lovely figures, and afterwards by the prophets, most of all
but in the New Testament driven by the apostles.
23) Further, when the gospel is raised up by Christ and the apostles, Rachel lies down and dies, that is, the synagogue, or Judaism. The child comes forth, but the mother must remain above it. From the son now a new nation is born, because the old nation has perished. This is also shown by the name she gives him, BenOni, Son of Sorrow, which means that we must be children of the cross and preach only about it. But the Father gives him another name, and calls him BenJamin, that is, the Son of the Right. For according to Adam we are children of sorrows, poor, miserable people, but according to the Spirit we are BenJamin, that is, children of eternal life, and of all the goods of God. Thus, the Spirit played with the fathers to indicate how it should go in the time of the Gospel.
024 Now because the gospel is going forth, and Judaism is perishing, Reuben goeth forth, and committeth adultery with his stepmother. He was the first son, who was to be lord of all, as the liberty 1) of the first birth was; he corrupted it, and slept with his mother; that is, the best of the Jewish people, the wisest and holiest, have corrupted the synagogue, and put it to shame with the doctrines of men, and defiled the Father's bed, which is the conscience wherein Christ resteth, and lieth with his bride, and will not suffer any other to reign therein. Now if it be preached that our faith should cleave unto Christ alone, the conscience is clean and undefiled: but he that would lead the conscience by works, and build it upon the doctrine of men, putteth himself out of the Father's bed, and corrupteth souls. Just as the hypocrites and scribes in Christ's day led the people on their works, and after that the papacy washed the world full of humanity, and after them others arose who lead us away from Christ and pure faith. So this interpretation is actually based on false teaching, which alone does harm to the conscience.
25 For this reason I have often admonished that life and death should be kept far apart.
. 1) Freedom --- privilege, privilegium.
Doctrine. The doctrine is that I believe in Christ, consider my work, suffering and death as nothing, and serve my neighbor, and above this I leave what I should. Life, however, is whether I walk this way or that and act accordingly. So there is not so much in the life as in the teaching, so that even if the life is not so pure, the teaching can still remain pure, and patience can be borne with the life. Our nobles do not teach such things, but those who are the best among them, and come to the highest, preach only of a strict life, and set before us great examples of the saints who have done great, wonderful works, have gone to their deaths with laughter, and lead the people so that they do not perceive the doctrine. For a man is not better to be deceived than by such a seeming life; where there are not valiant preachers, it is a great mercy who can separate life from doctrine.
(26) It is true that we should live in this way, but I live as I live, so the doctrine does not become false. Therefore we must look and judge not by life, but by doctrine. But the multitude always think more of life than of doctrine; [they] all say
So: Well, what is it, if one teaches the same long time from the faith, it must come higher. I cannot preach higher than this, except to kill the old Adam and become a new man. They say, "Yes, don't you? Answer: I ought to do it, yes, even if God gives it to me; but no one will bring it that high, there will still be a great lack of it.
Therefore let life remain on earth, and the teaching be lifted up to heaven. The teaching always remains like itself, that it wants to be completely pure and perfect; but the life can come higher. I also wanted my life to be higher, but nothing comes of it; life will not reach the teaching as long as we live here. So we see in all examples how far the holy people still lacked life; as, how Jacob was afraid; item, how weak his wives were and sometimes also stumbled, who nevertheless were the mothers of the patriarchs. See in the Gospel how the apostles sometimes stumbled and stumbled, so that one does not read many examples in the Scriptures, since there was not much weakness and error in life.