CHAPTER 41

I then saw a tree, beside where the man Jacob stood, before his journey to the time, place and altar the LORD had just revealed.

Genesis 35:2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments.

3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”

Jacob stood by a grave-like hole with an ancient-type shovel to one side next to a mound of broken earth. Into the small grave Jacob tossed bhudda-like carved idols in the shapes of men, of women, of birds and of fierce animals – many of mythical proportions with attributes unlike any actual man, woman or animal.

4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.

I observed a scene of passing time in the Presence of the LORD like snapshots of individual emotions and thoughts in a time standing still, while the caravan moved through time and place in a fast-forward movie-like scene of history moving before my very eyes.

5 And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

I understood the terror of the people in the surrounding cities to the caravan of Jacob moving through time and place; for I was in the Presence of the LORD through all this – in awe of His Presence, though not in fear.

We returned once more to the high place in the mountains of the altar.

6 And Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him,7 and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother…

9 God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him.10 And God said to him,

“Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.”

So he called his name Israel.

11 And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply.

To be continued…

A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,

© Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved by the author.