Genesis 35:3 And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el, and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
Acknowledge God in Your Life
Names are incredibly powerful. They inform the way we view people, things, and events. All of us have known someone who had a name that we thought, “Boy, I would just hate to have their name.” Or perhaps there is a name we like. Liking or disliking a name is partly because of the way we view those people. Names, people, and events are powerfully important because they are markers of our life.
Genesis 35 is full of names, events, faces, and places, the markers of Jacob’s life. Each of them had significance. In verse 3 Jacob says, “And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el, and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.” This entire chapter is about God’s working in Jacob’s life, Jacob’s acknowledging of those events, and his acknowledgment of God in those events.
In verse 1, we read about the altar at Beth-el where God appeared unto Jacob when he fled. In verse 7, the Bible says that Jacob “built there an altar, and called the place El-Beth-el.” El-Beth-el means “God of the House of God.” It was there that he put away the old, strange gods from his house and started fresh. In verse 8 the Bible tells us that Deborah, a friend and nurse to Rebekah, died. The place they buried her was named Allon-bachuth or “oak of weeping.”
In verse 10, Jacob’s name was changed from Jacob, meaning “deceiver,” to Israel which means “a prince with God.” In verse 14, we read of a pillar that Jacob erected. In verse 15, we read of Beth-el or “house of God.” In verse 18, Jacob had a son. His wife named him Ben-oni, “son of my sorrow,” but Jacob changed that to Benjamin meaning “son of my right hand.”
All this speaks to the significance of life and events. Whatever happens in life today, acknowledge life. Acknowledge the people, the places, and the events. Don’t coast mindlessly through life. Even more important, acknowledge God in your life and notice the confidence and peace that comes because you do.