Genesis 35:12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
I suppose all of us have known someone in their forties who wished they were still a teenager or in their twenties. The way they talked, dressed, and handled themselves betrayed this insatiable desire to be someone much younger than they actually were. One of the reasons for this, especially in recent times, is an increasing reluctance for adults to grow up. Young people are savvy about things they don’t need to know, but they are often much more reluctant to grow up and take responsibility. That may be human nature and it certainly has been aggravated in our culture in the last couple of decades.
Genesis 35 is a chapter of transitions. Jacob was not a young man by today’s standard, but there came a time when he needed to grow up. That is exactly what Jacob began to do in Genesis 35. When we say “grow up,” it is obviously not something that can happen overnight. Like a flower or a five-year-old, your growing will take time!
Genesis 35:1 says, “Arise, and go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.” When Jacob was between a rock and a hard place when fleeing his brother some years before, he had felt alone. He had been a trickster and schemer, someone who tried to strong arm his way through life, and now that he was apart from dad, mom, and friends, and was being pursued by his brother, he felt as if he were on his own. As on a couple of other occasions, God made Himself manifest and reminded Jacob that he was not alone and that he needed to grow in grace and in dependence upon God.
Genesis 35:9 says, “And God appeared unto Jacob again.” Verse 10 says, “Thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name.” Jacob had been a deceiver and schemer, and that needed to change. God was telling him that instead of trying to get everything by his own means, he needed to realize his place. He needed to live a life of dependence on Almighty God.
Ironically, to “grow up” means “to grow in dependence.” This is not dependence upon one’s father, mother, family, or friends, but upon God. There comes a time when each of us needs to grow up, to grow in our responsibility towards others, but also in our dependence upon God. God said that Jacob would no longer be called Jacob, trickster and schemer. That had to change.
In verse 11 God said to Jacob, “I am God Almighty.” Then He promised Jacob the same thing He promised Abraham, that a great nation would come from Jacob. If God had made that promise to Abraham, how could that promise have been kept unless it transcended Abraham and was passed down to people like Jacob? Verse 12 says, “And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.”
I think the words “to thee” are emphatic. In other words, this was a time of transition. Deborah, the nurse of Jacob’s mother, Rachel, his wife, and later Isaac, his father, had all died. An entire generation was passing away in this chapter. One of his sons seems to have tried to seize the position of “heir apparent,” and this chapter ends by listing the names of Jacob’s other sons who would soon become Israel’s tribes.
The point is that at this time of transition there came a time when Jacob needed to realize, “I am not alone, and I need to grow up by growing in dependence.” There came a time for Jacob, and there needs to be a time for us all, when God’s promises become personal. God said, “The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee will I give it.” God was not just the God of his father Abraham. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He became Jacob’s God.
So, when we say “grow up,” we really mean to grow in dependence upon God. As the New Testament says, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Today, whatever the transitions and changes, don’t run from responsibility and don’t neglect dependence, for to grow up is to grow in dependence upon God.