Genesis 35: El Bethel

God appeared to Jacob and told him to move back to the place where God first appeared to him—Bethel (“the house of God”). God had answered Jacob’s prayers when he was in distress. And Jacob said, “He has been with me wherever I have gone” (v. 3). During that time, Jacob’s God became the God of his whole family. God appeared to Jacob at Bethel again and blessed him, reminding him of his new name, “Israel” (“God fights”). Jacob was so moved the he built an altar there and named the place “El Bethel” (“the God of the house of God”). What makes any place divine, what makes any experience holy, is not the place of the experience, but the God behind it all. And the God of the House of Go goes with us wherever we go.