God told Jacob to settle at Bethel and to make altar to God there. Jacob told his family to put away foreign gods. A terror of God fell on the cities around them and they left Jacob’s family alone. He came to Luz and built an altar, they buried Rebekah’s nurse there. God appeared to Jacob and blessed him, renaming him Israel, and saying to be fruitful and multiply. God reaffirmed His covenant to him. God went up from him, Jacob set a pillar of stone and called the place Bethel. Rachel died in childbirth to Ben-oni or “son of my sorrow” or “son of my strength”. Jacob called him Benjamin or “son of the right hand”. Here are Jacob/Israel’s 12 sons: By Leah – (1) Reuben (1st-born), (2)Simeon, (3) Levi, (4) Judah, (5) Issacar, (6) Zebulun. By Rachel – (7) Joseph, (8)Benjamin. By Bilhah – (9) Dan, (10) Naphtali. By Zilpah – (11) Gad, (12) Asher. Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre/Hebron, and Isaac died at 180. Jacob and Esau buried him.
While following the genealogical chain of God’s chosen seed to crush the head of the serpent, there have been many times that doubts have arisen that God will make good on His promise. But here, in this re-establishment of God’s covenant with Jacob/Israel we see that Jacob/Israel is a type, a new Adam, a new head of the chosen nation, through whom He will bring a Messiah. Israel is more than just a name, it is the beginning of a nation. Jacob is the federal/representative head of a new nation, Israel. God’s decree was to bring a Savior through Adam, but he and his posterity fell into sin. God poured out His judgment in the flood, but established Noah as a new father of a people through whom a Messiah would come. In Abraham we saw that God was narrowing down the family through whom the Christ would come, then it narrows even more in Isaac’s children, and now in Jacob’s. The “Christ” would come through one of Jacob’s children, and God is sovereignly choosing Israel to be His people, in this re-establishment. This is also indicated in the listing out of all of Jacob’s sons at the end of chapter 35. God is building a nation, Israel; and it is in one of the sons of Jacob (which would be Israel’s “tribes”) that God will bring His Christ! The rest of Genesis continues to set up this picture of this people through whom God will reveal Himself to the nations and display His glory. Genesis 35 acts as a hinge to this door that is opening up to display the people who God will continue to work out His plan of redemption through.