“We are now to go up to Bethel, and I will build an altar there to the God Who answered me in my hour of distress and Who has been with me wherever I have gone.” —Genesis 35:3
God appeared to Jacob again at Bethel and blessed him. Jacob needed all the blessings he could get because his wife Rachel would soon die in childbirth. After that, his son Reuben would have sex with Jacob’s concubine, Bilhah. Then Jacob’s father Isaac would die. The Lord often strengthens us before extreme trials.
Prayer: Lord, I wish to know how to share in Your sufferings by being formed into the pattern of Your death (Phil 3:10).
Promise: “The lifetime of Isaac was one hundred and eighty years; then he breathed his last. After a full life, he died as an old man and was taken to his kinsmen.” —35:28-29