"And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there." This confirms the principle on which we have been dwelling. When there is a failure or declension, the Lord calls the soul back to himself. "Remember therefore _from whence thou art fallen_; and repent and do _the first works_." (Rev. ii. 5.) This is the divine principle of restoration. The soul must be recalled to the very highest point; it must be brought back to the divine standard. The Lord does not say, "remember where you are;" no; but "remember the lofty position from whence you have fallen." Thus only can one learn how far he has declined, and how he is to retrace his steps.
Now, it is when thus recalled to God's high and holy standard, that one is really led to see the sad evil of one's fallen condition. What a fearful amount of moral evil had gathered round Jacob's family, unjudged by him, until his soul was roused by the call to "go up to Bethel." Shechem was not the place in which to detect all this evil. The atmosphere of that place was too much impregnated with impure elements to admit of the soul's discerning, with any degree of clearness and precision, the true character of evil. But the moment the call to Bethel fell on Jacob's ear, "Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean and change your garments, and let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make thee an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went." The very mention of "the house of God" struck a chord in the soul of the patriarch; it carried him, in the twinkling of an eye, over the history of twenty eventful years. It was at Bethel he had learnt what God was, and not at Shechem; hence he must get back to Bethel again, and erect an altar upon a totally different base, and under a totally different name, from his altar at Shechem. This latter was connected with a mass of uncleanness and idolatry.
Jacob could speak of "El-elohe-Israel," while surrounded by a quantity of things utterly incompatible with the holiness of the house of God. It is important to be clear in reference to this point. Nothing can keep the soul in a path of consistent, intelligent separation from evil save the sense of what "the house of God" is, and what becomes that house. If I merely look at God, in reference to myself, I shall not have a clear, full, divine sense of all that flows out of a due recognition of God's relation to his house. Some there are who deem it a matter of no importance how they are mixed up with impure materials in the worship of God, provided they themselves are true and upright in heart. In other words, they think they can worship God at Shechem; and that an altar named "El-elohe-Israel" is just as elevated, just as much according to God, as an altar named "El Bethel." This is evidently a mistake. The spiritually-minded reader will at once detect the vast moral difference between Jacob's condition at Shechem and his condition at Bethel; and the same difference is observable between the two altars. Our ideas in reference to the worship of God must, of necessity, be affected by our spiritual condition; and the worship which we present will be low and contracted, or elevated and comprehensive, just in proportion as we enter into the apprehension of his character and relationship.
Now, the name of our altar and the character of our worship express the same idea. El-Bethel worship is higher than El-elohe-Israel worship, for this simple reason, that it conveys a higher idea of God. It gives me a more elevated thought of God to speak of him as the God of his house than as the God of a solitary individual. True, there is beautiful grace expressed in the title, "God, the God of Israel;" and the soul must ever feel happy in looking at the character of God, as graciously connecting himself with every separate stone of his house, and every separate member of the body. Each stone in the building of God is a "lively stone," as connected with the "living stone," having communion with the "living God," by the power of "the Spirit of life." But while all this is blessedly true, God is the God of his house; and when we are enabled, by an enlarged spiritual intelligence, to view him as such, we enjoy a higher character of worship than that which flows from merely apprehending what he is to ourselves individually.