Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #5 in Genesis 35, and we will read Genesis 35:4-5: 

And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

I will stop reading there.  In our last study, we were looking at the word that is translated as “put away” in Genesis 35:2: “Put away the strange gods that are among you…”  One of places we went to was in Joshua 24, and we will go there again.  It says in Joshua 24:20-23:

If ye forsake JEHOVAH, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve JEHOVAH. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you JEHOVAH, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto JEHOVAH God of Israel.

I will stop here for a moment.  We see a similar statement here: “…put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto JEHOVAH God of Israel.”  Joshua had gathered all Israel together to hear these words, just as Jacob had gathered his whole household, in Genesis 35:2:

Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you…

Once again, all of Jacob’s household would have been all of Israel at that time.  They were much smaller than the Israel that came out of Egypt, and then conquered the land of Canaan under Joshua.  All Israel was being told by the Word of God to put away the strange gods that were among them.  The other side of that would be to “incline your heart unto JEHOVAH God of Israel.”

Then it says in Joshua 24:24:

And the people said unto Joshua, JEHOVAH our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

This is just like what is happening in Genesis 35, and it is also taking place by Shechem.  The oak was where they placed the strange gods, as it says in Genesis 35:4:

… and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

So that is a second tie-in with Joshua 24, as it says in Joshua 24:25:

And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of JEHOVAH.

That would be an additional connection because Jacob was placing the strange gods and earrings under the oak which was by Shechem.  And in Joshua 24, they are in Shechem, and they were told to put away the strange gods.  Again, it says in Joshua 24:25-27:

And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of JEHOVAH. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of JEHOVAH which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God.

So we can see that what is happening in Genesis 35 is a precursor to what will happen in Joshua, and what will happen repeatedly throughout the history of Israel.  At various times, God will come to them and tell them to put away their strange gods.  We went to numerous Scriptures, and you can review the last study where we went to several Scriptures where that call was made.

But here in Genesis 35, after giving Jacob their strange gods and the earrings that were in their ears, it says, “

… and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.”  What is the significance of the oak tree?  The word used here is also used in verse 8 where Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak.  It is the word “oak” in English, but it is a different word in the Hebrew.  In verse 8, it is Strong’s #437 in the concordance, and it is a related word to the word used in Genesis 35:4, which is Strong’s #424, and this word is pronounced “ay-law'.”   It is also translated as “elm” tree, or “teal” tree, so it is translated in those three ways.  It does have the idea of a “post,” and it is related to a word that is translated as “post,” something that is sturdy and strong.  But when we are looking for the spiritual meaning, we actually find that this word “ay-law'” has the same consonants as the Hebrew word #426, which is pronounced “el-aw'.”  It has slightly different vowel points, but it is the same word.  And this is the word from which we get the Arabic word “ala.”  Strong’s #426 is the word that is translated as “God.”  It is the word used in Ezra 4:24:

Then ceased the work of the house of God…

And it says in Ezra 5:1:

Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.

Again, it is the same word.  Then it says in Ezra 5:2:

…and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them.

So ““el-aw'” is “God,” and it is the word used many times in Daniel, but I will just read Daniel 2:18-20:

That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:

This word is not used as often as “'êl,” or as “el-o-heem',” which are used hundreds of times, but it is still the name for the God of the Bible, and it has the same consonants, so it is the same word as “oak” that is found in Genesis 35:4:

And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

I believe the spiritual significance would be that they are taking these evil things that are false gods, and they are hiding them, as it were, under the watchful gaze of God, or under God’s sight.  And the Bible does tell us, “

…all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” (Hebrew 4:13)  So they are putting their idols away, hiding them under the oak which was by Shechem.  When Joshua told Israel the same thing about putting away their strange gods, he wrote it in the book of the Law, and he also put it under an oak tree in Shechem. 

What is the Lord indicating?  What is meant by hiding the strange gods?  Notice that it does not say they destroyed them, like King Josiah went about to destroy the idols that were in the land.  But here, they are putting them away, so they are obedient to that present command to put away the strange gods among them: “And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.”  He did not destroy them.  He must have buried them, even though the word “buried” is not used here.  It is the word “hid.”

When I first saw this, and I thought about it, I thought, “Well, they are putting away their strange gods in an attempt to be obedient to the command to be clean and change their garments.  They were getting rid of sins in their lives.  So they turned them over, and they have repented, and they have turned from their sins.”  But there is a problem.  When we look at the word “hid” in verse 4, it presents a problem for us.  It is Strong’s #2934, and it is found thirty-one times in the Old Testament.  I expected when I searched out that word…and sometimes we do have a “feel” and expectation of what we will find, but we never allow our expectation to interfere with the result of our search, or try to impress our idea or thought upon the Bible…that hiding the strange gods would identify with God hiding sin.  And since the oak identifies with God, I expected to find the idea of blood being sprinkled over the mercy seat where the Law of God was, with the Law of God covering over the sins of those that He has saved, and those sins are “under” the blood.  That is what I thought we would find, but it is not what I found.  I would not say that is what the Bible is teaching through this word “hid.”  It is only used in a positive way a couple of times of the thirty-one times it is found.  I will just go to one of them, which is also in the book of Joshua where we read of Rahab the harlot.  It says in Joshua 2:6:

But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.

It is referring to her hiding the spies who searched out Jericho, so they would identify with God’s people and the kingdom of God, so it was a good thing she hid them to protect them, but one thing is clear – it was only a temporary hiding place.  That is, they did not remain hidden there.  It was a very short period of time, and then they come out of the hiding place and left the city to take back their report.  So even though this is positive, it is one of the few instances this word is used in a positive way, but it still has the idea of that which was hidden not remaining hidden.

We can look at another Scripture in Joshua 7 that is used in a very negative way.  It says in Joshua 7:20-22:

And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against JEHVOAH God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. o Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it.

And this is what God said through Joshua that “troubled Israel.”  It was the coveting of these items, the gold, the silver, and the Babylonish garment, and the Bible tells us that covetousness identifies with idolatry.  We read that in the New Testament in Colossians 3:5:

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

So Achan committed idolatry by coveting those items and hiding them.  He was hiding his “strange gods,” as it were, in the earth in his tent.  And that is what “troubled Israel.”  The things he coveted were as idolatry, and it troubled Israel.  And remember that Jacob said the same thing about what his sons had done regarding their lies to the men of Shechem.  It says in Genesis 34:30:

And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land…

So Jacob was trying to clean up the mess that his family had become, and he is going right to the source of the trouble, the strange gods, but he is hiding them under the oak, just as Achan hid the gold, silver, and Babylonish garment in the earth.

Now if it were just that, I would not say that this word “hid” is pointing to something negative, but it is much more than that, so let us read several more verses.  It tells us regarding the wicked in Job 18:5:

The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.

Then continuing to speak of the wicked, God says in Job 18:10:

The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

The word “laid” is a translation of the same word translated as “hid.”  And, of course, they hide the snare when they lay it in the ground.  This word translated as “hid is used in relationship to snares multiple times.  It says in Psalm 9:15:

The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.

They hid the net, like one would hide a snare or a trap, and it catches themselves.

And it says of the wicked in Psalm 35:5-8:

Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of JEHOVAH chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of JEHOVAH persecute them. For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul. Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.

Several more times it is used in relationship to snares.

Well, what does this mean?  We will not have time in this study, but Lord willing, when we get together in our next study, we will look at more Bible verses where this word translated as “hid” is used, and then we will go back to Genesis 35 and try to understand what is in view with the hiding of the strange gods.  Again, why would that not be a good thing?  What could be negative about that?  I hope you will be able to join me for that.