Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #24 in Genesis 35, and I will read Genesis 35:19-21: 

And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.

I will stop reading here.  We saw in our last study that Rachel travailed with hard labour.  She died giving birth to her son Benjamin, and this very closely parallels an account in 1Samuel 4, regarding Phineas’ wife, and Phineas was the son of Eli the high priest.  And she happened to give birth the very day the Israelites lost a battle to the Philistines.  In that battle her husband and his brother Hophni died, and the Ark of God was taken.  The report came to Shiloh to the ears of Eli the high priest.  It shocked him so much that he fell over backwards, broke his neck, and died. 

It was at that time that Phineas’ wife was delivering a child, and she died in childbirth, just like Rachel died.  And she called her son’s name Ichabod, which means “the glory has departed,” because the Ark of the Covenant was the glory of Israel.  The glory departed from Israel when the ark was taken captive.  We know that historical event was one of the worst in all the history of the nation of Israel.  And they had a significant number of bad events that happened, but this one ranks as, perhaps, the worst, and it represented the judgment of God upon the churches and congregations when Christ removed His Spirit from the churches.  Christ had dwelt in the midst of the churches, and He certainly had been the glory of the churches, but when He departed out, the glory departed from the New Testament churches and congregations.  That was the time of the travail and birth of the child as the mother died.  Likewise, coming from Bethel, the house of God, with just a little way to go to Bethlehem, the house of bread, Rachel travailed and had hard labour.  In delivering the son, she died, but not before she called him Benoni, “son of my sorrow,” because the travail was so hard and so grievous.

We can understand how it relates to the Great Tribulation, and we discussed that last time.  But now we are going to look at the location where Rachel died.  Again, it says in Genesis 35:19:

And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.

She was in the way to Ephrath, or Bethlehem, but she was out of Bethel.  I mentioned that this may identify with that transition period from the early rain to the Latter Rain, or from one season of fruits, the firstfruits that became saved during the church age, to the final fruits of the great multitude that were saved out among the nations.  And in between those two seasons of rain were 2,300 grievous evening mornings.  And yet there were a number of people that came out of the churches, but they had been saved, or “spiritually conceived,” as it were, in the churches and congregations.  I am not sure exactly who Rachel is representing here.  Her name means “ewe lamb,” so she is like a sheep.  And she was giving birth, and I think she would identify with the churches and the bringing forth of God’s elect through the fruitfulness in the churches and congregations.  Actually, the name Ephrath is related to fruitfulness.  But it was in this “in between” location, just like there was a famine of 2,300 days between these seasons of fruit.

It also tells us in Genesis 35:20:

And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.

The word “pillar” is the usual word for “pillar.”  It is the same word used when Jacob set up a pillar of stone back in Bethel after that night that he was sleeping and had that encounter with God.  Then he set up a pillar there.  There had been several pillars set up.  When he made the covenant with Laban, he also set up a pillar, and so forth.  A pillar is a memorial, and I think we can understand it to represent the Gospel of God, and that is why the statement was made, “

…that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.”  Often when we read that phrase, “unto this day,” it is really presenting an eternal principle, something that continues on, even though historically what is said to be “unto this day” may not exist any longer, at least physically.  But on the spiritual level, it is a principle that is established and continues on forever.

We read of Rachel’s grave here, and we also can read of her grave in another place, and that is in 1Samuel 10, where it is just mentioned, for some reason.  We read in 1Samuel 10:1:

Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Is it not because JEHOVAH hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?

He was anointing Saul to be king over Israel.  Then it says in 1Samuel 10:2:

When thou art departed from me to day, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say unto thee, The asses which thou wentest to seek are found…

Then it continues with the historical account, but notice Saul was told that after he departed from Samuel, he would find two men by Rachel’s sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah.  The word “Zelzah” is only used here.  This is the only place this word is found in the Bible.  It is a compound word.  One of the two words that form this word is translated as “clear,” or “plain.”  For example, in Isaiah 32:4, it says, “…ready to speak plainly,” and that has to do with clear speech.  The other word is “shadow,” which is used fairly often, as when Jonah sat under the “shadow” of the booth, or tabernacle, in the book of Jonah.  So together it would mean “clear or plain shadow,” and I am not sure what that could mean. 

But we are also told it was in the “border of Benjamin,” and that is where Rachel was buried.  So that is helpful.  We know she died giving birth to Benjamin, and we wonder, “Is it possible that God gave that land to the tribe of Benjamin?”  We know that the inheritance of each of the tribes was chosen by lot, so it was according to God’s will because the Bible tells us, “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of JEHOVAH.”  Apparently when God meted out the land for inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin, He included the area where (or near) where Rachel died.  If we go to Joshua 18, we read of Benjamin’s inheritance in Joshua 18:11:

And the lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families: and the coast of their lot came forth between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.

So the land where you could find the tribe of Benjamin was in between Judah and the children of Joseph.  And here, the children of Joseph would be a reference to Ephraim.  So in between the tribes of Judah and Joseph was the tribe of Benjamin.  And we know that Jacob and Rachel had left Bethel and were on their way to Bethlehem, and Bethlehem is in the land of Judah, part of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah.  That is where Bethlehem is, but where is Bethel?  Let us go to Judges 4:5:

And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

So Deborah dwelt under the palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim.  So the location of Bethel is in Ephraim, and the location of Bethlehem is in Judah.  And according to Joshua 18:11, in between is Bethlehem, between Ephraim and Judah.  So that is interesting.  I do not know the spiritual meaning of that, but it does help us understand that God did, indeed, give this portion of land where Rachel died to the tribe of Benjamin, who were descendants of her son Benjamin who was born in that very spot as Rachel travailed and died. 

It is an interesting “tidbit” that we can look at, but another interesting thing is that Rachel was married to Jacob who was one of the major patriarchs.  Again, and again, the Bible speaks of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and there was a place where the patriarchs were buried.  Abraham purchased it, and we can read about that in Genesis 23.  He purchased it from the children of Heth, and there he buried Sarah.  Later Abraham was buried there.  And as we continue on in our chapter in Genesis 35, we read in Genesis 35:28-29:

And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years. And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Where did they bury him?  They buried him in that cave of  Machpelah.  Even though it could have been quite a journey (from where he died), they took that journey to bury Isaac.  And we are told that Rebekah was also buried there.  Let us look at Genesis 49, when Jacob was about to die.  It says in Genesis 49:29-31:

And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.

Well, Jacob also buried Leah in that burial ground, and not Rachel.  I am sorry that I do not have an answer for why that is, but we know that Jacob loved Rachel.  He longed for her, and he wanted to marry only her.  He thought he had married her, but Laban deceitfully substituted his other daughter Leah, and Jacob woke up the next morning and realized he had married Leah.  Therefore Leah became his first wife.  And the Bible tells us that a man and woman are joined together in marriage, and “what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”  The Lord Jesus pointed out that God made man and woman, and that is how it was from the beginning, and the sin of multiplying wives that we read of in the Old Testament was sort of “winked at” by God, in a way, and the Lord used it to paint various spiritual pictures, like Sarah and Hagar, and like Rachel and Leah, where Rachel was loved, and Leah was hated.  So Leah was Jacob’s first wife, and even though it was done in a deceitful way, once you are married, you are married, and maybe that is why Leah was buried in the sepulchre of the patriarchs, but Rachel was not buried there. 

There could be a spiritual meaning, but I am not sure what it is, but it is just unusual that Rebekah, the beloved wife of Jacob the patriarch, was not buried there, and yet that sepulchre was available.  She was buried in this place that was not in Bethel but in the way to Bethlehem, as they were traveling.  I am not sure of the spiritual significance of all this, but it is information that we can consider and pray about, and maybe the Lord will give us wisdom by the time we reach Genesis 49.  Actually, I am not aware that we can read of Leah dying, as we read of Rachel dying.  Was it possible that Leah had already died before Rachel, and was buried in that cave?  That could be a possibility.  I will have to check that out.  Leah’s name is only mentioned two or three times from this point going forward in the book of Genesis, and one of them was the verse we just looked at: “...and there I buried Leah.”  The other references are in regard to the sons of Leah, and she is not in view, so that leads to the possibility that she had died prior to Rachel’s death.

Lord willing, in our next study we are going to move on to verse 21: “And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.”  We will investigate this “tower of Edar,” and try to determine what could be the spiritual meaning of this tower.