Genesis 35: The Celebration of Death

Death shows up in Genesis 35 with no warning, and it forces a question most of us would rather avoid: do we face loss with fear, denial, or a deeper kind of hope? We follow Jacob back to Bethel, the place where God first met him, and we watch renewal begin in a surprisingly practical way, by burying idols, purifying the household, and choosing worship again. From there, God reaffirms the covenant promises given to Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob steps more fully into his identity as Israel, carrying not just blessing but responsibility.

Then the chapter turns tender and heavy. Deborah dies. Rachel dies in childbirth. Isaac dies at a ripe old age. We sit in the difference between an abrupt goodbye and an expected farewell, and we talk about how both can shake you. One detail hits especially hard: Rachel names her son “Ben-Oni” (son of my sorrow), but Jacob renames him “Benjamin” (son of my right hand, a place of blessing). That isn’t pretending the pain is small. It’s a picture of grief that tells the truth while still refusing to let sorrow be the final label.

We also explore a Christian view of death that avoids two extremes, celebrating death in a creepy way or running from it as if speaking of it makes it real. We talk about bereavement, why grief is a gift for processing loss, and why the hope of being with Jesus changes what we fear. We even look at King David’s response to loss as a model of praying hard, grieving honestly, and trusting God when the outcome is out of our hands. Subscribe for the daily Genesis Bible study journey, share this with someone walking through grief, and leave a review with the question you most want answered about life after death.

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Bethel Return And Clearing Idols

Blessing Renewed And Israel Named

Rachel’s Death And Benjamin’s Name

Isaac’s Death And Family Legacy

Grief Without Fear And True Hope

David’s Response To Loss

Prayer And Closing Encouragement

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Genesis chapter 35, and today's title is The Celebration of Death. That sounds so creepy. The Celebration of Death. I I want to make sure that we're not talking about that we celebrate the fact that we um that people are no longer with us. But what I want to do is I want to really challenge the way that we look at death because in this chapter, we're going to have two very important people that pass away. And I think if we're not careful, we can go to one extreme or the other. We can get to one extreme where it seems as though we celebrate death, which is kind of creepy. And then on the other side, we run away from death, which is also not helpful. So a proper celebration is to celebrate a life well lived and to understand that if you're a Christian, then we don't really die. We just change locations. And so we're going to talk about that today. So if you have your Bible, just want to open up with me to Genesis chapter 35. While you're doing that, make sure you take just a moment to like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Facebook page where there is an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job writing devotions every single day. And it is an honor to read those. I encourage you to read those with us. There's resources and just fun, good stuff. And one of my favorite things is many times they'll include uh music videos, worship videos, stuff like that in there. It's just good stuff. And you can get links to all of that at the Biblebreakdown.com. Well, once again, for the past little while, we have been going through the book of Genesis, and we are now coming to the end of the journey we're going to have with Jacob. Over the next few chapters, he's going to, we're going to begin to slowly transition to his son, which is going to be Joseph. But we got a little bit of ways to go here. And Jacob, remember, is the grandson of Abraham. He had Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob went away for 20 years, had a family, all the things. He's come back now, and he's getting ready to come to Bethel, which is where he had his first encounter with God. And it is coming to the end of the journey for a couple of people in his life. And that's never fun. It's never easy, but it is also part of the journey that we go through. So we're going to read this, stop along the way as always. And then I want us to have a quick conversation about a proper way to see death. So if we're ready, let's jump in. Genesis 35, verse 1 says this. Then God said to Jacob, Get ready and move to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau's like 20 years ago, right? So Jacob told everyone in his household, Get rid of all your pagan idols, purify yourselves, and put on clean clothing. Can we just pause and say, What are these jokers doing with pagan idols to begin with? But they had some, and he's like, Get rid of them. We're going to go and seek after God, right? Verse three. We now are going to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who answered my prayers when I was in distress, and he has been with me wherever I have gone. So they gave Jacob all their pagan idols and earrings, and he buried them under the great tree near Shechem. As they set out, a terror from God spread over all the people and all the towns in that area, so that no one attacked Jacob's family. Eventually, Jacob and his household arrived at Luz, also called Bethel, in Canaan. Jacob built an altar there and named the place El Bethel, which means God of Bethel, because God had appeared to him there when he was fleeing from his brother Esau. Soon after this, Rebekah's old nurse, Deborah, died, and she was buried beneath the oak tree in the valley below Bethel. Ever since the tree has been called Elom Bekuth, which means the oak of weeping. Now that Jacob had returned from Pedan Aram, God appeared to him again in Bethel, and God blessed him. And he said, Your name is Jacob, but you will not be called Jacob any longer. From now on, your name will be Israel. So God renamed him Israel. Then God said, I am El Shaddai, which means God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply. You will become a great nation, even many nations. Kings will be among your descendants, and I will give you the land I once gave Abraham and Isaac. Yes, I will give it to you and your descendants after you. Then God went up from him from that place where he had spoken to Jacob. Now pause. So what God is doing is he had said all this to Abraham, then he had said all this to Isaac, and now he is bestowing this blessing and this heritage, this legacy, this responsibility on Jacob. So now Jacob is carrying that family responsibility that began all the way back with Abraham. Sorry, verse 14. So Jacob set up a stone pillar to mark the place where God had spoken to him. Then he poured wine over it as an offering to God and anointed the pillar with olive oil. And Jacob named the place Bethel, which means house of God, because God had spoken to him there. Then leaving Bethel, Jacob and his clan moved toward Ephrath. But Rachel went into labor while she was still some distance away. Her labor pains were intense, and after a very hard delivery, the midwife finally exclaimed, Don't be afraid, you're gonna have another son. So Rachel was about to die, but with her last breath she named him the baby Ben Oni, which means son of my sorrow. But the baby's father, however, called him Benjamin, which means son of my right hand, and pause, a right hand was considered to be the place of blessing. So it would be the same thing of saying son of my blessing instead of son of my sorrow. Verse 19. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. Jacob set up a stone monument over Jacob's grave, and it can be seen there to this day. Then Jacob traveled on and camped beyond Migdal Eder. While they were living there, Reuben had intercourse with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Jacob soon heard about it. These were the names of the twelve sons of Jacob. By the way, that last verse is horrible. Verse 23. These are the sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob's oldest son, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon. The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant, were Dan and Nephtali. The sons of Zilpa, Leah's servant, were Gad and Asher. These are the names of the sons that were born to Jacob at Pedan Aram. So Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre, which was near Kirath Arba, now called Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac both lived together as foreigners. Isaac was one hundred and eighty years old, so for back then, still a very long time. He then breathed his last and died at a ripe old age, joining his ancestors in death, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. So we have this moment where life is now continuing on for Jacob, and he has now taken his place as the head of the house. Remember, way back when he stole the birthright and the blessing from the oldest. And so now he inherited that. And with that blessing also came the responsibility. You get to now carry on the family. And so as he is doing that and he's moving back and he's finally getting his life back together, Rachel passes away. And Rachel passes away, giving him the gift of another son. And as she is about to die, she's going to name him something sorrowful. And you know, Jacob is like, this is not sorrowful. You've blessed me with a son. I'm going to call him Benjamin, which is son of my right hand or son of my blessing. And then as he finally makes his way back, he gets to see his dad again, which is awesome. Isaac lives to see him at 180 years old, and then he passes away. But notice how when Isaac passes away, he says, Man, he was a ripe old age. He was gathered with his ancestors. It was a timely ending. And so in this story, you have an ending that seemed as though it was abrupt, not planned, not scheduled. This this moment when Rachel dies giving birth to a son. This was not planned and expected. And then on the other side, you have Isaac, who he's 180. It's planned and expected. He's he is an older gentleman. He has lived his life. And in both of these, time moves on. Time continues, life continues, and there's a celebration, but not an ending to the story. And so this is what I want to encourage you with. We live, as of this recording, we live in one of the most amazing times to be alive when it comes to medical ability. We have the ability to heal more diseases, to take care of more things. It is amazing what we can do. And because of that, the positive to it is people are now recovering and living longer than ever before. There are so many diseases that have been eradicated because of modern medicine, which is why it's so sad when there are countries who don't have access to modern medicine, because there are people who are dying needlessly. And it is something that we really need to be doing something about as best as we can. But because of that, it's also sometimes very, very difficult to understand that while we never want to see someone pass away, we don't know how to cope with it. We don't know how to cope with the fact that the Bible says it is appointed unto every person wants to die. In other words, at some point we're all going to pass away. But if you have Jesus, and if I have Jesus, then it's something that it's okay to not want to. It's okay to not to be really concerned about how we go about doing that, you know, all of that. But we no longer have to be afraid of what happens after death. Because as a Christian, we to be absent from the body is to be present from the Lord. And one of the things that we have to learn in this life is to realize that death is a part of life. And so we don't celebrate the uh you know, death to a point that we worship it or we hasten it or anything like that, but we celebrate that when someone passes away, they get to be with Jesus, they get to see him face to face. The Bible says that now we only see through a glass. So other words, we only see a distorted view, a a barely possible to see view, but one day, face to face. The the theological term for it is the beatific vision. That means to be able to see God in all of his glory and live, to see him face to face. And so I want to encourage you with something. If you've had someone who's passed away in your life and you celebrate them, there is nothing wrong with grieving. Because that's the other side, is there are people who would unintentionally try to tell you, well, if you love them and you you love Jesus, you shouldn't be grieving. You should only be celebrating. And so I want to make sure you don't hear me say that. I'm not saying that grief is bad. Grief is something that God has given us to learn how to process extreme loss. So it is okay to grieve. But at the same time, while we grieve, there should be a sense of I'm so thankful, God, that because of you, this is not the last time we will see one another. But one day we will meet again. One of the greatest blessings in the world is when you see someone who knows Jesus pass from this life to the next, because their soul is now with Jesus. I love how the story says that King David, that he had a son who died, and after his and while his son was still alive, but his son was kind of on his deathbed and he was about to pass away, the Bible says that David fasted and he prayed and he sought after God, and then after he found out that his son had died, he got up, took a shower, uh, went and ate, worshiped God, and they just didn't know what to do with that. And they were like, When when the son lived, you interceded and fasted and prayed and wept, and now that he's gone, you celebrate? Why is that? And I love how the Bible says that David told them, While he was still here, I didn't know what God was gonna do. There were there was there was hope that God would save him. But when I realized that God's plan for him was to go on and be with the Lord, then I will celebrate. Because he will not come back here, but one day I'll go and be with him. That is a proper way to celebrate death, is to say, I don't want them to go, but I trust the Lord. Therefore, if they go, I'm gonna go through my grieving process, but there's gonna be a little bit in the back of my mind that goes, Man, they made it. And one day I'll see them again. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Lord, grief is a hard thing. Embracing the reality of death is a hard thing because the enemy wants to distort it. He wants to take away and move us from one extreme to the next, to where we ignore it or we fascinate over it. I pray that you'll help us, Lord, to have a proper view, to realize that it's okay to not want to, it's okay to be concerned how we do, but to not be afraid of it, because we know that anywhere we are with you, it's a good day. And we celebrate you today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, God's word says in Genesis 1, verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And if God can do that, he can do anything. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Genesis chapter 36.