In troublous times the people went to Bethel to ask counsel of God Judges , 31 ; Here the ark of the covenant was kept for a long time under the care of Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron Here also Samuel held in rotation his court of justice 1 Samuel It was included in Israel after the kingdom was divided, and it became one of the seats of the worship of the golden calf 1 Kings ; Hence the prophet Hosea Hosea ; ; , 8 calls it in contempt Beth-aven, i.
At length all traces of the idolatries were extirpated by Josiah, king of Judah 2 Kings ; and the place was still in existence after the Captivity Ezra ; Nehemiah It has been identified with the ruins of Beitin, a small village amid extensive ruins some 9 miles south of Shiloh. Mount Bethel was a hilly district near Bethel Joshua ; 1 Samuel A town in the south of Judah Joshua ; If we are to accept the precise definition of Genesis the name of Bethel would appear to have existed at this spot even before the arrival of Abram in Canaan.
So in our spiritual life it represents a time of major battles and struggles to leave behind our old, selfish and worldly ways of life and focus our lives on God and spirit instead. Shiloh was the location of the Tabernacle after the initial conquest of the Holy Land, during the time of Samuel. There were still some conflicts during this time, but for the most part the Israelites lived a more peaceful and settled life during the time the Tabernacle was in Shiloh. We still have our struggles, but we are now solidly settled into a Christian life.
And yet, the time period during which the Tabernacle was in Shiloh was also a rather disorganized and decentralized period in the history of the Israelites. There was no central authority, and no cohesiveness as a nation. The twelve tribes lived in their own areas, administered their own affairs, and generally faced the various local enemies on their own.
So this time in our spiritual development also represents a time when, although we have become active Christians, we are not very organized about it. We just sort of face issues and conflicts whenever and wherever they crop up, in a reactionary manner.
Jerusalem, where the Tabernacle was later established by David, and where Solomon built the Temple, represents the next stage in our spiritual journey of rebirth. And yet, Jerusalem, as the capital established by King David, represents a much more focused form of Christian life. Under Saul, the first king of Israel, and especially under David, who finished the job of conquering the Holy Land, the Israelites were unified under a single leader, with a clear and unified goal.
Having the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, in Jerusalem, then, represents a stage in our spiritual journey in which we have set clear spiritual goals for ourselves, and are pursuing those goals in a proactive, not reactionary, way. Our life has purpose and direction. We may or may not see farther down the road that God is leading us on.
But we know what task God has given us now, and we are intent on accomplishing that task. To put it in distinctly Christian terms, we have a clear and comprehensive idea of the teachings of Jesus as they apply to our lives this is the meaning of Jerusalem spiritually , and we have focused our lives on learning and living by those teachings in a very specific way.
Thank you so much for offering your wisdom and research. Thank you Lee for your narrative regarding the city of Bethel. That is so alarming to know this location is no longer significant. Thanks for stopping by, and for your comment.
I think that Bethel is a fine name for a church. So find the website i thank God for your gentleness and loving nature quality replying all question with blessed inputs and encouraging. Thank you for your beautiful and tranquil thoughts! I absolutely love this!
Very clear and thought provoking. I am truly blessed, encouraged and motivated by your teaching Brother Lee, please let me know where I can sign up to learn more from you! Thank you! Feel free to search around here for other articles you might enjoy! Interesting article that I came across while researching the connection between Bethel and the dwelling place of God in man.
I was a bit concerned about your thought that Bethel… Which would translate into the divine reality of Bethel… Being left to fade away. And it becomes the reality that we will dwell in eternally. This, for me, is the enlarged Bethel experience, and all that comes after this Bethel experience, comes out of our Bethel experience. Surely, as we see in scripture, our Bethel experience can become corrupted — one just need look around us at the horror Christianity is to see this corruption.
And Paul even spoke to it when he said that all of Asia had turned away from him his ministry. Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Most certainly God will allow — even cause — our Bethel experience to fade, should we pursue corruption after having it.
But Bethel faded in the old testament… Under the old covenant. Even if for a time it seems that we reject the reality of our Bethel experience… The Reality of our Bethel experience will never leave us nor forsake us.
Because, given our Bethel experience, we are His. The higher up you climb on Mount Zion, the more you see.
But the first step you took up this divine mountain will always be an integral part of your journey. Because that first step was only possible in God. And God is eternal, having no beginning and no end. The reality of Bethel is God with man, and man with God. About Bethel fading, the meaning of this is that our early, relatively self-absorbed and deal-making relationship with God must fade away if we are to reach our full spiritual potential—which in the Old Testament is represented by Jerusalem, as you say, and which in the New Testament is represented by the New Jerusalem.
I have no desire to go back to any earlier stage of my life. Rather, I look forward to continuing my journey forward and, I hope, upward to a higher level of love, understanding, and relationship with God and with my fellow human beings.
Very insightful article. All the other comments also added greatly to deepen my view of the importance of what Beth-El was at that time. I also believe that Elizah was taken up by the chariots and horseman of heaven at Beth-El. In the book of Kings it says he was told to go there and Elisha followed him there to Beth-El, who also received double portion of Elijahs spirit in that very same place.
About Elijah, though he passed through Bethel on his way to the place where he was taken up to heaven, that did not happen in Bethel, but on the other side of the Jordan, across from Jericho. You can read the story in 2 Kings Thanks Lee for watering the thirst sheep of God specially from countries where Bible study is a dream for the people like me. Bethel represents disobedience. Instead of traveling to Jerusalem as instructed, the king erected shrines in Bethel and Dan.
So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. Thanks for your comment.
There are a lot of comments here. Apparently I let that one slip past without replying to it. Or is there any sign or tourist sign on that holy place that we can see till now. Is that bethel is the bethlehem now?
Thank you so much. Thanks for stopping by, and for your comment and question. It is very unlikely that a stone that Jacob set up as a pillar nearly four thousand years ago is still known to us today. Oh, and Bethel is not the same city as Bethlehem.
Do you think it possible that Bethel was the true location of the Temple and actually where the City of David was located? Thanks for the inciteful read! But of course, these are the physical, historical Tabernacle and Temple. Much more important are the spiritual Tabernacle and Temple, which are to be built within our own heart. The Temple that we build in our heart is the place we prepare within ourselves for the Lord to be the central presence in our life.
I turned my life over to God March and since then have slowly been growing in the Lord. Your description of Bethel is exactly what God has told me my Bethel is to be.
A place to draw others onto him, that otherwise would not come to know him and form a relationship with the Lord that leads them into a church for greater leading and maturity. About changing your name, that would be a personal decision that only you can make. However, it is not a bad thing to be reminded of where our connection with God started, even if we may over time mature as Christians beyond the infant faith that we had when we first accepted Christ into our lives.
Christ the rock. And I know of no scripture verse that tells us that our relationship with Christ Jesus must fade away. And no, I am not saying that Bethel is more important than Jerusalem.
Both are important, as the reality of both are Christ Jesus. Scripture tells us that God created the heavens and the earth, but He is pleased to dwell with man Isa.
Scripture tells us that we as believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit 1 Cor. Scripture tells us that God is our dwelling place for all generations, and we love to hide and abide in Him as He abides in us Psa.
And scripture tells us that the house of God is constituted with God and man mingled together as one… In His house God expresses Himself in humanity, and here both God and man find mutual and eternal satisfaction and rest Psa. And yet we know that it is the new Jerusalem that John saw coming down out of heaven, at the center of which is God.
On the one hand we have Bethel, the house of God, which is the church… And on the other hand we have the new Jerusalem, that which comes down out of heaven and has God at its center. Bethel, the church, becomes the new Jerusalem, the bride… The eternal Bethel, the house of God, the mutual dwelling place of God and man, where man dwells in God and God dwells not only with man but in man.
And we should not think that we are above any aspect of our Lord, and fall into the opinion that one aspect should be forgotten… Less the Lord see that we need to experience it again as a reminder of who He is to us. Its quality will no longer be that of Bethel, but of Jerusalem, and eventually of the new Jerusalem. But Jerusalem appears extensively in the New Testament.
And the final vision of the New Testament, and of the Bible as a whole, is of the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Metaphorically, this means that the early relationship that we had with Christ, symbolized by Bethel, is replaced by a more mature relationship, symbolized by Jerusalem, and finally by the new Jerusalem.
Just keep in mind that in the Christian Bible, Bethel does fade away, such that it is no longer present in the New Testament. Thank you so much for this article! I have been reading the comments and when I got to this one, I had to comment! Thank you so much for pointing out that Bethel is not mentioned in the New Testament.
For over 12 years now, my brother has made a place called EL Bethel his place of worship. His leader is referred to as an apostle and his wife is a prophetess who gives my brother a prophecy twice a week.
The apostle and the prophetess are the only two leaders of this place. He has made them believe that if they leave this place, they will lose their salvation and that they and their families will no longer be protected. I plead with you and other fellow Christians to please pray with me over this situation! Thank you so much! No human being has that sort of power. Only the Lord Jesus Christ does. Usurping that power or at least claiming to , is stealing from the Lord.
And telling people they will lose their salvation if they leave the group is classic cult mind-control. Unfortunately, when people get pulled into these cult-like groups, it is very difficult to get them out. Their whole mind becomes re-tuned to listen only to the cult leader, and they see everything through that lens. Aside from prayer, which is always good, all you can do is continue to love the person even if they cut you off also common among people caught up in cults , and be ready to receive them back if some upheaval in the cult or in their personal life causes the scales to fall off their eyes so that they re-enter the regular world.
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Posted on June 17, by Lee — 90 Comments. Here is a spiritual conundrum posed by loganfields2: Could you please explain to me in one of your posts the history of, and the importance of Bethel in the Bible! Thanks for the question, loganfields2. Bethel in relation to Jericho and Jerusalem. Share this:. Like this: Like Loading About Lee. What Should I Read? For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which [are] in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.
So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets that [were] at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he said, Yea, I know [it]; hold ye your peace.
And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. Howbeit [from] the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, [to wit], the golden calves that [were] in Bethel, and that [were] in Dan. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.
And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. Moreover the altar that [was] at Bethel, [and] the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, [and] stamped [it] small to powder, and burned the grove.
Then he said, What title [is] that that I see? And the men of the city told him, [It is] the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. And all the houses also of the high places that [were] in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [the LORD] to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
And their possessions and habitations [were], Bethel and the towns thereof, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer, with the towns thereof; Shechem also and the towns thereof, unto Gaza and the towns thereof:. And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Bethel with the towns thereof, and Jeshanah with the towns thereof, and Ephrain with the towns thereof.
The children also of Benjamin from Geba [dwelt] at Michmash, and Aija, and Bethel, and [in] their villages,. And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence. So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off. Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him [in] Bethel, and there he spake with us;.
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