12 And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you; and to your seed after you I will give the land. 13 Then God went up from him in the place where he had been talking with him. 14 And Jacob put up a pillar in the place where he had been talking with God, and put a drink offering on it, and oil. 15 And he gave to the place where God had been talking with him, the name of Beth-el.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Genesis 35:12-15
Commentary on Genesis 35:6-15
(Read Genesis 35:6-15)
The comfort the saints have in holy ordinances, is not so much from Beth-el, the house of God, as from El-beth-el, the God of the house. The ordinances are empty things, if we do not meet with God in them. There Jacob buried Deborah, Rebekah's nurse. She died much lamented. Old servants in a family, that have in their time been faithful and useful, ought to be respected. God appeared to Jacob. He renewed the covenant with him. I am God Almighty, God all-sufficient, able to make good the promise in due time, and to support thee and provide for thee in the mean time. Two things are promised; that he should be the father of a great nation, and that he should be the master of a good land. These two promises had a spiritual signification, which Jacob had some notion of, though not so clear and distinct as we now have. Christ is the promised Seed, and heaven is the promised land; the former is the foundation, and the latter the top-stone, of all God's favours.