What is the meaning of Genesis 33:20? There “Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem ...” (Genesis 33:18). • The word draws our eyes to the specific spot in Canaan where God had promised to bring Jacob home (compare Genesis 28:15; 31:3). • Shechem lies between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, the very region where later covenant blessings and curses would be spoken (Deuteronomy 11:29). • By buying land “from the sons of Hamor” (Genesis 33:19), Jacob puts down roots, signaling that God’s pledge of the land to Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 12:7) is being honored in real time. he set up an altar • Building altars was a family pattern of worship—Abraham near Shechem (Genesis 12:7) and Hebron (Genesis 13:18), Isaac in Beersheba (Genesis 26:25). • An altar marked thanksgiving for safe passage, just as Noah thanked God after the flood (Genesis 8:20) and later Moses would after victory over Amalek (Exodus 17:15). • It provided a place for sacrifice, foreshadowing the system given at Sinai (Exodus 20:24) and pointing to the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 10:10). • By choosing worship before settling family matters, Jacob shows that God, not prosperity or safety, is his first priority—echoing Jesus’ call to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33). and called it • Naming an altar personalizes the encounter; Abraham named his “The LORD Will Provide” on Moriah (Genesis 22:14). • Names preserve testimony: they remind future generations of what God did “in that place” (Joshua 4:6-7). • Speaking the name out loud is an act of witness to surrounding Canaanites, much as Peter’s public sermon in Acts 2 testified to Christ in Jerusalem. El-Elohe-Israel • Translated in the footnote, “God, the God of Israel.” • Jacob had first been called Israel after wrestling with the Angel of the LORD (Genesis 32:28). Now he embraces that new identity, attributing everything to the God who transformed him. • The double title (“God, the God”) stresses exclusivity—no other deity claims Israel’s allegiance, anticipating the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One” (Deuteronomy 6:4). • The name looks ahead: centuries later, prophets would speak of “the God of Israel” (Isaiah 45:3) to declare His sovereignty over nations. • By linking God’s name to his own, Jacob quietly testifies that every blessing he enjoys—family, land, legacy—flows from covenant grace (Genesis 35:11-12; Romans 11:29). summary Genesis 33:20 shows Jacob planting a flag of worship in the very soil God promised, publicly acknowledging that the Lord alone has carried him home and renamed him. The altar at Shechem proclaims that the God who keeps covenant with Israel is worthy of exclusive, grateful, and enduring devotion. |
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