Genesis 31:13

Now that thou beginnest to grow rich it is time to think of an altar and sacrifices again." (2.) To thy comforts in Canaan: Return to the land of thy kindred. He was here among his near kindred; but those only he must look upon as his kindred in the best sense, the kindred he must live and die with, to whom pertained the covenant.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes

I am the God of Bethel,....

Note, Worldly prosperity and success are doubly sweet and comfortable when we see them flowing, not from common providence, but from covenant-love, to perform the mercy promised --when we have them from God as the God of Beth-el, from those promises of the life which now is that belong to godliness.

Jacob had been sent away to Padanaram and he might, perhaps, have stopped there if things had been quite as he wished. As it was, he stayed there quite long enough. He seemed almost to forget his father's house in the cares that his wives and children and the anxious oversight of his constantly increasing flocks involved. But God did not mean him to remain at Padanaram. He was to lead a separated life in Canaan and, therefore, things grew very uncomfortable with Laban. He was not a nice man to live with at any time, but he began to show his crotchets and his heart-burnings, and a good deal of that scheming spirit of which there was a little in Jacob. It came to him from his mother, who was Laban's true sister, and had her share of the family failing. So there were endless bickering, bargaining, disputes—each trying to outdo the other—till at last, as God would have it, Jacob could bear it no longer. So he resolved to take leave of that land and return to the land of his kindred. An angel appeared to him, then, to comfort him in going back to his father's house. The angel spoke in the name of the Lord and said, "I am the God of Bethel," which must have at once suggested to Jacob that the Lord had not changed, more especially in regard to him. The occurrence at Bethel was the first special occasion, probably, upon which he had known the Lord and though many years had passed, God comes to him as the same God as He was before. "I am the God of Bethel." You remember, some of you, perhaps, the first time when pardoning love was revealed to you—when you were brought to see the love of God in the great atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ! Well, tonight, the Lord says to you, "I am the same God as you have ever found Me. I have not changed.

Jacob had been sent away to Padanaram and he might, perhaps, have stopped there if things had been quite as he wished. As it was, he stayed there quite long enough. He seemed almost to forget his father's house in the cares that his wives and children and the anxious oversight of his constantly increasing flocks involved. But God did not mean him to remain at Padanaram. He was to lead a separated life in Canaan and, therefore, things grew very uncomfortable with Laban.