Genesis 35 - What Killed Rachel In The Bible?| Bible and Tea Time

Question:

Genesis 35: What Killed Rachel In The Bible?

Genesis 35 is a chapter of tragedy and blessings. Immediately in verse 1: God told Jacob to go the Bethel and reside there, and build an altar to worship me, the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. Therefore, Jacob instructed his entire household to get rid of the false gods and wash themselves and put on clean clothing (which is a form of purification and cleansing) before God. Genesis 35:

Answer:

Genesis 31:32 - Jacob pronounced a curse on the one who stole the idols of Laban. "But as for your household idols, a curse upon anyone who took them. Let him die! If you find a single thing we’ve stolen from you, I swear before all these men, I’ll give it back without question.” For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had taken them. Therefore, the curse was fulfilled in Genesis 35:16-19 when Rachel died in childbirth.

Genesis 30:1 - Rachel pleaded with her husband Jacob saying “Give me children, or else I die” and this was also another fulfilment of her death during childbirth.

Proverbs 18:21 - Says, there’s death and life in the power of the tongue. Therefore, we Have to be careful of the words that we speak over our lives.

Genesis 35:1-4 - And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

2) Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:

3) And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

4) And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

Conclusion:

Jacob had loved Rachel more than Leah but how unfortunate the death of his beloved wife Rachel occur just as he was going back to the Promise Land. But because of her father’s strange gods that had meant much to her, she did not hand them over when her father Laban met up with Jacob her husband looking for his gods. 

Rachel made the decision to keep the gods secretly and sat upon them and told her father that she is unable to get up because her custom of woman is upon her. (meaning her monthly cycle) (Genesis 31:34-35). 

In Genesis 35:2: At this point, there was no certainty that she had handed over her father's strange gods to Jacob when he had asked to put away your strange gods from among you. Sometimes the ones we loved dearly and who are close to us can create tragedy in our lives.

Rachel’s husband Jacob worship the true God of Israel and obeyed Him, but Rachel's desire was to worship and kept the false gods even though she was living comfortably with all the blessings that the Almighty God had blessed her husband with. 

This is to show that we can not have it both ways worshipping the true God and still practicing idolatry. There will be severe consequences upon our lives and sometimes it can cause spiritual death or even more tragic physical death.

What killed Rachel in the Bible? Rachel was not fully converted to true worship and was still committed to idol worship because that was her custom, and perhaps when Jacob was doing his daily devotion to the true God she was not involved. Even though Jacob was in a strange land away from home residing with Laban, his two wives, maidservants and children, he kept a relationship with God and continued worshiping Israel's true God.