At Bethel Jacob did some very significant things. He built an altar, set up a pillar, poured a drink offering upon the pillar, and then poured oil upon the pillar (35:7, 14-15). In this message we shall consider Jacob's pouring the drink offering and the oil upon the pillar he had set up.
Remember that nearly every item mentioned in the book of Genesis is the seed of a truth developed in the following books of the Bible. Because 35:14 is the first mention of the drink offering, this verse is the seed of the drink offering. If we had only this verse, it would be difficult to know the meaning of the drink offering. In order to understand the significance of the drink offering, we must trace its development in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
We have pointed out that Jacob twice set up a pillar in Bethel. The first time he did not pour a drink offering upon the pillar; he simply poured oil upon it. The reason Jacob poured oil but not wine upon the pillar the first time was that in the Bible oil does not require very much experience on our part, but wine depends upon our experience. At the time of Jacob's first visit to Bethel, he did not have any experience of the Lord. Rather, he was a young supplanter and had no wine to pour out to the Lord. Thus, in chapter twenty-eight he could not pour out the drink offering. But twenty years later, after he had been touched by the Lord and had been somewhat transformed, he returned to Bethel. Because he had had some experience, he had wine to pour out upon the pillar as a drink offering to the Lord. Please keep in mind that the drink offering is absolutely related to our experience.