Genesis 31:13
I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.
The words were spoken in a dream as a merciful answer to Jacob's distressed prayer for direction when he did not know which way to turn. Laban's countenance was no longer toward him as before, and he feared danger from Laban's sons. By calling Himself the God of Bethel, God reminded Jacob of the place where he had anointed the pillar and made the vow, thereby renewing the gracious promise made there to be with him. God directed him to leave Laban and the land where he was living and to return to the land of his kindred.
Jacob called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock and related the dream to them as his reason for leaving. He testified that the God of his father had been with him and that he had served their father with all his power. Though their father had deceived him and changed his wages ten times, God had not suffered him to hurt him. Rachel and Leah answered that Jacob should do whatever God had said to him, reasoning from their own dissatisfaction that their father counted them as strangers and had devoured their money and that the riches God had taken from their father belonged to them and their children.
The words demonstrate the fulfillment of the promises God had made to Jacob at Bethel when he fled from home as an exiled fugitive, for in his hour of need God's angel came to instruct, comfort, and protect him, proving that God keeps His word. This account had been taught to Joseph in childhood in his father's tent together with God's love in providing a Redeemer, and it came vividly before his mind during his own exile. The verse teaches that the God of one's fathers can be one's own God, leading Joseph in his exile to give himself fully to the Lord, to pray that the Keeper of Israel would be with him in the land of his exile, and to resolve to prove true to God under all circumstances as a subject of heaven's King.