Genesis 28
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Background
Last week we saw the infamous story of Jacob’s deception and stealing of Esau’s birthright. This pivotal moment in Jacob’s life shapes the rest of his story, and indeed the story of the nation of Israel.
1 So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.
2 “Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.
3 “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.
4 “May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.”
5 Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
The events of the previous chapter are a direct cause to Isaac sending Jacob away. After Jacob stole Esau’s blessing by deceiving a blind Isaac, Rebekah overheard Esau’s plan to kill Jacob after the death of their father.
This shocked Rebekah into action, telling Jacob to flee to her brother Laban’s household in Haran, and then dramatically lamenting to Isaac over Esau’s choice of wives.
As we see here, Isaac agreed with Rebekah’s complaint:
34 When Esau was forty years old he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite;
35 and they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
This act was precisely what Abraham did for Isaac, so he would be familiar with the concept. In fact, as we see in this chapter, it was his idea.
An interesting difference - Isaac sends Jacob himself rather than sending a servant like his father did.
Rebekah’s manipulation succeeded and she achieved her goal in saving her son, yet she assumed in her scheming that Jacob would only stay with Laban for a few days.
44 “Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury subsides,
Perhaps she recalled her own experience, in which Abraham’s servant stayed only 1 night.
So Isaac sends Jacob to find a wife among his father’s, and his wife’s, kinsmen in Haran.
This is the most likely location for Haran, even though some scholars think that Abraham’s family still lived in Ur of the Chaldeans.
Haran would have been where Abraham’s father Terah settled before he died in Gen. 11:31.
31 Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there.
Bethuel would have been Isaac’s cousin, which made Rebekah Isaac’s niece. This also means that if Jacob marries a daughter of Laban, she would be his cousin.
Isaac blesses Jacob in a way that is reminiscent of Abraham’s blessings given by God.
Note the use of the title El Shaddai - this is the second time this has been used in Scripture.
1 Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.
6 “I have made you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you.
7 “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.
8 “I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
God honors His generational blessing to achieve His purpose of blessing the nations of the earth.
God honors His generational blessing to achieve His purpose of blessing the nations of the earth.
14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
At the time of Jacob’s leaving, he would be roughly 75 years old, the same age as his grandfather when he left his father’s household in Haran.
6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he charged him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”
7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.
8 So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father Isaac;
9 and Esau went to Ishmael, and married, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.
How bitter and sad this must have made Esau feel, to see his father bless the brother who stole the blessing he had been promised.
Though Jacob was a deceiver to his father, at this point he has been characterized by his obedience to his parents.
At this point, Esau already has 2 Hittite wives.
He also wanted to show his obedience and please his father, so his solution was to take another wife who was not from Canaan.
Rather than marry from his mother’s side like Jacob, Esau goes to his father’s family.
Ishmael and Esau are mirror images - the firstborn of their fathers, the son not chosen to receive the generational blessing, and being rebellious.
12 “He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”
39 Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, “Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, And away from the dew of heaven from above.
40 “By your sword you shall live, And your brother you shall serve; But it shall come about when you become restless, That you will break his yoke from your neck.”
Esau too would come to live in the land east of where Jacob lived in Canaan.
10 Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.
11 He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place.
12 He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.
14 “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
15 “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Jacob has gone on his way, and leaving his father’s tents he made it as far as where we see Bethel on the map.
Jacob’s dream was not an uncommon way for God to communicate with people, but this is only the 3rd time it is mentioned up to this point in Scripture - Abraham and Abimelech. This dream, however, is quite significant.
The ladder, or stairway, is the stuff of legends, with wild speculation as to its meaning and even its earthly location.
There is a reminiscence of the tower of Babel with a bit of irony.
The simplest understanding of the vision is simply that God is choosing to reveal Himself to Jacob in this way so that he would know that this is in fact God.
The angels are simply ascending and descending, going into the world and into God’s presence in heaven. Considering their function as messengers, this is not unusual.
14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
A couple of interesting cross-references on this topic. First is Satan:
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”
12 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.
1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.
2 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”
7 Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
Here’s where it gets interesting:
51 And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Jesus Himself either is, or has replaced, the ladder. This can simply be understood as Him being the mediator between heaven and earth.
5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Another reason that God may have revealed Himself to Jacob in this way was to inaugurate him as a prophet of God, like his grandfather and his father before him.
6 He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream.
God reiterates His promises and blessings to Jacob, as he had done with Abraham and with Isaac.
Same promises of land, descendants, and blessing.
Once again, all the families of the earth will be blessed because of Abraham and the generations after him.
God also explicitly promises to be with Jacob and to safely bring him back to the land of Canaan.
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top.
19 He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear,
21 and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God.
22 “This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
Jacob recognizes that where he was lying was a holy place, and used the stone he was sleeping on to create an upright pillar to mark its significance.
In his ignorance and pagan thinking, he thinks that God is located at this particular location. He is unaware that God is in fact everywhere.
Bethel means “house of God.”
There will be a city named Luz that is later conquered by the Israelites, and is renamed Bethel after this naming by Jacob.
Jacob is the first patriarch to make a vow to God. This is an interesting turn, as with Abraham God made all of the declarations. Now Jacob is putting God to the test.
Though Jacob mirrors his father and grandfather, his lack of spiritual maturity is evident at this time. God has some work to do on him.
God’s grace covers our shortcomings, and He is faithful in spite of us.
God’s grace covers our shortcomings, and He is faithful in spite of us.
6 O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!
7 He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth.
8 He has remembered His covenant forever, The word which He commanded to a thousand generations,
9 The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac.
10 Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan As the portion of your inheritance,”
12 When they were only a few men in number, Very few, and strangers in it.
13 And they wandered about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people.
14 He permitted no man to oppress them, And He reproved kings for their sakes:
15 “Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm.”
Jacob not only promises to follow God, but promises to build a house for God, and tithe to God.
Once again reminiscent of Abraham, and also will be prophetic for his descendants.
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
God honors His generational blessing to achieve His purpose of blessing the nations of the earth.
God’s grace covers our shortcomings, and He is faithful in spite of us.
Next week, we will continue with the story of Jacob in Haran.