Sermon Tone Analysis

Sunday June 11, 2006

Genesis: Genesis 28:10-13-The Lord Appears to Jacob in a Dream

Lesson # 160

Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 28:10.

This morning we will begin to study the story of Jacob’s exile in Paddan Aram, which is recorded in Genesis 28:10-33:17.

Today we will study Genesis 28:10-13, which records Jacob’s departure from Beersheba.

In this passage we see Jacob receiving direct revelation from the preincarnate Christ who reconfirms to him the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant and reassures him of His presence and protection while in exile in Paddan Aram.

Thus far in our study of this chapter, we have seen in Genesis 28:1-5 that Isaac agrees with Rebekah’s plan to send Jacob away to her brother Laban in Paddan Aram in order to secure a wife for Jacob.

Her real reason for sending Jacob away was to protect him from Esau’s plot to kill him and not really to secure a bride for Isaac.

This is clear since Rebekah did not provide Jacob with money and materials to give to Laban her brother, which would constitute the “price” to secure a bride.

Evidently, Isaac assumed that Rebekah would see to it that she would provide Jacob everything he would need to secure a bride since Jacob was her favorite.

His assumption proved wrong and costly since Rebekah never sees Jacob again.

Rebekah’s conspiracy to deceive her husband Isaac so that he would bless Jacob her favorite rather than Esau his favorite son would come back to haunt her.

By not seeing Jacob again she has reaped what she has sowed.

Genesis 28:10, “Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.”

The journey from Beersheba to Haran was approximately a seven hundred mile journey and was the same one taken by Abraham’s servant Eliezer when he went to secure a bride for Isaac among Abraham’s relatives.

Genesis 28:11, “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.”

What a difference a day makes.

Not too long ago we saw Jacob living under the comfort and protection of his parents’ tents but now we see that this has been replaced by a rock.

Up to this point in his life, Jacob had spent most of his life as a homebody, living in the family home at Beersheba (Genesis 22:19; 26:33; 28:10).

Now, Jacob would have to grow up in a hurry since he is about to enter the school of hard knocks but at the same time will grow closer in his relationship to God.

Back in Beersheba, Esau waits to kill him and ahead of him in Haran, and unknown to Jacob, Laban waits to exploit him.

Bruce K. Waltke commenting on this passage, writes, “He is situated between a death camp and a hard-labor camp” (Genesis, A Commentary, page 388, Zondervan).

Jacob is retracing the long and difficult journey that Abraham traveled approximately one hundred twenty-five years earlier.

However, his situation was much more difficult than that of his grandfather because back in Beersheba, Esau waits to kill him and ahead of him in Haran is Laban waiting to cheat him.

The “certain place” in which Jacob camped and spent the night was “Bethel,” which used to be called “Luz” according to Genesis 28:19.

“Bethel” literally means, “house of God” and is identified with modern Beiten, approximately ten miles north of Jerusalem, which became one of the two capitals and cult centers of the northern kingdom and only Jerusalem is mentioned in the Old Testament more than Bethel.

If you recall, it was near Bethel that Abraham built an altar and worshipped the Lord in prayer just before and after his ill advised trip to Egypt with Sarah (See Genesis 12:8; 13:3, 4).

Bethel would be the place that Jacob would later return to from his exile according to Genesis 35:1.

It would become to him a lifelong memorial of God’s promises to him and of His ability to fulfill those promises.

The trip from Beersheba to Bethel was approximately a sixty to seventy mile journey north and was very difficult and arduous journey since it was over rough, mountainous country.

Genesis 28:11, “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.”

In the Scriptures, sunset symbolizes distress and adversity (See Genesis 15:12, 17; 19:1) whereas sunrise symbolizes deliverance from God.

The setting sun symbolizes the beginning of Jacob’s dark journey to Paddan Aram where he will struggle with humans and with God but will prevail whereas the “day-break” for his soul will not come until the end of his twenty-year exile (See Genesis 32:26).

The terrain in Bethel is limestone and so there were plenty of stones to choose from.

Jacob decided to use one of these stones as a pillow to rest his head.

He was no doubt feeling alone and forsaken and was feeling anxious about his future.

The fact that Jacob was by himself sleeping out in the open air using a rock for a pillow indicates that he was alone with no caravan for protection and did not even have a tent under which he could rest.

At this point in his life, Jacob typifies or foreshadows the Lord Jesus Christ who according to Matthew 8:20, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

There were no armed servants to protect him against beasts or bandits and he was not a hunter like Esau, which would have enabled him to live off the land.

No doubt, his mother packed food and supplies for him along with money to purchase necessities along the way but otherwise from the human perspective and his at the time, he is alone in a strange and dangerous country.

But as he will soon find out, he is not alone since God is with him and elect angels are protecting the father of the nation of Israel.

Genesis 28:12, “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.”

In Genesis 28:12-13, the interjection hinneh (hN@h!), “behold, look” is used after the verb of perception chalam (sl^j*) (khaw-lam), “to dream” and marks out three images in Jacob’s dream: (1) A stairway touching heaven and earth (2) Angels ascending and descending on the ladder (3) The Lord as Master.

“Ladder” is the noun sullam (sL*s|) (soo-lawm), which does “not” refer to a ladder but rather to a broad and high flight of stairs since the latter would be better suited for angels ascending to and descending from the third heaven.

There were many angels on the staircase with some ascending and others descending at the same time and so what Jacob sees is a “stairway to heaven.”

“Angel” is the noun mal’akh (Ea*l+m^) (mal-awk), which means, “messenger” is used in the Old Testament with reference to “elect” angels (Gen.

19:1; Ps. 91:11) and men (Deut.

2:26; Josh.

6:17) and of the “preincarnate” Christ (Gen.

22:11; Zech.

3:1).

The context indicates that mal’akh in Genesis 28:12 is a reference to elect angels.

The fact that these angels are ascending to and descending from the throne room of God indicates that these angels had uninterrupted, continuous communication with God.

The angels were first of all said to be ascending to God meaning they were coming to God from protecting Jacob.

Then, the passage says that they were descending from the throne room of God to Jacob in order to protect him.

Therefore, unknown to Jacob was that these elect angels had been with Jacob all the time on this trip.

Also, the fact that these angels were protecting Jacob indicates they were of course “elect” angels.

We have seen in our past studies in the book of Genesis that the elect angels are employed by God to guard (Genesis 3:24), to communicate with God’s people (Genesis 18:1) and to protect God’s people (Genesis 19:1-22).

Hebrews 1:14, “Are not all angels servant-spirits who are divinely commissioned and repeatedly dispatched for service on behalf of those who are destined to inherit salvation.”

Therefore, the presence of these elect angels would suggest to Jacob that the preincarnate Christ who appeared to him in this dream at Bethel would also be present with him through these elect angels.

This revelation would be a great encouragement to Jacob as he made his way into exile.

Also, the Lord wanted Jacob to know that even though he had to flee his home, he was not leaving the God of Abraham and his father Isaac behind.

This vision of angels would reassure Jacob that God cares for him and was also still accessible to him even though he had left his parents.

The Lord Jesus uses this incident with Jacob in John 1:51 as an illustration of the fact that the believer has access to the Father through Him (See John 14:6; Acts 4:12).

John 1:51, “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.’”

Therefore, the Lord Jesus is telling Nathaniel that He is the high and broad staircase that extends from earth to heaven, which implies that He is the “Mediator” between heaven and earth or in other words, between God and man.

1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

Genesis 28:13, “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.’”

As Jacob laid his head to rest on the stones of Bethel, the Lord appeared to him in a “theophany,” or “Christophany,” which are theological terms used to refer to either a visible or auditory manifestation of the Son of God before His incarnation in Bethlehem (Gen.

32:29-30; Ex. 3:2; 19:18-20; Josh.

5:13-15; Dan.

3:26).

This theophany or Christophany was in the form of a dream, which was one of the means by which the Lord appeared to His people prior to His 1st Advent.

Hebrews 1:1-2, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”

The Lord identifies Himself to Jacob as “the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac” in order to reassure Jacob that he will be protected by Him.