Genesis 28.18-22-Jacob Constructs Pillar and Makes Vow in Response to the Dream
Thursday June 15, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 28:18-22-Jacob Constructs Pillar and Makes Vow in Response to the Dream
Lesson # 163
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 28:10.
On Sunday morning we studied Genesis 28:10-13, which records Jacob’s departure from Beersheba to Paddan Aram.
In this passage we saw that during his first night away from home, a vision of elect angels and the Lord appeared to him in a dream in order to give him reassurance.
On Tuesday evening we studied Genesis 28:13-15, which records Jacob receiving from the Lord reconfirmation of the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant and reassurance that the Lord would protect and prosper him in exile in Paddan Aram.
Last evening we studied Genesis 28:16-17, which records Jacob’s first response to the dream, which was to worship the Lord with his lips.
This evening we will study Genesis 28:18-19, which records Jacob’s second, third and fourth responses to the dream.
His second response was to construct a pillar to memorialize his encounter with the preincarnate Christ.
Also, in this passage, we see Jacob’s third response, which was to worship the Lord by pouring oil on top of the pillar, which expressed his dedication, devotion, consecration and gratitude towards the Lord.
His fourth response is also contained in this passage, which was to worship the Lord by naming the place where he encountered Him.
Also, this evening we will note Genesis 28:20-22, which records Jacob’s fifth and final response to the dream, which was to make a vow, which expressed for the first time his faith in the Lord.
Genesis 28:10, “Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.”
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.”
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.”
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.’”
Genesis 28:14, “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.”
Genesis 28:15, “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.”
Genesis 28:16, “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.’”
Genesis 28:17, “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.’”
The Hebrew term translated “fear” and “awesome” is the verb yare (ar@y*) (yaw-ray), which denotes the concept of worshipping God and does “not” refer to being afraid as a result of a threat to one’s life but rather it means, “to have reverence and respect” for the Lord and to be in “awe” of Him and expresses Jacob’s “wonder” towards Him.
Therefore, we see that Jacob is responding to the theophany and divine promises by having “reverence” and “respect” for God and is in “awe” of Him and is expressing his “wonder” towards Him.
Jacob’s response to the theophany and divine promises was to possess an attitude of deep respect and awe for the Lord.
Jacob’s response to the theophany and divine promises was to esteem the excellence of the Person of God as manifested through His personal qualities or attributes such as love, faithfulness, mercy, compassion, justice, righteousness, truth, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, immutability, and sovereignty.
Jacob’s response to the theophany and divine promises was to possess an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration for the Lord, which was produced by the vision of angels and theophany and divine promises in his dream.
Jacob’s response to the theophany and divine promises was one of being filled with admiration, amazement and awe.
Jacob’s response to the theophany and divine promises reached right into his heart and shook him up and enriched his life, brought awe to his heart and overwhelmed him with an emotion that was a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence, fear and love for the God of his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac.
Therefore, the phrase “He (Jacob) was afraid” and Jacob’s statement “How awesome is this place” expresses the fact that Jacob is worshipping God in the sense that he is manifesting an attitude of deep reverence, respect and awe of the Lord for revealing Himself in the dream and giving him reassurance.
Genesis 28:18, “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.”
The next act of worship that Jacob performs is that he erects a limestone pillar to memorialize the Lord appearing to him and giving him assurance that he would inherit the blessings, promises, responsibilities, and privileges of the Abrahamic Covenant and would return to the land of Canaan.
As an expression of his worship towards the Lord, Jacob sets up a memorial to mark the spot where the Lord appeared to him and made promises to reassure him of his safe return to the land of Canaan.
“Pillar” is the noun matstsevah (hb*x@m^) (mats-say-vaw), which denotes a single upright stone pillar set up as a monument and a memorial to mark the spot where the Lord had appeared to him and made promises to him.
The terrain in Bethel is limestone and so Jacob takes the stone he used for a pillow and sets it up as a monument, a memorial to mark the spot that the Lord appeared to him in a dream.
Notice that Jacob did not build an altar as Abraham had done since he had no animals to sacrifice.
This would be the first of three times that Jacob would erect a pillar to memorialize an event.
In Genesis 31:45, Jacob erected a memorial a second time to stand as a witness to the oral contract between him and his uncle Laban and called it “Galeed,” which is the Hebrew term for “witness heap.”
In Genesis 35:14, after returning from his exile in Paddan Aram, Jacob erected a memorial a third time to mark the occasion when the Lord appeared to him again and fulfilled His promises to bring him back to the land of Canaan..
Memorials like the one set up by Jacob were set up to recall divine visitations so that others might learn about God when they ask, “What do these stones mean?” (See Joshua 4:6).
The third act of worship that Jacob performs is that he pours oil on top of the limestone pillar.
The pouring of oil on top of the limestone was an expression of Jacob’s dedication, devotion, consecration and gratitude to the Lord and recognition of the gracious promises that the Lord made to him in the dream (See Exodus 30:25-29; Leviticus 8:10-12).
The parallel structure in Hebrew text between the two sections, Genesis 28:10-13 and 16-19, shows that the worship was a response to the vision.
For example, the Hebrew noun matstsevah, “pillar” forms a word play with the Hebrew mutstsav, “set on,” which appears in Genesis 28:12 and nitstsav, “stood,” which appears in Genesis 28:13.
Mutstsav is the hophal participle form of the verb natsav and nitstsav is the niphil participle form of the same verb.
There is also another wordplay where the Hebrew noun re’sh (var@) (roshe) appears in Genesis 28:12 for the “top” of the stairway and then again in Genesis 28:18 for the “top” of Jacob’s pillar, linking the memorial with the vision in his dream.
These parallels demonstrate that Jacob’s miniature altar represented the vision.
Genesis 28:19, “He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz.”
“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.
Genesis 28:20-21, “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, and I return to my father's house in safety, then the LORD will be my God.’”
At the beginning of Genesis 28:20, the Hebrew text literally means that “Jacob vowed a vow” since the text contains the verb nadhar (rd^n*) (naw-dar), “to make a vow” and its cognate noun nedher (rd#n#) (neh-der), “vow.”
The verb connotes the act of voluntarily and verbally dedicating and devoting oneself to the service of the Lord whereas the noun form of the word represents the thing offered to fulfill a vow.
Jacob’s vow is the longest vow in the Old Testament.
Vows were not contracts or limited agreements but rather they were verbal and voluntary acts of submission to the Lord and the reorientation of one’s life to meet the Lord’s standards.
Therefore, we see that Jacob’s vow will reorient his journey.
Remember, he left home because of Esau’s desire to kill him but now Jacob’s journey takes on a whole new different meaning since God has revealed to him that He has a plan for his life.
Since the Lord has revealed Himself to Jacob through the theophany and guaranteed him divine protection and prosperity while in exile in Paddan Aram, Jacob has committed himself to living according to the standards of the living God.
Therefore, we see that Jacob has had a life changing experience.
He went from being on the run and in doubt about his future to possessing assurance that God had a plan for his life and would make him successful.
“If” is the conditional particle `im (sa!) (eem), which introduces the protasis of a 1st class condition, which indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
It should “not” be translated simply “if” since that would indicate that Jacob is striking a bargain with the Lord.
The context indicates that Jacob is not striking a bargain with the Lord since he has already responded to the divine revelation by worshipping the Lord with his lips, erecting a memorial, pouring oil on the top of the pillar expressing his dedication and devotion to the Lord and naming the place “house of God.”
Therefore, the conditional particle should be translated either “since” you will be with me and will protect me on this journey that I take and will give me food to eat and garments to wear and I return to my father’s house in safety, and I believe you that I will, then, the Lord will be my God.
Or, the word can be translated “if and let us say for the sake of argument” that you will be with me and will protect me on this journey that I take and will give me food to eat and garments to wear and I return to my father’s house in safety, “and I believe you that I will,” then, the Lord will be my God.
Genesis 28:22, “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.”
The tithe Jacob proposed to give the Lord was a form of taxation levied by rulers and became a definite obligation of the Mosaic Law to maintain the armies of Israel, the tabernacle or temple worship (Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:21, 24).
Jacob proposes to give this tithe to the Lord because he now recognizes the Lord’s authority over him and does this willingly rather than from obligation.
Also, this tithe that Jacob proposes to give the Lord would provide the means to build and maintain the altar he would build, which the pillar began.
Genesis 35:1-7 records that Jacob fulfilled his vow to build an altar at Bethel.
Church age believers are “never” commanded to tithe but are to give to the Lord like Jacob, willingly and in thanksgiving rather than from obligation.
2 Corinthians 9:6, “Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”
2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
The fact that Jacob proposes to give the Lord a tenth of all that the Lord prospers him with indicates that Jacob recognized the Lord’s authority and rank and expressed his appreciation and gratefulness to the Lord for guaranteeing his safe return home.
The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:2 instructs the believers in Corinth in the manner in which they were to give.
1 Corinthians 16:2, “On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.”
The Lord Jesus Christ commanded believers to give generously (Matt. 5:42; 10:8; Luke 6:30, 38).
Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure -- pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
The apostle Paul reminded pastor-teacher’s at Pastor’s conference to help members of the royal family of God in need and then reminds them of our Lord’s doctrinal teaching on the subject of giving (Acts 20:35).
Acts 20:35, “In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”