Saturday, January 28, 2006

Genesis 28


Jacob at Bethel

1 So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, and said, "Do not marry any of these Canaanite women.

   At Rebekah’s urging, this solves the problem of Esau’s threats. Shouldn’t Isaac have already seen to it that both Jacob and Esau avoided marrying local women the way Abraham did with him? After all, his father, Abraham, had seen to it that Isaac did not marry a local woman. Isaac only seems to be going along with his wife and also doesn’t want any more Canaanite daughters-in-law. He seems oblivious as to why Abraham wanted him to marry a relative.

2 Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram*, to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of your uncle Laban's daughters.

   Marriage was a secondary reason for Jacob’s departure to Haran. Avoidance of Esau’s threats was the primary reason. Isaac shows a casual attitude toward the spiritual training of his sons. To him these matters must have been of little importance to come as little and as late as they did.

   Although his grandfather's servant had brought his father a wife, Jacob must find his own. Although his grandfather's servant traveled with a caravan that included ten camels, Jacob travels alone. In fact, he travels as a fugitive, hurrying out of the range of his brother's murderous rage.

3 May God Almighty (El Shaddai) bless you and give you many children. And may your descendants become a great assembly of nations!

4 May God pass on to you and your descendants* the blessings he promised to Abraham. May you own this land where we now are foreigners, for God gave it to Abraham."

* descendants: Singular “seed”, not “seeds”, so this especially looks forward to Messiah. Galatians 3:16: “God gave the promise to Abraham and his child (Greek - seed). And notice that it doesn't say the promise was to his children (Greek – seeds), as if it meant many descendants. But the promise was to his child--and that, of course, means Christ.” The promise of inheriting the Land is again narrowed, for the last time, to Jacob’s descendants alone.

   Here Isaac states blessings of the Abrahamic covenant in very specific terms, unlike in chapter 27. Isaac has finally resigned himself to the fact that God is going to bless Jacob and not Esau.

5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to stay with his uncle Laban, his mother's brother, the son of Bethuel* the Aramean.

*Bethuel –“ man of God” or “house of God”. The son of Nahor by Milcah; nephew of Abraham, and father of Rebekah and Laban.

6 Esau heard that his father had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that he had warned Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman.

7 He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-aram.

8 It was now very clear to Esau that his father despised the local Canaanite women.

9 So he visited his uncle Ishmael's* family and married one of Ishmael's daughters, in addition to the wives he already had. His new wife's name was Mahalath**. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son.

*Ishmael's – Remember that Ishmael was Isaac’s half brother, the son of Abraham and Hagar. He is not in the promised line and was sent away from Isaac (Genesis 21).

**Mahalath: From a root meaning "weak, sick, or diseased".

   Esau tried to please his father, but did not check with his father first about what he really wanted. One author suggests that God’s plan may have been for Esau, Isaac’s older son, to marry Leah, Laban’s older daughter and for Jacob to marry Rachel. Esau ended up not getting God’s very best.

   Esau is trying to win the approval of his father. If having a non-Canaanite wife was all that it took to make his father approve him, he would take care of the problem. After all, this woman was not a Canaanite and she was of the family of Abraham. What could make Isaac happier?

10 Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran.

   No mention of anyone going with him – no guards, no camels, no friends, no servants, little or no money, just a few clothes and some food.

   What is Jacob thinking about on this long journey on foot? He probably hated leaving his mother. He must have wondered how Laban would react to his arrival. He knew he had nothing to offer Laban as a dowry for a wife. What would his wife be like? Would he be able to return home? Would Esau still want to kill him when he returned?

   Jacob was finally at the end of himself. This was the God-chosen time for God to break into his life, for now Jacob knew how much he needed God in order to be blessed as his father and grandfather had been.

11 At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone for a pillow and lay down to sleep.

   It probably took 2 - 3 days for Jacob to just get this far. His arrival at this place is not just happenstance; God had it all planned.

   Night arrived before Jacob arrived at the city of Luz. The city gates would have been closed for the night, so Jacob, as shepherds customarily did, slept under the stars.

   The Hebrew text of the Bible clearly states that Jacob reached not just "a place" but "the place", referring to a place whose identity is already known to the reader from having been mentioned earlier in the text.

   The place that Jacob reached was the place of encounter with God, the very same place mentioned earlier in the account of Abraham's binding of Isaac. God had said to Abraham: "Take your son Isaac and go to the Land of Moriah and offer him up as an offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you... On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw the place from afar... And they came to the place that God told him" (Genesis 22 vv. 2, 4 & 9).

12 As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway* (or ladder) that reached from earth to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down on it.

*stairway (or ladder) – Hebrew “sullam”, only found here in the Bible. Was this what the Tower of Babel was imitating?

John 1:51 - “Then he said, "The truth is, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down upon the Son of Man”

John 1:51 tells us that the "ladder" pointed to Christ, who spanned the separation between heaven from earth, and who provided the only way we can draw near to God. Right down to where the fugitive lay, the ladder came, and right up to God Himself the "ladder" reached! (1)

Jesus and Nathaniel (who is also known as Bartholomew)

John 1:45-50: “The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Come, be my disciple." Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter's hometown. Philip went off to look for Nathaniel and told him, "We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth." “Nazareth!" exclaimed Nathaniel. "Can anything good come from there?" "Just come and see for yourself," Philip said. As they approached, Jesus said, "Here comes an honest man--a true son of Israel." "How do you know about me?" Nathaniel asked. And Jesus replied, "I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you." Nathaniel replied, "Teacher, you are the Son of God--the King of Israel!" Jesus asked him, "Do you believe all this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this." Then he said, "The truth is, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down upon the Son of Man."

   Nathaniel means” God has given” or “gift of God”. This event in Jacob's life takes on special importance because Jesus appropriated it for Himself while talking to Nathaniel.

   How do men get to heaven? Jesus used this vision of Jacob in His conversation with Nathaniel. Jesus had never met this man before. He saw Nathaniel coming to Him, and said of him, "Here comes an honest man--a true son of Israel" (John 1:47). He is not going to be like Jacob and be deceitful. Jesus declared Nathaniel to be a true son of Abraham, a Jew inwardly in spirit.

   This took Nathaniel completely by surprise. Nathaniel said to Him, "How do you know about me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you."

   What was he doing under the fig tree (a symbol of Israe)? Only God knew he was there! Yet, Jesus saw him. Nathaniel was possibly meditating on Jacob's life and thinking about “the ladder”. It is very likely that Nathaniel had meditated on the Messianic prophecies and prayed for their fulfillment in his time.

   John 1:51 alludes to Genesis 28:12 and Jacob's ladder is replaced in the verse by "the Son of Man." The divine origin and authority of Jesus is suggested by the title "Son of Man." It was the Messianic title that Jesus chose for Himself.

   In Jacob's dream God revealed his angelic host and showed him the throne of heaven and promised Jacob that he and descendants would dwell with the living God.

13 At the top of the stairway stood the LORD (Jehovah), and he said, "I am the LORD (Jehovah), the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I will give it to you and your descendants.

   This is the first time Jacob has a personal encounter with Jehovah God. Up until now, Jehovah was simply his father’s and grandfather’s God.

14 Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will cover the land from east to west and from north to south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.

   No reference is made to "the stars of heaven”.

15 What's more, I will be with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. I will someday bring you safely back to this land. I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you everything I have promised."

Hebrews 13:5 – “…I will never fail you. I will never forsake you."

   In His address to Jacob, the Lord now repeated the promises which He had made before to Abraham and Isaac, with the additional assurance that He would be with him, preserving him wherever he went, and ultimately bringing him back to the land.

   Notice that God does not condemn Jacob for his past actions.

   The blessing had been given by Isaac, and now God confirms the blessing. Isaac may have spoken about God to his sons, but it is apparent that they did not take this message to heart – especially Esau. Here God confirms that He is the God of Abraham and Isaac. He would be the God of Jacob, too.

   God’s covenant promise to Abraham and Isaac was offered to Jacob as well. But, it was not enough to be Abraham’s grandson. Jacob had to establish his own personal relationship with God. God has no grandchildren; each of us must have a personal relationship with him.

16 Then Jacob woke up and said, "Surely the LORD (Jehovah) is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it."

   Highly doubtful that Jacob was able to go back to sleep!

   Abraham had an ongoing conversation with God, but Jacob’s fearful reaction indicates that he did not have such a relationship with God and that he had not sought God’s guidance for dealing with Esau’s threat.

   What had Jacob done to deserve this high honor? What was there in him to merit this privilege? Absolutely nothing! It was God in grace which now met him for the first time and here gave to him and his seed the land on which he had been sleeping.

17 He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God--the gateway to heaven!"
John 14:6 “Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

18 The next morning he got up very early. He took the stone he had used as a pillow and set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it.

19 He named the place Bethel--"house of God"--though the name of the nearby village was Luz.

* Bethel – mean "house of God". This word should be always pronounced as two distinct syllables: Beth-El. Bethel was about 10 miles north of Jerusalem and 60 miles north of Beersheba, where Jacob left his family. Bethel is where God changes Jacob’s name to Israel (Genesis 35:6-7). Abraham built his first altar in Canaan here. The Ark of the Covenant was kept here for awhile.

**Luz - means "separation" or “almond tree”.

20 Then Jacob made this vow: "If God will be with me and protect me on this journey and give me food and clothing,

21 and if he will bring me back safely to my father, then I will make the LORD (Jehovah) my God.

   Jacob is saying, “If you bless me and keep me safe, I’ll worship you; otherwise, if you won’t bless me, then I’ll find another god.” He’s trying to strike a bargain with God! Remember that in Genesis 27:20, Jacob referred to the God of Abraham and of Isaac as “your God.”

22 This memorial pillar* will become a place for worshiping God, and I will give God a tenth** of everything he gives me."

*The pillar was to serve as a memorial. It marked a place to which he would return to build an altar and worship God.

**tenth – Jacob is penniless at this point, but believes that God is going to richly bless him.

RESOURCES:

posted by Oakview Bible Fellowship at 9:46 AM

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