Jacob’s History
As we find him in Chapter 28 he
is living in fear of his brother Esau.
You will remember that he has twice deceived and taken away significant
privileges from his brother Esau. He
took away his brother’s
birth-right (Gen. 25:29-34) - the
rights of the firstborn by which
he would inherit his father’s land
and the family line would be
perpetuated through him. He also took away Esau’s covenant blessing (Gen.27), which was ordinarily reserved for
the oldest son.
But that is not all. Esau himself
had contributed to the problem, for he had sat loosely and indifferently on
these privileges. Beware of sitting
lightly on spiritual privileges! He was
a man whose belly was his god. He was sensually driven. When he came home
hungry from the fields and smelled that pot of lentil stew that his brother had
made, and because he wanted it now, he
sold his birth-right for that pot of lentil stew. And so it was that he lost his spiritual
inheritance.
However it was not only Jacob’s
connivance and Esau’s unprincipled way of thinking that got him into this mess.
Their parents, Isaac
or Rebekah had contributed
greatly to it all. The result of this family’s poor relationship with God and
with one another ultimately
caused the fact that Esau’s
heart grew bitter and that he therefore intended to kill Jacob after their father Isaac had died (Gen. 27:41). His bitterness serves as an example and a warning in the NT.
Hebrews
12:15-17 reads, “See
to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of
bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16
that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birth right
for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit
the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he
sought it with tears."
And now remember that over and
above all this there is the fact that God had decreed that
the promised seed (the Messianic line) should continue via
Jacob the younger brother (Gen. 25:23àMalachi
1:2,3; Rom 9:12,13). The fact that this plan came about in such a crooked
manner, has caused Bible expositors to spill much ink on this subject. The Bible however weaves the story
together in an astonishing and
shows us that all of man’s sin will
not derail God’s purposes. Isaiah reminds us
of this: “Remember this and stand firm , recall it to mind, you
transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God and there is no
other; I am God and there is none like
me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet
done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and
I will accomplish all my
purpose…” (Isa. 46:8-10).
God’s purpose was that Jacob was
God’s chosen vessel. No matter how little you may like this quote from Malachi 1:1,2, “… I
have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated…”, …it is a prerogative that
belongs to the sovereign Lord. The sovereign God expects us to trust Him in
this matter. As Creator, He commands us to wait patiently for the unfolding of
His plan and the opening of the doors. Unfortunately, we like Jacob and Rebekah, are all too
tempted to engineer our
own futures. We think that we can speed up God’s plans by lending Him a
hand here and there through devising our own plans. In this process we will not
even shy away from deception and manipulation. Rebekah sought to push Jacob into the “fast
track“. But did not the LORD tell her at
the birth of her sons that “the older
shall serve the younger “ (Gen.
25:23)? All she needed to do was to
wait for God to act. He was already destined for this position by God. Instead, she pushes her son Jacob to act deceitfully so that he might inherit the
covenant blessings by force. But there are no shortcuts to Christian success. We
must keep in step with the Spirit (Gal.
5:25).
As a result of this deceit, and also as a result of his own
twisted, emotionally driven, feelings orientated personality Esau
hated Jacob so much, that he had
begun to devise murderous
plans in his heart against his
brother (which would be a repeat of
Cain and Abel in Genesis
4). Deceit destroys family relationships. The result of this is that Jacob had to flee
and actually spend 20 miserable years under the roof of his deceitful uncle
Laban, and away from his promised land.
Thankfully God loves His people
still, even when their steps are momentarily away from Him. Moses, Elijah and Jonah all ran away from
God’s decreed will for a while. But, the
God who had called them and who had decreed their work for them, brought them
back to His purposes – even in a roundabout way! God’s plan for Jacob was not hindered by the favouritism
of Isaac, nor by the schemes of Rebekah, nor by the evil intentions of Esau. Man can neither
thwart God nor help him. Isaiah 46:10 says,
“My counsel shall stand, and I will
accomplish all my purpose’.
And so it happens that Jacob
flees from Esau to the house of Laban his uncle. As he flees, he came to a certain place and
stayed there the night (28:11). At this point God appears to him in a remarkable dream.
Jacob’s Dream (28: 12-15)
In his dream he saw“…a ladder set up on the earth, and the top
of it reached to heaven. And behold (!) the angels of God were ascending and
descending on it. And behold (!) the LORD stood above it and said, ‘I am the LORD,
the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac…” (28:12,13)
Just a brief word about dreams; at this
stage there had been no written revelation such as we have in our hands today. Even the law of Moses was still in the
future. Hebr. 1:1 says that “Long ago , at many times and in many ways God
spoke to our fathers….”. God
spoke very directly to people then, but since Jesus, the Son of God, and the
last prophet has come and has spoken the last word, we now have the Bible as
our ladder to heaven.
In his dream there was a ladder
between earth and heaven. The ladder showed Jacob that there was a way made by
God from earth to heaven. The angels that were ascending and descending the
ladder were God’s ministering spirits (Hebr.
1:14), but what is most amazing about this picture is the way in which the
Lord Jesus makes reference to Jacob’s dream in John 1:51, where He speaks with Nathanael, “And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven
opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Jesus was showing Nathanael there that He
Himself was that ladder to heaven! He was telling Nathanael that He is the new
and living way to God! What a picture!
This OT story is an illustration of the saving work of God. Jesus is our ladder to God in heaven. He leads
us to God. He is the way to God (John
14:6). At the top of this ladder (behold!
Hebrew “hinneh”) there stood the LORD
(Yahweh).
This was the first time that
Jacob would actually meet the God of Abraham and Isaac, his father personally.
This experience becomes the pivotal,
life- changing event of his life. Nobody meets God and is not changed. This is
the experience that changes him. And here the Lord
confirms once again to Jacob what
He had already promised to his mother
Rebekah – and even more
significantly what He promised to
Abraham (Gen. 15): The land on which you lie I will to give to
you and your offspring (28:13). This land was not better or more fertile or
more beautiful than other parts of the world.
The Lord chose this land because He needed a spot where a cross could be
planted[1],
on which His Son would bear the sins of the world. This land would bring forth the incarnate Son of God , and so we can truly
see the
real and ultimate fulfilment of
this promise …“ in
you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be
blessed.” (28:14)
28:15– “Behold, I am with you
… and will keep you… I will not leave you”.
This is what makes it possible to be a follower of God. Those were also the
words that the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples. “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt
28:20)
This dream – this meeting with
God came just at the right time. Up to this
point Jacob had been a man on his own mission. Up to this point he was not running into the arms
of God, but he was running away from the brother who wanted to kill him. And behold
(!) now God came to give him direction.
Jacob’s awakening (28:16-22)
Jacob woke up - and it is the awakening that
tells us whether the dream had been real or not. For many of my dreams I am thankful that they
were only dreams. But in this case Jacob realized that this had been more than
a dream. He knew that he had been in the
Lord’s presence, and he said, “surely the Lord is in this place” (28:16). “And he
was afraid and said,’ How awesome is
this place! This is none other than Bet-el – the house of God, and this is the
gate of heaven’” (28:17) This was
the manifested glory of God. This place was heavy with the sense of God’s glory.
That is why he was afraid. The Hebrew
word for ‘glory’ (kabod)
indicates ‘weight’. God was ‘heavy’ in
this place. All God’s people in the Bible were afraid when confronted with the glory of God.
Jacob calls this place Bethel
(Hebr. “House of God” ). There
is no temple building - but it does not
matter. The presence of the Lord, the
dwelling of God is here. The presence of
God in our midst is what matters.
This place and this encounter
transformed Jacob from a worldly man into a worshipper. We have never heard him
speak like this. Before this he is on the run because of his fear of Esau.
Before this he is a man without real peace. The intrusion of God into his life transforms
him. When the true voice of God speaks, true transformation, true renewal takes
place. Until now Jacob had only heard and known about the God of his
fathers. From this moment on he knows God personally - in an experiential
way. Before this he had only known him
as the God of Abraham and Isaac. Now He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob!
He knows that he is now in God’s
hand and trusts Him for future bread and
clothing (28:20). He now trusts God
for a return to his father’s
(Isaac’s) house – where he ought to be, and he commits himself
to place a memorial stone in this place, and later build an altar (which he does in Ch. 35) to remember this remarkable dealing of God
with his soul. Notice too that his pocket is liberated to give a tenth
of all he has to God. (28:22)
In Jacob we now see a truly
liberated man, because he has encountered the Living God. He is now truly free to love God, truly free to
serve God, to worship God and to give a tenth of all his possessions to God with a free heart.
This is what Jesus has come for
us – to set us free indeed! When you are
a liberated man or woman, then your God is
at the top of the ladder, and you climb
that ladder by faith in Jesus, who is your ladder, and He leads you into the Father’s House, our heavenly Bethel.
All this does not mean that God
was done with Jacob and that he was perfect in every way. We
shall see that his journey of faith had just begun, and he had far to go. But
he was in God’s hand now, even through
the difficult days that lay ahead. There will come another time
when Jacob will meet God is a special way (cf. 32:22-32).
Thank God for days such as this.
God surely knows how to encourage His people through difficult days, days of
coldness and sin, days when we walk out on Him, days when we sigh, days when we
want to die, all those days are in His hands. At the end of the ladder of life
there is God, and there is Jesus who takes us there. All by grace.
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