Jacob flees to Laban
28
📚And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him 📖, and spoke to him giving him this command: “You shall not take a wife from among the daughters of Canaan 📖. 2 📚Arise, go to Padan-Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take a wife for yourself from there from among the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. 3 📚And God Almighty 📖 bless you, make you fruitful, and increase your number so that you may become a multitude of people, 4 📚and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, so that you may inherit the land in which you are a foreigner, which God gave to Abraham”. 5 And Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Padan-Aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.6 📚And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan-Aram to take a wife for himself from there, and that when he blessed him he gave him a command saying, “You shall not take a wife from among the daughters of Canaan”, 7 📚and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and went to Padan-Aram. 8 📚When Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please Isaac his father, 9 📚then Esau went to Ishmael, and in addition to the wives he already had, took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.
Jacob’s dream of a ladder
10 📚And Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran 📖.
28:10 Now the story of the Bible narrows down to Jacob and his descendants, because the covenant God made with Abraham has been confirmed to Jacob, and it is through his descendants that God had determined to bring His blessings to the world.⚜
11 📚And he came to a certain place and spent all night there, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place, and put it for his pillow and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 📚And he dreamed 📖, and a ladder 📖 appeared, set up on the earth and its top reached to heaven, and the angels of God appeared, ascending and descending on it. 13 📚And the LORD appeared, standing above it and saying, “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give the land where you are lying to you and to your offspring,
28:13 Jacob is fearful and fleeing for his life to another country. God in mercy confirms to him the covenant and promises made to Abraham.⚜
14 📚and your offspring will be like the dust of the earth in number, and you will spread out to the west, to the east, to the north, and to the south, and in you and in your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed 📖. 15 📚And, see, I am with you 📖 and will keep you 📖 in every place you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you about”.
16 📚And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it”. 17 📚And he was afraid, and said, “How awe-inspiring is this place! This is nothing else than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven”.
28:16-17 Jacob was right. The true God is awe-inspiring, and wherever He appears is a holy place. And all men should learn to fear Him. Compare Ex 3:4-6; 19:20-21; Deut 28:58; Josh 5:13-15; Ps 33:8; 68:35.⚜
18 📚And Jacob got up early in the morning, took the stone that he had put for his pillow, set it up as a pillar 📖, and poured oil on the top of it. 19 📚And he called the name of that place Beth-El, but at first the name of that city was called Luz.
28:19 Bethel means “house of God”. It became one of the important places in the Old Testament (Gen 12:8; 35:1; Jud 1:22; 1 Kings 12:28; 2 Kings 2:2-3; 17:28; 23:15), mentioned about 70 times.⚜
20 📚And Jacob make a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I am going, and will give me bread to eat, and clothes to wear,
28:20 Jacob’s faith, though real, was not strong. He puts an “if” when God had not put one. God’s promise was not based on conditions. But Jacob seems to be trying to bargain with God in vs 21,22. In v 15 God said “I am with you, I will watch over you, I will bring you back”. He did not say, “If you are good, and if you give me a tenth, and if you make Bethel a special place, I will be with you”. When faced with God’s promises let us be careful not to think as Jacob did here. But we see in Jacob’s life that God deals lovingly and tenderly with weak believers. Compare Ps 103:13-14; Matt 6:30; 8:26.⚜
21 📚so that I return to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD will be my God 📖, 22 📚and this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will become God’s house. And I will surely give you a tenth 📖 of all that you give me”.