Reading:
Genesis 28
The
story of Jacob—grandson of Abraham, brother to Esau, father of the
twelve tribes, whose name became Israel—is often perplexing.
He may well have had one of the most dysfunctional families in the
Bible. Why does God's promise carry on through Jacob? Does his
deceit put the promise of God at risk? When we arrive at Genesis
28, these, and more, are the kinds of questions that would be in
one's mind because of the events of Genesis 27.
Does
Sin Put the Promise at Risk?
In
Genesis 27, at the prompting of his mother, Jacob tricks his father
Isaac into giving him the blessing intended for Esau. Once given,
Isaac could not rescind it; Esau is left angry and ready to murder
his brother Jacob. One might recall the account of Cain and Abel from
the beginning of this book. Is Esau going to kill Jacob? Then,
Rebekah sends Jacob away to find a wife from her brother's family. So
Jacob is going to be leaving the land of promise. Is his departure
from the land going to remove him from the place of blessing? And
he is going to Laban, who appeared in Genesis 24:55, attempting to
waylay the plan of God for Isaac's wife, Jacob's mother. Would
Laban's bait-and-switch chicanery prevent Jacob from receiving God's
blessing?
The
Promise is by Grace
Isaac
and Rebekah are sending Jacob off to obtain a wife because they don't
want to have any more daughter-in-law problems than they already have
(Genesis 27:46; 28:1-2). Isaac blesses Jacob again, reiterating the
previous blessing, but also making even more clear that this
blessing is the promise given to Abraham. Note the language:
“May
God Almighty bless you and make
you fruitful and
increase your numbers
until
you become a community of peoples. 4May
he give you and your descendants the
blessing given to Abraham,
so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an
alien, the land God gave to Abraham.”
(Genesis
28:3-4)
This
promise is a promise of grace. Unlike
Adam's blessing, “be fruitful and
increase in number...” which Adam,
and subsequently Noah, failed to live up to, Jacob is given the
promise that God Himself would bless him, make him fruitful, and
increase his numbers. So Jacob departs for Haran.
Is
There a Place of Promise?
On
the way, he stops and sets up camp, using a stone for a pillow. It's
no wonder he had such vivid dreams, he must have rocked and rolled
all night. (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.) It is then that he had
this dream of a stairway to heaven.
He
had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its
top reaching to heaven, and the
angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13There
above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of
your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your
descendants the land on which you are lying. 14Your
descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread
out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All
peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15I
am with you and will watch over
you wherever you
go, and I
will bring you back to this
land. I will not leave you until
I have done what I have promised
you.” (Genesis
28:12-15)
Where
did God promise to put His blessing? He
says, “with you...over you wherever
you go...bring you back…will not leave you...promised you”.
The promised blessing is on the person, not the
place, not the land he is leaving. God
made His promises to people, His chosen people. Laban couldn't get in
the way; location (being out of the land of Canaan) couldn't get in
the way; not even Jacob's trickery could ultimately get in the way.
However,
Jacob woke up and seemed to miss the point. His response is, “Surely
the Lord is in this place....
How awesome is this place!
This is
none other than the house of God; this
is the gate of heaven.” (Genesis
28:16-17) God's emphasis was on the person, and whereever he went;
Jacob's emphasis was on the place and location. This transfer from
God's gracious promise for his people to God's blessing on a place
seemed to trip the Jews of the New Testament times up as well. They
had come to believe the blessing was on the temple, the city, the
land; they failed to see that the covenant was about God's mercy for
the very people the leaders themselves were discarding.
Jesus
reminds us, however, that God's promise given to Abraham is going to
be on a person, on the seed of Abraham. Speaking to Nathaniel, Jesus
captures a line from the beginning of Jacob's dream and in so doing
tells us where the blessing of Abraham is, and how to obtain it.
Nathaniel had just declared, “Rabbi,
you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” (John
1:49) Jesus said, “I tell you the
truth, you shall see heaven open, and the
angels of God ascending and descending on the
Son of Man." (John 1:51)
Jacob
had awoken and declared, “This is the place of God,” thinking it
was Bethel, which means house of God.
Jesus is telling us there is a new
Bethel, a new house of God, a new temple—and it is Him! The
angels of God are not ascending and descending on a rock, or a place.
They are ascending and descending on Jesus Christ. He is the place of
God's blessing. He is the place of God's
promise. All who are in Jesus through
faith are heirs of the promise. He will
be with, watch over, bring back to be with Him, all who trust in Him.
If you trust in Jesus, you have the promise that He will never leave
you nor forsake you until He has fulfilled all His promises to you.
(See also Galatians 3:16, 29; John 14:2-3; Hebrews
13:5-6; Matthew 28:20.)
Love
the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,
Jerry
