Genesis 28

Genesis 28:1

2. Jacob’s Flight to Haran (Chap. 28) 28:1-9 Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and sent him to Paddan Aram, a district of Mesopotamia, so that he would find a wife among his mother’s people rather than among the Canaanites. This inspired Esau to try to regain his father’s blessing by marrying a daughter of Ishmael. It was a case of doing evil (multiplying wives) that good might come. 28:10-19 At Bethel, Jacob had a wonderful dream in which he saw a ladder or staircase extending from earth to heaven. This suggested “the fact of a real, uninterrupted, and close communion between heaven and earth, and in particular between God in His glory and man in his solitude.” In His encounter with Nathanael, the Lord Jesus made an apparent reference to this incident and connected it with His Second Advent and millennial glory (Joh_1:51). But believers even now can enjoy moment-by-moment fellowship with the Lord. At this time when Jacob’s heart was probably filled with regret for the past, loneliness in the present, and uncertainty about the future, God graciously made a covenant with him as He had with Abraham and Isaac. Notice the promise of companionship: “I am with you”; safety: “I will keep you wherever you go”; guidance: “and will bring you back to this land”; and personal guarantee: “I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Conscious that he had met God there, Jacob changed the name of the place from Luz (separation) to Bethel (house of God). “Prior to Bethel, where Jacob was ‘surprised by joy’ and ’transfixed by awe,’ he had had no personal contact with God. Everything had come to him second-hand” (Daily Notes of the Scripture Union). 28:20-22 Next Jacob seems to be bargaining with God. He was actually bargaining for less than God had promised (v. 14). His faith was not strong enough to take God at His word, so he had to make his tithe conditional on God’s performance of His part of the agreement, Another interpretation, however, is that the “if” is simply an inherent part of all Hebrew oaths and that Jacob was binding himself to give a tenth unconditionally (see Num_21:2; Jdg_11:30-31; 1Sa_1:11 for similar Hebrew oaths).