At the close of Genesis 27, Jacob has succeeded in deceiving his aged father and has taken the blessing that belonged to Esau. He is a scoundrel, a self-serving thief who has lived up to his name; Jacob is a grasper.
Esau is enraged by his younger brother’s trickery and plans to kill him when his father dies. When Rebekah learns of Esau’s vengeful plan, she urges Jacob to go to her brother in Haran until Esau cools down. Rebekah tells Isaac what’s going on and Isaac calls Jacob in and supports Rebekah’s suggestion. He also tells Jacob to get a wife from his mother’s family while he’s there.
It is remarkable that Isaac, in all that has happened, is gracious to Jacob and gives him yet another blessing, more expansive and specific than the first.
“May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” Genesis 28:3-4
Isaac conveys God’s promise to Abraham to the grandson and sends Jacob to Rebekah’s brother, Laban. Jacob is on his own, but he is not alone. He is running from the wrath of Esau but unknowingly running toward God and His plan.
I find it fascinating that God shows up when folks least expect Him. For example, God showed up in a burning bush when Moses was on a hillside tending sheep. He blinded Saul of Tarsus as he traveled to Damascus to persecute followers of Jesus. When Jacob flees for his life, he has no idea that he will have an encounter with the God of Abraham and Isaac that will lead to his conversion and eventually a new name.
What some have referred to as the story of “Jacob’s Ladder” is found in Genesis 28: 10-22. As you read the text closely, you will discover this is not “Jacob’s Ladder ” at all. It is God’s ladder or stairway, just as was God’s burning bush with Moses. It is God’s method, God’s way of symbolizing something Jacob desperately needs to understand.
Jacob leaves his family to keep Esau from killing him. He has had no contact with the God of his father and is clueless about God’s plan for him. He travels by foot until sundown and, not knowing where he is, decides to rest for the night. He chooses a stone to rest his weary head and goes to sleep. He has a dream.
Before the dream, he was a refugee from his homeland looking for safety and a wife in his mother’s family in Haran. After the dream, he became a different person. What happens that changes his life and his destiny?
The dream has three movements or parts. (1) Jacob sees a ladder or stairway extending from heaven to earth. I take this to mean that heaven and earth have a vital interconnection. “Man does not live by bread alone.” Our life is dependent on God and we are accountable to Him. (2) Jacob sees angelic beings going back and forth between heaven and earth. The ladder means we can have access to heaven, just as God is involved in the affairs of men. This is an entirely new revelation to Jacob, perhaps he has never prayed or sensed God’s interest in what he has done. (3) The ladder and angels disappear and suddenly God Almighty stands above Jacob. Then God spoke,
” 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. Your 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 the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I 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 promised you.” Genesis 28:13-15
How would you respond if you should have a face-to-face encounter with God? Hopefully, the way the new Jacob did. He felt the awesome, uncomfortable sense of the Holy God around him. It scared him and awoke a sense of awe and reverence in him. He set a stone as a marker for the “house of God,” Bethel, where he had met the Almighty, the God of Abraham and Isaac. He vowed to serve God and left that place as a changed man.
When I read this story I think of another face-to-face encounter with God in the Old Testament. It is young Isaiah’s vision of God in the temple after the death of King Josiah. (Isaiah 6). In both instances, there is an overwhelming sense of the holiness of God and the awareness of one’s pitiful self in His presence. In neither instance did God accuse them of their sin or corrupt character, His presence alone was more than enough to do that. Jacob will go on to his mother’s homeland but he will also encounter God again at Bethel.
Takeaway: The closer we get to God, the further away from His holiness we know ourselves to be. Living daily with awareness of His presence should keep us adequately humble and ready to do His will.