Genesis 28--Jacob sent to Laban

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Jacob Sent to Laban

28 Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. 2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. 3 God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 4 May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!” 5 Thus Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

Esau Marries an Ishmaelite

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. 8 So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, 9 Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth.

Jacob's Dream

10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was 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! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

​18 So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

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We see now that Jacob going to Paddan-aram was not simply his mother's idea in order for him to escape the wrath that his brother Esau was plotting, but that his father Isaac was in agreement that Jacob should not take a wife from among the Canaanite women, and after he had blessed Jacob and at some point after Esau returned to the camp, Isaac instructed Jacob as much and Esau will also hear these instructions (though they were meant for Jacob).

We see the name "God Almighty" used here (El Shadai) and have not seen that name since Genesis 17:1 when God revealed Himself this way when he changed Abram's name to Abraham, gave the sign of the covenant, circumcision, to Abraham and promised Abraham the birth of Isaac.  These were things that with man were impossible, but with God Almighty at work, nothing is impossible with God.  It appears that Isaac believes that Jacob is facing something just as impossible and just as important to the covenant as Abraham giving birth to Isaac in his old age.  Jacob would carry on the Abrahmaic covenant, but something would need to change in Jacob and only God Almighty can change a person's identity.  He sent Jacob away to the land of Rebekah's brother, but we see here that Isaac was entrusting Jacob's safety and security to God, and not to Laben.

We then get a brief aside to the story that Esau heard the instructions to Jacob and understands that the wives that he had taken from among the Canaanite women had been upsetting to his mother and his father.  So how does he react to this?  He marries another woman, this time an Ishmaelite.  He realized that Ishmaelites were close relatives of his and part of the family since they were also descendants of Abraham, but it doesn't appear that Esau understood the idea of the covenant and trying to make sure that God was pleased with his decisions.  He was interested in what pleased himself for the most part, but we at least see here that he is trying to think of someone else in this decision as he thinks about the feelings of his mother and father, but the damage has been done because the Canaanite women that he is married to may not fully corrupt him, but they will corrupt his children and grandchildren and future generations.

I do also want to point out that multiple marriages have never been God's plan and have always created problems.  We see from the very beginning that God intended for one man and one woman to be married forever in the Garden of Eden and it was when sin came into the world and man wanted to rebel against the order that God had instituted that we see man seeking after things other than God, and we moved from multiple marriages to eventually the kings in the area where Abraham sojourned taking any women that they found desirable into their harem and killing their husband if necessary to do so.  What a perversion of what God had created and intended!  We'll come back to this later in the life of Jacob as he too will end up with more than one wife.

Jacob left Beersheeba--remember, this is "The Well of the Oath" where not only covenants had been struck between the Hebrews and the Philistines, but also where the Abrahamic covenant was renewed between God and Isaac (see Genesis 21 and 26).  He makes his way toward Haran, the place where Abram started his journey so many years ago, and the place where the relatives of both his mother and his father lived.

God appears to Jacob in a vision, one that many of us call Jacob's Ladder, though it is probably better to think of this not as a ladder, but as a staircase.  Remember Genesis 10 where the people try to build a tower from man up to the heavens?  That's not how it works.  God shows Jacob that the path to heaven has been made from heaven down to earth, and that God's messengers, the angels, are busy doing God's work and always travelling between these two dimensions--and there are lots of angels busy about the work of God.  We will see another name of God later in the Old Testament that will be The Lord of Hosts and will be told that the angels that the Lord commands are as numerous as the number of the stars in the heavens (angels and starts will often be connected in biblical passages).  Truly with an army of angels like this at His command the Lord is surly capable of bringing to pass anything that He had promised, and this is the assurance that He now gives Jacob as He once again renews the Abrahamic covenant with His chosen one, making clear to Jacob that it was no accident or mistake that He received the birthright and the blessing, because God had chosen him to be the one to bring about His covenant people.

We'll also see something added here that God would be with Jacob wherever he went and that God would not leave Jacob until He had accomplished everything He had promised (and since it was an eternal covenant, this would equate to never leaving Jacob or his people).  At the time the pagan people believed that the gods were somehow connected to the land and only had dominion and authority regionally.  Jacob is about to leave the land of his father and grandfather where he knows God spoke to them and protected them and worked in many mighty ways, but would God be able to speak to him and protect him and be at work in his life if he was so far away?  God assures Jacob that there is nowhere he can go where he is out of the sight or reach of God.  Jacob seems to understand and is encouraged greatly by this.  We know from reading more of the Bible that this Way to the Lord is not a place, but a person--the Lord Jesus Christ.  He will say, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No man comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)

Jacob takes the stone that he had used for a pillow and instead uses it to build a pillar to the Lord and pours an offering of oil onto it.  He names the place Bethel, meaning "house of God."  Jacob then makes a vow before God that I believe was well-intentioned as the time, but he will be very bad at keeping (thank God it's about His faithfulness to His vows and not about our faithfulness to our vows).  Take a moment to see how Jacob says that his worship is a natural consequence of God's character and a response to the blessings and provisions that the Lord has given and provided.

 “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

We've have barely seen the idea of the tithe yet in the Old Testament, and, yet, somehow Jacob realizes that this is the Lord's portion and that it is only right that God receive a tenth of everything He has provided to Jacob, and Jacob intends for Bethel to be the place where he will come to remember to worship God and give back to Him what the Lord deserves.  We'll see that God has other plans for where His tabernacle and temple will reside, but we are already starting to see a change in the heart of Jacob as he seems to be desiring God and a relationship with Him and understands some very important aspects that God is his provider and protector and that He is a King worthy of the tithe.