Continuing my chronological Bible study:
(Genesis 28:1) And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him, "You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan."
At the end of the last chapter, Rebekah had thought of a way to send Jacob away so that Esau would not kill him because of Jacob's deceit and trickery in stealing his blessing. She told Isaac she just could not bear it if Jacob married a Canaanite woman. Isaac therefore called Jacob and it appears that he willingly confirmed his blessing upon him, and told him that he was not to take a wife from among the Canaanite women.
(2) "Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father; and take you a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. (3) And God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be a multitude of people; (4) And give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, 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, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
Isaac told Jacob to go to Padan Aram to Laban in the house of Bethuel, Rebekah's father, and marry one of the daughters of Rebekah's brother, Laban. Isaac blessed his son Jacob with the Abrahamic promise that had been passed from Abraham to Isaac and now to Jacob, that he would be fruitful and his descendants would be many, and that they would ultimately inherit the land of Canaan, the land in which they were only sojourners then. Then Isaac did indeed send Jacob away to Padan Aram.
(6) When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, "You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan," (7) And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram, (8) And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac, (9) Then Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.
Esau saw that his father had blessed Jacob and that he had sent him away to find a wife in order that he not take a wife from among the Canaanite women. With that he realized that his father was not pleased with the Canaanite women as wives for his sons, as Esau had previously taken, so he took another wife. This time he married the daughter of his father's brother, Ishmael. Ishmael was now dead, so when Esau "went to Ishmael", it was as Jacob going to the house of Bethuel. Esau went to the house of Ishmael, probably directly to Nebajoth, who was Ishamel's oldest son, and took Mahalath, Nebajoth's sister, to be his wife. Esau may have been trying to please his father, but daughters of Ishmael would not have been the most favorable as Ishmael had been separated from the house of Abraham and was not included in the Abrahamic promise, another indication that Esau just didn't understand the spiritual importance of his birthright and the blessing of the firstborn in the line of Abraham.
(10) And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. (11) And he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put it for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. He apparently couldn't make it in one day, and happened upon a certain place casually, and not necessarily intentionally, and decided to stay there for the night as the sun was setting. He took a stone for a pillow as he evidently didn't have other provisions.
(12) And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was 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 God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. (14) And your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed. (15) And, behold, I am with you and will keep you in all places wherever you go, and will bring you again to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done that of which I have spoken to you."
Jacob dreamed of a ladder that was set up on earth and reached to heaven with angels going up and down it. The Lord stood above it and spoke to Jacob. He confirmed His promise to Abraham now to Jacob. The land on which Jacob lay that may have been accidental for him, was providential in that the Lord told him this very land would be given to him and his descendants. As God had told Abraham, Jacob's descendants would be as the dust of the earth, too numerous to count, and they would spread in all directions. As He had told Abraham, God told Jacob that through him and his descendants would all the families of the earth be blessed, which is a reference to the Messiah who would come from this line and in Whom all may be saved. The Lord told Jacob He was with him and would be with him wherever he went, and that He would bring him back to this land. The line of angels going up and down the ladder in Jacob's dream was a picture of the constant ministering spirits and line of communication that would always be between God and Jacob. More than that, it is a picture of Jesus Christ Who would become the direct line from us to God.
(16) And Jacob awoke out of 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 dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
Once again what was a casual nondescript place in Jacob's mind was a place where the Lord showed Himself to Jacob unexpectedly. He realized that the Lord was certainly in that place and that apparently surprised him. I left the original KJV words "afraid" and "dreadful" in my study. Although I usually don't think of them as "fright" and "awful" as we have come to interpret those words, sometimes I think our modern translations diminish the intended meaning of the original words. Jacob was afraid; he had fear. Yes, I agree with the common idea that it was a reverential fear, but it was more than that. I don't think we today quite understand that awestruck fear of knowing that you have just come in contact with the One who literally holds your life in His Hands. How could we when we so flippantly disregard all the things He told us in His Word? We keep Him only in church and bring Him out only when we really need something; we pretend that He shouldn't be a part of our daily public lives and decisions. How preposterous! Just think of how far our country has gone in rejecting God. We've come to accept the idea that He doesn't belong in schools or in the public square because someone might be offended. Would we care if we really feared God and saw Him as the Master of the Universe? We actually kill millions of babies and call it a RIGHT! Does anyone really think that God would approve of killing the most innocent because it is not convenient to let that child be born right now? Does anyone think that God is going to bless a country that promotes and celebrates same-sex "marriage" as equality and a RIGHT even though He called it an abomination? Do we think a country can survive without God's blessing? Do we think God understands that the times have changed and we are such a wiser people now? Suppose you had to confront God and ask Him face to face if it was okay to kill your baby and "marry" your lesbian lover. Does that strike fear in your heart? If it doesn't, it should! I have to wonder if some of the people out there cheering on these horrible Godless acts ever really think about what God would say, or do they just try to ignore that. Or have they really reached a point where they don't care? Oh, they would care if God presented Himself as the awesome terror that He is! He IS Someone to be dreaded! He does hold your life in His hand; He holds our country in His hand; He holds the entire planet in His hand! And God will not be mocked! Oh, He is patient, oh-so patient that people forget that the things of God matter, but they do! And there will come a time when EVERYONE will know that!
For it is written, "As I live, says the LORD, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God." So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. - Romans 14:11-12
And that is a reference to Isaiah 45:23 which says:
"I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear."
Can you imagine that? Just by the sheer force of His majesty, everyone will be on his knees before the Lord. EVERYONE, not just believers, not just Christians, EVERYONE! And everyone will give an account of just why they did what they did. That ought to strike fear in us to our very cores. But surely God will understand a changing culture. Surely God will understand taking a baby's life until a time when it is more convenient. After all you don't have time to properly love that child now. Surely God will understand that there had to be separation of church and state and that is why we fought to keep prayer out of schools and references to Him out of the public square! Surely God understands that it is because you are so loving and tolerant that you believe you should fight for same-sex marriage even though He called it an abomination. I'm not suggesting that any of these things can't be forgiven by God, and He did give us Jesus as our Mediator so that our sinful selves can come into His presence. But He is still the same God and we have to realize when we are sinning against Him and repent, which means change! Yes, Jesus gives us grace so that we don't have to fear God, but only when we see our sin, see our need for Him to cover our sin, and REPENT! A repentant heart is one that is truly sorry and seeks to change. We know what is right. Isaiah 45:24 goes on to say that after we all bow before the Lord, "and all that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed". We will know He is God; we will bow before Him; and we will be ashamed. I'm just imagining how we would act in this country if we had to be on our knees in the presence of God before every decision we made. Or maybe just every night to explain why we did what we did. Do you think we'd act a lot differently? God gives us free will; it's true. But that doesn't change what is right and true. And if we truly had the fear of God as we should, we wouldn't dare do what we do in this day and age.
(18) And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. (19) And he called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of that city was called Luz at first.
Jacob took the stone he had used for a pillow and turned it into an upright erect position as a monument to God or as a reminder to him of the greatness of God and of his vision. He called the place Bethel, which literally meant "house of God". It had previously been called Luz, which was the word for a kind of nut, an almond or a hazel nut, which probably grew there.
(20) And Jacob made 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 clothing to put on, (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 as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You."
The wording of Jacob's vow sounds like he is making it a condition that IF God will be with him, then he Jacob will do... I don't think that was Jacob's intention. He has just heard from God and God has promised to be with him and keep him and bring him to this place again, so that was Jacob's way of saying that because the Lord was going to be with him, etc., so that he would come again, that the Lord was his God. The little word translated as "if" by the KJV translators actually does also mean "when", "lo", or "verily", words all meaning Jacob was sure that God would do what He said in his vision. This was more of a demonstrative statement rather than a conditional one. The stone Jacob had set up would be God's house. He may have meant that in the future he would make it God's house as later in scripture, it is said that he went to Bethel and made an altar to God (Gen. 35:3), but he may have meant that it would forever be a place where God had appeared to him and therefore was God's house, because everywhere that God is, is His house.
Jacob did vow to give a tithe of 10% of all that the Lord gave him. All blessings come from the Lord. Ten represents the whole and 1/10 is given in acknowledgment of the Lord and His sovereign right to it all. It is given in gratitude to Him and is used for the support of worship to Him, as in building an altar or church, or in providing a sacrifice, or in giving to the poor or needy, or for any need or service in which God may be glorified. I personally believe the tithe is still relevant today, although the Apostle Paul said in the New Testament that it should be given according to how God has prospered, and as one feels led in his heart, so that he does not give begrudgingly, but cheerfully. There is a lot of discussion today about whether or not the tithe is still required or if it is an Old Testament law that is not necessary today. Today the law is written on our hearts, and I believe that is what Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians 16:2 and 2 Corinthians 9:7. Since the tithe is only given as the Lord has given us, and not as a regular bill that is due whether or not we get paid, it is easy to give back. It is all God's anyway, and by giving 1/10 back in acknowledgment and thanksgiving, I believe we are saying that we trust God with all of it. I can say from personal experience that God can do amazing things with very little when I trust Him! Can you imagine the good that would be done in the world today if everyone tithed only 10% to God instead of giving 20-30% to a corrupt government that forces people to give for ungodly things like abortions for the poor?
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