#2 Meeting, Life of Jacob series

Meeting

Genesis 27:41-28:22

Every action we take, for good or for bad, has a reaction. The reaction to Jacob's deceit is enmity with his brother Esau. No matter that Jacob's sin fulfilled the will of God, there is still a reaction. Esau now plots darkly about killing Jacob as soon as their father Isaac is in the grave. Fortunately for Jacob, Isaac lived another 20 years or more. But Esau's sin of murder in his heart is yet another occasion to move Jacob into the center of God's will for him, to find wives in Haran who will bear the 12 sons who lead the 12 tribes of Israel. Strange, how God can work out his will through sin, in spite of sin! This is a mystery to us.

Yet here it is. Esau bears a grudge, and because of this grudge begins to speak about his intentions to others. Note: first he said it to himself (vs. 41), but soon he is saying it to others (vs. 42). Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Rebekah overhears what Esau is plotting against her favorite son, and summons Jacob. "Flee at once," is her command. Is running from our enemies ever an answer? Apparently so. On a number of occasions when Jesus enemies sought to arrest him or stone him, he just slipped away in the crowd. Jesus had a mission to do, and showdowns with his enemies did not suit this mission. Too often our ego is so involved that we refuse to avoid conflicts which would distract us from our primary task. Jacob's primary task (from God's perspective) was to become a man of God and to raise a big family. He could do that better in Haran than he could with the Canaanite women in Palestine at the time. So Esau's threat becomes the impetus for change.

Godly Marriage

Esau had married two wives from among the local heathen tribes populating Palestine at that time, the Hittites.

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah (26:34-35).

We aren't told the source of the conflict, but it was partly cultural. Rebekah had been raised in a nomadic tribe hundreds of miles away in Haran (Paddan Aram), north of the Euphrates River. The Hittites lived in houses and cities, and had different values. Probably Esau had brought his wives to live in the family encampment near Beersheba (26:23,33). "We hate living in tents," they may have complained. Things were always better in their home cities. Complain, complain, complain. Major in-law conflict resulted from this cross-cultural marriage.

Not that Rebekah's family had been faithful followers of Yahweh, the God of Abraham. They were probably moon worshippers and possessed household idols (Genesis 31:19; Joshua 24:2, 15). We know that the prominent deity of Ur and Haran, two Mesopotamian cities associated with Abraham, was the moon-god Sin (ISBE, 3:410). But apparently God preferred converting people from this distortion of true worship than from the distortions which the people of Canaan practiced. If the Israelites' religion were too close to that of the tribes of Canaan, the Israelites would be more tempted than ever to assimilate heathen practices into their worship.

We sometimes wonder about polygamy. "In the beginning it was not so," said Jesus (Matthew 19:8b). "'At the beginning the Creator made them male and female," he quoted, and said, "'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one" (Matthew 19:5-6). That is the ideal, the righteous standard. But due to the hardness of men's hearts God allowed polygamy for a time.

Having a number of wives was considered a mark of wealth and power. Kings had many wives. David had six wives, plus a number of concubines. Solomon had more than 1,000 wives and concubines (and he was considered wise?). But these multiple-wife households were fraught with problems of jealousy and favoritism, as we will see as our story unfolds. We don't seek to justify polygamy, only report it.

The Blessing of Abraham

Rebekah is the master manipulator. She knows how to get her way, both with Isaac and with Esau. "Isaac," she pleads, "I can't stand these Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of them, I don't know what I'll do" (paraphrase of 27:46). Isaac, too, has suffered from having Esau's wives around (26:35). He calls for Jacob and commands him to go immediately to Rebekah's family: "Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother." Now Jacob can flee Esau with an excuse and his father's blessing. Esau, too, hears of his father's wishes regarding non-Hittite wife for Jacob, so Esau finds a descendent of Abraham -- Mahalath, Ishmael's daughter -- and marries her as a third wife, in order to try to meet his father's desires.

Look carefully at the blessing and compare it to blessings in other passages. I see at least three elements in this blessing: (1) numerous descendants, (2) the land of Canaan, and (3) blessing of the nations.

17:1-21 to Abraham	26:2-5 to Isaac	28:3-4 to Jacob	28:13-15 to Jacob	35:11-12 to Jacob
		(3a) May God Almighty bless you and	(13a) I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac�.	(11a) I am God Almighty;
(6) I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you�.	(4a) I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands�.	(3b) make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.	(14a) 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.	(11b) Be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body.
(8) The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you, and I will be their God�.	(3b) � for to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham�.	(4) May he give you and your descendents 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	(13b) I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.	(12) The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.
(12:2-3) � and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.	(4b) � and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed�.		(14b) All people on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

We see this blessing mentioned in the New Testament, too, in Galatians 3. "[Christ] redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit (3:14)�. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise (3:29)." Paul's argument is that Jesus is the Seed of Abraham, and if we belong to Jesus, then we, too, are descendants and heirs of Abraham.

So what of Abraham's promise is left for us to inherit? Land? Perhaps in the future when Christ reigns on earth in Jerusalem. Descendants? I don't know. Blessing the nations through Abraham's offspring? Yes, we as Abraham's descendents are the salt of the earth, and bring the message of Abraham's Seed to the world. We are the blessing to the world, and through us Christ's blessings are to flow out to others.

Jacob's Vision at Bethel

Jacob leaves Isaac's home in Beersheba, a desert town in the extreme south of Palestine, and heads north to his uncle's home, hundreds of miles away around the Fertile Crescent. He stops, perhaps the second or third night at a town called Luz (28:19). The sun is setting, and Jacob is looking for shelter. The Hebrew could mean that he put a rock under his head like a pillow, or it could mean that he lay his head in a protected spot under a large stone (see Victor P. Hamilton, Genesis 18-50, NICOT, pp. 236-337, fn. 4). Though we can't be sure, I prefer the latter explanation, since later Jacob sets up this stone as a monument, and the size of stone for a pillow "under" his head wouldn't be a very impressive monument compared to a larger stone "at" his head. But this is of little consequence.

As he sleeps, he sees a vision of "Jacob's Ladder," angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven itself, with the base of it resting near him -- the "gateway" of heaven. Then God himself appears to him and speaks.

Notice that in your Bibles the word LORD is in small caps. This signifies that this represents God's true given name, Yahweh, "I am that I am" (Exodus 3:14), the present tense of the verb "to be." God IS!

First, God identifies himself: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac" (28:13b).

Second, he renews the promise of inheritance of the land of Canaan: "I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying" (28:13c)

Third, he promises a multitude of descendants: "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" (28:14a).

Fourth, he promises that Jacob and his offspring will be a source of blessing to the entire world: "All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring" (28:14b). Promises 2, 3, and 4 seem to be the core promises made to Abraham and then renewed to Isaac, and then to Jacob.

But he goes on to make additional promises to Jacob personally: "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 have promised you" (28:15). This doesn't mean that God will eventually leave him; it means that God will be with him to fulfill the promise.

Jacob has received blessings by deceit (27:27-29) and then by Isaac's own will (28:1-4). Now he receives a blessing directly from God which confirms to him, the third generation, God's promises to Abraham. Jacob is never the same.

Jacob's Conversion

Up until this time we see little spiritual life in Jacob, but when he awakes from his dream he is profoundly moved. You can see that something in his life has fundamentally changed. Whereas once he took what he wanted for himself, now God becomes the One he lives for. This is Jacob's conversion.

"Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it," he exclaims. How many times in our lives we could say the same thing. We are intent upon our own plans and our own way, and we are surprised by God. He makes himself known. We had no idea he was there.

Jacob, though, probably doesn't understand God's omnipresence, that God is everywhere. He probably believed that God was in sacred places, such as where his father or grandfather had set an altar. He discovers to his surprise that "This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." He is frightened. "How awesome (KJV dreadful) is this place," he says. The word is Hebrew yare' (Niphal participle), which means "terrible," "awesome," or "terrifying," from the verb "to fear." (Harris, Archer, and Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the OT, pp. 399-401).

He had wakened immediately after the dream before morning. Now, at first light, he takes the stone at his head and sets it up as a pillar, (Hebrew massebah), a stone standing upright, a commemorative stele. Hundreds of years later, after the tabernacle had been built and the people settled in Canaan, such pillars were not allowed (Deuteronomy 16:21). They were too easily confused with the heathen Baal worship which occurred on the high places, in contrast to the true worship of Yahweh which took place at the tabernacle, and later, the temple. But in Jacob's time, the setting up of such a commemorative stele or pillar seemed an entirely appropriate way to honor and remember God's revelation of himself in this place (RK Harrison, "pillar" in ISBE 3:869-871; Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel 2:285-286). See also passages in Genesis 31:13, 45, 51f; 35:14,20; Exodus 23:24; 24:4; 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5; 12:3; 16:22, etc.

After Jacob set up the stone, he poured on top of it some of the precious oil he had taken with him for his trip. The practice of anointing seemed to be involved with cleansing and consecrating to God. Centuries later, kings, priests, and prophets were anointed for their offices. Objects in the newly-built tabernacle were anointed with specially-formulated anointing oil: altars, the tent of meeting, the ark, the laver and its stand, and all objects relating to the altar (Franz Hesse, chrio in TDNT 9:496-509). When Samuel anointed David as king over Israel, the scripture records "and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power" (1 Samuel 16:13). The words Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) both mean Anointed One. In Acts 10:38 Peter describes "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power ...."

So Jacob set up the stone as an act of worship, a way of remembering God's presence in this place, and anointed it as an act of cleansing and consecration, setting it apart for God.

Though the town already was called Luz, Jacob gave it a new name, Bethel (from Hebrew beth - house, and el - God). Bethel was where God surprised Jacob, being with him unexpectedly. It was here that God promised Jacob that he would always be with him and would never leave him (28:15). It was here that awestruck Jacob realized that he was standing at the gate of heaven, at the very House of God, at Beth-el.

In addition to setting up and anointing a stone, Jacob also makes a solemn vow before the Lord. True, it has a giant "if" clause:

If God will be with me
If God will watch over (protect) me
If God will give me food and clothing
If God brings me safely again to my father's house ...

If God will do what he has promised, then Jacob solemnly vows:

Then the LORD will be my God
Then this pillar will be God's house
Then I will give God a tenth of all God gives him.

This may look like bargaining with God, but such was the form of a formal vow of this era. Each party would state their obligations and rights and formally make a vow to uphold the covenant. The LORD has been Jacob's father's God, but now he vows that Yahweh (and probably Yahweh alone) will be his God. What was family tradition now becomes personal.

Tithing as an Act of Personal Consecration

Why does Jacob promise God a tithe of all that God gives him? His grandfather Abraham had tithed to Melchizedek, king of (Jeru)salem and priest of the Most High God (Genesis 14:18-20), so there is some family tradition. But what does tithing mean in this context? Tithing was known outside of Israel in the Near East. For example, we hear of tithing among the Egyptians, Syrians, Lydians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and in Ugarit and Carthage. But these tithes were not all religious; some were taxation by the king.

We see an interesting passage in 1 Samuel 8 where the Israelites demand of the aging prophet Samuel "a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have" (8:5). The Lord tells Samuel, "It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king" (8:7). So Samuel warns them about what a king will require of them: "... He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants...." (8:15).

Though there's no way to prove it, Jacob offering to tithe may well have been Jacob's way of accepting the LORD's kingship over him, an act of submission and fealty.

This would accord well with Israel's tithe after the tabernacle was built, too. If you study it, you'll see that the tabernacle in the wilderness was built as a richly appointed portable palace for Israel's invisible king. The Holy of Holies was the throne room where the Mercy Seat was over the Ark of the Covenant. The next room was the Holy Place where the Levitical Priests attended the King, burning incense on the golden Altar of Incense, keeping the Seven-Branched Lampstand lit, and bring fresh loaves for the Table of Showbread. The courtyard which surrounded the Tabernacle formed a boundary of sacred ground in the very midst of Israel's camp.

Tithes were collected from the people in order to support the Levites who served the LORD in the temple. "I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the Tent of Meeting" (Numbers 18:21). Malachi 3:8-10 indicates that to withhold the tithe was to rob God. The tithe was not just an offering to God, but His due. "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house," He says.

My point is that Jacob's vow to tithe all that God gives him is both a statement of faith that God will meet his needs, and a vow of loyalty and submission to the LORD as his King and God. (Now when you ask who Jacob ended up tithing to, I run out of answers.)

I believe that tithing for the Christian represents something similar. We see ourselves as stewards of what actually belongs to God. And the tithe of our income is a way of demonstrating our allegiance, our love, and that we serve God rather than Money (Matthew 6:24). That the majority of Christians don't tithe or let God be Lord of their money has a great deal to do with the quality of their discipleship and the depth of their trust. Maybe it would be a good idea to baptize people in their street clothes, so their wallets get baptized at the same time as the rest of them. ;-)

Conclusion

At the beginning of our passage we see Jacob the manipulator fleeing from his brother. But before he can get very far he meets God and his life is radically changed. He had heard about his father's God; now he has met him. He had heard of the blessings of Abraham; now he has them renewed to him by God himself. He had a nebulous allegiance to his father's God; now he commits himself in allegiance and submission to God as his King and Lord. Jacob the supplanter is converted.