Year 1, Day 27: Genesis 28

Troubled Beginnings

Genesis 28 is a great chapter for spirituality.  And we’ll get there in a moment when we talk about Jacob’s dream of the ladder.  But before we do this, we have to get to Isaac and Esau’s actions in this chapter.  We have to see once more how unrepentant sin continues to rear its ugly head in the lives of people.

Notice something here?  Isaac blesses Jacob and sends him away.  Now ultimately sending Jacob away to Laban is a good thing, and he will find a faithful wife there – although he will meet up with even more deception and sinfulness along the way, and that’s part of the problem.  But do you notice what Isaac never does?  Isaac never corrects Jacob for his role in the prior deception.  Isaac never rebukes Rebekah for her role.  Rather, we go directly from Isaac being deceived to Rebekah complaining about Esau’s wives to Issac blessing Jacob.

Certainly the case could be made that these stories in Genesis may have years between them – and they probably do.  So maybe that conversation happened and isn’t recorded.  But even in that case the fact that we don’t see it happen should be brought out just to make sure people understand the importance of rebuking sin when it is proper for them to rebuke it.  We absolutely see the deceptive side in Jacob in the next few chapters, and I am guessing that it wasn’t dealt with anyway.  But the point that I am trying to make is that Isaac should have sat Jacob down and rebuked both him and Rebekah for what they did to him and nipped the behavior in the bud before it could get out of hand.

Then we have this issue with Esau.  In some respects, it might actually seem as though he deserves a little credit in that he saw what Rebekah and Isaac see as good and he intentionally did something that didn’t make them mad.  He took a wife from Ishmael’s family.  Of course this makes this woman family because it is a descendant of Abraham – even if not Sarah.  Esau goes and takes a wife from family, in some ways mimicking the edict given to Jacob.

But here’s the problem.  In doing so, you will notice a lack of repentance.  Esau doesn’t go to Isaac and Rebekah and talk about the two wives that he already has.  He doesn’t deal with the issue that exists in his existing marriages!  Rather, Esau goes out and adds a third wife! 

Here’s where we again see the problem of unrepentant sin.  Esau doesn’t deal with what sin exists, so the problems that exist are compiled with the problems of moving one more step away from a monogamous marriage as God desires.  The lack of repentance means that there is no true change in Esau.  Rather, Esau wants to keep what he has – hence the lack of repentance – and try to please his parents.  When someone tries to please another without first repenting we typically call that manipulation.  We don’t typically call that good to say the least.

Jacob’s Ladder

Okay, now let’s move on to Jacob’s dream.  Here we get a glimpse of the Jacob that God sees inside.  Here we get a glimpse of the Jacob that God will eventually bring about through direct confrontation with Jacob.  Here we get a glimpse of what God sees as Israel and not Jacob.

Notice Jacob’s response to the dream.  Jacob hears from God and reacts.  He hears a promise from God and says that if God delivers on His promise then he will worship God.  And Jacob also promises to give a tenth – literally a tithe – back to God out of whatever God sees fit to give to him in the first place.* 

Here Jacob takes the first step in dealing with his sin in his life in that he commits to God.  That doesn’t mean that Jacob is done and will sin no more – how many of us can say that we are free from sin after we make a commitment to God?  But we do see Jacob begin to deal with the humanity that wrestles from within.

Lastly, let’s turn to this dream.  First, notice that God gets Jacob out of his comfort zone before giving him the dream.  When we are alone and away from our comfort zone we really have some time to do some serious thinking and some serious evaluation.  It pays to pause and admit that many times the distractions of our beloved comfort zone are actually a significant hindrance to our faith life.  But when Jacob gets out into the world and away from his distractions he can begin to see himself as God sees him rather than how he has conceived of himself.

Now, what about the actual dream?  God makes a solemn promise to Jacob.  “Follow me and I will prosper you.”  That’s the thing to which Jacob begins to respond, and certainly that is good. 

But within this dream and expression I can see the vision of God.  God says to Jacob, “and in you and your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  Here’s the really cool part about that expression.  Far too often it is taken far too literally.  Far too often we hear how through the Jews we get the law and we get the understanding of God’s ways.  And yes, there is no denying that. 

But let’s take it a little less literally, shall we?  It is through the ultimate plan of God’s choosing Abraham – that is the whole point of bringing Jesus Christ to this earth – in which the world is truly blessed!  It is only through Jesus Christ, His teaching, His death, and His bodily resurrection that we find our true blessing! 

So when I read this promise to Jacob what I hear being said is that God is promising to adhere to the plan.  Jesus will come and change the whole dynamic of the divine relationship.  After Jesus comes, God will call on a man named Paul to make sure that this change in the divine relationship includes not just the Jews but Gentiles as well!  In this simple promise to Jacob we can look and see the beginnings of God’s plan.  That is cool.

God’s peace.  God’s blessing.  And this day I hope that you see yourself as a part of the fulfillment of the promise God made to Jacob so many thousands of nights ago. 

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* We can see here that tithing did not originate with the law, but it was a practice occurring within the people well before the law comes around.