Gen 28:10-22 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebekah, a twin with Esau. When he was born, “his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob” (Gen 25:26). Later Esau traded his birthright for Jacob’s bread and stew (Gen 25:33-34). For these things, see Isaac, Lesson 2.
When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim, Jacob did as his mother arranged and went in to his father, saying, “I am Esau your firstborn” (Gen 27:19), and received his father’s blessing. “Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him” (Gen 27:41), and said in his heart, “Then I will kill my brother Jacob” (Gen 27:41). His mother told Jacob: “Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran” (Gen 27:43). For these things, see Isaac, Lesson 5.
His father called him again and blessed him, and then “Isaac sent Jacob away” (Gen 28:5). This lesson reads the first stretch of Jacob’s road after he left home.
10Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.
11He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep.
12He dreamed and saw a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13Behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give the land you lie on to you and to your offspring.
14Your offspring will 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. In you and in your offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed.
15Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken of to you.”
16Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I didn’t know it.”
17He was afraid, and said, “How awesome this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”
18Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on its top.
19He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
20Jacob vowed 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 put on,
21so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, and the LORD will be my God,
22then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God’s house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give a tenth to you.”
Toward Haran. “Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran” (v. 10). “He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep” (v. 11).
The stairway. “He dreamed and saw a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (v. 12).
What the LORD said. “Behold, the LORD stood above it” (v. 13). First he says who he is: “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac” (v. 13). Then comes the promise: this land will be given to Jacob and his offspring (v. 13), and “In you and in your offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed” (v. 14). The last words are for Jacob himself: “Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken of to you” (v. 15).
I didn’t know it. “Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I didn’t know it’” (v. 16). “He was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven’” (v. 17).
Bethel. “Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on its top” (v. 18). “He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first” (v. 19).
A vow. “Jacob vowed 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 put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, and the LORD will be my God’” (vv. 20–21). He also said: “Of all that you will give me I will surely give a tenth to you” (v. 22). The passage makes no comment on this vow; it simply records it.
Afterward. Many years later, God said to Jacob: “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me” (Gen 31:13).
God says to Jacob: “In you and in your offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed” (v. 14). God had said this first to his grandfather Abraham: “All the families of the earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3); and to his father Isaac: “In your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed” (Gen 26:4).
Readers can see this: the promise God gave Abraham, in the third generation, was spoken once more — to a man sleeping out in the open with a stone under his head.
Perhaps you, too, are on the road right now: you have left home, or had to leave; the place ahead is far away, and what lies behind is not settled.
This lesson does not say that if those who leave home will only pray, the road will be smooth. What it shows you is this: while Jacob slept out in the open, God spoke to him first — “Behold, I am with you … For I will not leave you” (v. 15); only when Jacob woke did he say, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I didn’t know it” (v. 16). A psalm says: “The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more” (Ps 121:8).
This week: Think back to a stretch of time when, only later, you saw that ‘God was there all along.’ This week, write it down — leave yourself a marker, as Jacob set up a stone pillar; if you like, tell one person about it.
Jacob dreamed: “Behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (v. 12).
Early on, when Jesus was calling his first disciples, he said to Nathanael: “You will see greater things than these!” (John 1:50). “He said to him, ‘Most certainly, I tell you all, hereafter you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man’” (John 1:51).
Here the two are simply read side by side: in Jacob’s dream, “the angels of God were ascending and descending” (v. 12); Jesus speaks of “the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51).
Scripture: World English Bible.