20130817 Saturday, August 17 2013
Genesis 28: Jacob's Stairway To Heaven

by Wayne Blank
See also 1 Year Holy Bible Reading Plan

According to the LORD's purpose, Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel, the wives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel, were all unable to have children, until such time that the LORD (see Genesis 1: In The Beginning Was The Word) permitted and enabled it (for Sarah, see Genesis 18:9-14; for Rebekah, see below; for Rachel, see Genesis 30:1-2,22-24). In the case of Rebekah, Isaac's prayer for her was answered with twins - troublesome twins.

"25:21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 25:22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.

25:23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

25:24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25:25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau. 25:26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them." (Genesis 25:21-26 KJV)

Jacob had bested firstborn Esau for his birthright (see A Biography Of Jacob: The Birthright) and then his blessing (see Genesis 27: Esau's Blessing Taken By Jacob). The result was that "Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob."

"27:41 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.

27:42 And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. 27:43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran; 27:44 And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away; 27:45 Until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?

27:46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?" (Genesis 27:41-46 KJV)

With Rebekah's further manipulating, "Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother."

"28:1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 28:2 Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. 28:3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; 28:4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. 28:5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother." (Genesis 28:1-5 KJV)

Esau took the Canaanite explanation at face value. With no one else to marry (Jacob had headed north to their uncle Laban in Syria - and all of their cousins there), Esau married cousins from the family of another uncle, Ishmael, the half-brother of Jacob and Esau's father Isaac. The result was that Jacob married maternal cousins, daughters of his mother's brother, while Esau married paternal cousins, daughters of his father's brother.

"28:6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; 28:7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;

28:8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; 28:9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife." (Genesis 28:6-9 KJV)

Esau did not pursue Jacob, even though he knew where Jacob had gone i.e. "Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram." While on the long journey north to Syria, from the southernmost area of what, over four centuries later (i.e. after the Exodus from Egypt), would be known as "Israel," Jacob stopped for the night and had a dream of "a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." Although the King James Version (and other translations) use the word "ladder," the actual Hebrew word, pronounced sool-lawm, means a mound with an upward path, as in a stairway. Interestingly, the word occurs only once in the entire Holy Bible - Jacob's "stairway to heaven."

"28:10 And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.

28:11 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 them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

28:12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

28:13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 28:14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 28:15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." (Genesis 28:10-15 KJV)

When Jacob awoke, he knew that it had been more than just a dream. The next morning, Jacob "called the name of that place Bethel," dedicating himself to the LORD.

"28:16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.

28:17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

28:18 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 upon the top of it. 28:19 And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first." (Genesis 28:16-19 KJV)

As we will cover in a subsequent study in this series, the LORD would rename Jacob as "Israel" upon his return to that same area.

"28:20 And 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 raiment to put on, 28:21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: 28:22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee." (Genesis 28:20-22 KJV)

Fact Finder: If the Israelites were to leave Egypt, "a land that is not theirs" ("And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years" Genesis 15:13 KJV) how could Abraham's "seed" possess the lands from the Nile River of Egypt to the Euphrates River of Iraq?
See Abraham's Seed: From The Nile To The Euphrates; see also The LORD's Seed Covenants With The Two Men Of Iraq