Jacob Meets with God (Genesis 28:10-22)
Jacob was heading towards Haran where his uncle Laban lived. He was not going there for a short vacation. Instead, he had to leave home because of the consequences of his deceitful behaviour. He had deceived his father Isaac over his blessing and stolen it from his brother Esau. Esau was not prepared to take that action lightly. Indeed he wanted total revenge and was prepared to kill Jacob. Jacob’s sin had caused problems in his life.
Although he had grown up in a godly home, Jacob at this time probably was still a stranger to divine grace. There is no hint that he had thought of asking God for help in the mess he was in. Nor was there any sign that he wanted to confess his faults to his father and brother. He was now on this journey because his mother did not want him to be killed. Although he did not know it, twenty years would pass before he would come home.
Jacob’s story is a reminder that sin always bring the sinner into situations of trouble. Indeed, in Jacob’s case we can see a course in which the trail caused by his sins was becoming more and more difficult. He had alienated his brother, he had offended his father, and his mother had to send him away for his protection. And he was not heading towards a place where life would be easy for him.
The ladder
Jacob went to sleep and had a dream about a ladder. The ladder is not like the ladders we are familiar with, composed of narrow steps. It was more like a staircase, and it was a very busy one, with numerous angels going up and down on it. It is important to observe that the point of the ladder was not that Jacob could use it to climb to heaven, as if he was being invited to ascend. Nor was it even designed for the Lord to use to come down to the earth. Instead, only angels used the ladder.
What is the significance of the vision about the ladder? It was a reminder to Jacob that God uses angels continually to engage in missions on earth. Moreover, it was a reminder to Jacob that angelic activity was happening close by, even although he had been totally unaware of any of it. Although they were close by, it does not mean that he could stretch out his hand and interrupt them. Humans usually cannot make contact with the angels as they engage in their activities.
Although the angels were ascending and descending, it seems that not one of them paid attention to Jacob at that time. Unlike Jacob, the journeys they made were expressions of obedience to God. Jacob was on a journey because he had been disobedient to God.
The Lord of the Ladder
In the vision, the Lord appears as standing above the ladder – he is not standing on the top step. After all, unlike creatures, he does not need a ladder to go anywhere. Instead, he is depicted as being in charge of the angelic hosts as they engaged in their activities on his behalf. What an amazing presentation of the sovereignty of God! Poor Jacob had imagined that he was in charge of his own life. What would happen to him if the sovereign God assigned an angel to come and deal with Jacob for his sins of deception? There would be no escape from such a divine Sovereign.
God had more to say about himself to Jacob. He reminded Jacob that, unlike him, he had been faithful to his covenant with Jacob’s father and grandfather. He had made promises to both of them and had kept those promises. But his faithfulness was not only connected to the past. In addition, the Lord was determined to remain faithful to the people he intended to bless, including Jacob.
How would God remain faithful to Jacob in the future? First, he said to childless Jacob that he would have offspring. What might surprise us is that, if we work out the figures, Jacob was now in his eighties or nineties. He was about as old as his grandfather Abraham had been before he had children. So Jacob was given a promise that God would do something for him that could parallel to some extent the experience of Abraham.
But God had more in store for Jacob. When God had given his blessing to Abraham, he had limited the blessing to one son, to Isaac and not to others that Abraham fathered. Isaac also was told that only the descendants of Jacob would be blessed and that the blessing would not extend to Esau. With Jacob, there was no such limitation. His entire offspring would receive the blessing of God. Of course, he did not have any children at that time. Nor was he told how many he would have. But he was told that all of them would receive the blessing, and that the offspring would continue to grow and become very numerous.
The Lord wanted Jacob to know more about the divine intention. Although Jacob was on the run because of his sins, or even perhaps because he was on the run because of his sins, God wanted to speak to Jacob about his plan of salvation for the world. One of his descendants, Jacob was told, would be the source of salvation for all the families of the earth (v. 14). When we think about it, this is an amazing prediction. Who would we include among all the families? We can include ourselves – the Scots, or even smaller, the Gaels. We can include the English, the French, the Germans, the Russians, the Chinese and all the modern families. And we can include the Midianites (Jethro), the Moabites (Ruth), the Syrians (Naaman), and all the other foreigners who came to believe in God. And what is important to note here is that God wanted to speak about his future salvation with a man who was on the run because of his sins. Truly, he is a God who delights in grace.
God was not finished speaking words of encouragement to deceitful Jacob. The previous promises we could describe as public in the sense that Jacob was the representative of the offspring that he would have. In addition, the Lord made personal promises to Jacob about being with him wherever he went and about his security while he was away from home. God would ensure that his promises to Jacob would all be fulfilled.
What can we say about this divine commitment to Jacob? It was clearly undeserved because Jacob had not done anything that would have merited divine blessing. Neither was Jacob receiving a reduced amount of blessings from the Lord, which is a reminder that sometimes divine blessing is unconditional. Third, the blessing included the promise of the Lord’s presence with him wherever he would go, into what was for Jacob at that time unknown. We know that he had fears connected to his conduct, particularly with the possible response of Esau. Yet the Lord gave to him great assurances that would help him as he travelled. At that moment, Jacob did not know that it would be twenty years before he would see Canaan again.
The solemn realisation
Several decades before this, Abraham the grandfather of Jacob had built an altar at Bethel, but it looks as if Jacob had not been aware of it. Of course, a long time had passed since then and the altar may have disappeared. In any case, there is not a hint that Jacob had even thought about his grandfather’s faith. But the Lord had not forgotten his promises to Abraham and as part of their fulfilment he appeared to Jacob in a dream. As Matthew Henry commented, ‘It was the best night’s sleep he ever had in his life.’ Although Jacob did not have that response initially.
Some people wonder if their dreams have any significance in a spiritual sense. Personally, I have no idea. But I would say this: if God wants to get your attention through a dream, you will not have to wonder about it. Jacob knew the moment he woke up that the Lord had spoken to him. He had no doubt about it.
The response of Jacob reminds us that heaven is actually very near. When we sense the presence of God in an enhanced way, say in a church service or when reading the Bible by ourselves, we are discovering the proximity of heaven. We do not know how close an angel was to us today, but we are told by the author of Hebrews that they are ministering spirits who serve the heirs of salvation.
We can also see from Jacob’s response that the Lord can come to us in a powerful way suddenly. I doubt if Jacob was thinking much about God as he made his way from Canaan to his uncle’s location. Perhaps he was troubled by what kind of welcome he would receive from Laban. Who would provide him with any encouragement? It looked as if he would need to wait until he reached his destination and then he would find out what kind of man his uncle was. Suddenly, the Lord appeared to him with wonderful assurance.
The incident also tells us that God knows how to get our attention, and he knows what the best way is to get our attention. Jacob would meet with God in different ways over the years, and on each occasion the Lord knew how to get Jacob to hear what he needed to hear. We can experience that kind of thing as well, even in places that we may not expect God to speak to us.
Jacob, having realised that he was close to God, now expressed a sense of fear. We might be surprised by this because he knew that the Lord had given him some wonderful promises. Yet we know that sometimes we can have a sense of fear even when a good thing happens. A person who has been rescued from drowning may shudder when he thinks about what could have happened. Similarly, Jacob realised that the Lord could have come to judge him rather than to bless him.
There is a sense in which we should always have a fear of God, even after we have been delivered from the penalty of sin. Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer to say, ‘Hallowed be your name,’, and we say that after calling him ‘Father.’ There is both intimacy and awareness of his holiness whenever a believer draws near to God.
The personal response
Jacob engaged in an act of personal worship before he set out on the next stage of his journey. One reason why he set up the stone pillar was so that he would remember the location when he returned from Laban. It is possible to read the vow as suggesting Jacob was making conditions which God had to fulfil. But it is better to see that what Jacob is saying is that, if God keeps his promises, then Jacob will return laden with divine blessing. He is merely saying what is going to happen.
Which of the statements in this vow stands out for you? One that stood out for me was Jacob’s expectation that when he returned home he would have sufficient assets to give God a tenth. At the moment he said that statement, Jacob did not have anything. So he had grasped that the Lord had promised to prosper him. And we can observe in passing that the principle of giving a tenth of our resources to God has long been the practice of God’s people.
Another of the statements that is worth thinking about is that Jacob wanted to have a special place to meet with God. He was looking forward to meeting with God at that same place in the future. We all can have such locations or ways which other people may not want. Some like to meet with God when out for a walk, others do so in other ways.
The ladder and Jesus
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, there is an account of the meeting of Nathaniel with Jesus. It looks as if Nathaniel had been reading or thinking about the incident of Jacob and the ladder. One scholar has pointed out that the description of Nathaniel that Jesus gave can be translated as ‘Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no Jacob’, because the unconverted Jacob was full of guile, unlike Nathaniel.
Jesus then told Nathaniel that he would see something greater than what Jacob saw in his vision. Instead of a ladder connecting heaven and earth, Nathaniel would see that Jesus would bring heaven and earth together. Moreover, Nathaniel would discover that the angels whom Jacob saw would be the servants of the man standing speaking to him. The man addressing Nathaniel was on his way to receiving the kingdom promised in Daniel to one like the Son of Man.
Here is a question that we can think about as we close. Are we like Jacob or are we like Nathaniel? Maybe a bit of both. Like them, we can have the privilege of knowing that there is such a thing as providence that covers our journey through life. And with Nathaniel on earth, and with Jacob when he went to heaven, we can see that the One in control of it all is Jesus. After all, the most powerful creatures that exist are angels and each one of them serves Jesus Christ, and through him they serve his people.