Genesis 28:10–22 (ESV),
Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
Then Jacob made 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 wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”
The Context of Jacob's Flight
This story takes place just after Jacob had to flee from his home because his brother Esau planned to kill him. He had deceived his father, stolen the blessing, and had run for his life. And so Jacob flees here into the unknown.
The Divine Dream
As he does so, God meets him in a dream. And he sees the stairway reaching from heaven to earth with angels ascending and descending. Now in those days, dreams were a common way that divine communication happened.
Now we need to remember that this passage is also part of a broader narrative. And the stairway here should remind us of the Tower of Babel, where the people had decided to build a tower that would ascend from the earth all the way into heaven. But now here God provides a vision of a ladder that He extends from top to bottom. God provides the link between heaven and earth.
God's Promises Renewed
And so the Lord himself stands above the ladder and he gives the same promises that he had given to Abraham now to this son Jacob as he is fleeing. He gives him land, he gives him offspring, he makes a nation out of him and he promises that a blessing to all the nations, all the families of the earth would come from him.
But then there's something different about this passage. God adds here a personal promise to Jacob. He says, "I will be with you. I will not leave you."
Jacob's Response
And then when Jacob wakes, he recognizes that this was the presence of God. And so he names the place Bethel, which literally means the house of God. And he sets up this altar, this stone pillar, and he anoints it. He pours oil on it.
Now these kinds of standing stones were often used in those days as memorials or treaty markers. They were kind of bits of evidence, if you like, that a treaty or a covenant or an agreement had been made between two parties.
And so now Jacob makes a vow that mirrors God's promise. He asks for protection. He asks for provision. But then he pledges that if God would do this, that he would worship him by giving him a full tithe, a tenth of all the things that he has.
Why Don't We Get Visions Like This?
And we can be tempted to ask the question, well, why doesn't God speak to me like this? Why doesn't he give me dreams and visions of massive ladders where he stands with angels coming and going? And we can be tempted to ask the question, why doesn't God give me visions like this? Why don't I see these ladders with the Lord standing above making promises to me directly about how he will be with me and how he will be protecting me?
And that's a fair question to ask. But we need to remember that God reveals his promises and his action plan to save the world from its sin throughout the history of time.
Understanding Our Different Position
In Jacob's time, there wasn't the word, scripture, as we have it today. There was just this promise that God had made to his grandfather, Abraham. And now God makes this promise to him directly.
And we also need to remember that Jacob is a person who is a direct ancestor of Jesus. He is someone who is in the promised line of Jesus. He is the one through whom God is going to be ultimately saving the world. And so God especially protects those that have a special place to play in his redemption history story.
Now we live 2,000 years after Jesus was on earth. And so none of us have this same special position in God's redemptive story. It's true that some of us may become wonderful missionaries or plant churches or do amazing work for God. But none of us are direct ancestors in Jesus's genealogy. None of us face difficulty and a threat to God's promise to redeem the world. He has already done that in Christ.
And so we don't get the same kind of privileges that these people had way back then because we are completely different to them in the history of redemption.
God's Greater Promise to Us
But what is true is that we can sometimes feel maybe a little bit like Jacob felt when he ran away. We can feel that God is absent when we are going through a difficult time. But this passage reminds us that God is never absent, that he is always with us.
You know, we didn't get a direct promise from God that He will be with us personally. In fact, God does something even greater than the promise He made for Jacob. God gave us Jesus Christ to die in our place, to forgive us our sins, and to redeem us. And then all who believe in Him, all the elect, receive His Holy Spirit.
So not just does God go with us like He went with Jacob. He actually goes in us. He walks within us as the spirit living within us.
Our Response of Gratitude
And so we should have a similar response to Jacob had to that revelation that God would be with him. Jacob makes this memorial vow that if God would bless him, then he would do these things. But we know that God has already blessed us in Christ Jesus. And now we are to live a life of gratitude and a life of service to God as a result of what he's already done.
And so this wonderful passage helps us to grapple with this and to refocus our eyes so that we will see that God has already protected us through Jesus.
Closing Prayer
Lord, thank you that you walk with us. Thank you that your Spirit doesn't just walk with us, but actually lives in us. That you go with us and that you protect us, not just from our brother who's angry at us, but from the wrath that you rightly have against our sin. That you have shielded us through that in your Son, Jesus Christ, and that we can now live for you. Help us to never forget that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.