32 JACOB RELEASED

Jacob had no sooner obtained the blessing than immediately he was forced to flee from his country; and, as it if were not enough that he was a stranger and sojourner there, he must go to be more so, and no better than an exile in another country as Hosea 12:12 mentions: “Jacob fled to the country of Aram; Israel served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep.” He was blessed with plenty of corn and wine, and yet he went away poor, was blessed with parents favor, and yet went out to do hard service, under Laban. This was perhaps to correct him for dealing deceitfully with his father. The blessing will be confirmed to him, and yet he is to suffer for the devious course he took to obtain it. If there is a mixture of sin in our duties, we must expect a mixture of trouble in our comforts. God can use this to teach us that those who inherit blessings must also expect persecution; those who have peace in Jesus will have tribulation in the world. Being told of this before, we must not think it strange, nor think of it as hard but rather hardening and to be rewarded. God’s plans for us often seem to contradict His promises, and to go directly against them. Yet, when the mystery of God is finished, we see that all was for the best, and that what we thought was against us was really for us and made the promises and their fulfillment all the more welcome. With this Jacob is dismissed by his father.

Before he blessed him the second time, Isaac gave Jacob a charge: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother” (1-2). Anyone that has the blessing must keep the charge connected with it and not separate what God has joined. The charge is like that in 2 Corinthians 6:14. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. All that inherit the promises of the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, must keep this charge, which follows those promises as Peter charged his listeners on the day of Pentecost, recorded in Acts 2:40: “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” People entitled to peculiar favors must be peculiar. If Jacob be an heir of promise, he must not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; those that confess Jesus as their Savior should not marry non-Christians.

With a solemn blessing Isaac blessed Jacob. He had blessed him before unknowingly; now he does it intentionally, for the greater encouragement of Jacob in that unknown and anxious condition to which he was now moving. This blessing is more expressive and full than the former; it is a completion of the blessing of Abraham—that blessing which was poured on the head of Abraham like the anointing oil, and from there to run down to his chosen seed, as to the skirts of his garments. It is a gospel blessing, the blessing of church-privileges, that is the blessing of Abraham, which is given also to the Gentiles through faith. It is a blessing from God Almighty the name by which God appeared to the patriarchs, as God told Moses in Exodus 6:3, “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty,” Those are blessed indeed whom God Almighty blesses; for He commands and effects the blessing; God requires it and makes it happen.

Look at the two great promises with which Abraham was blessed and Isaac here passes on to Jacob: Firstly, the promise of heirs and secondly the promise of a Savior, the Messiah. Jesus is the corn of wheat who died to produce many as indicated in John 12:24, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”Jesus is that corn of wheat, which falling to the ground, produced much fruit.

The promise of an inheritance for those heirs is included. Canaan was here given to the seed of Jacob, exclusive of the seed of Esau. Isaac was now sending Jacob away into a distant country, to settle there for some time; and, lest this should look like disinheriting him, to the contrary he confirms the ownership of the land on Jacob. He is here told that he would inherit the land in which he traveled. Heavenly minded persons who rely journey now will be heirs forever. Even now, ironically, those do most inherit the earth that are most like strangers in it. 

Jacob, having left his father, was hurried away with all speed, lest his brother should find an opportunity to do him damage, and away he went to Paddan-Aram. Notice the differences between Isaac and Jacob who both obtained wives from Paddan-Aram. Isaac had servants and camels sent to bring his; Jacob must go himself, go alone, and go afoot, to find then bring his: Jacob must go in fear from his father’s house, not knowing when he might return. If God, in His will, disable us, we must be content, even if we cannot maintain the grandeur of our predecessors. We should be more concerned to maintain their godliness than to maintain their dignity, and to be as good as they were than to be as great. The time will come when godliness will become the most important consideration and qualification. It will have the most important position, whatever it has now.

A passage concerning Esau comes in in the middle of Jacob’s story, perhaps (1) To show the influence of a good example. Esau, though the greater man, now begins to think Jacob the better man, and becomes willing to marry a daughter of Abraham. Elder children should give the younger a good example of obedience; it is bad if they do not: but if they don’t they can take the a good example from them, as Esau here did from Jacob. Or, (2) To show the weakness of doing right, but too late. Esau did well, but he did it when it was too late, He saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father, though he might have seen that long ago if he had consulted his father’s counsel instead of trying to curry favor. And how did He try to mend the matter? As if to attempt to make bad worse, he married a daughter of Ishmael, the son of the bond-woman, who was cast out, and was not to inherit with Isaac and his seed. He was joining with a family which God had rejected, and seeking to strengthen his own position by the aid of another rejected person.

Esau took a third wife though it does not appear that either of the other two were dead or divorced. He did it only to please his father, not to please God. That is a problem. Now that Jacob was sent into a far country, Esau would be all in all at home, and perhaps he hoped to kiss up to his father to receive a new will. He was wise, however, when it was too late, like Israel that would try to take Canaan land when the decree had come through Moses against it or the foolish virgins who let their oil supply be depleted. It does not say that when he saw how obedient and willing to please his parents Jacob was that he repented of his malicious design. Some people think they are good just because they are not as bad as they have been in the past. We may recall the story of Micah who kept his idols and was content to keep the Levite as his private priest as recorded in Judges 17:13, “And Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.’” Think again, Micah. We leave Esau in Beersheba and return to the travels of Jacob.

Jacob, in a somewhat desolate condition begins his journey towards Syria. He is like one that was sent to seek his fortune; but we find that, though he was alone, yet he was not alone. As Jesus said in John 16:32C, “Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.” If the narrative is accurate, by the first night, he had made a long day’s journey from Beersheba all the way to Bethel which would be more than forty miles. Maybe he traveled so far that day because of his fear of Esau. God, however, brought him to a convenient place, possibly shaded with trees, to rest that night with a stone for his pillow. “Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep” (11).

Jacob had a stone for his pillow and the heavens for his canopy and curtains. That was more normal for people in those days than it is for us today with our hotels, motels and restaurants. We can imagine that he lay possibly cold, the cold ground for his bed, and, which one would suppose made the matter worse, a cold and hard stone for his pillow in the cold air. He may have been uneasy. If his muscles and bones were sore with a day’s journey, his night’s rest could possibly make them even sorer. He was exposed to the weather whatever it was, but also exposed to the revenge of Esau. He was fleeing for his life. Had his brother in his anger and desire for revenge, pursued, or sent a murderer after him, here he lay ready to be sacrificed without shelter or defense. We cannot think it was because of his poverty that his bed was so simple, but in those days things were more plain and simple. Men did not take so much luggage or consider a soft bed normal. Jacob had been used to some hardships, as a plain man dwelling in tents; and, designing now to go to service, he was the more willing to accept inconvenience. And, as it proved it was well for him for later he would say, “This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes” (Genesis 31:40). To his benefit, God’s blessing was his comfort. His confidence in the divine protection made it easier even when he lay exposed on the ground. He was sure that his God made him dwell in safety, he could lie down and sleep even on a stone.

In his hard lodging he had a pleasant dream. Any of us would be willing to sleep on Jacob’s pillow, provided we might have Jacob’s dream. Then, and there, he heard the words of God, and saw the visions of the Almighty. It was probably the best night’s sleep he ever had in his life. God’s time to visit his people with His comforts is when they are most destitute of other comforts, or comforters; when afflictions in the way of duty abound, then our consolations also abound. We do not discover that God is all we need until we realize He is all we have.

Jacob had a wonderful dream. “He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord,” (12-13A). This represents the two things that are very encouraging to good people at all times, and in all conditions. Firstly, the involvement of God, by which there is a constant correspondence kept up between heaven and earth. The counsels of heaven are executed on earth, and the actions and affairs of this earth are all known in heaven and judged there. Angels are employed as ministering spirits, to serve all the purposes and designs of the Lord God, and the wisdom of God is at the upper end of the ladder, directing all the motions of second causes (the visible causes) to the glory of the first Cause. The angels are active spirits, continually ascending and descending; they do not rest  day nor night, from service, according to the posts assigned them. They ascend, to give account of what they have done, and to receive orders; and then descend, to execute the new orders they have received. We should always abound in the work of the Lord, that we may do it as the angels do it, “Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will” (Psalm 103:20-21). This vision gave timely courage to Jacob, letting him know that he had a good guide and guard, in his going out and coming in,—that, though he was made to wander from his father’s house, yet still he was in the care of a kind God, and the charge of the holy angels. Jacob was now the type and representative of the whole church, which the angels are entrusted to guard.

Secondly, the mediation of Christ.  He is this ladder, with the foot on earth in His human nature and the top in heaven in His divine nature: the former in His humiliation, the latter in His exaltation. All the communications between heaven and earth, since the fall, is by this ladder. To this vision our Savior alludes when he speaks much like Genesis of the angels of God in John 1:51, “He then added, ‘Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.” The kind ministries the angels do for us, and the benefits we receive by those ministrations, are all owing to Christ, who has reconciled all things on earth and in heaven, “and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:20). He made them all work together in himself, “to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ” (Ephesians 1:10).  These good truths are demonstrated in Jacob’s dream of the ladder.

God brought Jacob into the wilderness, and gave strong encouragement to him, He spoke from the head, the top, of the ladder. The former promises made to his father were repeated and ratified to him. God intimated to him that He would be the same to him that He had been to Abraham and Isaac. Anyone who treads in the steps of their godly parents and are interested in this special relationship are entitled to the privileges of it. The land of Canaan is given to him as if by his lying so contentedly on the bare ground he had taken possession of the whole land. These were the blessings with which his father had blessed him as recorded in Genesis 28:3-4: “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” God here through this ladder said “Amen.” Abraham’s blessing included that the Messiah should come from his loins, in whom all the families of the earth would be blessed and that now belonged to Jacob. Jesus is the great blessing of the world. All that are blessed, whatever family they are of, are blessed in Him, and none of any family are excluded from blessedness in Him, except those that exclude themselves.

We see that Jacob has been fully blessed with everything Abraham and Isaac had received from God. Heritage matters.