Beyond The Basics

Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

Thanks for joining me once again. This episode we’re going to go through Genesis chapter 28.

And if you remember last week in chapter 27 Jacob had to flee his home because he had taken Esau’s blessing which is really Jacob’s in the first place. Esau was very angry and wanted to kill Jacob so he had to flee and so now in chapter 28, he is blessed by his father Isaac before he leaves and Isaac and Rebecca send him to Laban who is Rebecca’s brother.

After Jacob leaves, Esau actually married an Ishmaelite woman to appease his parents because they were not happy about his other wives that were Canaanite women. He married an Ishmaelite woman.

The story skips over to Jacob again and we find Jacob laying down to sleep one night while he’s on his journey and he had a dream. And in that dream there was a ladder that was reaching to heaven. Angels were going up and down on this ladder and God stood at the top of the ladder and spoke to Jacob and he promised to give him the inheritance that he had promised Abraham. Jacob woke up and set up a stone there called the place Bethel and made a vow that if the Lord would provide for him and protect him and bring him back to his father’s house then the Lord would be his God.

So that’s a quick overview of the chapter. So let’s get deeper in to the chapter.

So in verse one says: Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite woman.”

Because Esau did. He actually took two wives, two Canaanite wives, and they were causing trouble for Isaac and Rebekah. And we don’t know exactly what kind of trouble they were causing, but the last two chapters, at the end of each chapter, it’s highlighted how difficult these women had made life for Isaac and Rebekah.

Isaac tells Jacob in verse 2, “Arise, go to Paddan Aram.”

And this is where Rebekah’s brother Laban lived. And this shows that Isaac is finally starting to listen to Rebekah. He’s finally starting to listen to his wife. I believe I showed in the previous chapter that Isaac knew that God had spoken to Rebekah and told Rebekah Jacob would be the chosen seed. Jacob would be the chosen son and Isaac ignored it and rebelled against the word of the Lord. Now this shows that Isaac’s finally starting to listen to his wife and listen to wisdom.

And he’s sending Jacob to Rebecca’s family, which if you remember, Laban was the son of Bethuel who was the son of Nahor who is the brother of Abraham. So he’s sending Jacob to his relatives. And this is a good thing because again, we don’t want Jacob to marry a Canaanite woman.

In verse three, Isaac says, “God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you.”

This word, God Almighty, is El Shaddai in Hebrew.

So Isaac goes on and says, “Make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.”

This is actually not something that was promised to Abraham or Isaac. Abraham and Isaac only had one son that would receive the promise. Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob. Their other sons were not to receive the promise. They were not considered to be part of the nation of Israel. They ended up having their own children and ended up being the ancestors of various other nations.

But here, Isaac is saying that Jacob would have many sons that would be part of this promise, that would be included in this promise.

So in verse 4, Isaac goes on and says, “May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you.”

So what Isaac is saying here is, he knew that Jacob needed to encounter God himself. He’s saying, “May God give the blessing of Abraham to you.”

5, Isaac sent Jacob away. So instead of sending a servant to find a wife for Jacob, like Abraham did, sending a servant to find a wife for Isaac, this time Jacob has to go himself.

And so he goes. In the next paragraph we find that Esau gets jealous of Jacob. Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had shown favor to Jacob and sent him to his own family to find a wife and to keep himself safe.

And he saw in verse 6, it says that as he blessed him, he directed him – talking about Isaac talking to Jacob – as Isaac blessed him, directed Jacob, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women.”

So Esau saw Isaac blessing Jacob in this way, and he thought, “Well, maybe if I do this, maybe my father will have favor on me. Maybe I’ll get a blessing out of it if this is all I have to do.”

So he went in verse 9 he went to Ishmael and took as his wife besides the wives he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael. So in verse 10 pick up the story back with Jacob and it says that Jacob left Beersheba and went toward

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which is to the east, so now Jacob is entering exile. Remember, east represents exile, and exile represents death. In fact, the biblical authors will even go so far as to insinuate that exile is synonymous with death, saying it’s the same thing. Remember, Genesis 2 and 3, God told Adam, if you eat of

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the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will die. Well, Adam didn’t die when he ate, but he was exiled. So exile is synonymous with death. So what this is saying here is that Jacob is entering death. He is crossing over into death. And that’s going to be important in several chapters, because as we’re going to see several chapters from now, he’s going to come back into the land.

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he’s going to cross over the river, which is a picture of baptism and crossing into life. So this is actually a very, very important sentence here. It’s showing that Jacob is going to go through this process of death into life. Something that we all need to go through. We all need to die so that we can find life. Jacob wasn’t exempt from that.

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you

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you

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So in verse 11, he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set and taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. So this phrase under his head could also be translated at his head.

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When we hear the phrase, under his head, we think of him using a stone as a pillow. Well, that obviously sounds incredibly uncomfortable. I mean, I would rather use my arm rather than a stone. I’m sure many of you would too. Unless you’ve done a lot of sleeping out in the wilderness. Maybe then you’d disagree, but personally, I’d rather use my arm or just lay my head on the ground itself rather than try to find a stone that we

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somehow comfortable enough to lay my head at. But if we look at this as saying he laid it at his head, that actually implies that he was using this stone as a weapon to protect himself. And he put it near his head so that if anybody were to come attack him or if an animal were to come, that stone would be right there. He could grab it quickly and use it as a weapon.

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Verse 12, he dreamed just like Abraham dreamed when God made the covenant with him. Now God is going to make a covenant with Jacob. Abraham dreamed when he saw the Lord and now Jacob is going to dream. And so in the dream, behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven.

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So in verse 13, it says, Behold, the Lord stood above it, above the ladder, and said, I am the Lord, God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. So as I mentioned earlier, God had appeared in person to Abraham and to Isaac to confirm the covenant to both of them. And now this is the first time he appears to Jacob in person. So like I said, Jacob had received the covenant from Isaac, his father, but Isaac had prayed.

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that he would receive it from God directly and so now God is giving him this covenant directly. God is confirming this covenant to Jacob directly. So God gave Jacob the covenant over the next couple verses and in verse 15 he says, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. So this is actually going to be fulfilled in a couple different ways. First he is going to go

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to Hurran and find a wife and he’s going to return from exile or from death as if returning to life.

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which is going to be a picture of resurrection, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, go through that return to life and the picture of baptism, we’ll get more into that in a couple chapters. Not only is God going to bring Jacob specifically back to the land after finding a wife, but Jacob is also going to go to Egypt and settle there, and his son Joseph would eventually bring his father’s body back for burial to the land of Canaan. So Jacob would die

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in Egypt eventually and after Jacob dies would end up bringing his body back for burial. So Jacob would return to the land in that way as well. And then the third way, this is fulfilled of course, 400 years after that, the nation of Israel itself, the descendants of Jacob that had stayed in Egypt and would be enslaved by Egypt would then return to the land as a nation.

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So there’s actually three different ways in which that particular promise would be fulfilled. And so he says, I’ll bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. God promises Jacob that he will not leave him and he’s always going to be with him. This is the same promise that Jesus gave to his disciples. Same promise that he gives to us. Matthew 28 20 he says, behold, I’m with you always.

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to the end of the age. So Jacob woke 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? Jacob gives credit to the place. He doesn’t realize it’s not about the place, but it’s about God’s presence. Jacob, I think this reveals Jacob’s mindset about God. I think he already had a very pagan mindset about God.

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pagan Canaanite nations would worship a god of fill in the blank of whatever place or function that they were looking for. So Jacob thinks that God is limited to the place he was at. Even though God just promised to be with Jacob wherever he went, Jacob still thinks it’s about the place. He thinks, man, this place is awesome. God’s here. But it wasn’t about the place. It was about God.

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It was about how God had already chosen him before he was born and had already been with him wherever he had went up to this point. And now God was revealing himself to Jacob. Jacob doesn’t recognize the hand of God in his life yet. He thinks he just happened to fall asleep in the right place.

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but he’ll find out soon enough. in verse 18, it says, 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 top of it. So he takes this stone that was originally intended as a means of self-defense or as a weapon, and he turns it into a symbol of worship to God. So at the very least, even though he may not…

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understand who God is and what he’s capable of, at the very least what he’s saying here is he’s saying, God, I’m going to give up my attempts to defend myself and I’m going to trust you to defend me. He’s taking that weapon of self-defense and he’s turning it into worship.

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poured oil on top of it. Pouring oil on something means it’s being consecrated to be used in service to God. So in Leviticus 8 verses 10 through 11 it says that Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it and consecrated them. And he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times and anointed the altar and all its utensils and the basin and its stand to consecrate them. Moses used oil to consecrate

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all these objects in the tabernacle to be used in service to God. And that’s what Jacob was doing here. He was saying this stone is now consecrated to be used in worship for God. So in verse 19 he called the name of that place Bethel. Bethel actually has a significant role in the Bible. It’s mentioned more times than any other city.

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the Bible except for Jerusalem. moving on, Jacob makes a vow in verses 20 through 21, and he gives five conditions. It’s kind of funny because God had made this promise to him to bless him and to give him offspring that will bless the whole earth and to bring him back and that God would be with him wherever he goes.

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And so Jacob takes a vow, and that seems nice, that seems good. Jacob’s committing his life to God. But he gives five conditions. The first condition he says in verse 20 is, if God will be with me. God had already promised that he would be with Jacob, but Jacob says, well, okay, if you’re gonna be with me. He wanted proof that God is gonna keep his word. The testimony of Isaac and Abraham wasn’t enough for him. He…

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wanted proof that he could see for himself. So that’s the first condition. The second condition is he says, if God will keep me in the way that I go. Essentially he’s saying, if God will protect me. That’s what that word keep means. If God will protect me as I go. If he’s gonna be with me and if he’s gonna protect me. Third condition, if God will give me bread to eat. So if God’s gonna provide food for me. Fourth, if God will give me clothing to wear.

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These are not outrageous demands, of course, for a God who promises to provide. The problem is they are demands. They are conditions of Jacob believing and following the God of his fathers. We shouldn’t make demands of God, especially not when he has just given us a promise. So the fifth condition Jacob provides is, if I come again to my father’s house in peace.

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He’s saying not just that I would return, but that I would return in peace. So Esau, who had just threatened to kill Jacob and was the whole reason why Jacob had to leave and flee, when he returns, he needs to return in peace and Esau cannot try to kill him. Then after these five conditions, Jacob makes three promises. Says, okay, God, if you do these five things for me, then the Lord shall be my God.

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Which implies that Jacob does not currently worship Yahweh, which we’ve seen. He has no understanding of who Yahweh is. He has no understanding of who the God of his father is. He has no understanding of what he’s like and what the promise actually means. Again, he’s not just floating by on his father’s faith. He has no faith at all in this God. But, he is willing to claim…

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father’s faith and the associated promises as his own as long as God fulfills his terms of course but we’ll see how that goes so then the second promise that he makes is that this stone shall be God’s house remember he calls it Bethel which means the house of God so he says this stone shall be God’s house this will be a place of worship dedicated to God and then he says

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and his third promise that all that you give me I will return a tenth to you. Just like Abraham gave a tenth of what he received to Melchizedek. Essentially what he’s saying here is I will enter into the kingly and priestly ministry that you have called my family to. That’s basically what he’s by promising a tenth to God. So then the chapter ends there.

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So how does this point to Jesus? Well, there’s four elements in this chapter, and all four of them point to Jesus. The first one is that Jesus is the ladder that reaches to heaven. I think that’s the most obvious, because in John, chapter one, verse 51, and many of you who are listening will know this verse, he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending.

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on the Son of Man. Jesus was saying here, that ladder that Jacob saw, that ladder was me. All those times in the scriptures that you see men trying to build a tower to reach heaven or to make their way to heaven, trying to get to heaven, trying to make their way up, and they couldn’t do it, they could never get there. The reason is because there’s only one way to heaven, and that way to heaven is by that ladder that Jacob saw.

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And who’s that ladder? It’s me. It’s Jesus. That’s what Jesus was saying by referencing that ladder. Jesus is the only way to heaven. Jesus is the only way to approach God. He’s the only way. There is no other junction point between heaven and earth except through Jesus. So to accept Jesus as a good teacher or a nice guy or even as a historical figure

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It’s not enough if you want eternal life. You have to hear the words that he spoke and respond in faith and surrender. So the second element in this chapter is the stone. Jesus is also the stone. Jesus is the ladder and now Jesus is the stone. Where do we find that? How do we know that Jesus is the stone? Well, in 1st Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 8 it says, As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men

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but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

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and stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumbled because they disobeyed the word as they were destined to do. So this whole section in 1 Peter is comparing Jesus to the cornerstone on which a house would be built. And that cornerstone would be the first stone that would be laid down in the foundation. That cornerstone had to be perfect. If the cornerstone wasn’t perfect, the entire rest of the house would be thrown off and it would not be level, wouldn’t be plumb, would be, it would look super goofy.

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That’s what Peter is comparing Jesus to. He’s comparing him to a living stone or a cornerstone on which a house would be built. Well, what did Jacob name this place where he saw this dream? He called it Bethel, house of God, and he put a stone there to mark the place. This stone is pointing to Jesus, the cornerstone upon which the house of God would be built. That house of God is the church, the holy priesthood, those of us who have surrendered.

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our lives to Jesus would be that house. That’s what the New Testament calls us, is the house. There’s many different ways of calling us the house or the temple or the body, but they all express the same concept in that Jesus is the foundation, that stone on which everything else is built on. Unfortunately, the children of Israel rejected the stone that

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Israel set up. That’s the other part of this section in 1 Peter. Israel, who Jacob would eventually be called Israel later on when we get to a later chapter, we’ll find out more about Jacob’s name change to Israel. So Israel set up this stone in Bethel and his children, his descendants, the children of Israel, would reject that stone. And in fact quite literally, as I mentioned before, they would use that stone

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idol worship. Bethel would become a place known for its idol worship. A couple thousand years later they would reject the cornerstone. They would reject Jesus. That’s how that stone points to Jesus. Now the third element is the oil. There’s two components here. So first is that Jesus was anointed with oil just like the stone. So Jesus was anointed. If you remember what I mentioned was that Jacob

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Consecrated this stone with oil for service to God. So that’s the picture that’s pointing to Jesus that Jesus is consecrated with oil for service to God in Luke 14 verses 17 through 18 It says and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me To proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering

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sight to the blind and set at liberty those who are oppressed.” And then later he says, today these words are fulfilled in your hearing. What he says is specifically, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. So that word anointed references oil. So he’s saying that he has been anointed with oil to proclaim good news. And then in John 12 verse 3 says, Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard

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and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” Mary of Bethany quite literally anointed Jesus with oil and here he was anointed. In fact, as we get into John, very soon actually, John is going to be the next book that we go through after Genesis, we’re going to find out that Mary was actually anointing Jesus for burial and that was the service to God that he was providing. He died.

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as sacrifice to God. That was his service. So he was anointed for service just like Jacob anointed the stone. And the second component of this oil is that Jesus is the oil that was poured out. In Song of Solomon chapter 1 verse 3 it says, anointing oils are fragrant. Your name is an oil poured out, therefore virgins love you. So Song of Solomon

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is an analogy, a book about the marriage covenant between a man and a woman. But it’s an analogy to Christ and the church. And that’s what that book overall, in general, points to. Without getting into too much detail, because we’ll get there eventually, what this verse is saying, it’s the woman talking to the man, so it be the picture of the bride talking to the bridegroom, which is Jesus.

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saying your name is oil poured out. Jesus pours himself out to anoint us for service to God so that we can then follow him and surrender our lives in sacrifice to him. So that’s the fourth element here in this chapter that points to Jesus. So let’s ask a question for reflection that I hope

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you will meditate on this week, take some time, think about it, pray about it as you go through your week. And that question is, why do you think Jacob needed a personal encounter with God? And why do you think it’s so significant? And why do you think it’s important for us to have our own personal encounter with God? In whatever form that might look like.

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Maybe it’s not as dramatic as Jacob’s personal encounter. It doesn’t need to be. Most people’s probably aren’t. But why is that important? Well, thanks for listening. Let’s wrap up in prayer. Lord, thank you so much for your Word. Thank you for this opportunity for us to study your Word together. Thank you for those who would hear and who would obey what you’ve spoken. God, I pray that as we read

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your word as we meditate this week on what we’ve learned in this chapter. I pray that you would reveal yourself to us in a new way. I pray that you would reveal your son Jesus as the only way to heaven. God, we look to you. We thank you for all the ways that you’ve shown us who you are through the testimony of the saints. And I pray that everyone who is listening would respond to that testimony and would look to you.

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in faith and in trust and in hope for a glorious future. Jesus name, Amen. Well, thank you once again. Don’t forget, go to Patreon. You can subscribe there, get the full uncut episode. You also get access to all previous episodes for free. If you sign up today, you still get access to all those previous episodes that were released before you signed up. So,

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Just an added perk if you want to go ahead and do that. Otherwise, always appreciate your comments. Always appreciate your feedback. Leave a five star rating. I will be back next week with Genesis chapter 29. Thanks for listening.