“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.”     -Genesis 28:13b-15

The Patriarch Jacob is one of the more interesting and complex individuals that we read about in the Scriptures. The portions of Genesis that concern him provide great detail regarding the events of his life, both positive and negative. The life of Jacob is in many ways difficult for us to understand, because he is not someone that we could choose to be like or encourage our children to emulate. And yet he is significant not because of who he was in and of himself, but because of God’s sovereign grace towards him in the form of the promises that He had previously given to Abraham and Isaac.

The manner in which Jacob and his brother Esau were born, the younger grasping at the heel of the older, served to demonstrate the truth of what Yahweh had previously told their mother (Gen. 25:23). The striving of the infants also foreshadowed the contentious nature of their relationship as brothers, later demonstrated in two significant instances. In the first (Gen. 25:29-30), Jacob convinced Esau to trade his birthright for a bowl of stew. The second event, described throughout Gen. 27, was Jacob’s deception of his father Isaac by stealing the blessing that his father intended for Esau.

In these events Jacob proved to be the “deceiver” or “usurper” anticipated by his name itself, something not lost on Esau (Gen. 27:36). His fury at his brother’s deception and thievery led him to begin actively planning to murder Jacob upon Isaac their father’s eventual death. Rebekah, overhearing this, encouraged Isaac to send Jacob away under the guise of him finding a wife from among her relatives rather than from among the Canaanites.

As Jacob began the roughly 200 mile journey to Padan-aran he traveled northeast and eventually came to rest in an otherwise unassuming place. It was there that he lay down and in a dream saw a vision of stairs, upon which angels were both ascending and descending, leading up to heaven. At the top of the stairs stood the Lord, who spoke to Jacob, declaring Himself to be the God of Abraham and Isaac. The Lord then made the same promises to Jacob that He had previously made to both Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3) and Isaac (Gen. 26:3-5). When Jacob awoke he recognized that this place was special and designated the rock on which he had slept as a pillar for the Lord’s house, going so far as to anoint it with oil.

As he wandered alone, Jacob found himself cut off from the blessings that he thought he had secured for himself through his deceptions. In this vision, however, the Lord demonstrated to him that He was the one who possessed the power to bless according to His own good pleasure. Jacob was not alone, but God was with him according to His covenant faithfulness.

Despite Jacob’s character flaws and personal shortcomings, God was determined to dwell with His people and to accomplish His purposes. This important truth is shown most clearly in Christ who, in John 1:51, made reference to this great event in the life of Jacob. This time though it was not the place that was designated as the location of God’s special presence, it was Jesus Himself. In Jesus Christ, mankind would have greater access to God than the stairway Jacob saw could ever provide. In Christ also, the presence of God would not be limited to a specific location but would instead be wherever Christ was during His earthly life and wherever His people, who are joined to Him by faith and sealed with His Spirit, are found.

Join us this Sunday as we gather to worship our Savior and to commune together with Him and one another around His Table.

Soli Deo Gloria.

-Thomas.