Click here to be a part of the Live Stream and interact with us in the Chat during this Bible Study.
Jacob Escapes from Esau
Genesis 27:41 So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
Evidently Esau also thought his father was on the verge of death (27:1) and so, out of respect for his aged father, he postponed murder. Isaac lived another 43 years.
Genesis 27:42 And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you.
Genesis 27:43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice: arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran.
Genesis 27:44 And stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away, :45 until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereaved also of you both in one day?”
Rebekah understood she stood to lose both her sons since, after the murder of Jacob, the avenger of blood, i.e., the next nearest relative, would track down and execute Esau.
Genesis 27:46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?” (Local Hittite women.)
Genesis 28:1 Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him: “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.
Rebekah easily convinced her husband that the time had come for him to seek a non-Canaanite wife back in their homeland and preferably from near kinsmen (vv. 2, 5), just as Rebekah had been sought for Isaac.
Genesis 28:2 Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.
Genesis 28:3 “May God Almighty bless you, And make you fruitful and multiply you, That you may be an assembly of peoples; :4 And give you the blessing of Abraham, To you and your descendants with you, That you may inherit the land In which you are a stranger, Which God gave to Abraham.”
This extra patriarchal blessing unveiled where Isaac was in his thinking. He had come to understand that the divine blessings would go through Jacob, to whom the Abrahamic Covenant promises of posterity and land also applied—quite the reversal of prior wishes and understanding.
The lack of land possession at that time, described by the phrase “the land of your sojournings,” did not deter at all from the certainty of God’s promise.
Genesis 28:5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
Ca. 1928 b.c. This must have been a hard departure for the domestic Jacob.
Esau Marries Mahalath
Genesis 28:6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” :7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram.
Genesis 28:8 Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. :9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.
Marrying back into the line of Abraham through the family of Ishmael seemed to have been a ploy to gain favor with his father (vv. 6, 8), and show an obedience similar to his brother’s (v. 7).
He hoped by such gratifying of his parents to atone for past delinquencies, and maybe have his father change the will.
He actually increased iniquity by adding to his pagan wives (26:34, 35) a wife from a family God had rejected.
Jacob’s Vow at Bethel
Genesis 28:10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. :11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.
Genesis 28:12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
Genesis 28:13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.
Genesis 28:14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Genesis 28:15 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 spoken to you.”
A most timely, comforting, and assuring promise which remained engraved on Jacob’s heart during his sojourn in Haran (see 30:25). His forced departure from Canaan did not and would not abrogate any of God’s promises to him.
Genesis 28:16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
Genesis 28:17 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!”
Genesis 28:18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. :19 And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.
Genesis 28:20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, :21 so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. :22 And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
Next Jacob seems to be bargaining with God. He was actually bargaining for less than God had promised (v. 14). His faith was not strong enough to take God at His word, so he had to make his tithe conditional on God’s performance of His part of the agreement.
Another interpretation, however, is that the “if” is simply an inherent part of all Hebrew oaths and that Jacob was binding himself to give a tenth unconditionally (see Num. 21:2; Judg. 11:30, 31; 1 Sam. 1:11 for similar Hebrew oaths).
Jacob Meets Rachel
Genesis 29:1 So Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the East. :2 And he looked, and saw a well in the field; and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks. A large stone was on the well’s mouth. :3 Now all the flocks would be gathered there; and they would roll the stone from the well’s mouth, water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the well’s mouth. :4 And Jacob said to them, “My brethren, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from Haran.”
Macdonald, Farstad Grady Scott, Hindson, E. MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006).
