Bethel: where Jacob met the Lord
Preface: When you think of Jacob, what comes to mind? Clearly, he was one of the most colorful people in the Bible! Sometimes we think he was a shady character, such as when he “bargained” with Esau for the birthright. I still think there’s a bit of humor in that incident; “Esau” means “red”, and Jacob was making a stew or some kind of dish out of something that looked, well, red! Esau traded his birthright for a meal, but he never got it back (see the last few verses of Genesis 27 for that story).
The text begins with verse 10 of Genesis 28, from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV):
Genesis 28:10, KJV: And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. 11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. 16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. 17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. 20 And Jacob vowed 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 raiment to put on, 21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: 22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
Why did Jacob stop at Bethel?
Remember that Jacob had lived in Beersheba for some time before he was sent away (Gen. 26:33). Without going into too much detail, Isaac had sent Jacob away to find a wife, back to the land of his mother Rebekah. Perhaps this was a reaction to Esau’s marrying two local (although foreign) women. Nothing is said of either Judith or Basemath (see Genesis 26:34-35) in regards to their faith. We don’t know if Esau was able to lead them into the knowledge of the God of Abraham and Isaac, whether they turned Esau’s heart away from his father’s God, or if he kept the faith and they didn’t. We do know that they did bring grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
We could also find a bit of irony, in that Abraham told his servant to not even think of taking Isaac back to the land of Nahor (Genesis 24:6-10), but now, Isaac is sending his own son there. There is another contrast, in that Abraham’s servant, Eliezer, had no idea whom he would find as a bride for Isaac. His prayer was answered in that Rebekah fulfilled every one of his prayer requests. Jacob, on the other hand, was sent out, with minimal guidance. He wasn’t told much more than which family to select his bride from. So, in light of the family situation, he set out on his journey.
The main reason, one could say, that Jacob stopped there, at Bethel, because he was tired! In verses 10 and following, the text states that it was dark, and that Jacob spent the night there. We also read that he took one of the stones of that place for a pillow and I have to state, I’ve never slept on an actual rock even though some pillows were about that hard!
We also can figure Jacob was tired because he had a dream. Was this dream because of natural sleep, or did God send a deep sleep on Jacob? God caused Adam to have a deep sleep when He formed Eve for Adam, and not long before, Abraham himself had experienced deep sleep and a terror of great darkness (Genesis 15:12) when God made a covenant with Abraham.
Now the dream itself was unusual: the ladder was touching the earth but the top reached to Heaven! I wonder if Jacob had any thoughts of the Tower of Babel, which was designed to reach the heavens (see Genesis 11:4) when he saw God’s ladder. Jacob also saw angels ascending and descending upon the ladder. Even more important, he was one of the few who saw God Himself!
Jacob may not have intended to stop at Bethel, but he did, and what may have been simply a night under the sky became an encounter with the true and the living God.
What did God say at Bethel?
The next few verses, 13-15, give the words God spoke to Jacob. Let’s take a look at some of these items:
First, God revealed Himself to Jacob by using the name Yahweh/Jehovah, the covenant name, spelled LORD in all capital letters. There were and are other names such as Adon or Adonai, usually spelled Lord; and El/Elohim, the word for God, yet God chose to use the name Yahweh/Jehovah in this case.
Secondly, God affirmed the faith of Abraham and Isaac. That would be a real blessing to me, knowing the God of my father and grandfather and who knows how far back it goes would speak to me personally. We need to remember that very few people have ever experienced the joy of fellowship with God Himself, but it’s possible, and is available for everyone, if we ask Him for it!
Third, God also confirmed the promise He had made to Abraham and Isaac. Part of that promise was that their descendants would be “. . . like the dust of the earth,. . .” but, Abraham had only one genuine son, Isaac, and we only read of two sons of Isaac, Esau and Jacob. God’s ways are not our ways, and His timing isn’t the same, necessarily, as ours, but He will absolutely make good on every promise He made.
Finally, the most important promise was that God affirmed He would always be with Jacob, and He would bring him back to this land. Remember that Jacob left with the whole family in turmoil: Esau wanted to kill him, Rebekah wanted to protect him (how could she have done this?), and Isaac was sorely displeased when Jacob had deceived him. Now, Jacob was alone—we don’t read of anyone going with him on this “wife quest”—and he had no one to share his concerns with. No family, no servant, not even an animal: and yet, God promised He would always be with Jacob. When we, even now, walk with God, we are never alone!
What did Jacob do after he heard God speak?
When did Jacob become a believer? I don’t recall reading that “Jacob believed God”, as was said of Abraham. Was it here? Was it before? Was it later? Regardless, there was a time when Jacob came to what we could call “saving faith”, and became a believer in the God of Abraham and Isaac. We can find at least some initial steps in the following items:
He stated clearly, first, that he didn’t know, or hadn’t realized, that God was there. The concept of God being everywhere may not have been easy for these early believers to grasp but it’s true. I’ve seen a number of stickers which had the motto, “wherever you are, God is” and in one sense, that’s true. In another sense, that’s not entirely true, because God is everywhere even if we are not. In other words, we are limited to being in one place at a time but God, clearly, doesn’t have that limitation.
The second display of Jacob’s faith was the multi-part vow which he made. We’ll not spend much time there, but Jacob is basically saying, “All right, God, if You keep Your promise, then You will be my God and I’ll give a tenth to You”.
This is where the narrative stops, for this first encounter with God at Bethel, but it wasn’t the last, not for Jacob and certainly not for some others. To review, Jacob received a command (we might as well call it that) to find a wife from his mother’s family. This makes sense, because Esau’s Hittite wives didn’t bring much peace to Isaac and Rebekah! Jacob went as far as he dared, apparently, until he reached a point where we’d say it was too dark to go on. But even though he may not have known much about the geography or anything else, for Jacob, meeting God at Bethel was a life-changing experience.
Dear friend, have you met God? There is no need to find a “Bethel” or any other place that some may state is sacred, special, or anything else. If you have never met God before, you can do so any place, any time, when God speaks to you. Do this today!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).
