And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went towards Haran.
Jacob walks away from his father's house, and it is a flight: he has wronged his brother, and now the land of promise is behind him. What looks like the low point of his life is where God begins to deal with him.
The move away from home starts a new chapter, but Jacob's own scheming built the road.
We now follow Jacob as he leaves his father's roof. We see him as a homeless and lonely wanderer on the earth. Here God's special dealings with him start. Jacob now begins to feel, in some measure, the bitter fruit of his conduct toward Esau. At the same time we see God rising above all the weakness and folly of His servant... he might not have had to flee to Haran, had he allowed God to act for him.
The cost of that flight shows up in what is missing from the years that follow.
His unbelief has driven him out of the land of promise. His pilgrimage is not, like that of Abraham, in the land, but outside of it. It is true, God watches over him, waits on him, and preserves him; but he does not walk with God. He has no altar till his return, after a course of painful experiences... For twenty-one years he had to do with men who cheated and oppressed him, while God preserved him in secret.
Both place names in this verse carry meaning.
Beer-sheba means "the well of the oath" and Haran means "mountaineer". We have a picture of Israel going out from the presence of God, away from the promise of God's blessing — that is the "well of God's oath". Israel goes to live in the mountain, the mountain of law-keeping. This is the case with every true believer who gets away from the Lord who loves to have His own near Himself... The further a person gets from the Lord the more legal he becomes, as a matter of fact, and seeks to justify himself.
God did not stop Jacob at the scene of the crime. He waited until the road had stripped him bare.
On the first stage of his journey, Jacob stops for the night. There we see him a lonely man, only the sky above him, and darkness closing around him. Strange as it may seem, it is in this lonely place, lying on the stony bed his sin had made, that the Lord meets him. The Lord had nothing to say to him by his father's bedside, in the place where he sinned. But in the dreary spot where his sin had cast him, the Lord draws near. He turns his comfortless bed into a place of correction and consolation.
Two lessons run side by side, and neither cancels the other.
First, for his consolation, he will learn that all his failures will not alter God's purpose to bless him in sovereign grace. Second, for his correction, he will learn that God's sovereign grace will not stop God's chastening hand because of his failures... Jacob's circumstances are not changed. He still has to go on his lonely way as a wanderer. He must spend long years in toil and bondage in a stranger's house, because of his sin against his father and brother. He has to reap what he has sown. If Jacob deceives his father with the skins of goats, then in years to come his own sons will deceive him with the blood of a goat.
The exile that punished him also taught him what he could never have learned at home.
God is above all, and it is His special right to bring good out of evil. So it is quite true that Jacob's own restless and deceitful acting forced him into exile from his father's house. It is just as true that he could never have learned the meaning of "Bethel" had he stayed at home... It was when his own folly drove him from Isaac's house that he was led to taste, in some measure, the blessedness and solemnity of "God's house."
Jacob's departure also traces the story of the nation that came from him.
Jacob values the blessing of God, but seeks it in cunning, fleshly ways, the very opposite of faith... That is how Israel stumbled at the stumbling-stone, and became wanderers from the land of promise, exiled by their sin. Yet Jacob, an exile from his father's house, finds God at Bethel watching over him and providing for him, and promising him a final return to his father's house in peace. In the same way God has watched over his descendants in all their wanderings.
- Departure. Jacob leaves Beersheba as a fugitive from his own scheming. The exile is the bitter fruit of not letting God act for him.
- Direction. He trades the "well of the oath" for "mountaineer", the mountain of law-keeping — away from promise, toward self-justification.
- Deprivation. Outside the land God preserves him in secret, but he has no altar and no full communion until he returns.
- Disclosure. In the dreary place his sin had made, God draws near — consolation and correction in the same night. Grace blesses him, yet he still reaps what he sowed.
- Destiny. Jacob's flight is Israel's story: exiles driven out by sin, yet watched over and promised a way home.
And he lighted on a certain place, and lodged there, because the sun had set. And he took [one] of the stones of the place, and made [it] his pillow, and lay down in that place.
Jacob has left Beersheba, and night catches him in open country with a stone under his head. Yet it is here, and not at his father's bedside, that the Lord meets him.
Jacob is not camping by choice. His own sin drove him out here, and one writer is struck by where the Lord chose to meet him.
In the first stage of his journey, Jacob lights on a certain place where he stays for the night. There we see him a lonely man with a stone for his pillow, only the sky above him, and darkness closing around him. Yet, strange as it may seem to us, the Lord meets him in this lonely place, lying on the stony bed his sin had made. The Lord had nothing to say to him by his father's bedside, in the place of his sinning. But in the dreary spot where his sin had cast him, the Lord draws near. He turns his comfortless bed into a place of correction and comfort.
Everything the verse lists is a negative — no roof, no bedding, no light. That, one writer argues, is the qualification.
Here we find the homeless wanderer in the very position where God could meet him, and where He could unfold His purposes of grace and glory. Nothing could speak of helplessness and nothingness more clearly than Jacob's condition here. He lies under the open sky, with a pillow of stone, helpless in sleep. This is how the God of Bethel unfolded to Jacob His purposes for him and his descendants.
Older translations call the stone a "pillow." One writer finds meaning in how hard it was, and contrasts it with a very different pillow in the New Testament.
I do not suppose he was too comfortable lying on a stone. I think that pictures his inner discomfort — he did not have an easy conscience. The stone speaks to us of the law. Several times in Jacob's history we see something that reminds us of the hard, cold stone tablets that carried the commandments. That is not the pillow you would choose. It stands in contrast to John's. John had for a pillow Jesus' chest (John 13:23) — what a difference!
That same rejected stone does not stay under his head. By morning it has a second life.
Banished Jacob comes to Luz, weary and in darkness. He does not find even a hut to welcome him. He finds a stone, rejected by men, waiting for him on the ground. In the darkness he makes this stone his pillow. When the light comes, he sets it up with a holy anointing, as a pillar of testimony and worship.
The verse gives a reason for the stop: the sun had set. One writer compares this with how God appeared to Abraham in broad daylight, and suggests the darkness suited Jacob's state.
The Lord appeared to Jacob in the dark after the sun had set. This is quite different from the Lord's appearance to Abraham in the heat of the day as he sat in his tent door (Gen. 18:1), where everything was clear and bright and Abraham ran to meet the Lord... If the Lord had appeared to Jacob in the heat of the day, what would he have done? If Jacob had seen the Lord coming he would have run away.
Being shut down for the night is not lost time.
Jacob, in this movement away from God, comes to the end of his day. He lies down in a certain place to rest, and God withdraws him from the activities that filled his day. How often we are busy with the passing things of the day, with no time for the things of God! But God in His mercy is withdrawing Jacob and securing his attention in his sleeping hours... God had much in mind for Jacob. The great thing God had in mind was to fashion him as a worshipper.
Genesis records a matching detail much later, and it is deliberate.
As he passed over Peniel we are told, "The sun rose upon him." That is a designed contrast with Genesis 28:11, when he had left Beersheba: "the sun had set." The night of darkness in our lives passes only when the flesh is crippled (or judged), and we learn to cling only to the Lord.
- Sunset. Jacob's night is the fruit of his own sin — he lies on the bed that sin made.
- Stone. The hard pillow pictures an uneasy conscience and the law, in contrast to John resting on Jesus.
- Stripped. Helplessness is the very position in which God could meet him and unfold His purposes of grace and glory.
- Sleep. God withdraws him from the day's activity to hold his attention and to shape him into a worshipper.
- Sunrise. The stone under his head becomes a pillar of worship. The night breaks at Peniel, when the flesh is judged.
And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to the heavens. And behold, angels of God ascended and descended upon it.
Jacob is a fugitive, sleeping on open ground with a stone under his head after the sin at his father's bedside. There God gives him a dream of a ladder: is it a stairway man climbs, or a road God travels down?
Where God met him is part of the message.
There we see a lonely man with a stone for his pillow, only the sky above him, and darkness closing around him. Yet the Lord meets him in this lonely place, as he lies on the stony bed his sin had made. The Lord had nothing to say to him at his father's bedside, in the place of his sinning. But in the dreary spot where his sin had cast him, the Lord draws near. He turns his comfortless bed into a place of correction and consolation.
Notice where the foot of the ladder came down.
Jacob saw a ladder set up. Its top entered heaven, and its foot rested just on the spot where he was lying. It was a lowly, dishonoured place. It also bore witness to his wrong and his misery. But the ladder adopted it. The Lord was in His glory above it, and His voice spoke to Jacob of blessing, of security, of guidance, and of inheritance.
Some read the ladder as a picture of spiritual self-improvement. Commentators reject that.
Some have imagined that this means man can climb up to heaven by his own spiritual energy, rising step by step through human effort into favour with God. But it has nothing to do with man going up. The same is true when the Lord tells Nathanael he would "see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (John 1:51).
Genesis has already shown what happens when men build upward on their own.
At Babel men tried to raise themselves to heaven by a tower they built. It ended in scattering and confusion. But God has established a link between heaven and earth, shown by the ladder in his dream. In those days angels maintained that link. The LORD Himself was at the top of the ladder. Poor Jacob the fugitive was at the bottom, needing a blessing and getting it.
The angels on the ladder are moving under orders.
Above the ladder was the Lord Himself. This showed that He directed the angels' ministry. He sent them out on their missions on earth, and they came back to Him to give account of what they had done for Him.
Those same beings come near to God's people, not only to Jacob.
The angels of God are there close to Jacob. These mighty beings excel in strength and always move in relation to the will of God, and they are near to the saints... Above all that, "The LORD" — God in relation to His people — is standing at the top of the ladder. The word "stand" there shows no casual stance. It shows the settled purpose of the blessed God to place Himself in relation to the circumstances of the saints, so that they come through with real gain and become worshippers of God. Nothing will make Him move from that stance.
Many read the ladder as a picture of Christ Himself.
It formed the means of communication between heaven and earth. And "behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it" — what a striking and beautiful picture of Him! By Him God has come down into all the depth of man's need. By Him God has also brought man up and set him in His own presence for ever, in the power of divine righteousness.
Commentators differ here. Another writer calls that reading a mistake.
Some make the common mistake of saying that Christ is the ladder on which angels descend, joining heaven and earth. That error is repeated here, so I point it out. Christ has Jacob's place, not the ladder's. Jacob was at the foot of the ladder, and these messengers were coming down and going up from God to him, and from him to God. Now the Son of Man was to be the object. God's angels would have the Son of Man as the object of their service from an open heaven.
The dream still waits for its full answer.
This will be fulfilled when heaven opens and the angels of God ascend and descend on the Son of Man. In short, it will be fulfilled when God carries out His purposes through Christ in a renewed earth. Angels will be His ready instruments for blessing and for government.
- Down — the ladder rests on the ground where Jacob's sin had thrown him. God comes to the dishonoured place; He does not wait at a better one.
- Down, not up — the dream is not about climbing into favour by human effort. Babel tried that and ended in confusion.
- Down and back — angels come down on errands and return to report. The Lord above directs them, and nothing moves Him from that stance.
- Down in Person — is the ladder a picture of Christ coming into man's need? Or does Christ take Jacob's place, as the One the angels serve? Commentators differ.
- Down at last — the vision waits for the day heaven opens over the Son of Man, and angels serve Him to bless and govern the earth.
And behold, Jehovah stood above it. And he said, I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac the land on which thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.
Jacob is a runaway, spending the night alone with a stone under his head. Then God speaks to him from above a ladder. What He says is not a rebuke but a gift. God promises him the very ground he lies on, and promises it to his descendants too.
The dream answers Jacob at his lowest point. It shows how heaven and earth are joined.
God has set up a link between heaven and earth. The ladder in Jacob's dream shows it. In those days that link worked through the service of angels. Jehovah Himself was at the top of the ladder and poor Jacob, the fugitive, at the bottom, needing a blessing and getting it.
Before a single promise, God gives His name — and the names attached to it are the two men He had already chosen.
Every word spoken by the Lord was in richest grace. There was not, as we might have expected, a solemn rebuke to Jacob for his shameful conduct. The Lord had not overlooked Jacob's sins, but at this time He was declaring His sovereign grace. This is clear from His opening words. He declared Himself "the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac." He had called Abraham and chosen Isaac by His sovereign choice. Now He was stepping in to bless Jacob, despite all that Jacob was by nature.
The verse calls Abraham Jacob's father, though Abraham was his grandfather. Naming both men settles where the blessing comes from.
There was to be no mistaking it: Jacob's blessing did not depend on Jacob's faithfulness. Its source went back not only to his father and his grandfather, but to the living God. God had revealed Himself in grace to both Abraham and Isaac. He would not change His purpose, even though Jacob was a failing vessel.
Every promise here begins with God Himself. He asks nothing of Jacob in return. One writer draws a hard rule from that.
Jacob was such a sinner, and so completely stripped of all claim, both by birth and by practice, that he had nothing left to rest on. He had only God's purpose of pure, free, and sovereign grace. So the revelation the Lord gives His chosen servant is simply a record or prediction of what He Himself would yet do. "I am … I will give … I will keep … I will bring … I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you of." It was all Himself. There is no condition whatever. No if or but; for when grace acts there can be no such thing. Where there is an if, it cannot possibly be grace.
The gift is exact. God does not point to some distant country. He gives Jacob the ground he is sleeping on, and that promise still has a future.
The first thing promised to Jacob was the land on which he was lying, given to him and to his offspring. This renewed the promise given to Abraham and Isaac. That promise has already had a partial fulfilment. It awaits full fulfilment when Israel, under Messiah, will hold the promised land.
The wording of what follows the land promise is measured. One writer notes what God says — and what He pointedly does not say.
Jacob spent the night there with nothing but stones for a pillow. But Jehovah stood above the ladder and promised him the land — the land he was lying on so miserably — for him and his offspring. Whatever the sad and lonely beginning, this should be the glorious end.
One writer links this scene to words of Jesus in the Gospel of John.
Our Lord refers to the vision at Bethel in John 1:51. The Jehovah who stood above Jacob's ladder is the same One who spoke to Nathanael. He said, "You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." … Here again is sovereign mercy. What did Jacob do to deserve all this? Why should God meet him like this? Did he think of the Lord and call on Him for mercy before he slept on the stone? Nothing whatsoever. And Jehovah kept His promise and did all He had promised.
- Position — Jacob is a fugitive asleep on stones, at the bottom of the ladder, needing a blessing and getting it.
- Person — God names Himself the God of Abraham and Isaac. The blessing rests on His choice, not on Jacob's faithfulness.
- Promise — the speech is all "I am… I will": no if, no but; where there is an if, it cannot be grace.
- Place — God gives him the very ground under his head, for him and his offspring: partly fulfilled already, fully when Messiah reigns.
- Presence — the Lord standing above the ladder is the One Jesus points Nathanael to, God's own link between heaven and earth.
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.
God speaks these words over a man asleep on a stone, running from the brother he cheated. He promises him countless descendants, land in every direction, and blessing for every family on earth.
The promise is not payment for anything Jacob had done. It is God announcing what He has decided to do:
God reveals Himself to Jacob as the One who is determined to bless man in sovereign grace. "In you," says God, "and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Moreover, what God has promised He will perform. He will be faithful to His own word.
God's words hold no rebuke, though Jacob's conduct had earned one:
Every word spoken by the Lord was in richest grace. There was not, as we might have expected, a solemn rebuke to Jacob for his shameful conduct. The Lord had not overlooked Jacob's sins, but He was at this time declaring His sovereign grace. The One who in His sovereign choice had called Abraham and had chosen Isaac was stepping in to bless Jacob in spite of everything he was by nature.
Dust is a chosen picture. One writer traces the images God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob:
The first time God made a promise to Abraham about his offspring He told him it would be as "the dust of the earth" (Gen. 13:16). The next time God spoke of that offspring in Genesis 15:5, He said it would be as "the stars." Then in Gen. 22:17 He added a third thing, saying it would be "as the sand." ... When God confirms it to Jacob, He tells him, "Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth" (Gen. 28:14). Isaac pictures the heavenly company and Jacob the earthly company. So to Isaac the stars are mentioned and to Jacob the dust. ... We have long understood the stars to stand for the heavenly company, the dust Israel and the sand the Gentiles.
The wording shifts too. Jacob hears "in you and in your offspring," and one writer ties that second phrase to the millennium — the coming age when Christ reigns on earth:
God confirmed the promises to him — that his descendants would have the land, and that all nations would be blessed in his Seed. There was this difference. With the second promise it says "in you and in your offspring," because it includes the earthly blessings to his offspring in the millennium.
The four directions belong to the same earthly picture:
The Lord further stresses the earthly character of Jacob's blessing. He says that his descendants would spread "to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south." There are no such directions in heaven. More than this, in Jacob and his offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is a firm, absolute declaration.
Part of this promise can already be counted:
Scripture gives plenty of witness to the fulfilment of this part of the promise. Today, after all the efforts of different nations and people to wipe out the offspring of Jacob, it is reckoned that there are over thirteen million of them in the world.
The promise keeps one figure at its centre. One writer follows it through Genesis:
God confirms the promise to Isaac in Genesis 26:4 and to Jacob in Genesis 28:14, and in both cases "the Seed" is mentioned. Once the Seed is introduced, He is never left out, for in truth everything in the way of fulfilment depends on Him.
The reach of that blessing takes in nations that were once Israel's bitterest enemies:
Even the long-standing foes of Israel, Egypt and Assyria, will be blessed in relation to the offspring of Jacob. Of that millennial day it is written, "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance" (Isa. 19:24-25). No doubt the latter part of this can be applied to Christ, as it is in the promise made to Abraham (Gal. 3:16), for it is under Christ's reign, and because of His death on the cross, that the blessing comes to Jew and Gentile, both now and in the world to come.
The blessing has a shape — an inner circle and an outer one:
This is the order of blessing in the world to come. The Jews are in the inner circle, and in the outer are the Gentiles, blessed through them, glad and singing for joy, for God will govern in righteousness.
- Grace first. The promise comes to a runaway with a stone for a pillow, and it carries no rebuke — God says what He is determined to do.
- Dust, on purpose. Stars went to Isaac, dust to Jacob: the picture marks out Jacob's line as God's earthly people.
- Spread, not gathered. West, east, north and south are earthly directions. They set Israel at the centre of a widening circle.
- Through the Seed. Once "the Seed" enters the promise, He is never dropped. Everything depends on Him.
- Out to the edges. The blessing lands where it was always aimed: all the families of the earth, even old enemies, blessed under Christ's reign.
And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all [places] to which thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done what I have spoken to thee of.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said, Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I knew [it] not.
Jacob lay down at a random stopping place with a stone for a pillow. He woke to find he had been sleeping in the presence of God. His words admit what he had not known, and that admission is where the commentators start.
One writer sets out how low Jacob had sunk when he stopped for the night:
When Jacob first reached Luz — the place he later called Bethel — he was as badly off as anyone on earth. He had been sent away from his family, and he deserved it. He was homeless and friendless. His future was uncertain. All he owned was a staff. His bed was the ground and his pillow a stone. There he lay down to sleep. But the Lord was in that place. Never did he receive such a revelation of Him, and of His endless resources in heaven and on earth, as he did at Bethel. Never did he receive richer promises of constant, watchful care and of future blessing. And he found Him faithful Who had promised.
The second half of Jacob's sentence matters as much as the first. One writer asks what it means to be near God without knowing it, and why that was dreadful for Jacob but is delightful for us:
The dream woke Jacob up to the fact that God was there. We may be in the presence of God and not know it at all. That is a solemn thought. To Jacob it was more than solemn; it was dreadful. But that was because he had no settled standing before God on the ground of redemption. Believers could only say "We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ," having received the reconciliation, once the death and resurrection of Christ had actually happened. For us the presence of God is not dreadful but delightful.
Why did God come to this man at all? One writer looks at what Jacob brought to the meeting:
Here again is Sovereign Mercy. What did Jacob do to merit all this? Why should God meet him thus? Did he think of the Lord and call on Him for mercy before he slept on the stone? Nothing whatsoever. And Jehovah kept His promise and did all He had promised. "I will not leave you" is a repeated promise. See Deut. 31:6; Josh. 1:5; 1 Chronicles 28:20; Hebrews 13:5-6.
Jacob found the meeting dreadful, not delightful. One writer traces that to Jacob himself, not to anything God had said:
God's revelation of Himself is one thing. Our resting in that revelation is quite another. God shows Himself to Jacob in infinite grace. But as soon as Jacob wakes up, we see his true character come out. We see how little he really knew of the blessed One who had just revealed Himself to him so wonderfully... His heart was not at home in the presence of God. No heart can be at home there until it has been fully emptied and broken. God is at home — blessed be His name — with a broken heart, and a broken heart is at home with Him.
Jacob named the spot and set up a pillar. But that did not change the direction he was going:
God met Jacob there. That is why he called it Bethel, "the house of God." In doing so he recognised a very important principle in God's ways. He raised a pillar up and called it God's house, but still he kept on going the wrong way... On the spot where Jacob raised the pillar there was a wilderness but it was where God was. That is the important thing about God's house: it is where God Himself is... Bethel was called Luz at first. Luz means "separation" and Bethel means "house of God." The house of God is always separate from everything else.
Years later God called Jacob back to this place. One writer draws out the pattern:
In calling him back to the land of promise, God revealed Himself to him as "the God of Bethel," reminding him of the pillar he anointed and the vow that he made. So God called him back to the beginning of his direct dealings with Him. This is always God's way with His people. We may wander away, but we have to come back to the very spot we left. The point of departure proves to be the place of recovery.
- Place. Jacob's Bethel was a wilderness with a stone for a pillow. What made it the house of God was God Himself being there, not the ground.
- Presence. His words admit that God had been there all along. We can be in God's presence and not know it.
- Priority. Jacob had not prayed, had not asked, had done nothing to deserve the visit. God came first.
- Panic. He was frightened, not glad. His heart was not yet at home with God, and commentators put the problem in Jacob, not in God's words.
- Path back. The place where his dealings with God began became the place God later called him back to. The point of departure is the point of recovery.
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.
Jacob had left home as a fugitive, and God met him in a dream with promises he had done nothing to earn. He woke up frightened, and named the place twice over: God's house, and the door into heaven. (The ESV reads "How awesome is this place." Older translations read "How dreadful," and the writers below use that wording.)
Nothing in the dream was threatening. The dread came from what Jacob knew about himself.
We might have thought that Jacob would wake up in delight after such a wonderful vision and such amazing promises from God. But it was not so, for he was afraid. He knew he was in the presence of God, and that brought terror to the heart of a man who had deceived his father and robbed his brother. He had not come into God's presence by choice. He himself said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." God's presence is not an attractive place to a wrongdoer. It is the last place he wants to be, because God's presence exposes what he really is.
The same writer adds a contrast. The sinful woman of Luke 7 felt no such dread before Jesus, and neither did the son welcomed home by his father. "All fear is driven from the heart that truly knows the love and grace of a Saviour God."
Jacob's dread did not shrink the vision.
But Jacob's soul was not quite up to this way of grace. He found the place "dreadful" — the place where he saw the ladder and the angels, and where the God of his fathers spoke to him. In some sense it was too much for him... But the ladder still reaches to heaven, and the angels are going up and down it in Jacob's sight... For the grace of God is richer than what the soul understands of it. God shines in Himself, above our experiences. And it is in Himself that He is to be known, not in the reflections of our experience.
Jacob's phrase opens a theme the rest of the Bible carries.
The first mention of the house of God is in Genesis 28:17; the last, in Revelation 21:3. From the first book to the last, the house of God has a very great place in the purpose of God. It reaches from the present creation in time right on to the new heavens and earth in eternity. What the house is made of may vary from period to period. In Old Testament days it was boards and curtains, and later stones. Today it is believers, or living stones. But the purpose of the house is always the same: to be a dwelling place for God among men.
So what made this spot the house of God?
Jacob recognized that where the LORD shows His presence, there is the house of God.
The second half of Jacob's confession is not decoration. A gate in Scripture is a working place.
The first mention of a gate is in Genesis 19:1, where Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. This shows that the word means more than a place to go in and out. It also means the place where men of age and wisdom sat to give judgment. So "gate" has a figurative meaning as well as a literal one. Where God dwells in His house, there is the place of heaven's administration and judgment.
The gate is also for our use, and it is not far away:
The gate presents the thought of access to heaven. Through the gate we are able to get in touch with heaven for praise and prayer. And note this: the gate is not in some far-off place beyond the edge of the earth. The gate of heaven is always on earth, and here, while we are on earth, we are to use the gate.
Many readers take the ladder itself as a picture of Christ, joining heaven and earth. One writer calls that a mistake:
This is not very important to our present subject. But the common error appears here again — that Christ is the ladder on which angels descend, uniting heaven and earth. So I will note it. Christ has Jacob's place, not the ladder's. Jacob was at the foot of the ladder, and these messengers were coming down and going up, from God to him and from him to God. Now the Son of Man was to be the object. God's angels would have the Son of Man as the object of their service from an open heaven.
- Presence. Jacob's confession starts with a discovery, not a doctrine — God was there all along, and he had not known it.
- Dread. That presence terrified him. A guilty conscience finds God's nearness exposing. The promises were pure grace, and he still woke afraid.
- Grace. His fear measured him, not God. The ladder still stood, the angels still moved, and grace remained richer than his understanding of it.
- House. His words open the Bible's first door onto the house of God. The theme runs on to Revelation 21:3, always with one purpose: a dwelling place for God among men.
- Gate. A gate is both an entrance and a seat of judgment. It gives access to heaven for praise and prayer, and heaven administers from it. That gate stands on earth, and we can use it now.
And Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had made his pillow, and set it up [for] a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it.
Jacob had slept at Luz with a stone for a pillow. In the morning he stands that stone up and pours oil on it — why a stone, why oil, and what does the act say about him?
One writer reads the stone at both stages — pillow, then pillar — as a picture of Christ:
We know that Christ is the "stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious." We know that though to the natural mind it seems a hard and comfortless pillow, the spiritual mind arriving at Luz (separation) finds sweet rest and a soft pillow in the heart of Jesus — a pillow of rest first, and then this same Jesus a pillar of witness and worship, anointed with oil — the Holy Spirit. And so Luz becomes Bethel — the house of God! This is the wanderer's sanctuary.
The shape Jacob chose carried its own meaning:
And further, Jacob's action in taking one of the stones that had served him as a pillow, and anointing it as a pillar, and identifying it with God's house, is remarkable and significant in the light of 1 Timothy 3:15. In ancient times pillars were used for support, as we see in Solomon's temple. But they were also set up as witnesses to certain facts. Three times we read of Jacob raising pillars; here and in Genesis 31 and Genesis 35, each time as a witness.
Another writer says what the stone witnessed to, and what the oil stands for:
The pillar indicated testimony or witness (Gen. 31:52). In this case the witness was to the unfailing faithfulness and mercy of God (the LORD God of Abraham, etc.). The oil was a type of the Holy Spirit who makes the house of God a living reality now. Jacob named the place Bethel, or house of God, although no real house then existed.
Oil served everyday needs and sacred ones. The sacred use is what Jacob reaches for here:
There were three general uses to which it was put: for food, for light, and for anointing… it was used again and again to anoint or consecrate persons, places and articles. So priests were anointed, and the tabernacle with its various articles of furniture. David and all the kings of Judah were anointed. Elisha the prophet was to be anointed. A striking case is Jacob's anointing of the pillar at Bethel (Gen. 28:18; Gen. 31:13), where he set apart the place as "the house of God," a kind of anticipation of the tabernacle.
This passage is where the house of God first appears in Scripture, and Jacob's two words — house and gate — are read as two abiding privileges:
Jacob says, "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Then he sets up "a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it." The gate presents the thought of access to heaven. Through the gate we are able to get in touch with heaven for praise and prayer. And let it be said, this gate is not in some far-off place beyond the bounds of earth. The gate of heaven is always on earth, and here, while we are on earth, we are to use the gate.
Commentators differ on whether the anointed pillar is a fine response or a poor one. Some see grace doing its proper work in him:
And so with us, divine grace brings such vast and eternal blessings, and so wholly undeserved, that it awakens hearts, makes us know that we are in the presence of God, exercises the conscience, and draws out our souls in worship.
Another writer sets this pillar beside the two Jacob raised later:
His first had been one of confidence in the flesh (ch. 28:18-22); his second was the pillar of broken confidence (ch. 31:45), signifying the untrustworthiness of the flesh. This third is the pillar of confidence in God. For this time he makes no vow, but pours a drink offering and oil on the pillar…
- Stone. Jacob's pillow became his pillar. Writers read it as a picture of Christ: rest in the dark, then a monument in the light.
- Pillar. A pillar holds something up, or it bears witness. Jacob raised three, each one a witness — here, to God's unfailing faithfulness and mercy.
- Oil. Anointing set people, places and objects apart for God. Here it set the place apart as the house of God — an early hint of the tabernacle, and a figure of the Spirit.
- Bethel. Jacob called the place the house of God, and also a gate — access to heaven for praise and prayer. That gate is on earth, where we are.
- Test. Commentators differ: was this worship drawn out by grace, or confidence in himself? Years later Jacob came back to the same place and raised a better pillar, with no vow attached.
And he called the name of that place Beth-el; but the name of that city was Luz at the first.
Jacob wakes from his dream and renames the ground he slept on. The old name of the town stays on record beside the new one, which raises three questions: what did "Luz" mean, why call a bare hillside "the house of God," and what became of the place later?
Writers differ on what the older name meant. Some read it as a word for setting apart, and draw a lesson from it about God's dwelling:
He set up the stone he had used as a pillow and poured oil on it, calling the place Bethel, "the house of God." Abraham had lived earlier between Bethel and Ai (Gen. 12:8), and Jacob renames the place. "The name of the city was Luz at the first" (v. 19). This name means "separation," and it reminds us that the house of God must keep a place of holy separation from all the principles of man's civilization.
Others take the word to mean a curve or bending, and hear in the change something about the man as much as the map:
The old name of the place was Luz, meaning a curve. It pointed to what Jacob's life had been — far from straight. But now for Jacob it was Bethel, the dwelling place of God, and it had a very significant place in his later history.
The first mention of God's house in the Bible comes to a man with no home of his own:
The first passage in Scripture that speaks of the House of God is Genesis 28:10-22. There Jacob, the homeless wanderer, sees a vision of the House of God. At once two things come before us: the purpose of God, and the responsibility of man towards God's House. God reveals Himself to Jacob as the One who is determined to bless man in sovereign grace... The gate stands for access to Heaven. Through it we reach Heaven with praise and prayer. And this gate is not in some far-off place: the gate of Heaven is always on earth, and while we are here we are to use it.
Jacob built nothing at Bethel. He set up a stone and poured oil on it. One writer draws a warning from later attempts to copy him:
Jacob set up a pillar and poured oil on the top of it (v. 18); the pillar indicated testimony or witness (Gen. 31:52). Here the witness was to the unfailing faithfulness and mercy of God... The oil was a picture of the Holy Spirit, who makes the House of God a living reality now. Jacob named the place Bethel, or House of God, although no real house stood there. Since that day many have tried to copy Jacob's example. They have put up houses and memorials of different kinds and called them God's, but without prophetic insight. As a result they have blurred the features of the real house.
The name was a memorial of a promise made to a man at his lowest point:
The place where Jacob stopped would be marked by the mixed fortunes of Israel. It was no picture of the church. Jehovah made Bethel a pledge of sure mercy to Jacob when he had nothing left — whatever the king, raised up to punish the people, would later twist it into in honour of a strange and rival god.
Jacob names Bethel twice: here, and again on his return. Some have argued that the two namings come from two rival accounts. One writer answers plainly:
In the case of Bethel, God appeared to Jacob when he left the land of Canaan, and he called the name of the place "Bethel." On his return, God tells him to go up there, and already calls it Bethel. Then God appears to Jacob there a second time, and Jacob confirms the name "Bethel." He had a double reason. But the second part of the history calls it Bethel already, before he gets there. So the case is very simple and very clear.
The place Jacob named did not stay true to it. A king set up an idol there, and God spoke of the place under another name:
Bethel, meaning "House of God," was sacred as the spot where God showed Himself to Jacob, and graciously pledged Himself to His servant (Gen. 28:10-22). Now one of Jeroboam's calves stood there (1 Kings 12:28-29). So Jehovah spoke of the place with contempt as Bethaven — "house of folly" (Hosea 4:15).
- The name given. Jacob renames Luz as Bethel, "the house of God." Scripture keeps the old name on record; writers read Luz either as separation or as a crooked path now made straight.
- The name explained. The first passage in Scripture about the house of God comes to a homeless wanderer. It shows God's purpose in grace on one side, and man's responsibility on the other.
- The name witnessed. No building stood there — only a stone and oil. The pillar witnessed to God's faithfulness, and the oil pictured the Spirit, who makes God's house a living reality now.
- The name confirmed. Jacob names Bethel again on his return. That is not a rival account but a second meeting with the God who kept His pledge to him when he had nothing.
- The name lost. Where Jeroboam's calf later stood, God called Bethel "Bethaven" — the house of God turned house of folly. A people can forfeit the name grace gave them.
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and keep me on this road that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and a garment to put on,
Jacob has just seen a ladder joining earth to heaven. God promised, with no conditions, to be with him, keep him, and bring him home. His answer opens with a word God never used: "If."
The difficulty of the verse is the gap between God's promise and Jacob's asking.
Notice the "if" in "If God will be with me." The Lord had just said, with emphasis, "I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land." And yet poor Jacob's heart cannot get beyond an "if." In its thoughts of God's goodness, it cannot rise higher than bread to eat and clothing to wear. These were the thoughts of a man who had just seen the great vision of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven. The Lord stood above it, promising countless offspring and an everlasting possession. Jacob was unable to enter into the reality and fullness of God's thoughts. He measured God by himself, and so completely failed to understand Him.
Jacob asked for far less than God had just promised him.
The promises of God lay far outside and beyond this little circle of merely human interests and ideas. He had just repeated them to the ear of faith: "Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth… and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed." God's thoughts about him were large, and took in the whole earth in final blessing. Faith in that largeness would have brought Jacob out into liberty. Instead, he would have been content with the measure of his own personal safety.
The terms are those of a deal: God performs, then Jacob will call Him his God and hand back a tenth.
The ground Jacob took in his vow was about as selfish as you will find in a true saint of God. It came to this: if God will be with me, look after me, and do for me what I want, then He shall be my God. And I will give Him a tenth of all He gives me. A bargain like this is barely above the level of a decent man of the world. Yet God bore with him and clearly accepted his feeble vow, and did for him all that he wanted, and more besides.
Commentators differ on how much faith to credit here. One writer finds a real desire behind the bargain.
Here was Jacob striking a bargain with God, and certainly to his own advantage. But God knew the real and right desires of His poor servant, even if he expressed them in this way.
The vow follows fear, not rest. That fear had a cause.
A person under the government of God who is not settled in His grace always feels alarm. To such a soul, God's presence is more or less something to dread, and Jacob said as much: "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Such a combination may surprise many of us: the house of God joined with terror. But so it must always be where the heart is not established in grace, and Jacob's heart was far from it. He was the object of grace, but in no way settled in grace. His demands were by no means large, for legalism is always narrow. His vow is almost exactly the picture of a man under law.
Twenty years later God called Himself the God of Bethel — the place where Jacob made this vow.
God had not forgotten the original terms, and He would not let His servant forget them either. Is this legality? No; it is the display of divine love and faithfulness. God loved Jacob, and would not let him settle for anything less than the old standard. He watched over His servant's heart with jealous care. If that heart should ever stay below the Bethel mark, He gently reminds him.
The verse is not only about Jacob.
God was to him so far only the source of supply for all the food, clothes, protection and care he needed. Can we afford to throw stones at Jacob over this? Are there not thousands today whose "Christianity" amounts to little more than this? God is good to them. They find comfort in Jesus in the trials, needs and puzzles of life. And they expect to go to heaven when they die.
- Promise. God had already promised to be with Jacob, to keep him wherever he went, and to bring him home. The vow added nothing to that promise.
- Shrinkage. God promised blessing for all the families of the earth. Jacob asked for bread, clothes, and a safe way home.
- Cause. He was an object of grace, but not settled in grace. So God's presence made him afraid instead of thankful, and fear bargains.
- Patience. God bore with the feeble vow, accepted it, and gave him more than he asked.
- Faithfulness. Years later God still called Himself the God of Bethel, the place of the vow. Love holds a wandering heart to its first standard.
and I come again to my father's house in peace -- then shall Jehovah be my God.
Jacob had just seen heaven opened above him. He had heard God promise land, children, protection and a safe return. His answer is a vow with an "if" in it. Commentators read verse 21 as a measure of how little Jacob knew the God who had just spoken to him.
Each part of Jacob's vow asks for something God had already promised. One writer sets the two side by side:
Vows do not belong to the age of grace we live in, but to the age before it. The first vow in Scripture is Jacob's, and it comes while God is bringing him up and disciplining him. Poor Jacob! God had just appeared to him and given him promises with no conditions. Again and again He said, "I will": "I will give, I will keep, I will bring you again, I will not leave you" (Gen. 28:13–15). But in taking a vow, Jacob stands on legal ground.
Jacob asks for food, clothes and a safe homecoming. One writer sets the vision beside what Jacob asked for:
Poor Jacob's heart cannot get beyond an "if." And in its thoughts of God's goodness it cannot rise higher than "bread to eat, and clothing to put on." These were the thoughts of a man who had just seen the magnificent vision of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven. The Lord stood above it, promising him countless descendants and a possession that would last forever. Jacob could not take in the reality and fullness of God's thoughts. He measured God by himself, and so missed Him completely. In short, Jacob had not yet come to the end of himself, and so he had not really begun with God.
The hardest word in the verse is "then." Jacob puts off calling the LORD his God until the promises are delivered.
He promises that, if the Lord fulfils all His promises, then, once that is done, the Lord will be his God. Who would be his God in the meantime?
The verse names God twice: "the LORD" and "God." Behind those two words stand the names "Jehovah" and "Elohim," which one writer explains:
Elohim is the One who holds the position of God. Jehovah is the personal name of the One who truly is God… When it says, "then Jehovah shall be my Elohim" (Gen. 28:21), we must go back to verse 13, from which Jacob drew what he said here, and to verse 16 as well.
Jacob's own later words test the vow. In a time of danger he prays — and the words of verse 21 are still missing:
All is Jacob here, and not Jehovah. He sets Jehovah's glory aside and thinks only of his own blessing… I, I, I fills the scene, and is the whole subject of his prayer. So in this hour of trial he fails to keep his vow. He acknowledges Jehovah only as the God of his father Abraham, the God of his father Isaac, the Jehovah who spoke to him — but not as his God.
Commentators do not leave the verse in condemnation. They say two things about how God treated this bargain. First, He honoured it and went past it:
The ground that he took in his vow was about as selfish as any to be found in a true saint of God. It came to this: if God will be with me, look after me, and do for me what I want, then He shall be my God. And I will give Him a tenth of all that He gives me. A bargain like this is barely above the level of a decent man of the world. Yet God bore with him, and clearly accepted his feeble vow, and did for him all that he wished, and more besides.
Second, God came back to that vow years later. One writer sees the reminder as love, not book-keeping:
God had not forgotten the original terms, and neither would He let His servant forget them. Is this legality? No; it is the display of divine love and faithfulness. God loved Jacob, and He would not let him settle for less than the old standard. He watched over the state of His servant's heart, and He gently reminds him with these touching, meaningful words: "I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar, and where you vowed a vow."
- Promise first. God spoke His "I will"s over Jacob before Jacob said a word; the vow is a reply, not a first move.
- "If" answers "I will." Jacob turns God's guarantee into a contract, and stands on legal ground where God had offered grace.
- Low expectations. A ladder into heaven shrinks to bread and clothing, because Jacob measured God by himself.
- "Then" delays God. Making the LORD his God at the end of the journey leaves the question open: whose God is He on the way?
- Grace outlasts the bargain. God accepted the feeble vow, gave more than Jacob asked, and years later called Himself "the God of Bethel" — holding Jacob to his best moment out of love.
And this stone, which I have set up [for] a pillar, shall be God's house; and of all that thou wilt give me I will without fail give the tenth to thee.
Jacob is running for his life when God meets him in a dream. God promises to keep him and bring him back — with no conditions. Jacob's reply is this vow: a stone set up as God's house, a tenth promised, and an "if."
The place had a name before Jacob renamed it, and both names carry meaning:
When Jacob poured the oil on the top of the pillar, he marked everything that happened that memorable night as sacred. The old name of the place was Luz, meaning a curve, and it indicated what Jacob's life had been — far from straight. But now for Jacob it was Bethel, the dwelling place of God. That place mattered greatly later in his life.
Jacob names two things at Bethel — a gate and a pillar. One writer explains what each stands for:
Jacob says, "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Then he sets up "a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it." The gate presents the thought of access to heaven. Through the gate we can get in touch with heaven for praise and prayer... The pillar, as we know from the story of Jacob's parting with Laban, carries with it the thought of witness (Gen. 31:52).
God had just spoken without conditions. Jacob answers with one:
Notice, "if God will be with me." Now the Lord had just said, emphatically, "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land." And yet poor Jacob's heart cannot get beyond an "if." In its thoughts of God's goodness, it cannot rise higher than bread to eat and clothing to put on. Such were the thoughts of one who had just seen the magnificent vision of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven.
Yet the same low ground did not make God turn away:
But though Jacob did all this, the ground he took in his vow was about as selfish as any you will find in a true saint of God. It came to this: if God will be with me, look after me, and do for me what I want, then He shall be my God. And I will give Him a tenth of all that He gives me. A bargain like this is barely above the level of a decent man of the world. Yet God bore with him and evidently accepted his feeble vow, and did for him all that he wished, and more besides.
Jacob was not the first man in Genesis to give a tenth, and the comparison is unflattering:
How different Jacob's vow is from Abraham in Genesis 14! Abraham refused to let strangers make him rich. He gave tithes of everything, unasked, to Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.
Did Jacob ever pay what he promised?
He vows too that he would surely give to God one tenth of all that God gave to him. Did he seriously think he was being very generous? God had said, "I will," but Jacob said, "I will surely." Of course God keeps His promise perfectly. But there is no record that Jacob ever carried out his promise to give God one tenth of all.
Commentators weigh the vow differently: one sees God bearing with Jacob and accepting it, another finds no record that he ever paid it.
The tenth is not carried forward as a rule for believers today:
In Christianity everything we have is sometimes viewed as belonging to God. We are only stewards of what God has given us (Luke 16:11-12). But our present possessions are also viewed as our own (Acts 5:4), and we are responsible for using them rightly. Those who are rich are not told to give a tenth, but are to "be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share" (1 Tim. 6:18).
Later God introduces Himself to Jacob by this very vow. That is not God driving a hard bargain:
God had not forgotten the original terms, and He would not let His servant forget them. Is this legality? No; it is the display of divine love and faithfulness. God loved Jacob, and He would not let him stop short of the old standard. He jealously watched over the state of His servant's heart. In case it should remain below the Bethel mark, He gently reminds him with those touching and significant words: "I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me."
- Bethel — the crooked place, Luz, gets a new name from the man who had lived a crooked life: the house of God.
- Grace first — God promised with no conditions. The vow was Jacob's response, not God's price.
- The "if" — Jacob answers "I am with you" with "if God will be with me," and shrinks God's promises down to bread and clothing.
- The tenth — a bargain barely above a decent worldly man's. Abraham gave his tithe unasked; no record says Jacob ever paid his.
- The God of Bethel — God remembered the vow, not to condemn Jacob but in love. He would not let His servant stay below Bethel.