Genesis 28:10-12 Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. 12 As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.
13-19 At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”
The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although it was previously called Luz.
It all starts because Jacob is a greedy, self-serving jerk. Traditionally, if Jacob is cooking, and anybody arrives, Jacob is honor-bound to feed them, no questions asked. But there’s a problem. Jacob has a twin-a big strapping macho man so covered in red hair that even his name means “hairy.” Esau is only the eldest by a few minutes, but he takes whatever he wants, and today Esau wants Jacob’s stew NOW! Fed up with Esau strutting around currying favor with their father, Jacob decides to bargain a little. When Esau demands some of Jacob’s stew, Jacob agrees, but asks Esau to trade his rights as the first-born son. “Sure!” says Esau. “What good is a birthright if I starve to death?”
Then the twins’ mother Rebekah helps Jacob deceive his father Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing that should have gone to Esau. This blessing is irrevocable, so now Jacob has gained both the birthright and all the other benefits of the first born. Esau is furious, and Jacob knows he must leave quickly. Esau has married two Hittite women who make Rebekah’s life miserable. Rebekah demands that Isaac allow Jacob to return to Haran to Rebekah’s people to find a wife, and Isaac agrees. Now Jacob is on the run from his brother and evidently traveling alone and with few resources because he is using a stone for a pillow.
Jacob certainly doesn’t look much like patriarchal material-a pampered, selfish jerk who has hidden behind his mother to dodge his brother’s wrath. And yet, God is about to call Jacob in a spectacular fashion. Jacob is out there camped by the side of the road, sleeping on the ground when God gives him a phenomenal vision of angels and of God Himself, promising, “Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.”
God is calling Jacob to become much more than he ever has before. If God were to ask us, we might look at Jacob and say, “No way! This guy is a cheat, a thief, and a manipulator. God, what do You think You’re doing?” But God knows something we don’t: Jacob is about to enter a twenty-year-long apprenticeship in how to become a patriarch. God knows Jacob is going to work for Uncle Laban, who will be trickier and more deceptive than Jacob has ever thought of being. Jacob is going to learn first-hand how it feels to be manipulated and to have promised rewards pulled away or changed. By the time those twenty years are completed, Jacob will be a different man, one that God can use. \
Once more, we see God calling someone into a totally new phase of life. What can we learn from God’s call to Jacob?
- God knows our potential better than we do. Jacob thinks he’s just a single guy going off to Haran to marry a wife. He hasn’t accomplished anything else apart from cheating Esau.
- God has bigger plans for us than we do for ourselves. Jacob has no inkling of God’s magnificent plans, for when he finally returns twenty years later, he will have two wives, two concubines, twelve sons, and a daughter, plus huge herds of sheep and goats.
- Once God calls us, God will continue to reaffirm that call by the way He arranges our circumstances. When Uncle Laban tries to cheat Jacob by repeatedly changing Jacob’s wages, God gives Jacob insight so that Laban’s plans fail.
- When we accept God’s call and follow His leading, God can do miracles in our lives.
Perhaps today you feel like Jacob on the way to Haran. Your resources are slim and your prospects uncertain. Ask God to show you His perfect will for your life and then hang on! Tings are about to get exciting.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, many of us feel ashamed because we don’t think You have ever called us to do anything. But You are our Creator, the One who knows us better than we do ourselves. Lord, please reveal Your perfect will to those searching for Your purpose for their lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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