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BY BOOK BIBLE STUDY
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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday December 30, 2018
JACOB
FLEES TO PADAN-ARAM
Genesis
28
After Rebekah and Jacob had
successfully carried out their scheme to stop Isaac from passing down the
promise and blessings of GOD to Esau (the wrong son), Esau became very bitter
toward Jacob, and he planned to kill him after their father (Isaac) passed
away. Word of Esau’s plan got back to Rebekah and she advised Jacob to flee to
Padan-aram, 450 miles away, to live with her brother Laban, at least until Esau
got over his anger.
Afraid to tell her husband about what his
favorite son, Esau, was planning, Rebekah instead, told Isaac that Jacob would
be going to Padan-aram to find a wife, because she was concerned about him
falling in love with one of the Canaanite women like his brother had done, and
marrying one of them instead. Isaac, who shared those same concerns,
wholeheartedly agreed with her. And so, off Jacob went to live with his uncle
Laban, who he didn’t know at that time, would teach him a valuable,
life-changing lesson on how it feels to be deceived, especially by a close
relative.
And so in Genesis 28, we see that Isaac has
finally conceded in his own mind that he was wrong in trying to hand down his
blessing to Esau. He knew all along, that, GOD had told he and Rebekah that
Jacob would be the one who would carry the promise to the next generation, and
become the origin of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Here in the opening lines of this passage
we see Isaac calling Jacob in, and, this time, he wittingly gives him the
blessing that had been passed down to him by his father Abraham, just as he
knew GOD would have it. He reiterates to Jacob “the blessings of the bearer of
the Covenant Promise”, and then he admonishes him not to marry any of the
Canaanite women. He re-enforces Rebekah’s suggestion that Jacob go at once to
Padan-aram (although he still wasn’t aware of Esau’s threat on Jacob’s life) to
his grandfather, Bethuel’s house, and choose a wife from among the daughters of
his uncle Laban.
After hearing that his father had now given
“the pure and legitimate blessing” to Jacob, and how Isaac and Rebekah also
thoroughly despised the local Canaanite women (remember Esau had already
married two of them), Esau, in a somewhat foolish attempt to improve his
relationship with his parents, goes to his uncle Ishmael’s family and chooses
one of his daughters and marries her.
And so here we see a “spiritually inept”
Esau, instead of helping his situation and position with his parents, or GOD,
has now made things even worse, on a spiritual level. Now, in addition to the
two forbidden marriages he already had to his Hittite wives, who had given Isaac
and Rebekah such a hard time, his new wife, whose name was Mahalath, comes
directly from the line of the “un-chosen family” of his father’s nemesis,
Ishmael.
JACOB’S
DREAM AT BETHEL
Genesis
28:10-22
We just witnessed in the last
passage how Esau’s spiritual life was continuing on a downward spiral. However,
here in verses 10-22, we’ll see Jacob’s spiritual nature began to rise and
elevate to a, much needed, higher level. Just like his father Isaac had to
learn, here we see Jacob about to learn that GOD resides in more than just one
place, as he begins his 450-mile trip to Padan-aram.
In the Hebrew, the word “Bethel” means
“House of GOD”, and it is “a good place” to be for humans. However, sometimes,
for example when our hearts are not right, it can equally be a hard place to
abide in. In our minds, the house of GOD is a place where GOD is always near,
and it is a place where we feel that GOD has always responded to us favorably.
To Abraham, Hagar, and to Isaac, it was Beer-lahairoi, and to Moses it was
Mount Sinai, and still to King David, it would be the pastures of Bethlehem, or
even Jerusalem.
However, one can always gather from the
lives of faithful men and women of GOD in Scripture, that, without a doubt, GOD
is absolutely everywhere, all of the time. HE is near us, whether we want HIM
to be or not, and, HE absolutely sees all, hears all, and knows all that we do.
Every one of us must make an account for the deeds done in our lifetimes, and
whether or not we believe that GOD exists, therefore, becomes totally
irrelevant. And so the whole world, in that sense, becomes a “Bethel”, or, “the
house of GOD”, WHO is the CREATOR of it all.
In Genesis 28, verse 10, Jacob arrives at
what he thought was “a good place” to set up camp for the night. As it turns
out, this would be the place where Jacob has his, now famous, “Dream of the
Stairway to Heaven”, and it is a vision that is based solely on the grace of
GOD. Here GOD appears to Jacob for the purpose of assuring him that the promise
of blessings, favor, and protection that was passed on to him by his father,
Isaac, was indeed, legitimate.
This dream would serve to ignite “a
worshipful response and vow of loyalty” that can be vividly seen in Jacob’s “spiritual
walk” from this point forward. In fact, Jacob, who had walked with a bit of a
“spiritual limp” up until that time, would now walk away from this experience
with a clear understanding of the constant presence of GOD. He would, from then
on, have confidence, that, wherever he went, GOD would bless, protect, and keep
him for the remainder of his life, as long as he adhered in obedience to HIM.
Jacob acknowledged this life-changing event
with the LORD, and then, proceeded to make a personal commitment of his own to
GOD. Here he makes a vow that the GOD of his fathers would also be his GOD, and
he placed a stone upright to commemorate the place where GOD had responded to
him so gracefully. In addition, he vowed to give back to GOD, a tenth of
everything that GOD blessed him with (Vs.20-22). It is a comforting feeling
when we can come to rest in the thought that GOD is near to those who aspire to
obey HIM, and HE is indeed with us, wherever in the world we may go.
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER-
Official Website
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