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Genesis 28
The traveller, as the shades of evening lengthen, comes to “a certain place,” and there he resolves to spend the night. He unbinds his girdle—he anoints his joints with oil—he takes a little of his hard fare—he drinks water from the stream. Now he craves rest. But how shall he sleep? That is easy; he selects a stone for his pillow, and his bed is made. His thoughts had been troubled. Looking at the consequences that had flowed from his proceedings, he could not but doubt that he had acted well or wisely, or that he had any title to expect the blessing and care of Abraham’s God. But that God had not forgotten him; and now is the moment—now, when he is alone with his own heart—that the Lord saw fit to commence the course of teachings and encouragements which ended but with his life, and by which he profited well. It does not appear that Jacob had hitherto received any communications from God. And he, who was eventually destined to enjoy awfully near approaches to the Divine presence, must first be taught in vision. He dreams on that hard stone. He sees a ladder extended from earth to heaven—and thereon the angels of God are passing up and down. He is thus taught that he is not alone, but is regarded with attention by the very angels of heaven, who employ themselves in his concerns. Some interpret it to signify God’s care of the world and its affairs. We interpret it to signify God’s care of Jacob and his affairs. The top of the ladder was in heaven, but its foot rested on the spot where he, the son of Isaac, lay. That he might be at no loss to collect the purport of his dream, God himself appeared above all, and he heard His voice. Yes, God spoke to him, and made himself known as “the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac.” He then proceeded to give him the words of the covenant, and to acknowledge him as the true heir of the promises. Nor was his personal welfare below God’s thought. “Behold, I am with thee,” he said; “I will keep thee wherever thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land: for I will not forsake thee, until I have done that which I have promised to thee.”
Jacob awoke deeply awed. “How dreadful,” he said, “is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” His first act brings to our notice a new and remarkable custom. He takes the stone which had served him for a pillow, and sets it up as a monument, and pours some of his oil upon the top of it. This was an act of consecration. It showed that the spot was to be considered holy. Setting up the stone merely, was the natural act of one wishing to identify the spot when he came that way again. But the pouring out of oil, was at least a formal and devout acknowledgment of the fact commemorated, if it did not, as we think it did, set apart the spot as one hereafter to receive an altar, and to become a place for sacrifices. In doing this, be called the place by a new name. It had been called Luz; but he named it Bethel—the house of God; and it is remarkable that the consecrated stones, which in following ages we find among the ancients, bear the analogous name of Baitulia. It would had us too far to inquire how this analogy arose. The custom does not appear to have been a new one, when Jacob gave us the first recorded instance of it. It is known by the testimony of various writers, that it was a very ancient custom among the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Romans, to set up stones as memorials of remarkable events or places, and to pour oil, or wine, or blood thereon, as a consecrating libation. In the East, the custom is not yet extinct. The object of Jacob is further shown by the vow to which he at the same time gave utterance: “If God will be with me, and keep me on this way that I am going, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on; so that I return again to my father’s house in peace, and the Lord will be my God; then this stone which I have placed for a monument shall become God’s house; and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely tithe it unto thee,” We have adopted in this place Dr. Raphall’s Jewish translation. Here we see, that in conformity with the results of careful criticism, the most essential point of the vow is divested of the unseemly conditional character which the authorized translation gives to it. “If God will be with me,… then shall the Lord be my God,” etc., which is always read with pain, and mars the effect of this beautiful and impressive vow. The single Hebrew letter as a prefix, which is translated by “then,” is more generally rendered by “and,” and ought to have been so given in this place.
It is worthy of notice how moderate Jacob’s wishes are for himself—how low the personal ambition of the man who had dared so much for the great future. All that he asks is to be supplied with what is absolutely and indispensably necessary—food, however hardly earned, so that it sustain life; clothing, however coarse, so that it but cover his nakedness. He is ready to submit to every privation and suffering, so that he may be sure that he shall eventually return in peace to his father’s house. What a chapter is this, for those who go forth even in our own day to battle with the world!
The Lord did for Jacob far more than he ventured to ask; and Jacob, on his part, redeemed his vow, when he repaired to the place, after his removal from Shechem, and built an altar there. The words he then used are remarkable. “Let us arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way that I went.” The spot thus consecrated was afterwards further distinguished as, for a time, the seat of the ark of the covenant and of the tabernacle; and it was here that Samuel sat in judgment. Note: Jdg_21:18-25. 1Sa_10:3; 1Sa_13:2.
As to the tenth, which Jacob vowed to give, we can have no doubt that he kept his vow. But how, we know not. There was never any establishment for worship at Bethel in Jacob’s time that required this appropriation, and we find not any person to whom he could give the tenth, as Abraham did to Melchizedek. That instance, however, shows that it was an ancient oriental custom, with which Jacob promises compliance. We are inclined very much to approve the suggestion of an eminent Jewish commentator (Aben Ezra), who interprets the words to mean, “I will bestow it on whomsoever is worthy to receive it for the glory of God,” and that consequently Jacob redeemed his vow by appropriating the tenth of all his increase to works of charity and beneficence. That “he who giveth unto the poor lendeth unto the Lord,” is a truth known as early as the time of Jacob at least.