Reflections on Genesis 28

Genesis 28 (Contemporary English Version)
1. Isaac called in Jacob, then gave him a blessing, and said: Don't marry any of those Canaanite women.
   
2. Go at once to your mother's father Bethuel in northern Syria and choose a wife from one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.
   
3. I pray that God All-Powerful will bless you with many descendants and let you become a great nation.
   
4. May he bless you with the land he gave Abraham, so that you will take over this land where we now live as foreigners.
   
5. Isaac then sent Jacob to stay with Rebekah's brother Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.
   
6. Esau found out that his father Isaac had blessed Jacob and had warned him not to marry any of the Canaanite women. He also learned that Jacob had been sent to find a wife in northern Syria
   
7. and that he had obeyed his father and mother.
   
8. Esau already had several wives, but he realized at last how much his father hated the Canaanite women.
   
9. So he married Ishmael's daughter Mahalath, who was the sister of Nebaioth and the granddaughter of Abraham.
   
10. Jacob left the town of Beersheba and started out for Haran.
    
11. At sunset he stopped for the night and went to sleep, resting his head on a large rock.
    
12. In a dream he saw a ladder that reached from earth to heaven, and God's angels were going up and down on it.
    
13. The LORD was standing beside the ladder and said: I am the LORD God who was worshiped by Abraham and Isaac. I will give to you and your family the land on which you are now sleeping.
    
14. Your descendants will spread over the earth in all directions and will become as numerous as the specks of dust. Your family will be a blessing to all people.
    
15. Wherever you go, I will watch over you, then later I will bring you back to this land. I won't leave you--I will do all I have promised.
    
16. Jacob woke up suddenly and thought, "The LORD is in this place, and I didn't even know it."
    
17. Then Jacob became frightened and said, "This is a fearsome place! It must be the house of God and the ladder to heaven."
    
18. When Jacob got up early the next morning, he took the rock that he had used for a pillow and stood it up for a place of worship. Then he poured olive oil on the rock to dedicate it to God,
    
19. and he named the place Bethel. Before that it had been named Luz.
    
20. Jacob solemnly promised God, "If you go with me and watch over me as I travel, and if you give me food and clothes
    
21. and bring me safely home again, you will be my God.
    
22. This rock will be your house, and I will give back to you a tenth of everything you give me."
    
    

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    Events of this chapter are significant in that they confirm what has just transpired with blessing Jacob over Esau, and they solidly establish Jacob as the bearer of the Abrahamic covenant.
    
    Chapter 27 closes with a threat on the life of Jacob by his brother Esau. Esau's threat was reported to Rebekah and she told Jacob to leave and go to the home of her brother Laban in Haran. Her intent was that he should be away only a short time until Esau's anger subsided. Having told Jacob of his brother's threat and of his need to leave, Rebekah then went to Isaac with a different approach. The concern she presented to him was the need for Jacob to marry a woman who was not Hittite. Though it seems her primary concern was a dislike for the Hittite women that Esau had married, avoidance of intermarriage with other peoples was important to the keeping of the Abrahamic covenant and establishment of a people who were loyal to God.
    
    Following Rebekah's conversation with Isaac, Isaac summoned Jacob and gave him the full Abrahamic blessing and commanded him not to marry any of the Canaanite women. To avoid this, he was to go to the house of Bethuel, Rebekah's father, and marry one of Laban's daughters. So, while Rebekah's purpose in sending Jacob away was to protect him from Esau, Isaac's purpose in sending him away was for him to marry within the clan. We also see in this emphasis on the importance of marriage within the clan that Esau had already disqualified himself from receiving his father's blessing, and the Abrahamic covenant that went with it, because of his Hittite marriages. This and his easy disregard of his birthright for a bowl of stew point out his lack of character for the role of bearing the covenant. Esau further confirmed this by marrying a daughter of Ishmael. He realized that his father disapproved of his Hittite wives and thus sought to gain his father's approval by marrying a daughter of one of Abraham's sons. He just didn't get it. Even had he married an "approved" woman, which Ishmael's daughter was not, it would not have corrected his existing marriages to unapproved women. Nor did he understand that just because Ishmael was Abraham's son he was not a son of the covenant since his mother was Hittite, thus his daughter was not an approved wife.
    
    God placed His official stamp of approval on Jacob in the closing verses of the chapter. On Jacob's journey to his uncle Laban's, God visited him and renewed the covenant He had made with Abraham, promising to continue the covenant through Jacob. Through repentance we can be accepted by God and receive His blessings regardless of previous choices we have made, but those choices may still disqualify us from playing certain roles in God's service.