For the first seventy years or so of his life Abram had lived in Ur of the Chaldees, very probably, at that time, a very busy seaport town although it is now far inland. It would appear that despite the fact that he is mentioned before his two brothers, Nahor and Haran, he must have been the youngest of the three, for he was only 75 when his father Terah died at the age of 205 whereas at least one, if not both of his brothers would be about 130. Abram was contemporary with several of the patriarchs. Noah was dead, but for 150 years Abram was contemporary with Shem, 88 with Arphaxad, 118 with Salah, 175 with Eber. From Shem, therefore, he could get first-hand information of life and conditions before the Flood, and of the degeneration which set in almost immediately afterwards.
It is almost certain, too, that from Shem, Abram would receive his instruction concerning the God of Heaven. Terah, his father, was an idolater, in all probability a worshipper of the moon god whose Ziggurat temple would dominate Ur. Haran, to which city they emigrated, was also a centre of the worship of the moon god, which would account for Terah settling there for the concluding years of his life. While in Ur, Abram would be quite familiar with the sight of the temple of the moon god, with its staircases going up and coming down (evidently “one-way” traffic) and the shrine of the moon god right at the top. This memory was firmly implanted in his mind when the family migrated northward up the Euphrates valley.
Abram had married his “sister” Sarah (probably the same as Iscah) but for many years she bore him no son. Twenty-five years after leaving Haran, miraculously Isaac was born.
Isaac married Rebekah when he was forty, but he had to wait God’s time until twin sons, Esau and Jacob, were born, and it is with Jacob we are especially interested. He would be about sixteen when his grandfather Abram died, and we can well imagine that from his grandfather he would hear about Ur and the temple there with the worshippers of the moon god going up and down the two staircases. Indeed, this would be the only temple of which Jacob had any knowledge.
Esau was a man of the world, a man of the field, one who loved the good things of this life. Esau was the elder of the two, so consequently the birthright was automatically his. But he cared nothing for the things of God. As Paul says, he was a “profane” person, which literally means he was “outside the church” or the things of God. (Fane is the Old English word for church.) Esau came in one day from his hunting utterly wearied, faint with hunger, so the wily Jacob drove with him a bargain that he would give him the “mess of pottage” in exchange for the birthright. Esau agreed, preferring “the meat that perisheth” to that which endures to life eternal.
Isaac was ill and, erroneously, he thought his death was near. (Actually he lived another thirty years or so.) Esau was Isaac’s favourite son, but Jacob was his mother’s preference. He was “a plain man, dwelling in tents”. (The writer was once marking some Sunday School examination papers, and one of the juniors defined it “Esau loved hunting, but Jacob stayed at home to help his mother”.
This answer could have been much further from the mark!) Rebekah heard Isaac instruct Esau to go hunting “to get savoury meat, that I may bless thee before I die”. She moved quickly. She knew it was Jacob, being the godly-minded one, who ought to receive the blessing, but instead of leaving it to God (as she ought to have done) she immediately took steps to guarantee that the blessing did come to Jacob. He demurred at her instructions but was overruled by his mother. At this time Jacob must have been about seventy-five years old.
Hastily two kids were killed and prepared; then Jacob, having camouflaged the smoothness of his skin (although he could not disguise his voice) went in to Isaac and obtained the blessing. Esau, coming in to his father later with his contribution, learned of his brother’s deception “but found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears” (repentance is to change one’s mind, but in this case the “repentance” was to change his father’s mind). When Isaac realized what had happened, he “trembled exceedingly”, realizing that what he had intended was not what God wanted, and he confirmed the blessing given to Jacob: “Yea, and he shall be blessed.”
Esau was furious. Twice he had been outwitted—first the birthright and now the blessing—and he vowed that when the days of mourning for his father were over he would slay Jacob.
Esau’s Caananitish wives were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah, so Rebekah suggested to Isaac (in reality to remove Jacob from Esau) that they should send Jacob to her brother Laban in order that Jacob could find a suitable wife among her kindred and avoid repeating Esau’s mistake, and to this suggestion Isaac readily agreed. Hence it is we find Jacob being sent away from home to go to his uncle Laban. Although Rebekah’s scheme had worked, so far as we can see she never saw Jacob again: though Jacob saw his father Isaac on his return from Padan-aram some twenty years later, his mother was dead.
Let us follow Jacob on his journey, noting the details carefully in Genesis 28. Before leaving, Isaac had blessed him richly, especially in terms of God’s promises to Abraham.
As Jacob proceeded (alone with his staff) and evening approached, he “lighted on a certain place” and “took of the stones of that place for his pillow”. What place was this? The same place (Bethel) where Abraham, many years before, had sojourned and on two separate occasions had built there an altar. The stones that Jacob took for his pillow would be none other than the old altar stones. Using these as his pillow, he slept, and dreamed. The Authorised Version says he saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it, and above it was the God of Heaven.
Many Bibles have a marginal note, giving “staircase” instead of “ladder”. Little imagination is needed to realise that what Jacob saw was a replica of the temple in Ur, of which no doubt his grandfather would often have told him. This was the only temple of which Jacob had any knowledge. At the shrine on top of the temple, was not the moon god, but the God of Abraham, the God of Heaven and Earth, the Most High. Ascending and descending the stairs were not the worshippers of the moon god, but the angels of God.
And while Jacob gazed at this vision, the God of Heaven spoke to him (Gen. 28:13-15): “And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 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.
And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of”. Here was a repetition of the promise given to Abraham and Isaac, and now given to Jacob also. Well might Jacob, on awakening, say “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not”. He was afraid and said “How dreadful is this place. This is none other than the House of God, and this is the Gate of Heaven”. (Bethel means House of God.) Note that the promise (as to Abraham and Isaac) was to Jacob and his seed. Jacob knew full well who this seed was—none other than the Lord Jesus. Jacob also knew that this seed had “to see of the travail of his sour—he had to suffer, die, and rise again from the dead.
When, therefore, Jacob arose, he raised up the prostrate stone and set it up for a pillar and anointed it with oil. The prostrate altar stone foreshadowed Jesus laid low by his enemies. The elevation to standing upright foreshadowed his resurrection, and the anointing with oil the “anointing with the oil of gladness above his fellows”, that is, the bestowal of life for evermore. He realised that “this stone shall be God’s house” (v. 22) in which house there are “many abiding places” —immortalised men and women in whom God will abide for evermore.
But that is not the end of the story! In the fullness of time Jesus was born, and at the age of thirty began his ministry. He called his disciples. Philip was an early one. He ran to fetch Bartholomew (Nathanael) and as he approached
“Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” (There had been guile in the first Israelite—Jacob.) Nathanael answered “Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man” (John 1:47-51).
The similarity, nay the identity, between this and Genesis 28 is too marked to be without import. Jesus is explaining the meaning of Jacob’s vision. In other words he is saying “Jacob’s vision pointed forward to me. I am the way, the truth and the life. No one cometh unto the Father but by me”. The “Gate of Heaven” was opened in Jesus, for he said, “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open” and the angels of God ascending and descending, not on a staircase, but upon “The Son of man”, that is, Jesus himself.
We live in the days when, in the words of Revelation 15, a door has been opened in heaven, and we are living in the final days of this drama of God which will culminate in the return of Christ to the earth and in the establishment of that House of God on earth, when God will be with men and finally will be all and in all.
The Solution