Jacob's Journey (Genesis 28)

"Jacob's Dream" Marc Chagall 1963

Chapter 28 starts out with Isaac blessing Jacob—again—with a blessing that invokes God and the blessing of Abraham more than the first one. He then sends Jacob away, back to the Aramean relatives to find a wife.

It is now—once Jacob is away from home and on his own—that we see him begin his journey towards God. We have already seen how God tends to work in this way. Even when raised to believe in God by a faithful family, people need to discover or test that belief out in the world. They need to discover God apart from someone else’s belief. We cannot live on the basis of another’s faith. We have to believe for ourselves.

Not that Jacob was raised in a particularly faithful environment. Rebekah may have brought her pagan beliefs with her from Paddan-aram. We will certainly see that idolatry is practiced amongst her relatives once Jacob gets there. And we are about to see how Jacob’s religious thinking has been influenced quite a bit by the Canaanite thinking all around him. And, while Isaac followed the faith of his father, we don’t get the sense that he passed that faith on to either of his sons very well.

As Jacob sleeps one night on his journey, he is visited by Yahweh in a dream. From his reaction, we get the impression that this is the first time he ever really experienced God. He is surprised to find his father’s God away from home. And yet, at this point we do not see a conversion. Jacob erects a pillar to God, which is a Canaanite practice that will later be condemned by God. He also makes one of those classic “deals” with God that men throughout history have made. “If you do what I want, then I will serve you.” Hardly surrender.

But, this is the sort of things that happens on most people’s journey to faith. They need to encounter God, and then need to struggle against Him for a while before they are ready to believe. Because believe involves a surrender and in our rebellion, most of us put up a fight and need to be defeated.