Running from Difficulty
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Key Verse: “Behold, I am with thee[Jacob], 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.” Selected Scripture: |
ESAU FAILED TO SEE his own wrongdoing in the sale of his birthright, a thing which revealed his lack of respect for the promises of God. We read, however, that “Esau hated Jacob” (Gen. 27:41), a reaction so intense that Esau’s one desire was to get revenge by killing his twin brother.
When their mother, Rebecca, learned of Esau’s evil intent, she devised a plan to protect Jacob. Jacob was not yet married and because she and Isaac, her husband, did not want him to marry a Canaanite, they agreed to send him to Padan-Aram (Mesopotamia) to choose a bride from one of his Uncle Laban’s daughters.
Many years earlier, when God asked Abraham to leave his own country and his father’s house, he had promised him that his seed would bless ‘all the families of the earth.’ The Lord overruled Esau’s desire for revenge, because when Jacob left home and started out for Padan-Aram, Isaac extended to Jacob “the blessing of Abraham.” He said, “God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; And give the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.”—Gen. 28:3,4
Jacob’s journey was not to be an easy one. His first night away from home found him still in Canaan. Finding nothing but stones for a pillow, he prepared a place to spend the night. (Gen. 28:11) When he fell asleep he had a wonderful dream. He saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and angels ascending and descending upon it.
The angels said nothing, but the Lord stood above the whole scene and identified himself as the God of Abraham and of Isaac. What could be more reassuring to Jacob than this! (vss. 12-15) The God of Abraham was assuring him that the birthright was indeed his.
The promise, both of the land and that all the families of the earth were to be blessed through the seed, was here repeated to Jacob, who was assured that he would be the channel through which the seed would come.
“Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not; … this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”—vss. 16,17
In keeping with the Lord’s will, Jacob was fleeing from the land of promise, but the Lord had given him his word that in due time he would return. He said, ‘Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land.’
On his part, Jacob promised to serve the Lord and give him a tenth of all he had given him. Today, the Lord’s people ‘vow a vow,’ covenanting to give God all they have, including themselves—not just one-tenth. God gives all this back, and appoints them stewards, admonishing them to be faithful.—I Cor. 4:2