Genesis 28:10-22

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How would you describe the relational dynamics in your home growing up? When we examine the home of Isaac, it is hard to imagine a more dysfunctional family. Last week we saw how Isaac, in direct disobedience to God’s oracle, was determined to bless the wrong son, Esau; and then how Rebekah used Jacob to deceive his “blind” father into giving the blessing to the right son. It was an Academy Award performance—Jacob received best actor for his role as Esau. Isaac got best supporting actor, playing himself. But Rebekah stole the show winning three Oscars: The first for Costume and Makeup, the second for Set Design, and the third for Best Director.

That tension-filled drama pales in comparison to what comes next. After Isaac gives the blessing to Jacob, Esau returns from his successful hunt and prepares the game into the savory dish his father loves. Then the bomb drops. Learning his father has given the blessing to Jacob, Esau loses it. He screams and vents all his anger on the one he now hates. This hatred transforms him into a murderer, as he vows to kill Jacob after his father dies. Once more, Rebekah hears all the family secrets and leaps into action, using all her organizational skills to prevent a war. At his father’s command, Jacob heads to his mother’s home in Haran to seek a wife. But underlying his quest is the fear of being killed by a brother who hates him. The emotional damage in Jacob’s wake is so great, I doubt he thought he could ever ever go back as he enters an exile of his own making. It is a parent’s worst nightmare. Being banished is a horrific thought, which Shakespeare describes as worse than death.

Ha, banishment! Be merciful, say “death;”

For exile hath more terror in his look,

much more than death. Do not say “banishment”…

There is no world without Verona walls,

But purgatory, torture, hell itself.

Hence banished is banish’d from the world,

And world’s exile is death.

(Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene III)1

But the Bible gives a different view, suggesting that for God’s people, exile can be the critical starting point of an authentic journey with God. In Jacob’s story this will become the place where God no longer directs the affairs of men from behind the scenes, but takes center stage. This commences a journey that will last twenty years. It is at the most critical junctures in this journey, at the initial stage of his flight and return home, that heaven breaks into his life. These two encounters will transform Jacob and his entire world.

Jacob’s Journey

A Jacob flees Esau

B Angels of God meet Jacob at Bethel

X Jacob in exile in Paddan Aram

B' Angels of God meet Jacob at Mahanaim

A' Jacob reconciles with Esau

Jacob’s holy encounter becomes a paradigm for what God would later do with the nation Israel in the Exodus, and a thousand years later when she lay in lonely exile awaiting her Messiah (Isa 43:1-7). Thus it models for us how God in his grace breaks into the lives of his children who are “on the run.”

Our text has two movements, each with three parallel scenes. In the first Jacob is asleep and God descends. In the second Jacob is awake, and God receives his worship.

I. Jacob Sleeps, God descends (Gen 28:10–15)

A. On the run: Jacob arrives at a “no-place” (v.10–11)

10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. (Gen 28:10–11 esv)

The key word in our text is “place” (used 6 times). Jacob fled home and “came” to a “certain place.” The verb “came” (paga‘) is better translated “to meet, encounter, or reach.” When used geographically it usually pertains to a border crossing. But most often it describes life-changing encounters with people or angels