Free Bible Commentary
“Genesis 28:10-17”
Categories: Genesis“Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, 'I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.' Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. He was afraid and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.'”
---End of Scripture verses---
“The biography of Jacob as an independent personality, a patriarch in his own right, now begins. The home-loving favorite of an overprotective mother is now an exile, utterly alone and friendless, embarking on a long, perilous journey that is to take him from Beer-sheba in southern Canaan to Haran in northern Mesopotamia. His character is to be tested and refined, his personality molded and transformed by the experience... This event draws the curtain on the cycle of Jacob-Esau stories and prepares the reader for a new phase in the life of Jacob.” (Nahum Sarna)
“Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.” (verse 10) Jacob gets right to the business at hand of fleeing from his brother's wrath and traveling to Haran to find a wife. You have to admire his courage and determination at this particular time. He had just received his long sought-after patriarchal blessing, and nearly immediately upon receiving it he is required to leave the comforts of home and family and light out on his own upon a 500 mile journey. The promises of prosperity and posterity extended in his father's blessing, no doubt, infused him with confidence that everything would turn out alright.
“He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set...” When the sun had descended in the west and the light on his pathway had dimmed, Jacob was forced to stop for the night. At nightfall, Jacob found himself in “a certain place” of an uncertain location, and the indistinctness of the location seems to be of great significance. “This was not some 'holy' location honored by the pagan populations of Canaan. It had nothing whatever to do with cultic shrines, or anything of that nature. It was altogether a 'chance location,' exactly at the place where the sun went down on him.” (James Burton Coffman)
“He took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head...” (verse 11) “Being weary with his journey though he had no other bed than the earth, and for his pillow a stone, and for his canopy or curtain the open heaven; a different lodging this from what he had been used to in his father's house, and under the indulgence of his mother; and one would wonder how he could sleep in such circumstances, and that he did not take cold, after such a journey...” (Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible) But Jacob soon fell into a deep slumber and had the most enigmatic and reassuring of celestial dreams.
We will stay with these verses for tomorrow as well.
Please reread Genesis 28:10-17 again for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
