GENESIS 28

BERESHIS 28

9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.

V. 6-9 Esau's flesh reaction to this was to vex his parents even further by taking a wife of the daughters of Ishmael. A murderer in principle, now the enmity, resentment and sinful passions, boil over in regard to his brother's favoured position. *

Esau thought Isaac's objection to his Canaanitish wives was on the score of their not being blood relations. It could not occur to him that spiritual incompatibility was the stumbling-block ; this was a thing he could not understand, for on many points it is true that

"the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God."

He thought to put straight a spiritually- caused family hitch by a resort to a natural remedy. He married a daughter of Ishmael, his father's brother, to soothe the irritation caused to his father by the daughters of Canaan. It might have occurred to him that if blood relations were all that Isaac desired in the wives of his sons, Jacob would have been sent to Ishmael (near) for a wife instead of to the house of Laban (far off). The daughters of Ishmael, the wild man, were as bad as the daughters of the land.

In Esau's estimation, they were as good and perhaps better; and, from a merely natural point of view, probably Esau was right. But the other point of view remains.

" Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised."—(Prov. xxxi. 30.)

This sort of woman is not appreciated by the Ishmaels and the Esaus : to the Jacobs she is all-important, and sometimes they are sent by curious twists of providence to the places where they are to be found.

Ways of Providence Ch 6

12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the Elohim ascending and descending on it.

The Ladder

Now, the fulfilment of time between the giving of the promise and the fulfilment of it, was represented to Jacob by a ladder of extraordinary length; one end of which stood at Bethel, and the other end against the vault of heaven. Here were two points of contact, the land of Judah and heaven ; and the connecting medium, the ladder between them. This was a most expressive symbol, as will be perceived by considering the uses to which a ladder is applied.

It is a contrivance to connect distant points, by which one at the lower end may reach a desired altitude. It is, then, a connecting medium between two points of distance. Now, if instead of distant localities distant epochs be substituted, the ages and generations which connect them will sustain a similar relation to the epochs as a ladder to the ground on which it rests, and the point of elevation against which it leans.

The ladder, then, in Jacob's vision was representative of his seed in their generations and appointed times. One end of it was in his loins; the other, in the Lord Jesus when he should sit upon His throne, reigning over the land upon which Jacob was asleep.

Elpis Israel 2.3.

Ministering spirits ascending and descending

But upon this ladder of ages and generations, with Jacob at the bottom and his seed, the Shiloh, at the top,

" the angels of God were seen ascending and descending."

This represented to him that the affairs of his posterity, natural and spiritual, in all their relations with the world, would be superintended by the Elohim, who would pass to and fro between earth and heaven, in the performance of their work. Hence, the apostle styles them

"all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who are about to inherit salvation" (Heb. 1:14).

Israel and the nations are under their vicegerency till the Lord Jesus comes to assume the sovereignty of the world. When he appears in his kingdom, the land of Israel especially will be no longer subjected to their superintendence. The apostle styles Palestine and Syria, when the Hebrew commonwealth is reconstituted upon them, the future habitable (Heb. 2:5).

When he wrote this, these countries were inhabited by Israel under the Mosaic constitution, mixed up with, and in subjection to, the Gentiles. Under this arrangement their affairs were superintended by the angels of God. But with the future habitable it will be different; for, the apostle says,

"God hath not put it in subjection to the angels:"

but when He brings the first-born back again into the habitable. He says,

"let all the angels of God do homage to him."

Elpis Israel 2.3.

13 And, behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, I am Yahweh Elohim of Abraham thy father, and the Elohim of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

Yahweh reigneth, ; let the earth rejoice

This return of the Lord to the habitable cannot be referred to the epoch of his resurrection; because he had not then left it. Indeed he never left it but once before his resurrection, and that was involuntarily when Joseph and Mary carried him into Egypt. He said himself that he had not been to the Father before rising from the dead (John 20:17). He was in the habitable only asleep in death.

But when he ascended then he departed into a far country to receive the kingdom; and when he had received it, to return. But, he has not yet received it, or he would be at this time reigning in the future habitable land. Till the Lord Jesus, however, sits on his throne as "King of the Jews" (John 18:33-39; 19:12-19), the providential direction of human affairs is committed to the Elohim; who are termed the angels of the little ones who believe in Jesus" (Matt. 18:3-6,10), because they minister to their profit, in causing all things among the nations to work together for their ultimate good.

When that remarkable change in the constitution of things is brought to pass, when Jesus having received the sovereignty, the angels shall do homage to him, there will be a great national jubilee throughout the earth. The nations which are now groaning under the blood-stained tyrannies of the world, and imprecating curses loud and deep upon the heads of their destroyers, will send up to heaven a shout

"like mighty thunderings, saying Alleluia: for the Lord God, the Omnipotent reigneth"

(Rev. 19:6).

Paul evidently had a view to this period of blessedness, when he quoted the saying,

" worship Him all gods."

He quoted this from the ninety-seventh psalm, which celebrates the epoch of the reign in these words: --

"The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of the isles be glad. Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the world; the earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory. Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves in idols: worship Him all ye Elohim. Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, 0 Lord. For Thou, Lord, art high above all the earth; Thou art exalted far above all the Elohim."

Such will be the manifestation when the Father shall bring the Lord Jesus back again to the habitable. At present, the Elohim are ascending and descending the ladder, so to speak, between the Lord Jesus who is at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, and the earth: but, when

"He reigns on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem before His ancients gloriously"

(Isaiah 24:28),

heaven and the habitable will be one; and the Elohim will ascend and descend upon him.

Heaven will then be open to the eyes of His saints, and they will behold the wonders of the invisible. For such is the doctrine taught by the Lord himself; who, when Nathanael recognised him as the Son of God, and King of Israel, because he revealed his secret actions, said to him,

"Thou shalt see greater things than these. Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51).

Then will the future habitable have been subjected to the Son.

The ladder of ages and generations, as I have said, connects the commencing and terminating, epochs, of a long period of time. Of this interval about three thousand seven hundred and sixty years have elapsed. A few more years only remain, and the top of the ladder will be attained by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and by all others with them who shall be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God. They will have reached to heaven; not by flying thither as ghosts upon the wings of angels, but by heaven being brought down to earth, when the Lord Jesus shall descend in glory.

Elpis Israel 2.3.

14 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.

Thus, in the blessing that now rested upon Jacob as well as upon Abraham, and Isaac, God promised.

1. That at some future time not specified, He would give Jacob actual and personal possession of the land he was then lying upon, and upon which the town of Bethel stood for ages:

2. That he should have a seed, or descendant, in whom all nations should be blessed; and,

3. That Jacob and his seed should have possession of Palestine and Syria together, that is, at one and the same time.

The exact time, I say, was not specified in the promise. Jacob, however, was given to understand by the representation in the vision, that it would be a long time after the epoch of his dream. As the apostle says,

" he saw the promises afar off, and was persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that he was a stranger and pilgrim on the land."

He saw the fulfilment of the things promised afar off in point of time; but not afar off as to place: for the place where they were to be fulfilled was Bethel, about fifteen miles from Jerusalem. He was at the place; and so well did he understand this, that he termed Bethel "the gate of heaven."

Elpis Israel 2.3.

18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

The Anointed pillar! At the location house of El.

Now the altar erected by Jacob was typical of those referred to in the title he bestowed upon it. When the Spirit descended upon the Apostles, and shone through them, holding forth the word of life confirmed by power, there were many other Elohim in Israel. They were full of power, and therefore full of Ail, as Jesus promised they should be, saying,

"Ye shall receive power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you" (Acts 1:8);

and when Jacob poured oil upon the pillar-stone of Beit-ail [Bethel], he represented this anointing of the Elohim of Israel with Ail.

The marginal reading of the title of Jacob's Altar expresses nothing of this. "God, God of Israel" is an unmeaning phrase: rendered after the Saxon version of "God," it is "Good, Good of Israel"! But with the promises before us, we interpret the Altar as typical of the Power of the Powerful Ones of Israel in sacrificial manifestation.

Phanerosis - Hebrew titles of the Deity

19 And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

The division of the land - Bethel

Some remarkable coincidences appear to confirm this delineation of the position of

the Holy Oblation. Bethel, or Luz, according according to the Palestine Exploration Society's map, is about eleven miles north of Jerusalem ; it must, therefore, be in the centre of the holy portion devoted to the sons of Zadok.

Now, Bethel is inseparably associated with Jacob, one of the fathers, whose personal experience and future destiny is revealed in Genesis. On his journey northward, fleeing from the face of his brother Esau, he rested at Luz, or Bethel, and, sleeping there, received

this promise:

The land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. (Gen. 28. 13.)

At the same time he was shown a remarkable vision of the ascending and descending Elohim. Contemplating this vision, Jacob exclaimed :

This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

The fact that to Jacob was promised an inheritance in the portion of land which is yet to be assigned to the " sons of Zadok " must have an important bearing upon the statement, " This place is the house of God, and the gate of heaven."

Since the saints, Jacob being one of them, are to exercise priestly functions in the age to come, is words prophetically foreshadow the devotion of the territory upon which he rested for a night as the dwelling-place (house) of the Elohistic " Sons of Zadok" through whose functions at the altar the inhabitants of the new era obtain access unto eternal life, hence this place is " the gate of heaven."

After the resurrection, there is little doubt that Jacob's lot will be at Bethel.He may supervise the local affairs of the northernmost portion of the holy square.Another remarkable coincidence is the promise to Abraham. This promise appears to have been given at Hebron, not Bethel, as generally supposed.

The Temple of Ezekiel's prophecy 6.1.