29/01/2025
Morning Exaltation
Genesis 28:1-22 By His Grace Bishop Sinneh Sesay
In today’s chapter, the focus of the Abrahamic promise shifts from Isaac to Jacob, who becomes the leading figure in the sacred history of the Jewish people. Directed by his father to go to Padanaram to seek a wife, Jacob left Canaan and soon had a personal and life-changing encounter with God.
As noted at the end of the previous chapter, Esau was so angry over Jacob’s deception that he determined to kill him. Rebekah entreated Isaac to send Jacob to her homeland, stating that she did not want him to marry a local woman.
Verses 1-5 tell of Isaac’s blessing and charge to Jacob. Isaac’s words indicated his understanding that the promises given first to Abraham and then to himself were to be carried out through Jacob and his posterity. Isaac knew from his own experience the importance of a wife from the family line rather than the nearby pagan tribes, so he sent Jacob to his uncle Laban in their ancestral homeland, though Haran was over four hundred miles from Beersheba, where they were residing.
Esau’s actions in verses 6-9 were an effort to please, rather than defy, his parents. Ishmael, Isaac’s half-brother, had been dead for about thirteen years at this time, so the phrase “then went Esau unto Ishmael” means he went to Ishmael’s family.
It seems that Jacob traveled alone toward Haran, which is located in modern-day Turkey. The Bible makes no reference to anyone being with him, and in Genesis 32:10, he said, “With my staff I passed over this Jordan.” The “certain place” in verse 11 was Bethel, previously called Luz, which was located between forty and seventy miles from Beersheba.
In Jacob’s dream (verses 12-15), God communicated with him, personally giving him the same promise that had been given to Abraham and Isaac. Jacob and his seed would possess Canaan; his seed would be “as the dust of the earth,” would spread in every direction, and would bless all the peoples of the world
