This article is part of a series on Old Testament Christophanies. For important background information, see An Introduction to Old Testament Christophanies–with Justin Martyr.
Jacob’s Shepherd
When Isaac was elderly, Jacob stole his brother’s blessing from their father. Esau planned to get revenge by murdering Jacob, so Rebekah told him to flee to her brother Laban in Haran (located in present-day Turkey) (Gen 27). In Genesis 28, Jacob departed Beersheba for Haran. On his way there he stopped for the night and laid his head upon a stone (vv. 10–11). That’s when Jacob had his famous dream:
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 the land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Gen 28:12–15).
The ladder, or stairway (Heb. sullam), signified God’s uninterrupted connection with mankind in general, while especially illustrating His providential care for His people. For Jacob it meant that the God of his fathers would protect and care for him. The angels of God ascended to and descended from Yahweh. Jesus would later imply that He was the Yahweh from Jacob’s dream, when He told Nathanael that he would see “the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51). The Son of God made covenant promises to Abraham, He reaffirmed them to Isaac, and now He reaffirmed them to Jacob. The Lord first said to Isaac “I am with you,” (Gen 26:3, 24) and now He said it to Jacob. Even though Jacob would be leaving the Promised Land, the Lord would stay with him, eventually guiding him back to bring about God’s will. The Lord later promised several other influential saints that He would be with them (Exod 3:12; Josh 1:5; Judg 6:16). The Messiah’s name Immanuel means “God with us” (Isa 7:14; Matt 1:23). Jesus encouraged His disciples by telling them, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20).
John Gill thought that the ladder in Jacob’s dream may have denoted
the incarnation and mediation of Christ, who in his human nature was to be in the fulness of time on earth, there to live a while, obey, suffer, and die, and so was the ladder set on earth; and his divine nature was the top of it, which reached heaven; here he was in that nature before his incarnation, and from thence he came; and indeed here he was in that when on earth; and as a man, he ascended on high when he had done his work, and is now higher than the heavens; he may be fitly represented hereby as the Mediator, who has reconciled things in heaven and things on earth, and has as it were joined and united heaven and earth together . . .[1]
The angels moved from heaven to earth and back again, carrying out God’s work. The Son of God would at times also come down to earth to fellowship with man. At the appointed time He descended, taking on human flesh, forever bridging the gap between heaven and earth.
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he realized that the Lord was there. Overcome with fear and reverence, he proclaimed, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (vv. 16–17). The fact that it happened in a dream doesn’t make the Lord’s appearance any less real. With his natural eyes closed, Jacob peered behind the veil, into the unseen realm of God.
Jacob took the stone that was under his head, set it upright as a pillar and poured oil on it. He named the place Bethel, which means “the house of God.” Jacob vowed that if God stayed with him, protecting and providing for him until he returned to his father’s home, then Yahweh would be his God. Jacob continued by declaring that the anointed stone would be God’s house and that he would give a tenth of all he had to the Lord (vv. 18–22).
The Targum says that Jacob’s God was the Word:
And Jakob vowed a vow, saying, If the Word of the Lord will be my help, and will keep me in that way in which I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to wear, and bring me again in peace to my father’s house, the Word of the Lord shall be my God.[2]
The Lord had just promised to be with Jacob; the patriarch’s vow was less of a bargain than it was a response to the Lord’s promise, and a solemn expression of faith. Bethel is one of the most renowned places of worship in the Old Testament; only Jerusalem is mentioned more often. What an awesome place is this, where the Son of God revealed Himself!
The God of Bethel
After Jacob served for fourteen years as payment for his wives, he and Laban entered into a new contract in Genesis 30. Jacob would continue to tend to Laban’s flocks. However, all speckled or spotted goats and sheep, and all black sheep would become Jacob’s. Jacob executed a mating strategy intended to greatly increase the number of animals born that would become his. The stronger animals became Jacob’s, while the weaker ones went to Laban. Jacob became a very wealthy man, with many animals and servants (vv. 25–43). But it wasn’t Jacob’s strategy that led to his success, it was the blessing of the Lord.
By the beginning of Genesis 31, Jacob noticed a growing hostility coming from Laban and his family. At this time the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you” (vv. 1–3). The Targum replaces “I will be with you” with “My Word shall be for thy help.”[3] Jacob explained to his wives that while their father’s attitude toward him had taken a turn for the worse, the God of his father had been with him. Laban had changed the terms of their agreement again and again. Through it all, the Lord protected Jacob. Whatever pattern on the animals Laban said would go to Jacob, the Lord ensured that animals with the matching pattern were born (vv. 4–9).
Then Jacob told his wives that the Lord had once again visited him in a dream:
“. . . And it came about at the time when the flock were mating that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which were mating were striped, speckled, and mottled.Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’He said, ‘Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth’” (Gen 31:10–13).
The angel of God here is, in fact, the Angel of the Lord. He identified Himself as the God from Jacob’s first dream at Bethel. In that dream, He stated that He was Yahweh, the God of Abraham and Isaac (Gen 28:13). The God of Bethel is both a divine messenger of Yahweh and Yahweh Himself. He is the Angel of the Lord, the Son of God. The Geneva Bible notes that, “This angel was Christ who appeared to Jacob in Bethel . . .”[4] The same God Jacob made a vow to now told him to leave and return to the land of his birth. The Son of God had watched over Jacob during his many years away and now He was directing the patriarch back to the Promised Land.
[1] Gill, Exposition, Gen 28:12.
[2] Targum Onkelos on Genesis 28:20–21. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan also adds “the Word of the Lord” to verse 20.
[3] Targum Onkelos on Genesis 31:3. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan also adds “My Word” to the verse.
[4] Study note on Genesis 31:13, in The Geneva Bible.
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