Genesis 28: Jacob's Ladder

Memorial Parsha of Vayeitz

GENESIS 28: 1- 22

¹And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

²Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughers of Laban thy mother's brother.

³And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;

⁴And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.

⁵And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

⁶When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, "Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughers of Canaan;"

⁷And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;

⁸And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;

⁹Then 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.

¹⁰And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.

¹¹And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

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

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

¹⁴And 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.

¹⁵And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

¹⁶And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, "Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not."

¹⁷And he was afraid, and said, "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

¹⁸And 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.

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

²⁰And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,

²¹So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:

²²And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee." (Genesis 28, King James Version)


Recommended Verse:

Malachi 3:6
⁶For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

⁷Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

⁸Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. (Malachi 3:6-8, King James Version)

Memorial Parsha Vayeitz: The teachings of Jesus Christ

Matthew 13:1-58

¹The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.

²And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

³And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, "Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

⁴And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

⁵Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

⁶And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

⁷And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

⁸But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

⁹Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

¹⁰And the disciples came, and said unto him, "Why speakest thou unto them in parables?"

¹¹He answered and said unto them, "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

¹²For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

¹³Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

¹⁴And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, 'By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

¹⁵For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.'

¹⁶But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

¹⁷For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

¹⁸Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

¹⁹When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

²⁰But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

²¹Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

²²He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

²³But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

²⁴Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

²⁵But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

²⁶But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

²⁷So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, 'Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?'

²⁸He said unto them, 'An enemy hath done this.' The servants said unto him, 'Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?'

²⁹But he said, 'Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn'." (Matthew 13, King James Version)

In closing, I believe that Jacob was unsure what to do with the dream that he had. I also believe that Jacob wanted more than anything to believe that he was not alone but God is the Lord of his life - even as it relates to property and prosperity for your posterity.

Most of all Jacob was patient in waiting for his blessing from the Lord, one that he thought was reasonable, after all a blessing is something we don't deserve. Therefore, I will bless the name of the Lord at all times.

Nevertheless, Jacob made a vow if God would be the Lord of his life. If you remember Abraham went to Salem to receive a blessing from King Melchizdek, the priest of the most High God, the LORD. So it is very reasonable, that Jacob would tithe all that he had through faith, since his faith from this point on would allow him to acquire the material wealth in the world. However you will see when we wrap up Vayislach that Jacob again tithes to the LORD God.

Have a blessed day. I hope you have enjoyed the teachings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.