Deeper Commentary
Gen 28:1 Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, You
shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan- This 'blessing' is
so significant. As noted throughout Gen. 27, all concerned in the sad
drama had failed to realize that the true blessing was the Abrahamic
blessing, and not corn and wine, i.e. material things. Isaac realizes now
that he had been mistaken in trying to fight against the Divine plan that
the elder should serve the younger; in this sense he blessed Jacob by
faith (Heb. 11:20- although the question is where his faith came in when
blessing Esau). In connection with that blessing, he urges Jacob not to
follow his brother and marry a Canaanite. Isaac had himself waited until
40 years old and seen his father go to huge effort to find him a wife
within the faith. To remain within the Divine program of blessing, Jacob
had to marry someone in the faith. And so he went to Mesopotamia
subconsciously expecting to find a wife there, just as his father had
found one there through Eliezer meeting Rebekah by the well.
Gen 28:2 Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your
mother’s father. Take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your
mother’s brother- Isaac had effectively taken that journey in the
person of Eliezer in Gen. 24. He too had found a wife from the family of
Laban.
Gen 28:3 May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and
multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples- I noted on Gen.
27 that Isaac's allusions to the Abrahamic promises had focused on the
immediate and the material, with no attention to the important promises of
the seed who would multiply. But now Isaac appears to have learnt his
lesson, and understands this as the most important blessing. And he speaks
of God blessing Isaac, rather than of he himself blessing his
sons ("that my soul may bless you", Gen. 27:25).
Jacob self-admittedly didn't believe as he slept that night at Bethel; for he said that if Yahweh would bring him safely home, only then would Yahweh be his God. But just days before that, as Jacob here sheepishly stood before his sorrowful, betrayed father; right there, right then, God promised Jacob that he would become "a multitude (LXX ekklesia) of people", words which could only become true through their application to Christ. The LXX gives: "Thou shalt become gatherings of nations". The idea is that the nations would be gathered together in unity through his seed.
Gen 28:4 And give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to your seed with you, that you may inherit the land where you travel, which God gave to Abraham- According to the New Testament, and the implications of the inheritance promise in Gen. 15:7, the inheritance of the land was to be eternal, and not in this life. Jacob died in Egypt and didn't inherit the promised land in his lifetime, and so the fulfilment must be yet future at the resurrection of Jacob; and he is to inherit it with "your seed with you", suggesting they too must be resurrected (Heb. 11:8-13, 39,40). Likewise the land was not given to Abraham in his lifetime; but Jacob is invited to see it as being as good as his, so sure is the promise of fulfilment. But Isaac still fails to fully perceive these things, and speaks as if Jacob would receive the full inheritance in his mortal life. But Isaac has commendably moved on from his level of appreciation of the promises displayed in Gen. 27; he accepts that God gives blessing, and that "the blessing of Abraham", rather than Isaac's wishes of corn and wine, were the only blessing worth having. But Isaac came to this understanding through God's patient working with the failures and misunderstandings of all the family.
Gen 28:5 Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan Aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, Rebekah’s brother, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother- Jacob is now placed before Esau, in recognition that he really is being treated as the firstborn. We recall that Abraham "sent away" his sons by Keturah to the east, to this same location, because he perceived living and remaining in the promised eretz as fundamental to covenant relationship (see on Gen. 25:6). Later, both Jacob and Joseph wished to be buried in the eretz. So to send Jacob away to the east, out of the eretz, to relatives whom Abraham had been told to separate from, could be seen as not the best decision. For Abraham had expressly forbidden Isaac to go there, but rather must a woman be willing to leave that area and come to him in the eretz. And indeed Jacob did suffer spiritually from his 20 or 40 years out of the eretz; although his earnest desire to be buried in the eretz showed that he learnt the lesson at the very end of his long life.
It must be remembered that Israel are ethnically linked to the other Arab
nations in the ‘land’- Jacob’s 12 sons married wives from there; some of
their mothers were Arab slave girls; Jacob’s wives were
Arameans, as was his mother (Gen. 28:5);
historically there was much intermarriage with surrounding nations,
throughout Israel’s history; Ephraim and Manasseh were half Egyptian.
Rahab, Ruth etc. are all reminders of the amount of Arab blood in the
average Jew. The definition of ‘Israel’ was therefore not so much on
ethnic principles but rather on spiritual ones. Anyone who has walked the
streets of modern Israel and pondered the question ‘What is a Jew?’
will have come to this conclusion, as they see Russians, Americans, black
Africans… all wearing skull caps.
Gen 28:7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone
to Paddan Aram-
Gen 28:9 Esau went to Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he
had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of
Nebaioth, to be his wife- The polygamy of Esau, in an attempt to
please his parents, is presented as so inappropriate- as they were not
apparently polygamists, and Isaac isn't recorded as taking any other wives
when Rebekah was barren for the first 20 years of their marriage. The
names of these women all suggest idolatry.
Gen 28:10 Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran-
Bethel is about 70 miles from Beersheba, so Jacob would have had a few
days to reflect before the dream. He went from Beersheba, "the well of the
path", to Haran, "the parched place". The hint could be that this was a
bad move; it was the apostate who moved eastwards. If he wanted a wife
from Abraham's family there, then he could have done what his father did,
and send someone to invite someone to come to him within the land or
promise.
Gen 28:11 He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep- Jacob's sleeping with a stone as his pillow is hardly a natural thing to do- but it was done in order to induce dreams and revelations from the gods (J.G. Janzen, Abraham And All The Families Of The Earth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993) p. 108). And the one true God responded to Jacob, by showing him Angels ascending from him to God, and Angels descending from God to Jacob in response. It wasn't the other way around- because surely the idea was to show Jacob that his prayers really were being heard, Angels were in touch with God about them, and God was zealously responding even then through Angelic providence. Yet all this was done by God when Jacob was so far from Him. Just as a patient and loving father bears with his child, so God bore with Jacob; and He does with us too, and we are to reflect this in our dealings with our brethren.
Gen 28:12 He dreamed- This was later understood by Jacob as an
answer to his "distress" (Gen. 35:3). God often sees situations as
prayers, and responds; demonstrating that the effectiveness of prayer is
not simply dependent upon our ability to verbalize, because this ability
varies between persons.
Behold, a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it- See on Jn. 1:51. The idea of a stairway leading into Heaven of course has obvious connections with the ziggurats of those times; the white limestone cliffs or slopes around him merged into a ziggurat in his dreams. But note that those stairways had a temple on the ground immediately where the stairway started, and led up to a temple at the summit. On a human level, Jacob's subconscious was thinking of pagan temple systems. But God turned all this around. For the man Jacob lying there that night, in all his weakness, was a temple, connected by the Angels to Yahweh's Heavenly temple. And we too in all our weaknesses are the temples of God on this earth. Thus his idolatrous dream of a Ziggurat was turned into an assurance of Divine care for him, the shrine which topped Mesopotamian ziggurats being turned by God in the vision into the throne of Yahweh. Indeed, ‘Babylon’ meant “gate of God”, and in thinking that he was at heaven’s gates, Jacob was confusing Babylon and the true city of God. But still God worked through all this.
The stairway or ladder was "set", literally, erected or stood up. The same word is used for how Jacob later at this very same place stood up or erected an altar (Gen. 35:14). A different word is used here in :18. Jacob realized that his altars and sacrifices were ascending to God Himself personally, just as this magnificent staircase led to God, with Angels ascending and descending upon it, between God and himself. This is the power of prayer, of covenant relationship, of sacrifice and fellowship with God. The idea of reaching up to heaven and God reaching down from heaven is meant literally here, but it is also a metaphor meaning that God paid attention to the point of feeling whatever was done on earth (Gen. 11:5; 18:21; 2 Chron. 28:9; Jer. 51:9; Rev. 18:5). This sensitivity of God, and His response, is articulated through the Angels. Jacob was being taught that it is not just the situation at Babel or Sodom which elicits this huge attention; but the state of a lonely fugitive sleeping rough in the semi-desert. He deals directly with individuals. The order "ascending and descending" suggests that our situation is as it were taken up to God in heaven, and then He responds through Angelic means [descending].
We all grow up with some concept of God. This is as true for those with
atheist or apostate backgrounds as it is for those steeped in Sunday
School from the cradle. That concept of God which we have in our youth
tends to stay with us, and in some ways dogs us for much of our lives.
Growth towards a real, personal knowledge of the true God, our
Father, is a lifelong process. Jacob grew up in the most spiritual home on
earth at the time (although some of the goings on would have made the
neighbours doubt this). He was brought up 'in the Truth', we could say.
And yet his conception of God was woefully immature for many years. His
struggle towards the true knowledge of God is not only fascinating;
because Jacob's spiritual growth really is intended as our model.
Nathaniel thought he really believed in the Lord Jesus. The Lord
commented: "You shall see (usually used in John concerning faith and
spiritual perception) greater things than these... you will see
heaven opened, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the son
of man" (Jn. 1:51 RSV). It was Jacob who saw Heaven opened and the Angels
ascending and descending. And the Lord's comment that Nathaniel was "an
Israelite (Jacob-ite) indeed, in whom is no guile" (i.e. Jacob without his
guileful side) is a reference to Jacob's name change. It confirms that
Nathaniel was to follow Jacob's path of spiritual growth; he thought he
believed, he thought he saw Christ clearly; but like Jacob, he was to
comprehend far greater things.
Gen 28:13 Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, I am Yahweh, the
God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac- This is another way
of reminding Jacob of the promise given to Abraham, "I will be their God".
Yahweh Himself was involved with Jacob; the huge staircase was to make
Jacob see that his situation was directly transferred to God, and God
would directly respond; for the bottom of the ladder was Jacob, more
precisely, Jacob's mind. And God saw all that was there and responded
there, through a huge, awesome system.
It seems that great stress is placed in Scripture on the Angels physically moving through space, both on the earth and between Heaven and earth, in order to fulfil their tasks, rather than being static in Heaven or earth and bringing things about by just willing them to happen. The vision of Jacob's ladder showed the Angels coming and going, perhaps meaning that they are sometimes physically present with us, sometimes not. Gen. 28:13-15 are the words of the Angel to Jacob. God manifested through Jacob's specific guardian Angel then goes on to say, v. 15, "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 of unto thee" (AV). At the end of his life, Jacob mentions the presence of the Angel which he had sensed all through his life. But that one Angel controlled the multitude of Angels which he saw that night in vision ministering to him. See on Gen. 18:10.
The land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed- This was making specific the Abrahamic blessing, which Isaac had never clearly articulated to Jacob because he seemed so caught up in the literal, material aspects of the promises. So far as we know, Jacob had no wife nor children. He was being set up psychologically to expect that soon, therefore, he would have both. He meets Rachel, but finds that this promise was hard of fulfilment; he had to work seven years for her, and then there were major issues of infertility. All this was not God punishing Jacob, but rather seeking to hone his focus and faith in this prophetic word.
Gen 28:14 Your seed will be as the dust of the earth, and you will
spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the
south. In you and in your seed will all the families of the earth be
blessed- See on Gen. 12:3. Paul interprets the "seed" as singular,
referring to the Lord Jesus, and the multiplication as being through
individuals being baptized into that seed (Gal. 3:16,27-29). This promise
of spreading abroad geographically didn't happen in Jacob's lifetime, and
so he would have been driven to faith in a resurrection and future
fulfilment in the Kingdom of God on earth. The mention of the compass
points would have encouraged Jacob to see himself as Abraham, who was told
the same (Gen. 13:14). However, he does use the Hebrew for "spread abroad"
in describing how his family has "increased greatly" (Gen. 30:30,43). The
blessing of all families of the eretz came true in a limited
sense through his seed Joseph being a blessing for them all in saving them
from famine through giving all families of the earth the bread of life,
pointing forward to the salvation of all peoples from all compass points
in Christ (Lk. 13:29; Rev. 21:13). And so we see what we ought to discern
in our lives- an incipient fulfilment of the Kingdom blessings right now.
Gen 28:15 Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you
go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you,
until I have done that which I have spoken of to you-
Heb. 13:5 combines quotes from Gen. 28:15; Josh. 1:5 and Dt. 31:16. Heb.
13:5 doesn’t quote any of them exactly, but mixes them together.
Gen 28:16 Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it- The conflict of tenses is arresting. Yahweh is [present] here, but I did not [previously] know it. Although the vision was ended, Jacob realized that the promised presence of God, with Angels ascending and descending upon him, was ongoing, and not just a dream. And he admits that he had not appreciated this when he first laid down in that place, nor earlier in his life. We see here definite growth in Jacob. The same Hebrew term is found in Ex. 6:3, where we read that Yahweh revealed Himself to Jacob and He was 'known' to him thereby. So we conclude that after the dream, Jacob 'knew' Yahweh, although he had not previously done so. We note the gradual growth of Jacob in knowing or having relationship with God.
"Yahweh is" in Hebrew here means more than the present tense of the verb "to be". The idea is that Yahweh exists, right here. Moses was primarily writing for Israel in the wilderness, who had questioned whether "Yahweh is among us" using the same Hebrew (Ex. 17:7, as Jud. 6:13). Even if they had not known it, they were to realize that His presence, mediated perhaps by the same Angel who dealt with Jacob, was just as real for them as it had been for him in the desert that night. Dt. 29:26; 32:17 and other passages teach that the idols of the nations were not 'known' by Israel who worshipped them; the idea is that Yahweh alone enters into personal relationship, which is the Hebrew idea of 'knowing'. And likewise all the possible idols in our lives do not offer the personal knowing / relationship with God which He alone does.
Gen 28:17 He was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is
none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven-
"Dreadful" suggests that Jacob feared God with the fear of one who has no real relationship with Him.
He was on one hand in awe at God's closeness; and yet he was afraid. I
suggest this was the fear of sinful man before God Almighty. The first
reference to "fear" is in Adam's words of guilt before God: "I was afraid"
(Gen. 3:10). He feared because he felt he was so close to God now; at the
gate of heaven. The Lord maybe used this idea in speaking of the virgins
in the parable knocking at the door of the Kingdom. Jacob felt he was
still "outside", at God's gate, so close, but perhaps he felt so far, and
therefore feared.
Gen 28:18 Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on its top- See on Jn. 1:50. As noted on :12, Jacob understood this makeshift alter as his poor replica of the stairway to heaven. His humble altar and sacrifice of the oil of his spirit were a way of ascending to God Himself personally, just as this magnificent staircase led to God, with Angels ascending and descending upon it, between God and himself. This is the power of prayer, of covenant relationship, of sacrifice and fellowship with God.
Gen 28:19 He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first- Before that watershed night of Gen. 32, Jacob was influenced by the surrounding religious ideas, and was possibly involved with idol worship. The fact he openly says that Yahweh will only become his God if He brings him back home in peace is proof enough that up until age 77 at the earliest, Jacob was not an unreserved worshipper of Yahweh. Yet knowing the nature of the man, it seems impossible to believe that he was totally irreligious until the time of his repentance in Gen. 32. The connections between Jacob and idolatry are so very numerous throughout the prophets that it seems impossible to totally disconnect him from idolatry. "Luz" appears to refer to a tree which was associated with idolatry. Jacob renamed it to Bethel, the house of God, although his later life was hardly free from the influences of idolatry. But here we see the beginnings of the development of a rejection of idolatry. He also perceived that God needs no "house", for He reveals Himself deep within the heart of His people, and ascends and descends upon them, wherever they are. This was a not insignificant paradigm shift; for the 'religion' of his day as of ours tended to think in terms of having a 'house of prayer', a place you went to do your religious stuff and find contact with your deity.
Gen 28:20 Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will
keep me in this way that I go- See on Gen. 48:20; Jer. 10:16.
As Jacob set out to relatives in a distant land, hoping to find a wife, he was fully aware that he was in principle replicating his father's experience. When he spoke of God keeping him "in this way that I go" and bringing him again "to my father's house"
(:21), his mind was on the story he had so often heard of how God lead Abraham's servant in "the right way" and leading back home with a wonderful wife for Isaac
his father (Gen. 24:27,40,42,48,56). When at this stage in life (he was 77, remember) things suddenly took a different turn, his great hope was that God would bring him back safely "again to my father's house in peace" (28:21); he wanted to go back to the stay-at-home life. What God put him through in the rest of his life was the exact opposite of this. He says that if God does this, he will "surely give the tenth unto thee" (28:22 cp. 14:20)- exactly as granddad Abraham had done (Gen. 14:20), who had doubtless told Jacob this many a time as they 'dwelled together in tents' (Heb. 11:9).
We very much get the impression that Jacob was wrapped up with his parents
too much; he had not yet avowed Yahweh as his personal God, but he felt a
safety in his religious family and consciously and subconsciously living
out their expectations. He was like many raised "in the faith"; he had to
discover it all for himself, alone, and throw away the crutches of the
family environment, upon which a man shall never see his God for himself.
And will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on- This is simply incredible
in its lack of faith; 'If God will really look after me, which includes giving me food and clothes, if He's as good as His word, then I'll accept Him as my God'. And yet Paul speaks of how we should serve our Master well, especially if he is our brother (alluding to Jacob and Laban), and "having food and raiment be content" (1 Tim. 6:2,8), as if the fact Jacob only expected food and clothing from God was a sign of his unmaterialism.
The Spirit focused upon one part of Jacob's words and imputed
righteousness to him because of them, just as the bitter and cynical words
of Sarah are quoted so positively in the New Testament. At the very time Jacob said those words, he
at best only half believed, and the next 20 [or 40] years of his life were devoted to accumulating far more than just food and clothing. And yet his words regarding food and raiment, sandwiched as they are between much that is wrong, are treated as a reflection of his spirituality.
Having heard the promises concerning his future seed and the present protection God would grant him, Jacob immediately seized on the latter: "If God will be with me... then shall Yahweh be my God" (:21). He brushed past the implications of Messiah, although later he came to see that these were the most fundamental things God had promised. The way he raised up (cp. resurrection) the pillar and anointed it at this time may have shown a faint conception of Messiah, but this took years to seriously develop.
“If God… then…” implies was that Jacob didn't consider Yahweh to be his God at that time. He was not totally committed to Yahweh as his God. The fact he promises to give a tenth to God in the future suggests that he did not then consider God to be his King, for the idea of tithing seems to have been established before the Law of Moses was given (as were many other elements of that Law;
Gen. 14:20). Jacob's words sound as if he believed in 'God' as a kind of force or spirit, but did not have Yahweh as his personal God. And yet God had promised Abraham that He would be the God of his seed (Gen. 17:7,8); Jacob was aware of these promises, and yet he is showing that he did not accept their personal relevance to him at this time. The fact at the end he does call God his God reveals that he then accepted the Abrahamic promises as relevant to him personally. His offer to give a tithe to God if God delivered him would have been understood in those days as saying that Yahweh would then be his king (cp. 1 Sam. 8:15,17); and yet he evidently felt that Yahweh wasn't then his King. There is no record that Jacob ever did build a temple or tithe; but at the end of his life he realizes that God had kept His side of the deal, in that He had been with him and fed him all his life long. The fact he hadn’t kept his side of the deal made Jacob realize the huge grace of God…
The fact at the end he does call Yahweh his God reveals that he
then accepted the Abrahamic promises as relevant to him personally (Gen.
49:24,25). This is an essay in the titanic difference between knowledge
and belief. At baptism we tend to have knowledge, which masquerades as
belief. And all our lives long we must struggle, as Jacob did, to turn
knowledge into faith. His personal grasp of the wonder of the
promises at the end is revealed in Gen. 48:4, where Jacob recounts how
"God Almighty... said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and
multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will
give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession" (AV). God
never actually said all this to Jacob; Jacob is quoting the promise to
Abraham of Gen. 17:8 and applying it to himself. And with us too,
a personal grasp of the wonder of it all, that it really applies to me,
is a mark of that final maturity we fain would achieve.
So only at the end, Yahweh was Jacob's God. God seems to recognize this by
describing Himself as the God of Jacob / Israel so very often. His joy,
His sheer delight at Jacob's spiritual achievement is recorded throughout
the Bible. The way God describes Himself as "the God of Israel" (201
times) or "the God of Jacob" (25 times) infinitely more times than
anyone else's God is proof enough that God saw His relationship with Jacob
as very special. "God of Abraham" occurs 17 times; "God of Isaac" 8 times;
"God of David" 4 times. Remember that whenever we read "Israel", we are
reading of the man Jacob and his children. That God was the God of
mixed-up, struggling Jacob is a sure comfort to every one of us. God is
not ashamed to be surnamed the God of Jacob (Heb. 11:16 Gk.). The clear
parallel between the historical man Jacob and the people of Israel is
brought out in Mal. 1:2: “I loved you… I loved Jacob”. Had Israel
appreciated God’s love for the man Jacob, and perceived that he was
typical of them, then they would never have doubted God’s love for them.
And the same is true of us, whom Jacob likewise represents.
The covenant God made with Abraham was similar in style to covenants made between men at that time; and yet there was a glaring difference. Abraham was not required to do anything or take upon himself any obligations. Circumcision [cp. baptism] was to remember that this covenant of grace had been made. It isn’t part of the covenant [thus we are under this same new, Abrahamic covenant, but don’t require circumcision]. Perhaps this was why Yahweh but not Abraham passed between the pieces, whereas usually both parties would do so. The promises to Abraham are pure, pure grace. Sadly Jacob didn’t perceive the wonder of this kind of covenant- his own covenant with God was typical of a human covenant, when he says that if God will give him some benefits, then he will give God some. Although he knew the covenant with Abraham, the one way, gracious nature of it still wasn’t perceived by him.
Because of the great importance of Angels or a specific Angel in our
lives, many of God's people seem to have conceived of God in terms of an
Angel. Jacob (Gen. 48:15) and the patriarchs are clear examples. The
extent of this is shown by Jacob vowing to his Angel at Bethel that "if
God (the Angel) be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go... so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord (Yahweh) be my God" (Gen. 28:20,21). That the 'God' was definitely the Angel is shown by Gen. 31:11,13: "The Angel of God spake unto (Jacob)... I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me". So was Jacob promising his Angel that if He protected him, "then shall Yahweh be my Elohim (Angel)"- i.e. 'then I will recognize Yahweh is behind you, and I will relate to Him as I do to you'?
Gen 28:21 So that I come again to my father’s house in peace, and
Yahweh will be my God- The AV and others suggest that Yahweh becoming
Jacob's God was part of the deal which Jacob was offering God. See on :20
for the implications of this. We can each personally, as members of the
seed, enter into Jacob's experience at this time. David certainly did:
| Gen. 28:20,21 re. Jacob | Psalm 23 re. David |
He is with me |
For You are with me (i.e. just as You were with Jacob) |
He will keep me |
He makes me lie down, he leads me, he restores my life |
He will give me bread to eat |
He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies |
I come again to my father's house in peace |
I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever |
David was a man who saw the height of Jacob, perceiving Jacob as our example, and the deep significance of his spiritual growth as our pattern. His almost fanatic devotion to "the Law" would have included the record of Jacob- around a fifth of "the Law" which he studied all the day (and deep into the night watches).
It's questionable whether Jacob ever did really return to his father's home in peace. But all the same, as is clear from Jacob's final words, he fully accepted Yahweh as his God at the end of his life. He realized that his passionate hankering after being back home with mum and dad, of returning to how things used to be... was of the flesh. God wanted him to be a man, standing alone before Him. And Jacob realized that, and made Yahweh his God all the same, despite never really returning home in peace. He likely never saw his mother again, and the record of his burial of Isaac with Esau leaves us to imagine his nervousness and inability to ever live again near Esau.
Gen 28:22 Then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God’s house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give the tenth to you- As noted on :20, this was understood as accepting Yahweh as his king. There is no record that Jacob ever did tithe to Yahweh, nor that he ever attempted to build a sanctuary, a literal "house", at the spot where he had erected that pillar. He does return there and erect a pillar later (see on :12), but he built no literal "house" of worship for God. He would've looked back and perceived how inappropriate was his bargain with God; and all he offered to do, he concluded was inappropriate. God was worthy of his all, not just a tenth; and the house of God was him, his heart, upon which Angels ascended and descended constantly because of his covenant relationship.
Previous Chapter
Next Chapter 
