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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
G E N E S I S
CHAP. XXVIII.
We have here,
I. Jacob parting with his parents, to go to Padan-aram;
the charge his father gave him
(ver. 1, 2),
the blessing he sent him away with
(ver. 3, 4),
his obedience to the orders
given him
(ver. 5, 10),
and the influence this had upon Esau,
II. Jacob meeting with God, and his communion
with him by the way. And there,
1. His vision of the ladder,
2. The gracious promises God made him,
3. The impression this made upon him,
4. The vow he
made to God, up on this occasion,
&c.
| Jacob Dismissed with a Blessing. | B. C. 1760. |
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1 And Isaac called Jacob, and
blessed him, and charged him,
and said unto him, Thou shalt not take
a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
2 Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house
of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and
take thee a wife from thence of the
daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother.
3 And God Almighty bless
thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply
thee, that thou mayest be a multitude
of people;
4 And 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.
5 And Isaac sent away
Jacob: and he went to Padan-aram
unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian,
the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s
and Esau’s mother.
Jacob had no sooner obtained the blessing
than immediately he was forced to flee from
his country; and, as it if were not enough
that he was a stranger and sojourner there,
he must go to be more so, and no better than
an exile, in another country. Now Jacob fled
into Syria,
Hos. xii. 12.
He was blessed
with plenty of corn and wine, and yet he went
away poor, was blessed with government, and
yet went out to service, a hard service. This
was,
1. Perhaps to correct him for his dealing
fraudulently with his father. The blessing
shall be confirmed to him, and yet he shall
smart for the indirect course he took to obtain
it. While there is such an alloy as there
is of sin in our duties, we must expect an
alloy of trouble in our comforts. However,
2. It was to teach us that those who inherit
the blessing must expect persecution; those
who have peace in Christ shall have tribulation
in the world,
Being told of this before, we must not think it strange,
and, being assured of a recompence hereafter,
we must not think it hard. We may observe,
likewise, that God’s providences often seem
to contradict his promises, and to go cross to
them; and yet, when the mystery of God
shall be finished, we shall see that all was for
the best, and that cross providences did but
render the promises and the accomplishment
of them the more illustrious. Now Jacob is
here dismissed by his father,
I. With a solemn charge: He blessed him,
and charged him,
v. 1, 2.
Note, Those that
have the blessing must keep the charge annexed
to it, and not think to separate what
God has joined. The charge is like that in
Be not unequally yoked with
unbelievers; and all that inherit the promises
of the remission of sins, and the gift of the
Holy Ghost, must keep this charge, which
follows those promises, Save yourselves from
this untoward generation,
Acts ii. 38-40.
Those that are entitled to peculiar favours
must be a peculiar people. If Jacob be an
heir of promise, he must not take a wife of
the daughters of Canaan; those that profess
religion should not marry those that are irreligious.
II. With a solemn blessing,
He had before blessed him unwittingly; now he
does it designedly, for the greater encouragement
of Jacob in that melancholy condition
to which he was now removing. This blessing
is more express and full than the former;
it is an entail of the blessing of Abraham,
that blessing which was poured on the head
of Abraham like the anointing oil, thence to
run down to his chosen seed, as the skirts of
his garments. It is a gospel blessing, the
blessing of church-privileges, that is the
blessing of Abraham, which upon the
Gentiles through faith,
It is a
blessing from God Almighty, by which name
God appeared to the patriarchs,
Those are blessed indeed whom God Almighty
blesses; for he commands and effects the
blessing. Two great promises Abraham was
blessed with, and Isaac here entails them both
upon Jacob.
1. The promise of heirs: God make thee
fruitful, and multiply thee,
v. 3.
(1.) Through
his loins should descend from Abraham that
people who should be numerous as the stars
of heaven, and the sand of the sea, and
who should increase more than the rest of
the nations, so as to be an assembly of people,
as the margin reads it. And never was such
a multitude of people so often gathered into
one assembly as the tribes of Israel were in
the wilderness, and afterwards.
(2.) Through
his loins should descend from Abraham that
person in whom all the families of the earth
should be blessed, and to whom the gathering
of the people should be. Jacob had in him
a multitude of people indeed, for all things
in heaven and earth are united in Christ
(Eph. i. 10),
all centre in him, that corn of
wheat, which falling to the ground, produced
much fruit,
2. The promise of an inheritance for those
heirs: That thou mayest inherit the land of thy
sojournings,
v. 4.
Canaan was hereby entailed
upon the seed of Jacob, exclusive of
the seed of Esau. Isaac was now sending
Jacob away into a distant country, to settle
there for some time; and, lest this should
look like disinheriting him, he here confirms
the settlement of it upon him, that he might
be assured that the discontinuance of his
possession should be no defeasance of his
right. Observe, He is here told that he
should inherit the land wherein he sojourned.
Those that are sojourners now shall be heirs
for ever: and, even now, those do most inherit
the earth (though they do not inherit
most of it) that are most like strangers in it.
Those have the best enjoyment of present
things that sit most loose to them. This promise
looks as high as heaven, of which Canaan
was a type. This was the better country,
which Jacob, with the other patriarchs, had in
his eye, when he confessed himself a stranger
and pilgrim upon the earth,
Jacob, having taken leave of his father, was
hastened away with all speed, lest his brother
should find an opportunity to do him a
mischief, and away he went to Padan-aram,
v. 5.
How unlike was his taking a wife
thence to his father’s! Isaac had servants
and camels sent to fetch his; Jacob must go
himself, go alone, and go afoot, to fetch his:
he must go too in a fright from his father’s
house, not knowing when he might return.
Note, If God, in his providence, disable us,
we must be content, though we cannot keep
up the state and grandeur of our ancestors.
We should be more in care to maintain their
piety than to maintain their dignity, and to
be as good as they were than to be as great.
Rebekah is here called Jacob’s and Esau’s
mother. Jacob is named first, not only because
he had always been his mother’s darling,
but because he was now make his father’s
heir, and Esau was, in this sense, set aside.
Note, The time will come when piety will
have precedency, whatever it has now.
6 When Esau saw that Isaac had
blessed Jacob, and sent him away to
Padan-aram, 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 daughters of
Canaan;
7 And that Jacob obeyed
his father and his mother, and was
gone to Padan-aram;
8 And Esau
seeing that the daughters of Canaan
pleased not Isaac his father;
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.
This passage concerning Esau comes in in
the midst of Jacob’s story, either,
1. To show
the influence of a good example. Esau,
though the greater man, now begins to think
Jacob the better man, and disdains not to
take him for his pattern in this particular instance
of marrying with a daughter of Abraham.
The elder children should give to the
younger an example of tractableness and
obedience; it is bad if they do not: but it
is some alleviation if they take the example
of it from them, as Esau here did from Jacob.
Or,
2. To show the folly of an after-wit.
Esau did well, but he did it when it was too
late, He saw that the daughters of Canaan
pleased not his father, and he might have seen
that long ago if he had consulted his father’s
judgment as much as he did his palate. And
how did he now mend the matter? Why,
truly, so as to make bad worse.
(1.) He married a daughter of Ishmael, the son
of the bond-woman, who was cast out, and was
not to inherit with Isaac and his seed, thus
joining with a family which God had rejected,
and seeking to strengthen his own pretensions
by the aid of another pretender.
(2.) He took a third wife, while, for aught that
appears, his other two were neither dead nor
divorced.
(3.) He did it only to please his
father, not to please God. Now that Jacob
was sent into a far country Esau would be
all in all at home, and he hoped so to humour
his father as to prevail with him to make a
new will, and entail the promise upon him,
revoking the settlement lately made upon Jacob.
And thus,
[1.] He was wise when it
was too late, like Israel that would venture
when the decree had gone forth against them
(Num. xiv. 40),
and the foolish virgins,
[2.] He rested in a partial reformation,
and thought, by pleasing his parents
in one thing, to atone for all his other miscarriages.
It is not said that when he saw
how obedient Jacob was, and how willing to
please his parents, he repented of his malicious
design against him: no, it appeared
afterwards that he persisted in that, and
retained his malice. Note, Carnal hearts are
apt to think themselves as good as they
should be, because perhaps, in some one particular
instance, they are not so bad as they
have been. Thus Micah retains his idols,
but thinks himself happy in having a Levite
to be his priest,
| Jacob’s Vision at Bethel. | B. C. 1760. |
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10 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba,
and went toward Haran.
11 And 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.
12 And 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.
13 And,
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;
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.
15 And,
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.
We have here Jacob upon his journey towards
Syria, in a very desolate condition,
like one that was sent to seek his fortune;
but we find that, though he was alone, yet he
was not alone, for the Father was with him,
John xvi. 32.
If what is here recorded happened
(as it should seem it did) the first
night, he had made a long day’s journey
from Beersheba to Bethel, above forty miles.
Providence brought him to a convenient
place, probably shaded with trees, to rest
himself in that night; and there he had,
I. A hard lodging
(v. 11),
the stones for
his pillows, and the heavens for his canopy
and curtains. As the usage then was, perhaps
this was not so bad as it seems how to
us; but we should think,
1. He lay very
cold, the cold ground for his bed, and, which
one would suppose made the matter worse,
a cold stone for his pillow, and in the cold
air.
2. Very uneasy. If his bones were
sore with his day’s journey, his night’s rest
would but make them sorer.
3. Very much
exposed. He forgot that he was fleeing for
his life; or had his brother, in his rage,
pursued, or sent a murderer after him, here
he lay ready to be sacrificed, and destitute of
shelter and defence. We cannot think it was
by reason of his poverty that he was so ill
accommodated, but,
(1.) It was owing to the
plainness and simplicity of those times, when
men did not take so much state, and consult
their ease so much, as in these later times of
softness and effeminacy.
(2.) Jacob had been
particularly used to hardships, as a plain man
dwelling in tents; and, designing now to go
to service, he was the more willing to inure
himself to them; and, as it proved, it was
well,
(3.) His comfort in the
divine blessing, and his confidence in the divine
protection, made him easy, even when
he lay thus exposed; being sure that his God
made him to dwell in safety, he could lie
down and sleep upon a stone.
II. In his hard lodging he had a pleasant
dream. Any Israelite indeed would be willing
to take up with Jacob’s pillow, provided
he might but have Jacob’s dream. Then,
and there, he heard the words of God, and
saw the visions of the Almighty. It was the
best night’s sleep he ever had in his
life. Note, God’s time to visit his people with his
comforts is when they are most destitute of
other comforts, and other comforters; when
afflictions in the way of duty (as these were)
do abound, then shall consolations so much
the more abound. Now observe here,
1. The encouraging vision Jacob saw,
He saw a ladder which reached from earth to
heaven, the angels ascending and descending
upon it, and God himself at the head of it.
Now this represents the two things that are
very comfortable to good people at all times,
and in all conditions:–
(1.) The providence of
God, by which there is a constant correspondence
kept up between heaven and earth. The
counsels of heaven are executed on earth,
and the actions and affairs of this earth are
all known in heaven
are executed on earth,
and the actions and affairs of this earth are
all known in heaven and judged there. Providence
does its work gradually, and by steps.
Angels are employed as ministering spirits,
to serve all the purposes and designs of Providence,
and the wisdom of God is at the
upper end of the ladder, directing all the motions
of second causes to the glory of the
first Cause. The angels are active spirits,
continually ascending and descending; they
rest not, day nor night, from service, according
to the posts assigned them. They ascend,
to give account of what they have done, and
to receive orders; and then descend, to execute
the orders they have received. Thus
we should always abound in the work of the
Lord, that we may do it as the angels do it,
This vision gave very seasonable
comfort to Jacob, letting him know
that he had both a good guide and a good
guard, in his going out and coming in,–that,
though he was made to wander from his father’s
house, yet still he was the care of a
kind Providence, and the charge of the holy
angels. This is comfort enough, though we
should not admit the notion which some have,
that the tutelar angels of Canaan were ascending,
having guarded Jacob out of their land,
and the angels of Syria descending to take
him into their custody. Jacob was now the
type and representative of the whole church,
with the guardianship of which the angels are
entrusted.
(2.) The mediation of Christ.
He is this ladder, the foot on earth in his
human nature, the top in heaven in his divine
nature: or the former in his humiliation, the
latter in his exaltation. All the intercourse
between heaven and earth, since the fall, is
by this ladder. Christ is the way; all God’s
favours come to us, and all our services go
to him, by Christ. If God dwell with us,
and we with him, it is by Christ. We have
no way of getting to heaven, but by this
ladder; if we climb up any other way we are
thieves and robbers. To this vision our Saviour
alludes when he speaks of the angels
of God ascending and descending upon the
son of man
(John i. 51);
for the kind offices
the angels do us, and the benefits we receive
by their ministration, are all owing to Christ,
who has reconciled things on earth and things
in heaven
(Col. i. 20),
and made them all
meet in himself,
2. The encouraging words Jacob heard.
God now brought him into the wilderness,
and spoke comfortably to him, spoke from
the head of the ladder; for all the glad tidings
we receive from heaven come through Jesus
Christ.
(1.) The former promises made to his father
were repeated and ratified to him,
In general, God intimated to him that
he would be the same to him that he had
been to Abraham and Isaac. Those that
tread in the steps of their godly parents are
interested in their covenant and entitled
to their privileges. Particularly,
[1.] The
land of Canaan is settled upon him, the land
whereon thou liest; as if by his lying so contentedly
upon the bare ground he had taken
livery and seisin of the whole land.
[2.] It is
promised him that his posterity should multiply
exceedingly as the dust of the earth–that,
though he seemed now to be plucked off
as a withered branch, yet he should become
a flourishing tree, that should send out his
boughs unto the sea. These were the blessings
with which his father had blessed him
(v. 3, 4),
and God here said Amen to them,
that he might have strong consolation.
[3.] It is added that the Messiah should come
from his loins, in whom all the families of
the earth should be blessed. Christ is the
great blessing of the world. All that are
blessed, whatever family they are of, are
blessed in him, and none of any family are
excluded from blessedness in him, but those
that exclude themselves.
(2.) Fresh promises were made him, accommodated
to his present condition,
[1.] Jacob was apprehensive of danger from
his brother Esau; but God promises to keep
him. Note, Those are safe whom god protects,
whoever pursues them.
[2.] He had
now a long journey before him, had to travel
alone, in an unknown road, to an unknown
country; but, behold, I am with thee, says
God. Note, Wherever we are, we are safe,
and may be easy, if we have God’s favourable
presence with us.
[3.] He knew not,
but God foresaw, what hardships he should
meet with in his uncle’s service, and therefore
promises to preserve him in all places.
Note, God knows how to give his people
graces and comforts accommodated to the
events that shall be, as well as to those that
are.
[4.] He was now going as an exile into
a place far distant, but God promises him to
bring him back again to this land. Note,
He that preserves his people’s going out will
also take care of their coming in,
[5.] He seemed to be forsaken of all his
friends, but God here gives him this assurance,
I will not leave thee. Note, Whom
God loves he never leaves. This promise is
sure to all the seed,
[6.] Providences
seemed to contradict the promises;
he is therefore assured of the performance of
them in their season: All shall be done that I
have spoken to thee of. Note, Saying and
doing are not two things with God, whatever
they are with us.
| Jacob’s Vow. | B. C. 1760. |
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16 And Jacob awaked out of his
sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD
is in this place; and I knew it not.
17 And 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.
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.
19 And
he called the name of that place
Beth-el: but the name of that city was
called Luz at the first.
20 And 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,
21 So
that I come again to my father’s house
in peace; then shall the LORD be my
God:
22 And 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.
God manifested himself and his favour to
Jacob when he was asleep and purely passive;
for the spirit, like the wind, blows
when and where he listeth, and God’s grace,
like the dew, tarrieth not for the sons of
men,
But Jacob applied himself
to the improvement of the visit God had
made him when he was awake; and we
may well think he awaked, as the prophet
did
and behold his sleep was
sweet to him. Here is much of Jacob’s devotion
on this occasion.
I. He expressed a great surprise at the
tokens he had of God’s special presence
with him in that place: Surely the Lord is
in this place and I knew it not,
v. 16.
Note,
1. God’s manifestations of himself to his
people carry their own evidence along with
them. God can give undeniable demonstrations
of his presence, such as give abundant
satisfaction to the souls of the faithful that
God is with them of a truth, satisfaction not
communicable to others, but convincing to
themselves.
2. We sometimes meet with
God where we little thought of meeting
with him. He is where we did not think he
had been, is found where we asked not for
him. No place excludes divine visits
here also); wherever we are, in the
city or in the desert, in the house or in the
field, in the shop or in the street, we may
keep up our intercourse with Heaven if it
be not our own fault.
II. It struck an awe upon him
(v. 17):
He was afraid; so far was he from being
puffed up, and exalted above measure, with
the abundance of the revelations
that he was afraid. Note, The more we
see of God the more cause we see for holy
trembling and blushing before him. Those
to whom God is pleased to manifest himself
are thereby laid, and kept, very low in their
own eyes, and see cause to fear even the
Lord and his goodness,
He said,
How dreadful is this place! that is, “The
appearance of God in this place is never to
be thought of, but with a holy awe and reverence.
I shall have a respect for this place,
and remember it by this token, as long as I
live:” not that he thought the place itself
any nearer the divine visions than other
places; but what he saw there at this time
was, as it were, the house of God, the residence
of the divine Majesty, and the gate
of heaven, that is, the general rendezvous of
the inhabitants of the upper world, as the
meetings of a city were in their gates; or
the angels ascending and descending were
like travellers passing and re-passing through
the gates of a city. Note,
1. God is in a
special manner present where his grace is
revealed and where his covenants are published
and sealed, as of old by the ministry
of angels, so now by instituted ordinances,
2. Where God meets us
with his special presence we ought to meet
him with the most humble reverence, remembering
his justice and holiness, and our
own meanness and vileness.
III. He took care to preserve the memorial
of it two ways:
1. He set up the stone
for a pillar
(v. 18);
not as if he thought the
visions of his head were any way owing to
the stone on which it lay, but thus he would
mark the place against he came back, and
erect a lasting monument of God’s favour to
him, and because he had not time now to
build an altar here, as Abraham did in the
places where God appeared to him,
He therefore poured oil on the top of this stone,
which probably was the ceremony then used
in dedicating their altars, as an earnest of his
building an altar when he should have conveniences
for it, as afterwards he did, in gratitude
to God for this vision,
Note, Grants of mercy call for returns of
duty, and the sweet communion we have
with God ought ever to be remembered.
2. He gave a new name to the place,
It had been called Luz, an almond-tree; but
he will have it henceforward called Beth-el, the
house of God. This gracious appearance of
God to him put a greater honour upon it, and
made it more remarkable, than all the almond-trees
that flourished there. This is that
Beth-el where, long after, it is said, God found
Jacob, and there (in what he said to him) he
spoke with us,
Hos. xii. 4.
In process of time,
this Beth-el, the house of God, became Beth-aven,
a house of vanity and iniquity, when
Jeroboam set up one of his calves there.
IV. He made a solemn vow upon this occasion,
By religious vows we
give glory to God, own our dependence upon
him, and lay a bond upon our own souls to
engage and quicken our obedience to him.
Jacob was now in fear and distress; and it
is seasonable to make vows in times of
trouble, or when we are in pursuit of any
special mercy,
Jon. i. 16; Ps. lxvi. 13, 14; 1 Sam. i. 11; Num. xxi. 1-3.
Jacob had
now had a gracious visit from heaven. God
had renewed his covenant with him, and the
covenant is mutual. When God ratifies his
promises to us, it is proper for us to repeat
our promises to him. Now in this vow observe,
1. Jacob’s faith. God had said
(v. 15),
I am with thee, and will keep thee. Jacob
takes hold of this, and infers, “Seeing God
will be with me, and will keep me, as he hath
said, and (which is implied in that promise)
will provide comfortably for me,–and seeing
he has promised to bring me again to this
land, that is, to the house of my father, whom
I hope to find alive at my return in peace”
(so unlike was he to Esau who longed for the
days of mourning for his father),–“I depend
upon it.” Note, God’s promises are to be
the guide and measure of our desires and
expectations.
2. Jacob’s modesty and great
moderation in his desires. He will cheerfully
content himself with bread to eat, and raiment
to put on; and, though God’s promise
had now made him heir to a very great estate,
yet he indents not for soft clothing and dainty
meat. Agur’s wish is his, Feed me with food
convenient for me; and see
Nature is content with a little, and grace with
less. Those that have most have, in effect,
no more for themselves than food and raiment;
of the overplus they have only either
the keeping or the giving, not the enjoyment:
if God give us more, we are bound to be
thankful, and to use it for him; if he give
us but this, we are bound to be content,
and cheerfully to enjoy him in it.
3. Jacob’s
piety, and his regard to God, which appear
here,
(1.) In what he desired, that
God would be with him and keep him.
Note, We need desire no more to make us
easy and happy, wherever we are, than to
have God’s presence with us and to be under
his protection. It is comfortable, in a journey,
to have a guide in an unknown way, a
guard in a dangerous way, to be well carried,
well provided for, and to have good company
in any way; and those that have God with
them have all this in the best manner.
(2.) In what he designed. His resolution is,
[1.] In general, to cleave to the Lord, as his God
in covenant: Then shall the Lord be my God.
Not as if he would disown him and cast him
off if he should want food and raiment; no,
though he slay us, we must cleave to him;
but “then I will rejoice in him as my God;
then I will more strongly engage myself to
abide with him.” Note, Every mercy we
receive from God should be improved as an
additional obligation upon us to walk closely
with him as our God.
[2.] In particular,
that he would perform some special acts of
devotion, in token of his gratitude. First,
“This pillar shall keep possession here till I
come back in peace, and then it shall be God’s
house,” that is, “an altar shall be erected
here to the honour of God.” Secondly, “The
house of god shall not be unfurnished, nor
his altar without a sacrifice: Of all that thou
shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto
thee, to be spent either upon God’s altars or
upon his poor,” both which are his receivers
in the world. Probably it was according to
some general instructions received from
heaven that Abraham and Jacob offered the
tenth of their acquisitions to God. Note,
1. God must be honoured with our estates, and
must have his dues out of them. When we
receive more than ordinary mercy from God
we should study to give some signal instances
of gratitude to him.
2. The tenth is a very
fit proportion to be devoted to God and employed
for him, though, as circumstances
vary, it may be more or less, as God prospers
us,
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