Soon after Jacob obtained the blessing through deceiving his father Isaac, he had to flee away to Padan-aran from the wrath of his brother Esau. On his way there the Lord met with him at a place he afterwards called Bethel. Jacob so named it because of his experience of God’s Presence there. When he awaked out of his sleep he said, “Surely the Lord is in the place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God (i.e. Bethel), and this is the gate of heaven.”
It was at Bethel that Jacob saw the vision in a dream of a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reaching to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. What a glorious representation this was to him of the way of access to God through the mediation of Christ. There, too, at Bethel God was pleased to confirm to Jacob the promises earlier given to Abraham and Isaac, including that most notable one of all — “In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” That this promised seed was Christ is confirmed by the Apostle in Galatians 3: 16.
Besides these promises the Lord had a personal word of encouragement for Jacob as he set out on his journey to that distant country. The Lord was pleased to seal this promise on his heart: “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.” What better passport could Jacob have received, had he needed one in those days for travel from one land to another, than the promise which the Lord gave him.
The Lord was promising to be with him: he was not therefore to be alone. The Lord was to keep him wherever he went and was to bring him back again at length into his own land. He was to have fulfilled in his experience what Moses as the inspired penman of God was to put on record: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Deut. 33: 27. He was to experience also what David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel afterwards, under divine inspiration put on record:
The Lord thee keeps, the Lord thy shade
on thy right hand doth stay:
The moon by night thee shall not smite,
nor yet the sun by day.
The Lord shall keep thy soul; he shall
preserve thee from all ill,
Henceforth thy going out and in
God keep for ever will.
Psalm 121: 5-8
No doubt Jacob little thought of the long time that would elapse before he would return to his own land. Nor could he foresee the vicissitudes through which he would pass in the long intervening years when he would suffer much hardship at the hand of his father-in-law Laban. Of that time he had afterwards to say that the drought consumed him by day, and the frost by night; and his sleep departed from his eye. But as he set out on his journey all these experiences were still in the womb of time. Yet they were not unknown to Him who knows all things from the beginning and who takes in eternity at a glance, and it was this God, the Lord God of his father Abraham and the God of Isaac, who was promising to be with him, and to keep him in all places whither he was going, and He would be faithful to His promise.
How fully the Lord did fulfil His promise is confirmed by the Lord’s blessing of Jacob in Padan-aran notwithstanding Laban’s duplicity, and also by the Lord’s refusal to allow Laban to harm Jacob when eventually he fled from him. It is acknowledged also by Jacob in blessing the sons of Joseph at the end of his life. We read: “And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from death, bless the lads.” Gen. 48: 15, 16.
God, the God of Israel who had promised to be with Jacob and to keep him was faithful to His Word, and so He will be still to all who put their trust in Him. He is still the Covenant-keeping God of Jacob. He will never leave nor forsake His people. To Moses He said, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” He is the same God still — a present help in trouble, a stay and a strength to His people in every time of need. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me. Seeing that this is so, what encouragement His people have to lean upon Him and to put their trust in Him. When assailed by trials and temptations, when called to pass through dark valleys in their spiritual experiences, they have the assurance that the Lord will be with them to sustain and help them. And what greater trial can meet them in this world than to pass through the dark valley of the shadow of death. Even there they can say:
“Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale,
yet will I fear none ill:
For thou art with me; and thy rod
and staff me comfort still.”
Ps. 23: 4.
So, too, while journeying through this world to the celestial city, at each stage of the journey they can not only set up their Ebenezer saying, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us”, but have every reason as well to say with the Psalmist:
“Goodness and mercy all my life
shall surely follow me:
And in God’s house for evermore
my dwelling place shall be”.
Ps. 23:6.