“Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway. At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!” The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although it was previously called Luz. Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God. And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.””
Genesis 28:10-22 NLT
Jacob’s response to meeting God personally for the first time is interesting because it’s an honest one. He first categorizes it is amazing as awesome. Second he misunderstands the nature of it. He believes that he somehow stumbled upon God’s house. And lastly, he builds for himself a set of superstitions that weren’t derived from the exchange. He offers a tenth of his earnings and complete fealty. It is probable that some of this was derived from the stories of grandfather, Abraham. Yet, when God appears, he makes no such stipulation on him. He instead blesses him on behalf of the previous covenant and vows to fulfill it. Again we see that though God would fulfill his end of the covenant, it seems that Abraham’s children would let their part in it grow into the realm of myth and legend. This harkens back to Jacob’s deception where he calls God, Isaac’s God. Clearly there was not a successful transfer of relationship with God occurring in the generations. This seems to have been orchestrated by God himself and not the respective patriarchs. It is also something that God sought to change by the time of Moses, where he had all but been forgotten by his people. Our job, as parents, should be to ensure our children know our God. We ought to aid him in the process and expectation that, though relationship with him is personal, it is also an aspect of our legacy with him that is afforded to them. They ought to know about their birthright, and blessings. They ought to have a right theology that allows them to call on him and think of him as their God as well.
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