Genesis 28:10.32:3

by Rabbi Russ Resnik

Jacob then made a vow, saying, "If God remains with me, if He protects me on this journey that I am making, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safe to my father's house.the Lord shall be my God.  And this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, shall be God's abode; and of all that You give me, I will set aside a tithe for You." (Gen. 28:20.22)

Scripture calls the Lord the God of Israel, or the God of Jacob, well over 200 times, so Jacob's vow in this passage seems odd. He says, "If the Lord protects me and brings me home then the Lord shall be my God." But isn't the Lord already Jacob's God? Jacob is the chosen son, the one who valued the family birthright when his brother Esau despised it (Gen. 25:34). He is the one who has received the divine blessing from his father, Isaac.

When Isaac was about to give that blessing, however, he asked Jacob, "How did you succeed so quickly [in getting some game to prepare], my son?" Jacob replied, "Because the Lord... your God granted me good fortune" (Gen. 27:20; emphasis mine). Apparently, here at Bethel, he still thinks of the Lord as his father's God, and can only look ahead to a time when the Lord will be his God.

Certainly, Jacob believes in God already, especially since God has just spoken to him in a vision of the night. Moreover, God has told Jacob that he will be the heir of Abraham and Isaac, and the essence of God's promise to Abraham is "to be God to you and your descendants after you" (Gen. 17:7).  Jacob is the heir of this promise, but he knows that has not yet entered fully into it. Somehow, the promise must be made real in his own life.

Here we have a hint of a theme that runs throughout Scripture and is fully realized in the ministry of Yeshua the Messiah. Those who are chosen by God must personally respond to that choice in the obedience of faith. As Yochanan the Immerser preached in announcing Messiah's appearance:

"Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones" (Luke 3:8).

Descent from Abraham makes one an heir to the promise, but that is not enough.  Through repentance, through turning to God, one must lay hold of the promise.

When does Jacob make the Lord his God? He vows that if God will protect him and bring him back to his father's house, the Lord will be his God. When he returns after his twenty-year exile, Jacob must wrestle with a divine being (perhaps God himself) at the river Jabbok, where his name is changed from Jacob to Israel (Gen. 32:28). As soon as he enters the land of promise, he builds an altar and calls it "El-elohe-yisrael," meaning El, or God, the God of Israel (Gen. 33:20). Perhaps this marks the moment when the Lord becomes his God. Or is it later, when Jacob finally returns to Bethel, the place of his vow, and builds an altar? There God appears to him and confirms his new name, Israel (Gen. 35:6ff.). Even afterwards, however, Jacob offers sacrifices to "the God of his father Isaac" (46:1), and speaks of "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked" (Gen. 48:15). Only in his final blessing does he call God "the mighty one of Jacob," signifying clearly that He is his God (Gen. 48:24).

This lengthy process does not suggest that Jacob is wavering in his faith.  Rather, it provides a second lesson for us. The first lesson is the need for a personal encounter with God to confirm His election individually and experientially. Now, Torah hints that such an encounter is not only a one-time event, but a life-long process as well. Jacob encounters God at Bethel as a young man, but he must return to Bethel as a mature man, and he must remember and spiritually revisit Bethel as an old man. So with us, our lives are not complete without the personal encounter with the Lord that comes through Yeshua the Messiah. But we must revisit and renew this encounter continually throughout our life journey.

This lesson also shapes our view of Israel and the Jewish people. As Messianic Jews and those in alliance with the Messianic Jewish community, we insist that Israel, the Jewish people of today, remain God's chosen people.  The promises to Abraham are still good and guarantee a glorious destiny for Israel, as Paul reiterates in Romans 11:26, "And so all Israel will be saved ." But we also affirm the need of each individual Jew to respond to that calling personally, to make the Lord his or her God through a faithful response to Yeshua.

The Midrash echoes this truth, seeing Jacob's response to God in this week's passage as a hint of the future redemption of all Israel.

Rabbi Joshua said . The Holy One, blessed be He, took the words used by the Patriarchs and made them a key for the redemption of their descendants.  Thus, God said to him: 'You have said, THEN SHALL THE LORD BE (VE-HAYAH) MY GOD. By your life! All the benefits, blessings and consolations which I am to confer upon your children, I will confer with this very expression,' as it says, And it shall come to pass (ve-hayah) in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem (Zech. 14:8); And it shall come to pass (ve-hayah) in that day, that the Lord will set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people (Isaiah 11:11). (Midrash Rabbah, Genesis LXX.6)

God makes the words of Jacob, "The Lord shall be my God," a key for the redemption of the children of Israel, his descendants. A day is coming when all Israel will declare like Jacob, "The Lord shall be my God." In the meantime, may we emulate our father Jacob and revisit the encounter with God throughout our days.

Shabbat Shalom!
Russ Resnik

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