Jacob was not yet married. He lived in Canaan’s land. There at Bethel, “the house of God”, God showed him access to heaven in a dream, that which is now called “Jacob’s Ladder”. The location of Bethel is ambiguous from a geographic perspective, but scripture cohesiveness points toward Calvary (Greek, cranion), the “place of the cranium” from the Latin Calvariae Locus. Jacob called Bethel, “dreadful” and “the gate of heaven”. [i]
There the angels were ascending and descending. [ii] From the Book of Enoch, new information is provided; that heaven is another realm with two separate existences — Paradise and Hell with a separation between. Luke validates Enoch; to wit: “Between us (Lazarus in Abraham’s Bosom) and you (the rich man) there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence” (Luke 16:26).
Jacob saw that “dreadful” place! Abraham’s Bosom was a place of comfort, but Jacob saw great discomfort as well. He saw judgment and that his seed would be judged. Soon, Jacob would have seed, and at that time, be returned to the same place with his seed with him, inevitably to be judged.
Jacob could see unto the heavens from the same place for access to Hell and Paradise were right there, in the same locus, but in different realms. Another altar would be built there, not an obelisk, but a “tree” of two branches (The Cross). The two together represent all men, but the two branches two realms. The Cross in the locus of life and death, and death is represented by the skull!
When Abraham died, it is written in The Testament of Abraham, that Jacob was in Abraham’s Bosom when he died. Most certainly Jacob saw Abraham, but his bosom would have been empty. It was perhaps dreadful to Jacob because he had been in Abraham’s Bosom when he had died, but in his vision, he was not there! Furthermore, Jacob would have seen that great gulf between the living and the dead!
God renewed the Covenant of Abraham with Jacob at that place — Bethel, the House of God. This time, after having twelve sons and a daughter, Jacob was no longer afraid because he was blessed (barak) by God. [iii] The Hebrew word, barak, means that God in the form of a Man kneeled to Jacob, and again called him “Israel”, or “God Prevails”.
Jacob had wrestled with God before, [iv] and Jacob prevailed. [v] When Jacob was called Israel, it was for three reasons: (1) God would prevail, the person Israel would prevail, and the seed of Israel, the nation of Israel, and all his sons would prevail!
There was a stipulation for him to prevail. God said to him, “I AM God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins” (Gen 35:11). “Am” is not in the original but is understood. God referred to Himself as El Shaddai. That was another Name for Him as well as is seen earlier, “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Gen 17:1). How was Jacob to “walk”?
God told Jacob and Rachel the same thing that He told Adam and Eve — “be fruitful and multiply.” (Gen 35:11). Eve multiplied with her new “Lord” — the image whose name could not be pronounced (JHWH). [vi] For her, her Lord was “the thing” which was the image of the Seraph at the forbidden tree. The seed of Eve, as the mother of all living, would be through cursed Lucifer, and Cain, the seed of the Wicked One. [vii] Rachel did the same thing. Her sisters, two who were of mixed blood, would copulate with Jacob. Sin was about to enter unto the House of Jacob.
The stipulation for Jacob was that he would keep the blood of all the subsequent kings pure from wickedness. Despite that, many of the seeds of Jacob failed that, and some even married the offspring of cursed Canaan, the seed of cursed Cain.
As the “Son of Man”, even the Messiah was the offspring of His Father and of Cain, at least through the harlot Rahab of Jericho. As such, the seed of Jacob failed in the precondition for salvation, but by grace, God still honored His Covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The precondition was for Jacob not marry a Canaanite woman. He then married Leah and Rachel but had intercourse with Bilhah and Zilpah who were also daughters of Laban, and whose mothers were unnamed concubines that Laban took. If they were Canaanite women which they likely were, then Laban, as the “Satan” figure reproduced the blood of Cain and Canaan into the bloodline of Israel. In other words, Israel failed on the same count that Adam failed God!
Of course, it was not the nationality or the race of the concubines that were so important but that the House of Israel was built from the House of Laban whose God’s were foreign. [viii]
The point is that there is no perfect race; we all are cursed because all the blood of everyone has been tainted by the Wicked One. We all are the “tares” of which Jesus spoke in the parable.
Jacob, before he understood, was distraught: “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’”. (Gen 28:17). He, perhaps, foresaw that not only his seed, but he himself would fail the precondition to the Covenant: never to couple with Canaanites — the very reason he was sent by Isaac to Haran — to keep his blood clean from Cain and Canaan!
God knew that in advance. Isaac contrived the wedding without God’s blessing. The works of Isaac’s mind nor the works of Jacob’s labors under Laban could never be payment for the Promised Messiah. Hence, all races are cursed, and none are without sin. [ix] Thus, God kneels to all without regard to genealogy. He is neither a respecter of persons but of all: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
As the “Son of Man”, Jesus had sin in his flesh through the mother of all the living, Eve. As the “Son of God”, the blood of Jesus was kept righteous because he was without genealogy. His “genes” were the very genes of God, and his blood was never contaminated by the loins of men nor the blood of Mary.
How can that be? God provided a placenta in the womb of the virgin Mary that blood could not pass through. The blood of Mary and even Jacob were not immaculate, but the blood of God certainly is! “Having no stain or blemish : a pure an immaculate heart, and having no colored spots or marks.” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Only Jesus was without blemish and His Blood was kept pure, not by the device of men, but from the loins of God, just as with the first adam (man).
Jesus is the “Second Adam” or “Second Man” in that Adam and Jesus were the only two of those who lived that were Sons of God. Another man was, and his blood cries out from the grave, and that was Righteous Abel. All the rest of us are sons of the Wicked One and only by the Blood of Jesus can anyone be saved.
Perhaps that was the “why” of Jacob’s consternation… that he could do nothing to save himself but stand there and be blessed as Jesus knelt to him!
(picture credit: Roberts Park United Methodist Church; :Jesus Kneeling")
No comments:
Post a Comment