Genesis 28:10

JACOB AT BETHEL. -- Genesis 28:10-22.

GOLDEN TEXT. -- Surely the Lord is in this place. -- Genesis 28:16. TIME. --About B. C. 1760. PLACE. --Bethel in Palestine. HELPFUL READINGS. -- Genesis 25:27-34; Genesis 27:1-40; Genesis 28:1-9; Genesis 35:1-6; John 1:50-51. LESSON ANALYSIS. --1. The Night Vision; 2. The Lord of the Covenant; 3. The House of God.

INTRODUCTION.

More than. hundred years have passed since the date of the last lesson. Abraham and Sarah were sleeping in the cave of Machpelah. Isaac, an old man, married to his cousin brought from Haran in Mesopotamia, is the father of two sons, Jacob and Esau, now stalwart men. Jacob, the younger, enjoyed the partiality of his mother, was cool, and calculating, and had bought the birthright of his rash, impulsive brother, for. mess of pottage. Afterwards, when Isaac's vision was dim, Jacob, by his mother's artifice, had secured his father's blessing. These advantages had so irritated Esau that he was ready to seek revenge; therefore Rebecca persuaded Isaac to send Jacob back to Haran to seek. wife, thus removing him from the danger of Esau's wrath, and also from the danger of marrying one of the daughters of Canaan. On his way back to Mesopotamia, the former home of his race, the promise made to Abraham is renewed in that singular vision--so expressively symbolical of the universal providence of God--the flight of steps uniting earth and heaven, with the ministering angels perpetually ascending and descending.

I. THE. IGHT. ISION.

10. And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.

"Was the migration of Abraham to be reversed? Was the westward tide of events to roll backward on itself? Was the Chosen Race to sink back into the life of the Mesopotamian deserts? The first halt of the wanderer answered these questions and revealed his future destinies."-- Stanley. Beersheba, from whence he started, was in southern Palestine. The route to Haran would require him to travel the entire length of Palestine, going north, to the vicinity of Damascus, and thence, to strike across the desert to the Euphrates.