Parashat Vayeitzei (Genesis 28:10- 32:3)
Genesis 28
28:10 And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.
2025 Comment: Jacob went away from home to marry and to establish a family. He did not realize that this family would be very special. A house of G-d (v17, v22, Bet El v19) would develop from it and spread all over the earth, and would connect the earth to the heavens through Christ and his church body on earth.
28:11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
Comment: This verse is where the Jewish tradition derives that Jacob established the evening prayer.
“lighted upon”: In modern English I would translate it as “came across”. The Hebrew word is ויפגע, which may be related to prayer.
(Reference: Rashi’s commentary on this verse https://www.sefaria.org/Rashi_on_Genesis.28.11?lang=bi.)
28:12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
2025 Comment: This ladder in Jacob’s dream connects the earth to the heavens.
What does this ladder represent?
Jesus Christ says in John 1:51: “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” So the ladder in Jacob’s dream represents the Son of man or Christ.
How can Christ be likened to a ladder being so tall: “set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven”?
I think this ladder analogy for Christ is realized during the Church Age, between Jesus’s ascension to the heavens and his future return to the earth. The top or head (in Hebrew expression) of the ladder “reached to heaven”: The resurrected Jesus has ascended into the heavens, he is the head of the Church (Ephesians 5:23). The ladder is “set up on the earth”: The body of Christ is set up on earth, that is the Church. As Paull taught in 1st Corinthians 12:27, “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.”. This is a two-way ladder. The ascending angels represent divine assistance in the Church’s mission of bringing people to G-d through Bible study and spreading the Gospel. The descending angels represent divine assistance in the Church’s mission of implementing G-d’s instructions on earth, that is doing G-d’s will on earth as it is done in the heavens (Matthew 5:10). The Church should function as the body of a two-way ladder: it should not only be useful in the ascending direction, to bring people to know G-d, but also should be useful in the descending direction, to implement G-d’s will on the earth.
How tall was the ladder in Jacob’s dream?
The Bible says it connects the earth and the heavens but did not specify the height. Yet we may conjecture that it is at least 1000 miles tall based on a future revelation (Revelation 21:16). In the future, Christ will come to the earth again and the dead will be resurrected, and all generations of G-d’s people will live together with G-d forever in the New Jerusalem, which is more than a thousand miles tall, situated between the new heavens and new earth eternally. Does this also remind us of Jacob’s ladder?
28:13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
2025 Comment: “the LORD stood above it”: If this “it” refers to the ladder, and the ladder represents Christ and his Church body on earth, then this verse is consistent with the New Testament teaching that “the head of Christ is God”, as in 1st Corinthians 11:3.
28:14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
2025 Comment: The word “seed’’ is singular. It may represent Jesus Christ, who is G-d’s Word to be incarnated as a descendant (seed) of Jacob. Christians from all nations are reborn from this seed, they are many as the dust of the earth, and they spread all over the earth. With this interpretation, we may understand better this biblical claim that all families of the earth are blessed in Jacob and in his seed.
28:15 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.
2025 Comment: If the Creator has such an important plan on Jacob, He will surely protect and help Jacob for him to accomplish all that he is supposed to accomplish.
28:21 So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:
Comment: Jacob made a vow. Two possible reasons are:
- he wished to return to his father’s house in peace, but he was worried about his brother’s hatred;
- He wished his upcoming trip would go well, but he was worried about the uncertainties in the foreign land.
“then shall the LRD be my Gd”: How could this be appropriate, to use one’s relationship to Gd, which is so important, to “win over” his personal wishes in a vow? It is possible that Jacob did not have much firsthand experience with Gd until now, after he left his dad and experienced the supernatural dream. In other words, it is possible that the LRD was his dad’s Gd, but not yet his own Gd (in a very personal way).
Related to this, I have a recent story about a brother’s vow. He agreed to get baptized, if Gd would let his tenure evaluation be approved by May 1, 2002, which was an earlier-than-usual date in the academic year. He later felt that it might be inappropriate to use his baptism to “win over” his wish, and he got baptized before he got tenured. However, Gd still let him pass the tenure evaluation early, and this brother received a fax about the approval by April 30, 2002. A detailed account of this story in both Chinese and English is found here:
Genesis 29
29:35 And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.
Comment: “Now will I praise the L-RD…therefore she called his name Judah”: Judah’s name has a very good meaning, and it seems to be related to praising the LRD. See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_(son_of_Jacob)
In fact this verse may be the first time in the Bible that talks about praising the LRD.
Genesis 30
30:25 And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country.
Comment: “Send me away”: Jacob was asking for leave, since he had just finished serving Laban for 2*7=14 years for marrying Laban’s two daughters.
Jacob was 91 years old at this time when Joseph was born. This is because he would go to Egypt at age 130 (Genesis 47:9), after Egypt had experienced 7 years of abundance and 2 years of famine (Genesis 45:6), after Joseph became the prime minister of Egypt at age 30 (Genesis 41:46,47,54). So there was 130-2-7-30=91 years of age difference between Jacob and Joseph.
These imply that Jacob started to serve Laban at age 77 (=91-14). Unlike his twin brother Esau who married Canaanite women at age 40 (Genesis 26:34), Jacob remained single until 77 before he left the land of Canaan to look for a wife, so as not to marry a Canaanite woman. (I have overheard this comment from a Christian sermon by Pastor Lin, that my wife was listening to.)
30:27 And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
Comment: “tarry”: Laban invited Jacob to stay. Torah described later how Jacob stayed and started to serve Laban for the cattle.
“blessed me for thy sake”: Laban recognized that he was blessed for Jacob’s sake. Jacob’s descendants also bring blessings to their hosts. For example, the success of America during and after the World War II may be related to the immigration of Jews from Europe, where they were persecuted.
Genesis 31
31:55 And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.
Comment: “Laban rose up, and kissed his sons ( בניו)… ”: The Torah seems to regard one’s grandsons born from his daughter as his own sons. See also Rashi’s comment on Deuteronomy 7:4 https://www.sefaria.org/Rashi_on_Deuteronomy.7.4?lang=bi
Genesis 32
32:2 And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
Comment: Mahanaim in Hebrew means two camps. “-aim” is the Hebrew suffix for “a pair of”, e.g., yadaim means two hands, oznaim means two ears, naalaim means two shoes. Here, the pair of camps may refer to two camps of angels, according to the context. However, it may also be taught that one of the two camps is Jacob’s camp, since people who serve Gd are like angels of Gd, both are trying to carry out Gd’s commands. (A related article: https://superiorword.org/genesis-32-1-8/)