Genesis 28 · The Lantern

Jacob’s Departure

And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him, You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take you a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.

And God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a multitude of people;

And give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to your seed with you; that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.

And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.

Esau Marries Mahalath

When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padan-aram, to take him a wife from there; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;

And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padan-aram;

And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;

Then went Esau to Ishmael, and took to the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.

Jacob’s Ladder

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

And he lighted upon a certain place, and stayed 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.

When the sun was setting, the text tells us, he slept where the night came upon him: "He took a stone and put it under his head." See the young fellow's hardy spirit: He used the stone as a pillow and slept on the ground. Consequently, since he was imbued with common sense and a hardy attitude and was free of all human pretence, he was found worthy of that remarkable vision.

When Jacob was in flight from his brother, in Mesopotamia he came to Luza, and there to rest, Scripture says, he placed a stone under his head. The stone under his head was Christ. Never before had he put a stone under his head; only at the time when he was escaping from his persecutor.

We do not read of blessed Jacob that he departed with horses or asses or camels, but we read only that he carried a staff in his hand. Thus, indeed, when entreating the Lord he said, "Lord, I am not worthy of all your kindnesses.

And he dreamed, and look a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and look the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

Our father Jacob too prayed at Bethel and saw the gate of heaven opened, with a ladder going up on high. This is a symbol of our Savior that Jacob saw; the gate of heaven is Christ, in accordance with what he said, "I am the gate of life; every one who enters by me shall live for ever." David too said, "This is the gate of the Lord, by which the righteous enter." Again, the lad…

This is, I believe, the stairway, the running to and fro of the holy spirits, who "are sent forth to minister for those who shall be the heirs of salvation." Christ is firmly placed on top of the stairway for those holy spirits who can reach him, who have him as their overseer, not as someone who exists among them but as God and Lord.

These six considerations having therefore been traversed, as if they were the six steps of the throne of the true Solomon, by which one arrives at peace, where the true peaceful one rests in a peaceful mind as in an interior Jerusalem; and as if also the six wings of the Cherub, by which the mind of the true contemplative, filled with the illumination of supernal wisdom, may be…

And indeed, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: the land on which you liest, to you will I give it, and to your seed;

And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

And indeed, I am with you, and will keep you in all places where you go, and will bring you again into this land; for I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken to you of.

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.

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.

The Stone of Bethel

And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

Now Jacob called that place Bethel; and Jacob raised up there a pillar of stone as a testimony, and he poured oil over it.

In a dream Jacob saw a ladder, and on this ladder he saw angels ascending and descending; and he anointed the stone that he had placed at his head. You have heard that the Messiah is the Christ; you have heard that the Christ is the Anointed.

The stone under Jacob's head is the Lord, upon whom we ought to support ourselves with all our concentration, the more so insofar as it is surely clear to us that without him we can do nothing.Jacob anointed the stone and set it up as a mark, because a true Israelite understands that our Redeemer was anointed by the Father with the oil of gladness above his fellows.

And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and apparel to put on,

So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:

And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that you shall give me I will surely give the tenth to you.