Jacob’s Wonderful Dream

Stories From The Hebrew Bible
JACOB’S WONDERFUL DREAM

After Easu found that he had lost his birthright and his blessing, he was very angry with his brother Jacob; and he said to himself and told others, “My father Isaac is very old and cannot live long. As soon as he is dead, then I shall kill Jacob for having robbed me of my right.”

When Rebekah heard this, she said to Jacob,

Before it is too late, go away from home and get out of Easu’s sight. Perhaps when Esau sees you no longer, he will forget his anger; and then you can come home again. Go and visit my brother Laban, your uncle, in Haran, and stay with him for a little while, until Easu’s anger is past.

Do you remember? Rebekah came from the family of Nahor, Abraham’s younger brother, who lived in Haran, which was a long distance to the northwest of Canaan. We learned in story eleven that Laban was Rebekah’s brother.

So Jacob went out of Beersheba, on the border of the desert, and walked alone toward a land far to the north. One evening, just about sunset, he came to a place in the mountains, more than sixty miles distant from his home. Since he didn’t have a bed to lie down upon, he rested his head upon a stone, using it for a pillow. A stone would be a hard pillow, but Jacob was tired and soon fell asleep.

That night Jacob had a wonderful dream. In his dream he saw stairs leading up from the earth to heaven; and angels coming down and going up the stairs. Above the stairs, he saw the Lord God standing. And God said to Jacob:

I am the Lord, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac your father; and I will be your God, too. The land where you are lying all alone shall belong to you and to your children after you; and your children shall spread abroad over the lands, east and west and north and south, like the dust of the earth: and in your family all the world shall receive a blessing. And I am with you in your journey, and I will keep you where you are going and I will bring you back to this land. I will never leave you and I will surely keep My promise to you.

And in the morning Jacob awoke from his sleep and said,

Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it! I thought that I was all alone, but God has been with me. This place is the house of God; it is the gate of heaven!

Then Jacob took the stone on which his head had rested and he set it up as a pillar and poured oil on it as an offering to God. And Jacob named that place Bethel, which in the language that Jacob spoke means “The House of God.”

Jacob then made a promise to God and said:

If God really will go with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and will bring me to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God; and this stone shall be the house of God; and of all that God gives me, I will give back to God one-tenth as an offering.

Then Jacob continued his long journey. He crossed the river Jordan, went through mountains and journeyed beside the great desert on the east, and at last he came to the city of Haran. Beside the city was the well, where Abraham’s servant had met Jacob’s mother, Rebekah (see story eleven); and there, after Jacob had waited for a time, he saw a young woman coming with her sheep to give them water.

Then Jacob took off the stone that was over the mouth of the well and drew water and gave it to the sheep.

And when he found that this young woman was his own cousin Rachel, the daughter of Laban, he was so glad that he wept for joy. And at that moment he began to love Rachel and longed to have her for his wife.

Rachel’s father, Laban, who was Jacob’s uncle, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s mother, gave a welcome to Jacob and took him into his home.

And Jacob asked Laban if he would give his daughter Rachel to him as his wife; and Jacob said, “If you will give me Rachel, I will work for you seven years.” And Laban said, “It is better that you should have her than that a stranger should marry her.”

So Jacob lived seven years in Laban’s house, caring for his sheep and oxen and camels. He loved Rachel so much that the seven years seemed like a few days.

At last the day came for the marriage; and they brought in the bride. According to the custom of that land, her face could not be seen because it was covered with a veil. So she was married to Jacob. But when Jacob lifted up the veil, he found out that it was not Rachel, the woman he loved, but her older sister Leah, whom Jacob did not love at all.

Jacob was very angry that he had been deceived, though that was like the way in which Jacob himself had deceived his father and cheated his brother Easu (story twelve). But his uncle Laban said: “In our land we never allow the younger daughter to be married before the older daughter. Keep Leah for your wife, and work for me seven more years, and you shall have Rachel also.”

In those times, as we have seen, men often had two wives, and sometimes more than two. Back then no one thought it was wrong to have more than one wife, although now it is considered wicked. So Jacob stayed seven more years, fourteen in all, before he received Rachel as his wife.

While Jacob was living at Haran, eleven sons were born to him. But only one of these was the child of Rachel, whom Jacob loved. This son was Joseph.