In a prior post, we mentioned that Jacob cheated the birthright as well as the blessings from his twin brother Esau. This invoked great anger from Esau, so much so that he wanted to kill Jacob.
Jacob had to flee from home. On his way to his uncle, God revealed Himself to him and made a covenant with Him:
Gen 28:10-15 [NIV]
10Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
There are at least two major differences between this covenant and the ones made with his forefathers. His descendants will not be confined to the Promised Land. Instead, they would travel in all directions to the end of the earth – promised a process of scattering and gathering.
Later, at the calling of God, Jacob returned to Bethel, where he had the dream. The night before he met Esau, he wrestled with God and prevailed. God gave him a new name: Israel.
From Jacob’s 12 sons, the family enlarged greatly before they came into Egypt to seek shelter and refuge from Joseph. At that point, they numbered 70.
Within the next 400 years, the Israelites increased greatly, amounting to millions in the time of Moses.
This is post is _Part 6_ in the series The Order of Melchizedek. To continue with this series, click on Pt 7. To use this as a growth tool to better understand your own calling, you might start by reading the explanation of this series, Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3, Pt 4 and Pt 5.