The allusion to the Bethel vision is unmistakable. John tells us in his gospel that the Lord Jesus spoke to Nathanael about Jacob’s vision, and promised him that he, like Jacob, would see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (John 1:51). 28:19–22), for there the God of his fathers had promised to be with him in his journey and to bring him safely home. When Jacob awoke, he recognized the profound significance of the vision and memorialized the name of the place as “bethel” or “the house of God” (Gen. Most significantly, at the top of the stairway stood the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac (Gen. The angels of God were ascending and descending upon the stairway. In a dream he saw a “ladder” (or better, a “stairway”) set on earth and reaching into heaven. As Jacob undertook his journey he came to a place where he lay down in an open field and slept. Jacob’s encounter with God took place after his father had blessed him and sent him into a far country to escape the murderous enmity of his brother (Gen. Both encounters take place at night, and in both Jacob sees God. This month we will consider the significance of the Bethel vision in Scripture. The second occurs as he returns home, at Peniel (Gen. The first occurs at Bethel as he leaves his father’s house (Gen. It may be rendered, "after three years of days" F19 three complete years.į19 ( Mymy tvlvl) "post tres dierum", Piscator.Two of the greatest visions in the Bible are given to Jacob. It is, in the Hebrew text, "after three days" and so the Targum, ``your tithes in three days '' days being put for years, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe. The third year after the sabbatical year was the year of tithing and after the tithe of the increase of the fruits of the earth, there was "maaser sheni", the second tithe, the same with "maaser ani", the poor's tithe, which was given to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, to eat with them, ( Deuteronomy 14:22-28 ) ( 26:12 ) and this they are sarcastically bid to observe in their idolatrous way. That is, multiply acts of idolatry: Gilgal was a place where high places and altars were erected, and idols worshipped as it had formerly been a place of religious worship of the true God, the ten tribes made use of it in the times of their apostasy for idolatrous worship see ( Hosea 4:15 ) ( 9:15 ) ( 12:11 ) and bring your sacrifices every morning Īnd offer them to your idols, as you were wont formerly to offer them unto the true God, according to the law of Moses, ( Exodus 29:38 Exodus 29:39 ) your tithes after three years The sense is the same with ( Ecclesiastes 11:9 ) see ( Ezekiel 20:29 ) at Gilgal multiply transgression And what follows, are ironic and sarcastic speeches, not giving liberty to sin, but in this way reproving for it: Bethel was one of the places where the calves were placed and worshipped: and here they are bid to go thither, and go on with and continue in their idolatrous worship, by which they transgressed the law of God, and mark what would be the issue of it.
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