1
¶ And Israel took his journey with all
that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his
father Isaac. 2 And God spake unto
Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here
am I. 3 And he said, I am God, the God
of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a
great nation: 4 I will go down with thee
into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put
his hand upon thine eyes.
There, at Beersheba, the scene of encounters between
these patriarchs and God in the past, Jacob, Israel, honored God as did Abraham
and Isaac.
Genesis
21:33 And Abraham planted a grove in
Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
Genesis
26:25 And he builded an altar there, and
called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s
servants digged a well.
These were animal sacrifices. We have a different
sacrifice in this dispensation. If you want to honor God, as a Christian, this
is the prescription from Paul.
Romans
12:1 ¶ I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
No amount of ritual or animal sacrifice today does the
worship of God justice nor is it what He requires. Even under the Law God made
it ever so clear what He really wants from man.
Micah
6:7 Will the LORD be pleased with
thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my
firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is
good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
God calms Jacob’s heart about going down into Egypt
comforting him with the promise that God will be with him. He then promises to
bring Jacob back from Egypt although there are two clear meanings there as we
know today. One, Jacob will be returned for burial as God, in stating that Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes as
a euphemism for death where someone covers the eyes of the dead person, tells
him he will die there, and, two, his descendants will be brought back into the
land that is promised.
Jacob’s response to God, Here am I, is used several times by people answering that they are
ready to hear and obey God, most notably in 1Samuel 3 for the child, Samuel.
God reminds Jacob that it is promised that he will
make of him a great nation. The word nation
in the Bible is a reference to a people, not a modern nation-state, the
likes of which did not really exist like we know it today beyond 500 years ago.
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