Parashat Vayetzei: Wells and Altars

Genesis 28:10-32:3

Last week we saw the will of God moving through very fallible circumstances and people. Issues of the heart came into play heavily throughout the story. In Gen. 28:6-9 we found that Isaac blessed Jacob and gave him commandment to go to Paddan-aram to find a wife. Esau knew this, saw Jacob’s obedience, and chose to maliciously spite his parents by taking a wife from the family of Ishmael. Jacob’s heart of obedience was the most valuable thing he had to accomplish the will and purpose of God. All of his circumstances were out of his control. Now he, the one God choose from birth, had to abandon all he knew and leave his home to become a political casualty while the wicked and rebellious son was able to stay. Jacob may have been a supplanter and opportunist, but he had a heart for God and a covenant where as Esau did not. Despite our faults, our faith struggles, and our problems, a simple heart of faith and obedience carries us a long way. We never bring much to the table when God asks us to do things. He always does the big work. Our place is to believe his word and be obedient.

Our story picks up in Parashat Vayetzei. Jacob left Beersheba (seven wells or oaths) and started for Haran (parched). He rested somewhere by the City of Luz and as he rested, he had a dream of a ladder reaching from the ground to heaven and angels ascending and descending on it. The LORD stood above the ladder and began to speak to Jacob and affirmed his covenant promise. The next day Jacob woke up and stated, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” Scriptures then record that Jacob was afraid and awe-struck. He realized that he had stumbled into a sacred space and he named it Bethel (House of God). We will talk about dealing biblically with fear in another article.

Think for a moment what it took for Jacob to get to this place (Bethel). His family had traveled through Canaan building altars and digging wells. It is through our altar building and well digging that the Kingdom of God advances, and we leave behind a trail of faith for others to follow. Every altar the patriarchs made was a testimony of their faith and worship. As God blessed them, they came to need wells to sustain them. Some of those wells were taken by rivals or filled up by saboteurs. Like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we don’t get to keep every well we dig but God still uses our investments in amazing ways. Another investment Abraham made was that he had to give everything up when he left Haran. Isaac gave up everything (howbeit temporarily) when he was offered on one of the altars Abraham erected. Now Jacob had to learn that he could give up everything and make God his trust, even through bad people and circumstances.

It was at Bethel that Jacob is recorded as making his first altar. His arrival to that place was not accidental. God will call us out of our place of comfort where wells have been dug and investments have been made. We go from our place of security (our Beersheba) to a barren, parched place of uncertainty (Haran). Along the way God helps us and we find a side of God we would have never known existed. Jacob had to know God as his covenant keeping God, as the focus of his altar, and as the well-spring of his life. Jacob walked away from great wealth and found a greater treasure in his simple journey of obedience and faith.

Do you want to know why the enemy fights you so hard? Why your name is being tarnished and your faith in God’s promises are continually assailed? The faith it takes to walk in the anointing is one that is continually refined, tried, and proved. It produces perseverance, patience, and continual hope. It is the fruit of trial that is given to those around you who are also struggling. It is a faith that God nurtures by his word. He pulls us close and places us in divine dependency because we have to be able to trust him and not the world around us. We can’t even make the journey in our own strength or wisdom. God organizes everything to point us toward him and help us believe that he will do what he said he would do.

Rav Calev Apostolic Messianic International-Gulf Coast Parler, Rumble, Facebook