Genesis 28:22 Commentary and Bible Study

Jacob would never forget this encounter with God. He had not the slightest doubt that this dream was a revelation from the Lord. So deeply was he moved, that he spontaneously vowed a vow to God. Later, after spending 21 years in Padanaram, God appeared to him again and called himself the God of Bethel, and reminded Jacob of his vow, because the time had come when God would fulfil his promise to Jacob and bring him back into the land of his kindred, Canaan (Genesis 31:13). When he had made the journey back, the Lord appeared to him again, and told him to dwell in Bethel and to build an altar to the lord there (Genesis 35:1). Bethel never became an official place where Israel was to worship God, and was mostly associated with idol worship. Jacob never built a house for God there, but he built this altar, and so, as Aalders argues, in saying here, ‘this stone … shall be God’s house’, he was probably thinking of a symbolic house, a place where he would meet with God just as he had on that first occasion. Knowing what was in his mind, God brought him back there are commanded him to build an altar to fulfil that word.Just as Abraham had given tithes to Melchizedek, the priest of the most high God, so now Jacob gives a tenth of all that God has increased him by while he has been with Laban.