Arcana Coelestia #5998
5998. 'And offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac' means worship springing from them, and an inflowing from the Divine Intellectual. This is clear from the meaning of 'offering sacrifices' as worship, dealt with in 922, 923, 1180; and from the representation of 'Isaac' in the highest sense as the Lord's Divine Rational or Intellectual, dealt with in 1893, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 3012, 3194, 3210. It follows that there is an inflowing from this into the worship, for what is described here is worship springing from charity and faith, meant by 'Beersheba', 5997, where he offered the sacrifices. Jacob's offering of sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac shows what the fathers of the Jewish and Israelite nation were like; it shows that each worshipped his own God. Isaac's God was different from his, as is evident from the fact that he offered sacrifices to Isaac's, and the fact that he was told in the visions of the night, 'I am God, the God of your father'. It is also evident from the fact that he had sworn by that same God, as described in Genesis 31:53,
May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor judge 1 between us, the God of their father. At that time Jacob swore by the Dread of his father Isaac.
It is also clear that Jacob did not initially acknowledge Jehovah, for he said,
If God will be with me, and guard me on this road on which I am walking, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I come back in peace to my father's house, then Jehovah will be my God. Genesis 28:20-21.
Thus he acknowledged Jehovah conditionally.
[2] It was the custom among them to acknowledge their fathers' gods, but their own one specifically. They derived the custom from their fathers in Syria; for Terah, Abram's father, and even Abram himself when he was there, worshipped gods other than Jehovah, see 1356, 1992, 3667. Their descendants, who were called Jacob and Israel, were consequently of such a nature that in their hearts they worshipped the gods of the gentiles. Jehovah they worshipped solely with their lips, and in name only. The reason they were like this was that nothing but externals devoid of anything internal interested them; and people like that cannot help thinking that worship consists in nothing more than declaring God's name and saying that He is their God, and in doing so as long as He confers benefits on them. They have no idea that worship consists in a life of charity and faith.
Fußnoten:
1. The verb rendered may judge here is plural.
Genesis 28
1
Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, "You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
2
Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father. Take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.
3
May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples,
4
and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to your seed with you, that you may inherit the land where you travel, which God gave to Abraham."
5
Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan Aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, Rebekah's brother, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
6
Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take him a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a command, saying, "You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan,"
7
and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Paddan Aram.
8
Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan didn't please Isaac, his father.
9
Esau went to Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.
10
Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.
11
He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep.
12
He dreamed. Behold, a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
13
Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, "I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed.
14
Your seed will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.
15
Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken of to you."
16
Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, "Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn't know it."
17
He was afraid, and said, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other than God's house, and this is the gate of heaven."
18
Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on its top.
19
He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
20
Jacob vowed a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on,
21
so that I come again to my father's house in peace, and Yahweh will be my God,
22
then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God's house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give the tenth to you."
