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†. Gen 28:15 . . Remember, I am with you: I will protect you
wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave
you until I have done what I have promised you.
Actually, hardly any of those promises were fulfilled in Jacob's lifetime-- his
offspring didn't become as populous as the dust of the earth, nor did they
spread out to the east and the west and to the north and to the south. Nor
did all the nations of the earth bless themselves by Jacob and his
descendants. So what gives? How could God say: "I will not leave you until I
have done what I have promised you"
I believe God has continually associated with Jacob to this very day, ever
since the day of their first close encounter at Bethel. That didn't stop with
Jacob's demise. No, their association goes on.
"Now even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are
raised, when he called the Lord "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob." For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all
live to Him." (Luke 20:37-38)
In order to live "to" God (viz: live unto God) it is necessary to be in
existence. God has always been with Jacob, and never left him even once--
all these many years; better than three-thousand of them by now. And all
this whole time Jacob has lived under God's protection because God
promised He would protect Jacob wherever he went; and in order for that
promise to be meaningful, it has to include the afterlife. (cf. Ps 139:7-10,
Matt 16:18)
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†. Gen 28:15 . . Remember, I am with you: I will protect you
wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave
you until I have done what I have promised you.
Actually, hardly any of those promises were fulfilled in Jacob's lifetime-- his
offspring didn't become as populous as the dust of the earth, nor did they
spread out to the east and the west and to the north and to the south. Nor
did all the nations of the earth bless themselves by Jacob and his
descendants. So what gives? How could God say: "I will not leave you until I
have done what I have promised you"
I believe God has continually associated with Jacob to this very day, ever
since the day of their first close encounter at Bethel. That didn't stop with
Jacob's demise. No, their association goes on.
"Now even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are
raised, when he called the Lord "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob." For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all
live to Him." (Luke 20:37-38)
In order to live "to" God (viz: live unto God) it is necessary to be in
existence. God has always been with Jacob, and never left him even once--
all these many years; better than three-thousand of them by now. And all
this whole time Jacob has lived under God's protection because God
promised He would protect Jacob wherever he went; and in order for that
promise to be meaningful, it has to include the afterlife. (cf. Ps 139:7-10,
Matt 16:18)
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