Sermon – Genesis 28 – Jacob’s Dream

• Today’s message comes from Genesis 28 and will primarily cover Jacob’s dream where he saw angels ascending and descending, and the LORD at the top of the ladder.  But first, some history.
  
  
  • In Genesis 25:19-26, you will find the account of the births of Esau and Jacob.  This would have been in 2006 BC – 20 years after Isaac married Rebekah; and 15 years before Abraham died.  In that text Isaac pleads with the LORD on his wife’s behalf – perhaps for many years.  This should encourage us to never stop pleading – keep asking, seeking, and knocking – remember last week?

• In Genesis 25:27-34, you will find the account where Esau sells his birthright.  Both Esau and Jacob would have been 28 years old … Isaac would have been 88; and Abraham would have passed away 13 years prior.  We are told that Esau was a skillful hunter and outdoorsman; Jacob was quiet and preferred to stay at home … Isaac loved Esau; while Rebekah loved Jacob. 
  
  
  • At the end of Genesis 26, we are told when Esau was 40, he married two Hittite women that made life miserable for his parents.  At the beginning of the same chapter, we are told that a severe famine stuck the land and Isaac moved to Gerar – wouldn’t he have taken the entire family?  So in the past 12 years the family moved around, but finally settled at Beersheba.
    
    
  • Genesis 27 is where you can read about Jacob stealing Esau’s blessing.  Jacob dresses and smells like Esau; and to an almost blind man, who may have been depressed and fearful of death, the trick worked.  Isaac would have been 137, but didn’t die until he was 180 – 43 years later … Esau and Jacob would have been both been 77 years old.
    
    
  • At the end of Genesis 27, we are told that Esau hated Jacob and that he schemed to kill him after his father’s death – which he (and perhaps Isaac) thought was not far off.  Rebekah found out about his plan and told Jacob to flee to her brother Laban, in Haran.  We also find out that she was sick and tired of the local Hittite women … remember, Esau had married two. 
    
    
  • Genesis 28 begins with Isaac telling Jacob to not marry a Canaanite; to go to his uncle and to marry one of his daughters.  Jacob also receives another blessing before he leaves.  The same promises that were given to Abraham, are bestowed upon Jacob by Isaac: the promise of heirs (as numerous as sand or stars); the land of Canaan; and that the world would be blessed through one of those descendants – that being Jesus.  These blessings are for Jacob – exclusive of Esau.  Jacob receives a charge and a blessing – those are not to be separated; but one followed to get the other.
    
    
  • Jacob is sent away to Haran – roughly 450 miles away in a straight-line, but probably closer to 500 miles … so he would have walked 500 miles … and then another 500 miles to bring his wives home.
    
    
  • Genesis 28:6-9 says that Esau sought a wife from within the family too – and not from the Hittites or Canaanites.  Either Esau finally figured out that obedience brought blessing – he was growing up and learning; (and maybe even following a good example) … or he was just trying to coerce a blessing from his parents … trying to impress them with outward signs, but inwardly still being the same person that wanted to kill his brother – and then he would automatically receive the blessing and get his birthright back.
  • Genesis 28:10-22 (NLT) … Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran.  At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night.  Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep.  As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven.  And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.  At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac.  The ground you are lying on belongs to you.  I am giving it to you and your descendants.  Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth!  They will spread out in all directions – to the west and the east, to the north and the south.  And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.  What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go.  One day I will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.  Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!”  But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is!  It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”  The next morning Jacob got up very early.  He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it.  He named the place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although it was previously called Luz.  Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God.  And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything He gives me.”
    
    
  • Jacob is fleeing for his life … his brother is mad enough to kill him … he has tricked his father, and was already not his favorite son … and he was going to leave his mother; and since we don’t read anything else about her, we can assume she passed … so Jacob flees, never to see mom again.
    
    
  • It seems he doesn’t take much with him, since he sleeps under the stars with a rock for a pillow.  This is very different from when Abraham sent a servant to the same place to find Isaac’s wife.

Jacob ends up working for his uncle, and eventually chooses his wages … and he chose Rachel. 

• During the night he has an amazing dream; and sees a ladder reaching from the earth to heaven; angels going up and own, and the Lord at the top.  This is a vast difference from Genesis 11, where men tried to build a tower to storm heaven.  Here, heaven is opened, God is seen, and angels are freely moving.  If we want to get to God and Heaven, then it must be on His terms and in His ways.
  
  
  • The angels – as Hebrews 1:14 says – are ministering spirits.  They are going up and down, presumably to help mankind.  They have their orders from God and are executing them.
    
    
  • The ladder can be seen as God reaching down to earth; as Providence and God’s provision … a great chasm (of sin) separated man from God, but God still wants and seeks out mankind. 
    
    
  • John 1:51 associates Jesus with being the ladder; and John 14:6 says He is the way, truth, and life – and nobody comes to the Father except through Him.
    
    
  • The Lord is at the top of the ladder; but since nobody has seen God the Father, then this would be Jesus, the Son.  Jacob is spoken to by the God of his grandfather (Abraham) and father (Isaac).
    
    
  • If a person is raised by Christians – raised in church; then one day they will be faced with the decision to make that faith their own or to walk away from it.  Faith can be taught, but each person has to express it.  We can we told about salvation, but just because we were raised by believers doesn’t make us automatically saved.  Have you ever heard of someone say they were a “practicing” (insert denomination or religion)?  They have made that faith their own and live by it.
    
    
  • Isaac had bestowed this promise and now God has.  Jacob was at his fork in the road.  Would he accept God, serve Him, worship Him, and be willing to be used; or would he flee from that as well?
    
    
  • God told him about land he would inherit; descendants too numerous to count, that would be spread out in all directions; that all would be blessed through his descendants (Jesus); that He would be with Him, protect him, bring him back there, and never leave him until everything was accomplished.
    
    
  • All people being blessed reminds me of what Acts 2:38-39 (NLT) says, “Each of you must repent of you sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away – all who have been called by the Lord our God.”  (of course, we believe God calls everyone … so the only people that are excluded from blessings are those that exclude themselves) 
    
    
  • When Jacob woke up he was filled with both awe and fear.  He had an encounter with the Lord God and lived to tell about it.  He had received amazing news in an unexpected way.  I’m sure when he set out from home, he didn’t expect to meet God the next time he slept.  There are days we don’t expect to do amazing things; or have them happen to us, but when they do they are appreciated and remembered for a long, long time.
    
    
  • Jacob sets up the very stone he used for a pillow as a memorial.  He didn’t turn it into an idol, but when he (or anyone else that knew the story) would go by there, this memory would be triggered.  We celebrate birthdays, holidays, memorials, anniversaries, and God established days for His people to remember; and Jesus instituted Communion – which we remember each week.
    
    
  • Jacob says that “if” (since) God was going to be with him, protect him, sustain him, and return him home, then He would surely be his God.  He also said the pillar would be a place to worship – Abram had built an altar there; and a sanctuary was there; and the Ark was kept there for a time; and the Northern Kingdom worshiped there … and Jacob promised to give a tithe – like Abraham.

• In this life – which prepares and decides the next – we have to choose who we will be like, who we will follow, and why.  We can choose to be like the Jacob that had this dream and put our trust in God … or we can be like the trickster Jacob (or Esau) and put ourselves first, being conniving, and just looking the part … wanting blessings, while still being evil.
  
  
  • We need to trust God; remember all the good things He has done for us; know that He will protect, lead, provide, and sustain us; be willing to give back; be confident He will lead us home; and believe what Matthew 28:20b says, “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 
    
    
  • Whatever we are going through or will go through – God is there … Trust and serve Him fully.