Heaven's Gateway - Genesis 28:10-22
INTRODUCTION:
I remember a point in my life when we were living in Slovakia that I wondered if God really did have a plan for me. I thought He did, but things had not gone as I expected and I was not where I expected to be especially with the language. I began to wonder if I had missed something, if I had blown it somehow and had strayed from God’s plan. I began to go over the past and see if at some point I had gotten off track. I replayed people, places, events and conversations wondering if I had missed some message or direction from God. I was uncertain about the future as we continued to seek God’s will in our lives. God showed me overwhelming grace as I went through this period of uncertainty in my past and now I can look back and know that I was in the right place and it was God refining and moving me in a direction that finally brought us to McCleary Community Church.
This morning as we continue looking at the history of Jacob, we find him in a similar situation. His mind is churning with many of the same questions I faced. He is afraid he has blown it in the past, and now, as a result, he is uncertain about the future. He thought God had a plan for his life, but things haven’t turned out as he expected. Has he lost what God intended for him? Let’s pray and then get into God’s Word.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 28:10-22 our passage of study for this morning. Please stand as we read the Word of God and you can follow along as I read.
Genesis 28:10-22,
“Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.’” (Genesis 28:10–22, NASB95)[1]
THE FLIGHT (Genesis 28:10-11)
Our passage this morning begins with Jacob leaving Beersheba and heading north toward Haran which is between 500 and 600 miles away. I am sure that Rebekah made sure that Jacob left in haste and told him to be careful and make sure his brother Esau did not follow him and kill him on the way. Esau had every reason to be angry with Jacob, he had deceived their father Isaac into giving him the blessing and the birthright that should have belonged to Esau as the elder brother.
Isaac was not happy with what Jacob did, but he now understands that this is God’s will and he sends Jacob away to go to Rebekah’s family to find himself a wife and to have a family and his mother assures him that one day she will send for him when his brother’s anger subsides.
His first day or two he puts some miles behind him, in case Esau has set out after him to catch him. I’m sure that whole first day he was rehashing the past and second guessing himself, asking himself, “Should I have done what I did? Did I blow it?” The second day when it is now apparent that he is not being followed by Esau he begins to think about the future, to what is ahead and he is most likely apprehensive, possibly even scared. He’s heading hundreds of miles to a place he has never been, to relatives he has never seen. The relatives may not even be there, they may have died or relocated. If they are no longer there he will have nowhere to stay, no job, nothing. If they are still there will they welcome him, a stranger to them? Isaac had told him to marry and have a family. What if there was no one to marry? Where would that leave him?
He wonders about the past, he worries about the future. He was afraid he had blown it. He had thought God had a special plan for his life, a plan that would carry forward the family promises. The promise of inheriting the land, but here he was leaving the land, with the possibility that he might never return. The promise of populating the land with generations of uncounted descendants, but he was still single with no descendants in view. The promise of becoming a people who would bless the world, but instead it seemed he was headed off in a direction that in no way was connected to any purpose he thought God had for his life. I’m sure that as he traveled and the afternoon faded into evening the questions began to haunt him: Does God still have some plan for my life, or have I lost it, blown it? Am I still connected to some plan God has for me, or have I gotten off track with no way back?
To this man and to us God comes with unexpected and overwhelming grace. He comes when we least expect Him to and He comes in a way not anticipated by us. He comes with a message of overwhelming grace to let us know that He does have a plan for us, the purpose He has set for our life has not changed and He is still going to do everything He has ever promised us. We are going to be reminded of God’s unexpected and overwhelming grace, and we are going to find ourselves drawn even more deeply to Him.
So Jacob is traveling north and as the sun begins to set he arrives near the Canaanite city of Luz. Verse 11 is written in such a way in the Hebrew that it sets us up for something unexpected that is going to happen. It says that Jacob came to a certain place, a place where something special was going to happen. In the Hebrew it creates suspense and anticipation by mentioning “the place” three times. Literally translated this is how it is written in Hebrew, “When he reached a certain place, he stopped there, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head, and he lay down to sleep in that place.” Jacob had reached a place where something special was going to happen, a place where God was going to come to him unexpectedly and with overwhelming grace.
THE DREAM (Genesis 28:12-15)
God comes in a dream to Jacob as he sleeps in that place and again the way it is written in the Hebrew highlights Jacob’s surprise and awe at what he sees in this dream. The Hebrew has exclamation points as Jacob’s eyes travel up this ladder or stairway, registering what he sees. Each exclamation point is set off by “Behold” which is said three times and the higher you go, the shorter the sentences get, as he is increasingly stunned by what he sees. Look at the verse to understand what I mean:
“Behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven.”
“Behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”
“Behold, the Lord stood above it.”
As Jacob’s gaze travels upwards, his eyes become wider and his breath becomes more rapid. Look! God himself has unexpectedly come to him in this place. He sees this ladder, this stairway that connects heaven and earth, a gateway or an entrance portal between heaven and earth and God’s messengers come down this stairway to the earth and go and do God’s work and then return up this stairway to heaven to report their activities. This is the connecting point between heaven and earth. The dream confirms for Jacob what he always knew, this is the land that is central to God’s purposes on earth, this is the land God will work through to bless the whole earth. This land, the land he fears he has forever forfeited because of his sin, the land he is now leaving, possibly never to return. God has come unexpectedly, but this staircase or ladder just reminds him of what he has lost, the plan he has blown, he is leaving God’s chosen land.
But then God speaks to him from the top of the ladder, and the words are not words of judgment or rebuke, they are words of overwhelming grace—words that remind Jacob of God’s promises, words that assure him that God will make the promises true in his life, words that tell him he hasn’t blown it, that God has a plan for his life and God’s purpose for his life has not changed. Listen to the words of overwhelming grace: “And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’” (Genesis 28:13–15, NASB95)[2]
All the promises that God had given to Abraham, then to Isaac, are now passed on to Jacob; God reassures Jacob that he has not blown God’s plan. He is leaving the land right now and he will marry and have a family and God will bring him back to the land with descendants that will eventually spread out in every direction north, south, east, and west and through those descendants will come the promised deliverer who will be a blessing to all people. God goes on to assure Jacob that He will protect in the days ahead, God will watch over him wherever he goes and be with him until God has accomplished everything that He has promised.
God said, “Jacob, my past promises are still in place, and the future is secure because I will be with you wherever you go.” A message of overwhelming grace.
THE MEMORIAL (Genesis 28:16-22)
As Jacob wakes up from the dream, he realizes that God has come to him at a desperate moment in his life—as he is spending the last night in the land, afraid that he would never come back, afraid that he had blown God’s plan for his life forever. God has come to him in this place with an unexpected message of overwhelming grace. Jacob understood that he did not deserve this, this was completely an act of God’s grace. This place is the gateway between heaven and earth, this is where God entered into Jacob’s life. This was a holy moment and a holy place.
Jacob takes the stone that he had used as a pillow and stands it up on end so that it stands as a pillar, and he pours oil over it to make it glisten and to mark it as a holy spot. The stone will now serve as an historical marker to any traveler that something momentous happened in this place, and Jacob named the place Bethel, which in Hebrew means “house of God.”
When God comes to you unexpectedly, at a time and place when you are not anticipating it, and come with a message of overwhelming grace, telling you how much He loves you and how he still has good plans for you even though you know that you do not deserve anything from Him. When this happens you will find yourself responding as Jacob did—with a renewed commitment to God, with a deep desire to love Him and serve Him in return. Jacob’s response was to offer to God his life, his worship, and his service.
“Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.’” (Genesis 28:20–22, NASB95)[3] Jacob binds himself to God with a vow, an oath. He will serve God for the rest of his life, there will be some refining that needs to be done, but he commits himself to God, “the Lord will be my God.” He commits that the stone pillar that he set up will be always remembered as the house of God, a place of worship, and he promises to financially tithe a tenth of all God gives him. Overwhelmed by God’s unexpected, undeserved grace, Jacob’s gratitude shows in his worship and giving.
CONCLUSION:
Just as God’s overwhelming grace came down that ladder or staircase to Jacob, so God’s grace has come down to us through Jesus Christ. There was a moment in the life of Jesus when He likened Himself to the ladder in Jacob’s dream. We read it in our Scripture reading this morning, Jesus was talking with a man named Nathaniel, who would soon become one of Jesus’ disciples. Nathaniel had heard about Jesus from another disciple, Philip. But Nathaniel was skeptical of what Philip was telling him, and decided he would have to see for himself. As he and Philip approached Jesus, Jesus suddenly stopped a conversation he was having, and referring to Nathaniel said to those standing around, “This man is no Jacob. There is no deceit or guile in this man, nothing false about him.” Nathaniel did a double take—“How do you know anything about me?” Jesus said, “I know everything about you, I know that a few moments ago you were sitting under a fig tree, thinking about Jacob’s ladder—about how God’s grace came to Jacob at that moment in that place. Nathaniel from now on God’s grace will down to everyone through me.” That is my paraphrase, let’s read it again as John recorded it in John 1:45-51,
“Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ ‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’ Nathanael asked. ‘Come and see,’ said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, ‘Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.’ ‘How do you know me?’ Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, ‘I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ Then Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.’ Jesus said, ‘You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.’ He then added, ‘I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.’” (John 1:45–51, NIV84)[4]
Heaven has opened, and God’s overwhelming grace has come down through Jesus Christ. Maybe you are here this morning and you have never experienced God’s overwhelming grace through Jesus Christ. You can by agreeing with God that you are a sinner and that there is nothing you can do to make yourself acceptable to Him, but you believe that Jesus died paying the penalty for your sin and you believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Then you will be overwhelmed by God’s grace as He forgives your sins and makes you acceptable to Himself in Christ. When you are overwhelmed by God’s unexpected grace it shows in our worship which manifests itself in praise, in giving, in surrender to God’s control our life.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011