Woodlawn Evangelical Lutheran Church           

Genesis 28:1-17- Jacob's Dream at Bethel

 10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."

Introduction – Unexpected news! You took first place! You have received $50,000 from your aunt’s estate! You are just the person we are looking for! Did you ever get good news that was really unexpected but came at just the right time? Maybe it came after a series of setbacks when you felt as though you just couldn’t keep up with your bills. Maybe it came when you felt like everyone had abandoned you and was unwilling to provide you with the kind of help and support you really needed.

            Unexpected good news can really help to put things in perspective and really give a feeling of comfort when you are struggling, feeling lost and overwhelmed. It was good news that a man named Jacob received as God revealed himself to Jacob on his long journey. Today we examine his reaction to God’s wonderful revelation and also our reaction to the information God reveals to us.

How do you react to God’s wonderful revelation?

I. God reveals his power for perspective

II. God reveals his grace for comfort

I. God reveals his power for perspective

Why are you leaving home? Do you want to? Do you have to? Maybe you leave home for the first time when you go off to college. Maybe you leave home because you are getting married. Maybe there have been problems in your family and it’s time for you to go. Maybe you move out on your own so that you can have a more independence.

Why are you leaving home, Jacob?

“Well, you see, there are some problems. My brother Esau and I aren’t getting along very well. Actually, I stole something from him – something very important. I stole from him a special blessing that our father Isaac was going to give him. Even though we are twins, he is older, so you’d think he should get the blessing. But God promised that the older would serve the younger. My mom knew I was supposed to get the blessing. So mom and I tricked dad, who doesn’t see very well, into thinking I was Esau. He blessed me and Esau was not happy. In fact, he all but promised to kill me after dad dies. So mom thought it would best that I leave home for awhile, to let me brother’s anger cool off.”

“Esau also married two of the local girls, Hittites. They weren’t the kind of women that mom and dad wanted around, if you know what I mean. So they thought it best that I go to our relatives in Haran and find a wife there, who is more godly. Dad gave me his blessing, but this time, not because I tricked him.”

That’s the setup for the verses we have before us today. A difficult situation. Family problems. Genesis 25:27 describes Jacob as “a quiet man, staying among the tents”, very much unlike his brother Esau, who was “a skillful hunter, a man of the open country”. (Genesis 25:27) So this was a big deal for Jacob, brought about partly by his own failure to trust God to give the blessing when the time was right and brought about and partly by his brother Esau’s rebellion against God’s will.

So God gives Jacob his perspective on the situation through a wonderful revelation, a powerful dream for Jacob while he is sleeping in the open country. God reveals himself as the eternal God who is the author of past promises to Jacob’s family: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. . . . I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” This goes hand in hand with the picture of a stairway stretching between heaven and earth with angels climbing the stairway and coming down the stairway. What does this tell us about God? What did it tell Jacob?

Jacob’s reaction: “Awesome!” – not the way we casually say the word “Awesome”, but in a way that shows Jacob felt about [this big]. Awe, wonder, amazement – those words go hand in hand when heaven in opened up and the Lord himself talks. His power – amazing! This is the house of God (“Bethel”). This is the gate of heaven! God’s perspective on Jacob’s life? God says “I’m in control. I’m here to watch over you. I command my angels to serve you. That is my power and my promise.” Awesome! A good perspective for Jacob as he faced an unknown future far away from home, with his brothers threats hanging over his head.

A good perspective for us. Do you forget that God is awesome? I think we sometimes lose a sense of that. Even those of us who know the Bible well have a tendency in our sinful nature to misshape God and make him what we want him to be instead of taking a step back and saying “Wow! – this is God, as though we were looking at the Grand Canyon or the Rocky Mountains, but, of course, much greater.

What do I mean? Well, we confess that the whole Bible is 100% true and necessary for our lives here on earth and eternal life in heaven. But how often do we just turn to our favorite passages? How often do we ignore the harder to understand Bible passages or the “hard to hear” Bible passages that show us our sin? Do we go to the Bible to just make us feel good or we do go to the Bible to really be confronted by our Awesome God and his awesome laws that we fail to keep for even one hour? Is the Bible your mirror for you showing you all your blemishes, not so you can cover them up, but so that you can see them clearly just as God sees them and then confess your sinfulness?

God is awesome and we don’t want to mess with him! We want to take him seriously, because your guilt and mine is serious. But so is God’s humbling promise for us found in the Bible, the same as that of Jacob, “I am in control. I’m here to watch over you. I command my angels to serve you. That is my power and my promise.” Certainly it is humbling to know that God works for our good in spite of us and our sin. It is humbling to know that God considered us valuable enough that he used his power to condemn his Son and to set us free. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. . . While we were sinners, Christ died for us.”

From God’s perspective, things were alright. Whatever wrong Jacob had done, it could not sway God. God would work things out for the ultimate good. Isn’t that reassuring for you? You and I know what things we haven’t done that we should have. We know what we did that shouldn’t have. Isn’t it reassuring to know that God’s power and his perspective will ultimately accomplish what is best for his people, in spite of our weakness? May God continue to keep us in his arms and with his mighty power expel the plan of everyone who would want us to leave our Savior behind!

II. God reveals his grace for comfort

            God’s word to Jacob did not stop with him identifying who he was. He had something very important to pass on to Jacob. It was the same promise that his grandfather Abraham had received and then his father Isaac. In essence, it was the same promise of blessing that he had tricked his dad into giving him earlier. God reaffirmed that promise. Even though Jacob had gotten by a trick, God had intended it for him.

            “I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.  Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.”

            Talk about God’s grace! (his undeserved love for sinners). God was going to give these blessings to Jacob and his family? Why? Why would God give them a country of their own, where the Hittites and other people were already living? Why would God bless them with so many descendents to spread throughout the earth? Jacob wasn’t even married yet! I guess he was going to find a wife! Why would God pick his family to be a fountain of blessings for all human beings? Why?

            It had to be grace that chose Jacob instead of Esau! Neither one deserved these blessings, but God chose the younger one to receive them. What a comfort for Jacob to hear the Lord speaking to him in that dream when he was already many miles away from home, but still many miles away from his destination. Do you think he had a little spring in his step the next day as he continued his journey? I think I would. The Bible tells us that Jacob set up a stone pillar there and dedicated that place to the Lord, promising to stop there again on his journey home. He seemed confident that he would return to that land some day, just as God promised. BTW – Jacob did return to that land about 20 years later. It seems as though he needed a reminder from God to stop there. When Jacob returned, he urged his family to get rid of any false gods they had and dedicate themselves to God. “Come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.”

            Is God’s grace a comfort to you? You may ask “Why?” when you are sick. You may ask “Why?” when your dear friend dies. You may ask “Why?” when you try so hard to get ahead and others seem as though they don’t need to try. You may ask “Why?” when what you see around you makes you cringe, because it seems as though the devil is getting the upper hand and destroying family and destroying people’s understanding of the Bible and shaking the confidence of those who want to serve and honor God and show the love of Christ to the world. When the cross seems so heavy and we suffer because we are following Jesus, we may very well ask, “Why?!”

            The answer to all these “whys” is a simple one, but not one that we always want to accept because it seems too simplistic. The answer is that every human being is sinful. Those who do not have faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior are controlled by their sinful nature. We who do have faith in Jesus Christ wrestle with our sinful nature. This has gone on ever since the world, which God made so right, became so wrong. Paradise, peace with God, and full life was shattered and ruined. That is “why” there is so much evil and corruption and decay in our world. God cursed us.

            But don’t forget to ask the other “whys” – “Whys” like the ones that could have been going through the mind of Jacob. “Why does God show me such love? Why did God send his Son to die for me?! While we were still sinners, Christ died for us? Why? We are justified before God by faith? That simple? The Holy Spirit gives us faith in our Savior Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and we don’t have to do anything more to cash in the blessing of forgiveness for our sins and eternal life? Why?

            Why, Lord? Why have you taken me from the dirt and filth of my sin and washed my guilt away forever? Why have you blessed me so much through Jacob’s descendant, Jesus Christ, who is a blessing to all the nations of the earth? Why Lord, do you continue to reach out to me every day with your love, when I don’t do and think and say what is right? Why? How can we react to God’s wonderful revelation? – His power and promise to protect. His grace and comfort through forgiveness. Just say, “Thank you, Jesus!”

Conclusion – Jacob received a wonderful revelation from God on his journey from Beersheba to Haran. Unexpected good news from a gracious Lord who knew both his past and his future and yet reassured him that he would bless him regardless, not because he overlooks our guilt, but because he get rid of it.

            God knows your past and your future and still he offers his love and mercy to you in Jesus Christ your Savior. May his wonderful revelation of his Son as your Savior lead you to a life of joy and thanks and praises as you carry out your responsibility to your family and friends, to your God and the assembly of believers gathered here, to you nation and your community.