Every Sunset Is An Opportunity To Reset. Genesis 28:1-22 Series

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Are you going through a sunset experience in life? Maybe you had great expectations in life but now your dreams are shattered, you are far away from the promise and you are seeing the end of the day. I am here to tell you that in your dark nights God is still there. God is able to turn things around because every sunset is an opportunity to reset.

Turn your bibles to Genesis 28. Jacob deceivingly got the birthright from Isaac for which his elder brother is angry with him.

1. Jacob leaving his home.

Soon he is leaving his home, running for his life. He left home so quickly. It wasn’t the beautiful send-off he wanted.

Jacob is on a long journey, 800 KM from Beersheba to Haran. It was a journey backward in time for Jacob, backward because he was retracing the steps of his grandfather Abraham who came from Haran to the Promised Land many years ago. Abraham left behind him a settlement of people. So it was natural that Rebekah thought of Haran for a safe haven for her youngest son.

It was far enough where Esau wouldn’t follow him, yet there was family there, Rebekah’s brother, so Jacob wouldn’t be alone. Rebekah’s plan was simple. She was sending him to a safe place for a few months until Esau’s anger passed away. Then she would send word for Jacob to come home. In the meantime, she hoped that her son would marry one of her relatives in Haran and eventually return home. It was a good plan, and in fact it came to pass, but not exactly as Rebekah envisioned.

2. On the Road to Haran.

Jacob was quick to run from his circumstances but never knew that his journey would be stopped. Genesis 28:11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Remember no one can run from God. Today if you are sitting here with the sun setting down on you, you have nowhere to go, you see no light for the future, God has a plan for you.

Now, on the evening, as the sun sinks over the western horizon, Jacob stops for the night. He’s come to the outskirts of the city called Luz, a place unknown to him. Jacob was filled with fear. Jacob made his bed. In the gathering darkness, Jacob rests his head upon a stone.

I imagine he had a hard time sleeping that night, thinking what happened. He left behind an aging father whom he cheated. He thought of the shameful deceit. He remembered waving goodbye to his loving mother. He thought of Esau and he would have been filled with the fear of death.

As the stars came out, and the strange sounds of night filled his ears, Jacob realized that for the first time in his life he was truly alone. Homeless, penniless, helpless, and alone. Jacob got what he wanted but that night he could reflect the terrible price he paid for the thing he wanted so much.

He drifted off to an uneasy sleep. While he slept, he had one of the most famous dreams in history. Genesis 28:12-13a 12He 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.13There above it stood the LORD.

3. The stairway to Heaven.

In his dream, Jacob saw a stairway or ladder descending from heaven to earth. Jacob sees this stairway resting on the earth right where he happened to be. On the stairway, Jacob saw the angels of God going up and down the stairs.

God had never spoken to Jacob before. God spoke to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. He heard about God from his father and grandfather. He was raised in their faith and believed their faith, but he had never had a personal experience with the God. The amazing point is that God now speaks to Jacob at the moment of his desperation.

Now that he is running for his life, now that he is leaving the Promised Land, now that he has disgraced himself, now that he finally reached the bottom, God speaks to Jacob. C.S. Lewis said “God whispers to us in our pleasure and shouts to us in our pain. Pain, he said, is God’s megaphone to rouse a sleeping world.” Now God moves to rouse Jacob even while he sleeps.

Not many people in the Bible saw angels. Jacob is one of those lucky few. What are the angels doing? They are taking messages from earth up to heaven and messages from heaven down to earth. They are heavenly couriers who report to God concerning the situation on the earth. They also carry out God’s will: Answering prayers, giving guidance, providing protection, fighting for the people of God, fending off the attacks of Satan. Today God’s angels are around you.