Overcome By Redemption Series

OVERCOME BY REDEMPTION

Genesis 28:10-22

Introduction

We began this series by talking about the chaos that formed the beginning of the Creation account - that the Spirit of God was hovering above the chaos…speaking life into it. Each of the stories in the Bible that we look at will have it’s own chaos to work out with God’s help. Your story has its own chaos to work out, right?

Sometimes the chaos we experience comes about because of our own choices, mistakes, and miss-steps. That is so true of the subject of our text.

1 John 5:4  …For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. We spend our days overcoming the world - the world around us, the world within us. Only with God’s help can we be people who overcome. That is fully illustrated in the life of Jacob.

1. The Chaos of Jacob

Isaac, the promised son who was almost sacrificed in last week’s lesson, has married Rebekah. She was pregnant with twins. When they were born, the first to come out was Esau - whose name means ‘hairy’. When his brother came out he was holding on to Esau’s heel - so they named him Jacob - which essentially means ‘deceiver’. The brothers remained at odds. Jacob talked Esau out of his birthright in a careless moment. Later, with Rebekah’s help, Jacob dressed up like Esau to fool his father into giving him Esau’s blessing of the firstborn. This caused Esau to want to kill his brother, so Rebekah sent him off to her brother’s home.

I don’t know what Jacob was thinking as he trekked across the land to escape his brother’s fury, but it had to be a lonesome time … time to think about what he had done. The sun set and he used a stone for a pillow and the fugitive drifted off to sleep.

Genesis 28:12 -15

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.”

God reaffirms his promise made to Abraham and Isaac. This is the beginning of a turnaround for Jacob … the redemption of Jacob. He awakens with fresh faith (vs 16). He creates an altar with his pillow/stone and called that place Bethel “House of God” (Vs 20-21). Jacob vowed to follow God in his life. Jacob became an overcomer through the redemption offered to Him by our Father.

2. What Does the Redemption of Jacob Tell Us?

-God keeps His Promises - Even When We Fail. (“All peoples on earth will be blessed through your and your offspring…” -28:14)

The renewal of the promises to Abraham is surprising!

“Jacob crosses every line that presents itself in the story. No rule, no tradition, no relationship appears to be out of bounds as he schemes to get what he wants. In short order, he alters the line of inheritance, disrupts the chain of blessing, disrespects his father, and puts his brother in a vulnerable position, both socially and economically. But Jacob’s win isn’t decisive — he doesn’t live happily ever after…” - Karla Suomala

If you’ve ever felt that your failure to live up to your calling means that God is revoking His promises, take heart. If God revoked his promises every time we slip up or when we fail to live up to His word perfectly, then we could never be sure that He was going to keep his promises!

Romans 3:23-25 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

“Maybe one of the reasons we identify with Jacob comes from our deep desire that God will stand by us too, despite everything.” - Karla Suomala

-God is Near - even when He seems far away. (“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” -28:16)

I imagine Jacob was feeling pretty lonely. He had betrayed his father and brother. He was on the run for his life. He was uncertain about his future. Here is the grandson of the Father of the Faithful, a liar and a thief on the run - not his brightest day.