Encountering God – Part 12 – Jacob Meets God in a Dream
Context: Gen 28:1-5 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: "Do not marry a Canaanite woman. 2 Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. 4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham." 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.
Context, Isaac, son of Abraham, has grown up and has had twin boys, Jacob and Esau. Jacob is a problem child, and Isaac is wondering if he is going to have any grandkids so he sends his son to get see if he can find a wife. Jacob is leaving home because of his father’s wish and with his father’s blessing. But you should also know that Jacob is leaving because if he doesn’t, his twin brother Esau will kill him for cheating him out of the family inheritance. It really may not have been his choice to leave home. He may have preferred to stay home with his mother. If he doesn’t go he is a dead man. There is an irony…he’s grabbed the firstborn’s inheritance and the family blessing – but he can’t stay home to claim it or fulfill it.
So Isaac’s mental and emotional state is a whirlwind. He must feel like his life is falling apart. He has to be wondering what tomorrow will hold. All he has connived and manipulated to accomplish has led to nothing but sorrow and fear of his brother.
Before I start on this sermon, I wonder, have you worked hard to create a life that you thought would be rewarding only to find it falling apart at the seams? Have you built your dreams on sweat and long hours and now you are wondering if they will be there tomorrow? If so, you have a lot in common with Jacob. He is the grandson of Abraham, a very successful man of God. He had everything going for him but in just a short time it has all fallen apart.
Genesis 28:10-15 Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 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. 12 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. 13 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. 14 "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. 15 "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 28:16-22 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." 17 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." 18 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. 19 He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. 20 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, 21 and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the LORD will be my God. 22 "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."
The context of our focal passage is a dream outside of a town called Luz.
Jacob looks to try to get some sleep and picks a rock for a pillow. I have the feeling Jacob didn’t have a pillow with him. In fact, it is clear from v20, that he probably didn’t have any extra clothes or even his next meal with him. Talk about picking the “Hard Rock Hotel.” After he falls asleep, he has a dream. It was a dream with a ladder that went all the way to heaven and angels of God were going up and down on it. That part got his attention. But then God appears in the dream above the ladder and speaks to Jacob, repeating the words of promise that God had spoken to both Abraham and Isaac.
It is an odd dream. But then, aren’t most of our dreams kind of odd? Especially the parts we remember? They jump around, they have strange symbols and people? Sometimes they are very vivid or frightening. Other times they seem oddly similar to our daily activities.
Psychologists believe that dreams are merely the remnants of our daily interactions finding context as our subconscious files away the events of our day into our long term memory.
The bible, however, says something different about dreams.
I have to confess, I have pretty much written off dreams in the past, thinking of them as being too subjective.
I also tend to minimize what others say about their dreams…when I have a dream and someone tries to give it meaning, I get defensive.
I have to admit when I talk to someone who shares how God spoke to them in a dream, I feel a little bit jealous.
And so, I have had an “attitude” toward dreams and a bias against them…but after reading all these passages about dreams, I want to publicly confess and repent of my close minded attitude toward the methods of God.
In fact, my attitude toward dreams has really limited God in the way He wants to reveal Himself or speak to me.
I have marginalized the supernatural realm of dreams solely because I didn’t understand them.
Perhaps you have shared my attitude toward dreams. If so, I want to take just a few moments to digress and talk about the biblical nature and value of dreams when they come to the all important matter of “encountering God.”
Dreams can be a place of encounter with God.
Job 33:14-18 “For God does speak - now one way, now another - though man may not perceive it. 15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, 16 he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, 17 to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, 18 to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.” NIV
This passage is one of the most concise passages concerning dreams in the bible.
According to this passage, God literally opens (reveals, opens or uncovers) the ears of men in their sleep.
The implication is that if our spiritual ears aren’t open (as the previous verse indicates) God has a way of reaching us even when we aren’t interested in listening.
The sad thing is that we often treat dreams as junk mail or spam.
We often dismiss our dreams as unimportant, when in fact, God may have sent us a message or been trying to get our attention.
This passage describes 4 specific reasons why God speaks in dreams. I don’t know that it is limited to these 4, but they are a good starting place to understand the question of why God speaks in our dreams.
For warning us: to terrify them with warnings
(Genesis 41) God warned Pharaoh through a dream about an impending famine in the land of Egypt. Because of the dream, countless lives were saved.
For turning us from wrongdoing: to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride.
(Matthew 27:19) Pilate’s wife had a terrifying dream about Jesus and told her husband not to hand him over to the crowd.
(Genesis 20:3) Abimelech was admonished in a dream about committing adultery with Abraham’s wife, Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman." Because of this dream, Abimelech repented.
To keep your life from the sword
(Matthew 2:12-13) An angel spoke to Joseph about taking the baby Jesus to Egypt to avoid the sword of Herod. He did it for Joseph no less than five times!
(Judges 7:13-15) Several Midianite soldiers were discussing a dream that Gideon overheard that declared they would be soon be defeated by Gideon.
To preserve your life from the pit – The pit would be hell and condemnation that would be the result of rejecting Christ. Missionaries in Muslim countries say that although their ability to preach and share Christ is severely limited, they cannot count the number of Muslims who have sought out Christians to ask them to explain to them who Jesus is after having a dream in which Jesus spoke to them.
A California magazine recently published the results of a survey of over 600 ex-Muslims who now follow Jesus. "Although dreams appear to play a minor role in the conversions of Westerners, over a quarter of those interviewed [as former Muslims] emphatically confirmed that dreams and visions played a vital role in their conversion (http://www.amightywind.com/fastfood/dreams/040723muslimdreams.htm)
Karel Sanders, a missionary in South Africa, reported that among African Muslims, "42 percent of the new believers come to Christ through visions, dreams, angelic appearances and hearing God’s voice."
One missionary is quoted as saying. "Muslim listeners often call to tell us about dreams and visions of Jesus, wanting to know what that means for them."
Some time ago, Bill Bright, director of the mission agency Campus Crusade for Christ, wrote that "we are experiencing an amazing phenomenon. Moslems in particular are having dreams and visions confirming the reality of Christ. After one radio program reported that Jesus had appeared to many Moslems in a dream and said to them ’I am the way,’ the radio station received thousands of letters from Moslems in North Africa and the Middle East, in which the listeners said they had suddenly understood earlier dreams. They then wanted more information about Jesus."
*We must pray that the lost, especially those in unreachable people groups, have dreams of Jesus where God can speak to them. We can pray for our lost loved ones for the same thing as well. God can go (in their dreams) where we cannot!
Dreams in the Last Days: On the day of Pentecost, when the New Covenant was established, Peter preached, "’In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams" (Acts 2:17). Your old men will dream dreams. Dreams are for our age. In fact, according to this promise, dreams will be more frequent in our time.
Dreams are a New Testament means of God’s encountering us. They belong to the last days, the days we live in.
You may wonder why God may need to use a dream to speak to you, when, in fact, He could have used another means to speak to you.
I’m convinced that God uses dreams to speak to you because when you are asleep your conscious mind cannot fight God’s message.
Often when we are awake, our conscious minds gets in the way of hearing from God, but when we are asleep God is able to do things to us that we cannot contest.
It’s the same when an Anesthesiologist puts someone to sleep for the surgeon.
He does so in order for the patient not to feel the pain during surgery; because if the patient was awake he would give the surgeon tremendous problems.
When you’re asleep you’re vulnerable. You lose control of your life, and God has it. This is when God can really speak to you. (for more info: http://www.tbm.org/dreams.htm)
Why did God use a dream for His first encounter with Jacob?
Jacob was a conniving young man. He stole his brother’s birthright, and deceived his own father into giving him his brother’s blessing. He was a schemer and a liar. His heart was set on doing only that which benefited himself.
God uses a vivid dream, a dream of heaven touching earth and God standing above the ladder.
That gets Jacob’s attention, but now comes the part that sounds familiar…as if he had heard it someplace before, maybe in the stories his father or grandfather told of their encounters with God.
A promise that his descendents will fill this land.
Now that seems strange because Jacob doesn’t even have a girlfriend, much less a wife yet.
13 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. 14 "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. 15 "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."
I love that last verse… “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” God makes promises that He keeps. In this case, God makes this promise to Jacob and tells him that He will keep it.
I don’t think Jacob would have been inclined to hearing from God in much any other way. His mind was too busy and in control to let God speak to Him in any other way.
Maybe that describes you today?
Are you one who has to be in control or do you so trust your intellect that faith really has no place in your life? You are NOT out of God’s reach! You may have heard how long the arm of the law is…God’s arm is much longer!
Application to you and I?
Start by asking God for dreams. You have not because you ask not.
Expect that you will have dreams from God.
I asked God Tuesday night to let me hear from Him in my dreams. I was overwhelmed by the dreams that were filled with things I needed to hear.
Sadly, I didn’t keep a notebook handy.
Put your faith into action by placing a notebook and pen next to your bed, and when you have a dream, write it down. Daniel did!
Daniel 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed; then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it.
WRITE IT DOWN!
You’ll be surprised as to how often God will speak to you in dream.
Numbers 12:6 “he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.”
Polycarp, a man believed to have been a direct disciple of the Apostle John, was given a dream that revealed how he would be killed in Rome and burned at the stake. In 155 A.D., at the age of 86, Polycarp was martyred for his faith just as his dream had depicted.
St. Augustine lists several of his dreams in his writings and he declared that they were an important way in which God spoke to him and to mankind.
Jerome, a translator of the Latin Bible, was converted as a result of the Lord appearing to him in a dream.
With Jacob, this dream CHANGED HIS LIFE! It was literally an encounter with God! It was the beginning of his relationship with God!
Let me address the danger of dreams: First of all, remember that dreams are subjective experiences. They can come from several different sources and their interpretation can be widely varied. So take them with a grain of salt. Not every dream comes from God.
There are many causes of dreams including worry. "...a dream comes when there are many cares..."(Eccl 5:3).
Satan can give counterfeit dreams, especially when the dreamer is involved in occult activities.
The lust of the flesh can cause sexual dreams.
Bitterness can cause dreams whereby you kill people, or fear can cause you to have nightmares.
One of the common mistakes people make when interpreting their dreams is to take the dream literal. Most dreams are symbolic—like Joseph’s dream of stars, Pharaoh’s dream of cows, or Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a statue.
Beware of using New Age type books to interpret symbols in your dreams.
Keep in mind that a symbol may mean something different to different people.
If someone lives in India and dreams of a cow and a farmer dreams the same thing, the cow will probably mean "religious bondage" to the Indian while a cow may mean "livelihood" to the farmer. God understands our personal experience, so He will use things that we can relate to. Especially, as a Christian, look into the Scriptures for the meaning of symbols.
Examine your dreams in light of Scripture.
If you think God is telling you something through a dream, it needs to line up with the bible
If you think God’s calling you to a ministry of robbing banks or committing adultery, you can be sure that’s not God talking.
Examine your thought life. (including tv, books, etc)
Check your eating habits (no fooling!)
Back to our passage: God blesses Jacob
• Why did God bless him? 2 Reasons.
Grace – undeserved blessings of God.
God’s blessings are not predicated on my goodness!!!!!
Jacob had done nothing to merit God’s blessings!
By the way, neither have you!
Promises God had already made.
God had promised his grandfather that he would have many descendents. It is the result of the promise that God had already made that this promise is handed down to Jacob.
Fear of Awesome God!
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." 17 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."
The dream He had must have been so vivid that it seemed real. He actually felt the emotion of fear and awe as a direct result of the dream. Have you ever had a dream like that? Jacob is so moved that he feels he must mark the spot, and he calls it Beth El which means house of God.
He worshipped!
Worship is the expression of our personal recognition of God. We should recognize God as being awesome, reverent and holy, just as Jacob did in verses 13, 16, and 17.
Worship is the expression of our relationship with God. We should have a relationship toward god that is pure and holy at all times.
Bargain with God and the Tithe.
20 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, 21 and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the LORD will be my God. 22 "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."
Jacob basically makes a bargain with God. He has concerns for his own safety and provision, and so he asks God for safety and provision…and if this God of his dreams is big enough to keep him safe and provide for his daily needs, then the Lord God (who is his father’s and grandfather’s God) will be his God as well. In fact, he states he will give back to God 1/10 of everything God blesses him with. WHAT A GREAT STATEMENT OF DEPENDENCE!
His offering the tithe, 1/10th of all God gives him is a reflection of his dependence upon God.
It is also the standard for worship. When you return to God 1/10 of what He gives you, you are acknowledging His lordship over your life and your livelihood.
1/10 of gross or net?
You pick and start somewhere! Give God what is due Him and watch His blessings be released in your life.
What do you have in common with Jacob today?
Start with “are you listening to God?
If not, God will get through to you.
You can ask God to speak to you more. Ask Him! It is a prayer he wants to answer!
Second, understand that the goodness of God to you is not the result of anything you have done.
It is the grace of God, something you cannot merit or earn. His love cannot be earned. You cannot make God love you more than He already does.
You can make yourself available to receive His love by accepting the good news of Jesus Christ and committing yourself to follow Him by faith.
Third, worship him with your life and your income. We learned last week that true worship holds nothing back from God. Are you laying it all down as an act of worship to Him?
Let’s pray!
