JACOB’S NIGHT AT THE "HARDROCK HOTEL"
Genesis 28:10-22
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Five-year-old Mo was amazed by his grandfather's false teeth. He watched as Gramps removed his dentures, washed them, and put them back in. Mo asked to see it done again and again. "Okay," said the grandfather, humoring the child. "Anything else?" "Yeah," said the child. "Now take off your nose!"
2. DISCUSSION: DESCRIBE THE WORST HOTEL/ MOTEL YOU’VE EVER STAYED IN. Angela and I stayed in one in Arkansas that had about 50 crickets in the room. We arrived late and I couldn’t possibly sleep with 50 crickets loudly chirping. So I ended up staying up half the night crawling around the room listening, until I had caught all 50 crickets. (There’s also the story of the one in Florida with the big wet spot in the middle of the bed, or the one without door locks and the lights kept going out)!
3. We’re going to read about a guy who had an especially hard bed when he stayed at the Hardrock Hotel.
B. TEXT
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."
18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will
watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father's house, then the LORD will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."
C. THESIS
1. We all know that Jacob was a rascal sometimes.
2. Human nature is one thing that is difficult to change. But we're going to see how Jacob began a journey where God eventually changed him.
3. The title of this message is “JACOB’S NIGHT AT THE HARDROCK HOTEL.”
I. JACOB’S ENCOUNTER WITH GOD
A. HIS CIRCUMSTANCES
1. HERE WAS A MAN:
a. Not favored by his father.
b. Fleeing as a fugitive from his brother.
c. Alone, despondent, homesick.
d. No money and no friends.
2. Jacob was probably at the lowest place of his life – he had a stone for a pillow, ground for his bed, and stars for a roof. But he has a dream from God! It’s a fact that it takes some sort of crisis for most people to turn to God. Sooner or later, God will bring self-sufficient people to the place where they have no resource but Him.
3. A despairing man came to his pastor and confessed, "My life is really in bad shape." "How bad?" said the pastor. Burying his head in his hands, the man moaned, "I'll tell you how bad -- all I've got left is God!" The pastor's face lit up, and he said, "Finally! Now all you’ve got left is the greatest power in the universe!”
4. God is the God of those who are oppressed, downtrodden, and the underdogs. You can be sure that whatever your social or religious station, God hears your prayers.
B. JACOB ANALOGOUS OF CHRISTIANS
1. Jacob is a picture of the Christian believer. Up until this time, Jacob has had faith in the God of his father and mother, but not developed his own relationship with God. Here are Jacob meets God for the first time and begins his walk with God.
2. Everyone must have a Bethel! Where is your Bethel -- the place you first met God? My Bethel was a little duplex on 18th St.
3. See verses 16-17. When God comes, the ordinary and common-place is transformed by the Spirit into an open heaven, with visiting Angels, and a vision of the throne of God. We're reminded of Naaman the leper who asked Elisha, "Let me take a sack of Earth" because he
considered that place so sacred.
C. GOD WANTS TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO YOU
1. Acts 17:27 -- "Feel after him" is the Greek "pselaphao" -- "touch, feel, handle." It is used in Luke 24:39, "Handle Me and see" and 1 John 1:1 "Word which we have looked upon (seen with our eyes) and our hands have handled, the Word of Life."
2. Used in Greek literature of a man, blinded, feeling his way to the mouth of a cave with his hands. Paul captured the experiential nature of knowing God when he said, "That I might know Him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings" Philippians 3:12?
3. Did Jacob "deserve" the visitation from God? No. God was unsought, unexpected, and Jacob was asleep. Since WE didn't deserve our first manifestation of God's grace, why shouldn't there be more?
II. GOD’S REVELATION TO JACOB
A. THE VISION
1. The God of Bethel is not a God who shuts Himself up in heaven. The God of most men is:
a. Impotent, powerless
b. Deaf and dumb, and dead
c. If alive, then unfeeling & unconcerned. It's no wonder they don't pray to him.
2. But the God of Bethel has opened a communication line:
a. Thank God there's something between earth and heaven!
b. This ladder/stairway -- is meant to be traveled.
c. At the head of the stair -- the Lord Jesus! He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life! He is the Door (John 10:9) to the Father.
d. The base of the Ladder rests on Earth; Christ was born in the manger at Bethlehem. He toiled among us as a common laborer.
e. Let's see where it rises: He is equal with God, co-equal in power and wisdom.
f. The bottom reaches to man and the top to God. He is the only Mediator between God and man. God and the lost are depending on us to be bold in proclaiming Jesus as the only Savior and means to eternal life.
3. Read John 1:51. This is an identification of Jesus as the Lord in Jacob's dream. The Angels are at His disposal.
B. GOD’S PROMISES TO JACOB
1. Identified as the Covenantal God (verse 13B).
2. Orders the future. He is the God of promises! (Vss 13-14). To you also He has sworn -- you may rest in the blood of Jesus, which makes the covenant sure.
3. Divine Companionship. "I will be with you in all places where you go” (15a).
4. Divine Protection (15b) "and keep thee in all places)
5. God's Faithfulness (15c), "for I will not leave thee until I have done that... I have spoken."
C. JACOB’S RESPONSE: VOWS (vss. 16-22)
III. GOD’S INVOLVEMENT IN JACOB’S LIFE
INTRO
All God’s promises are wonderful to hear about in theory, but how do they play out? What was the latter and of Jacob’s story?
A. 20 YEARS ELAPSE
Twenty years elapsed during which Jacob multiplied from one man to two wives, two concubines, 11 children, many servants, and many flocks and herds.
B. JACOB’S TESTIMONY TO GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
5 He said to them, "I see that your father's attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. 6 You know that I've worked for your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. 8 If he said, 'The speckled ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, 'The streaked ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks bore streaked young. 9 So God has taken away your father's livestock and has given them to me.
10 "In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. 11 The angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob.' I answered, 'Here I am.' 12 And he said, 'Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. 13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.' " Gen. 31:5-13.
C. THE GOD OF BETHEL: GOD OF OUR VOWS
1. You see, even in a land far away, God reminded Jacob of their meeting at Bethel and of Jacob’s vow to God. God takes notice of our vows; and God showed Himself to be faithful to keep His vows.
2. Do you remember the vows you have made? God has not forgotten them, even if you have!
D. JACOB LED HIS FAMILY BACK TO BETHEL
1. Jacob led his family back to Bethel. God there revisits him, here's what happened;
2. Scripture Text:
1 Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from
your brother Esau."
2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then 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." Gen. 35:1-3.
3. In this verse we see Jacob’s intentions on bringing his family to Bethel, not just as a place, but as an experience, as a place of commitment and vows. Jacob describes forsaking idolatry, personal purification, and even changing clothes as expressions of a new direction with God.
4. May God help us to “build an altar” – open lines of communication with God – for our families and lead them to the same commitment and vows we ourselves have experienced.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. John Newton, author of the well-known hymn, Amazing Grace, was a miserable man at the age of 23. He had been involved in an immoral lifestyle and was engaged in the heartlessly cruel African slave
trade. But he was fed up with his sinful way of life.
2. A crisis came on March 10, 1748, on board a ship that was caught in a violent storm. Thinking all was lost, Newton cried out in terror, "Lord, have mercy on us!" Suddenly the word "mercy" struck him with great force. If anybody needed it, he did. At that moment he believed on Jesus Christ as his Savior. God forgave his sins and broke the power of his wicked lifestyle.
3. That night on the ship was his “Bethel” experience.
B. ALTAR CALL
1. "Bethel" should not be a single place and time in our past, it should be a continuous experience. God kept drawing Jacob back to that place of revelation and commitment all his life.
2. God hasn't changed. Are you at a low point in your life? God wants to strengthen you/assure you. Are you longing to go back to your Bethel experience? How many of you are not sure you've ever had an experience with the living God, but you want to?
