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.
“There will be times when we will take the wrong path. God will be with us. When we are filled with fear and make a “strategic retreat,” God will be with us. In faithful obedience to God, we will go places where we never imagined we would go and do things that never entered our minds. God will be with us every step of the way. As Paul reminds the Christians in Rome, “Nothing is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).” - Kevin Ruffcorn
In our times of trouble we can remember God’s presence and know that heaven is near.
-God’s Redemption is Available to All Through Jesus.
Because God renewed his promises with unworthy Jacob, ultimately the Christ-Child was born that brought redemption to all who would believe. In John 1, Jesus called Philip to follow him. Philip told Nathaniel that he had found the Messiah. Remember his response? “Can anything from Nazareth be good?” Jesus gave Nathaniel a great compliment: “Here is a genuine Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” Jacob was a deceitful character, but not Nathaniel. Nathaniel doubted at first; Jesus won him over. “Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
As the Risen Savior, Jesus is access to heaven for all. No matter what you’ve done or who you are, Jacob’s story tells us that you have redemption available through Jesus Christ… access to heaven … when you have faith in Christ, repent, are baptized into Christ. (Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.)
Conclusion
Jacob renamed the place of his dream “Bethel” - “house of God”. Although that name related to a place, we need to be reminded that “Bethel” is wherever our Lord meets with us.
Right now you are God’s Bethel. He reaches out to meet with you here.
Prayer: “We thank You, Father, that from whatever place Your children seek You, there is a ladder reaching up beyond the stars to Heaven; that Jesus is the Way to You, and we may come to You in Him; More, You come to us, and send Your angels to minister to our need, that Heaven is near to earth, with sympathy, help, and hope. AMEN.” (F. B. Meyer)
How are you responding to God’s grace today?
1 John 5:4 …For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
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Questions For Discussion
1. Jacob’s Dream was an amazing revelation from God. Some translations use the word “ladder”, but the word means something more like a “staircase”. What do you think was God’s message to Jacob in the dream?
2. Jacob is a moral mixed bag in his life story…like most of us. Why do you think God renewed His promises with such a character? Does Jacob’s response to the dream give us any idea?
3. Redemption has to do with setting us free from the bondage of sin - to ‘buy back’ - pay the price… “forgiveness and justification, … deliverance from the guilt of sins.” It is the work of God for undeserving sinners.
4. Paul Tripp wrote, “God is the ultimate musician. His music transforms your life. The notes of redemption rearrange your heart and restore your life. His songs of forgiveness, grace, reconciliation, truth, hope, sovereignty, and love give you back your humanity and restore your identity.” Which of those phrases or words strikes you as especially important right now? What about that phrase is meaningful?
5. Jacob named the place of his dream “Bethel” which means “house of God”. What are some “Bethel” places in your life - some places that you connect with God’s presence?
6. In spite of the sketchy character of Jacob at certain points in his life, over 22 times in Scripture God is described as the “God of Jacob”. What are some thoughts you have about why God continues to describe himself in this way?
7. What else in this text / lesson did you want to talk about?
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Resources
References
Kevin Ruffcorn https://asanefaith.com/jacob-and-esau/
Karla Suomala.
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/jacobs-dream/commentary-on-genesis-271-4-15-23-2810-17-2
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Video of this lesson can be viewed by searching the YouTube channel of Forsythe Church of Christ.
