SEE GOD’S VISION
Genesis 28:10-22 October 27, 2002
Genesis 28: 10-22 10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11 When he reached a cer-tain 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 Abra-ham 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 off-spring. 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."
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
Today, we have the beginning of the journey of Jacob. To remind us, Jacob left because his brother Esau was mad with him. We think back to what happened—Jacob had tricked Esau out of his inheritance. The inheritance belonged to Esau, but Jacob had tricked him out of it. Isaac, Esau and Jacob’s father, sent Jacob to see his Uncle Laban in the land of Haran. Jacob had his father’s blessing to go on this trip. When we look at how he made this journey, we find that he was not too well prepared. He left in haste taking only his staff with him. Certainly, he was troubled with the guilty conscience that he had because of the evil things he had done to his brother. He didn’t know if his uncle was going to receive him. He did know that he was leaving behind his family and friends and going on this journey to an unknown land far away. Jacob probably felt that he was quite alone. He wondered what was going to happen next.
Again, as we see in our text, the Lord caused him to see His vision. The angels were there, ascending and descending that ladder, known as ‘Jacob’s ladder’. This reminded him that God was with him, reminded him that even though he didn’t know what the future held, didn’t know where he was going or what would happen for the rest of his life, God did. It reminds us of the Apostle Paul in Romans when he says, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”(ROMANS 11:33) We don’t know what the future holds, but God did for Jacob. God made many promises to him here, just as He does for us. We want to be like Jacob, we want to
SEE GOD’S VISION
I. Observe God’s grace to you
II. Our response to God’s grace
I. Observe God’s grace to you
We find Jacob leaving his father’s home. He makes a day’s journey and when he reached a certain place we’re told he spent the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He didn’t have a pillow with him and proba-bly not much else. If he had had a cloak or a coat, we would picture him taking that coat to wrap up to use as a pillow instead of using a stone as a pillow. We get a little bit of an idea how ill pre-pared Jacob was for this journey. Certainly, we wouldn’t prepare to go on a journey like that, not even taking something along for a comfortable night’s rest.
Then he goes on: 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. What comfort that must have been for Jacob! We realize that yes, he was there alone, sleeping alone in the wil-derness with his head on a stone, and now God gives him this vision—the vision of the angels as-cending and descending on that ladder. We’re reminded again that Jacob felt he was alone, but God’s angels were there around him, now he knows for sure having seen God’s vision.
God even speaks to him. He says: 13 There above it (the ladder) stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. Once again, he re-minded Jacob that this wasn’t just a vision because of bad food he had eaten, or because of worry or anxiety, but here he had seen the angels and here was the LORD, the God of Jacob’s father Isaac and the God of Jacob’s grandfather Abraham. The same Lord that had appeared to them, had made promises to them, now was going to make a promise to Jacob.
We have that promise in our text. ‘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.’ There are a couple of promises here. First of all, Jacob needed to be listening closely: Jacob didn’t realize where he was going or how far he would have to travel, but he knew that he would come back because the Lord said to him, ‘I will give you the land on which you are lying.’ He meant that Jacob, at some time in his life would re-turn to this land and he would possess it. Even though Jacob wasn’t married, what else does God promise? He says, ‘Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, east, north and south.’ In other words, they would spread out in all directions. We re-member in the Old Testament how great a blessing that children were. The Lord was reminding Jacob that he would be blessed greatly.
Now, as we continue reading in our text, we find that this blessing wasn’t just for Jacob. It wasn’t just for his benefit that he would have great descendants, but for all peoples. He goes on to say, ‘All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.’ We are reminded that from the line of Jacob, from the tribes of Israel came the Messiah, the Savior of the world. You and I are still blessed today because of the promise that God had made to Jacob. This was all part of God’s grace for Jacob, part of God’s grace for the world. Remember, Jacob left because of the das-tardly deed that had been done—stealing the inheritance from his brother, using deceit to fool his father. Yet what does the Lord promise him? He says, ‘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.’ Imagine, in a sense, Jacob’s surprise to hear how concerned the Lord is for him. He, who was now leaving, fleeing for his life so his brother would not kill him, the Lord comes and says, ‘I’m now going to be with you. I’m not going to forsake you, but forgive you.’
We might look around in our world and say, ‘Yes, the world is quite like Jacob today, where many people do not care about anyone else except themselves.’ They try to use false means to get inheritances or to get wealth for themselves. This last week we heard finally of the end of the sniper in the east. He was caught. This shows a disregard for life, that people do not even care for the value of another person’s life. Yet we know when we look at the world around us, we also look at ourselves and see that we aren’t much different than Jacob. We too, have thoughts of evil and wickedness. We too, have thoughts of coveting things that do not belong to us. We desire those things that our neighbor may have or our brother may have. We try to get more things than he has. The Lord reminds us that yes, we too, like Jacob aren’t deserving of any of God’s grace. We cer-tainly also would deserve to be forsaken by God because from time to time in our own life, we have forgotten God and have forsaken Him. With our sinful actions, we show our disregard for God’s law. Yet what does the Lord say to us? Just like the Lord says to Jacob, He says to us; ‘‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (HEBREWS 13:5b, 6). He almost says the exact same words to us as He said to Jacob. ‘I am with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.’ This is God’s grace to us. We don’t deserve this grace, but God provides it for us so that we also, can picture in our minds the angels of God ascending and descending the ladder, taking care of His believers.
In this life, you and I look at the blessings that we have. Sometimes people value life by the blessings that they have. You and I look beyond that, don’t we? We realize that the blessings that we have, the important ones are those things that we can’t see, that we can’t feel or touch. The blessings of forgiveness, the blessing of eternal life, are only a few of the things, which far outweigh all of the earthly things that we have in this world. They far outweigh what the world understands, and again, it’s a picture of God’s grace for us, isn’t it? Paul reminds us in Corinthians: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”(2 CORINTHIANS 8:9). In the eyes of the world, you and I might not outwardly appear to be wealthy. In fact the world might even con-sider us poor. You and I realize in the eyes of God, we are wealthy; we are rich beyond all com-parison. There are people all around us, especially with the sinfulness in this world, wondering if life is worth living at all. There are people all around us who sit in despair, in darkness, grumbling and complaining because life does not seem fair. It’s true. Life might not be fair but God is far fairer than we deserve. We deserve eternal death and destruction, but He gives us eternal life. We deserve to be left in our poverty, but the Lord gives us a wealth of prosperity through the forgive-ness of sins and life and salvation.
As we look at our life, we realize that our gracious God does bless us spiritually and He does bless us materially as well. We consider Moses. As Moses got God’s chosen people close to the Promised Land, he warned them to be careful. They would inherit that land flowing with milk and honey, they would have everything that they needed and wanted. He said to them, ‘Be careful that you don’t forget that it was the Lord your God who brought you to the Promised Land. It was the Lord your God who provided you with everything in the Promised Land.’ You and I realize that Moses’ warning is still in effect for us today as we live in a Promised Land. Certainly, we live in a land far greater than the children of Israel with blessing upon blessing. The Lord says to us that we ought to remember His grace and His blessings. Read in Proverbs, written by Solomon, the wisest and richest man that ever lived: “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’”(PROVERBS 30:8,9a). Solomon asked that he would have just enough to remember what the Lord gives to us. It’s interesting that we too, rather than have so much, we ask the Lord, ‘And help us to remember that you give us more than enough so we don’t disown you.’
In this text today, ‘help us to see God’s vision’. God’s vision is that His angels are all around us—that God is with us, that He gives us His grace everyday. All of this leads us to examine
II. Our response to God’s grace
We see what Jacob did in his response to God’s grace. He has this dream, the Lord speaks to him, and you can easily picture the scene when our text says: 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." Jacob had found a place at the end of the day; night had come so he found a place to sleep. That was all he thought about, yet as he dreamt that night the Lord reminded him that He was here too. Jacob said that—‘Surely the LORD was here and I was not aware of it.’ We’re reminded that the Lord is everywhere, even the place where we slumber. He goes on: 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." Here, at what Jacob looked at as an ordinary place to rest, (maybe it was under a tree, maybe it was with some leaves or pine needles where it was softer) now he says, ‘This is an awesome place because this is where God is!’ Jacob realized that wherever God is, this is His house. He called it the gate of heaven. He would have that description as he remembered the ladder going up to heaven, the angels coming down and going up.
When he gets up in the morning, does he just leave? Remember he was fleeing for his life; Esau could have been real close behind him with his men and put him to death. What do we see? 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. He took time out to worship God. That stone which he used as a pillow he sets up as a pillar and anoints it with oil as his worship. He should have been getting up and taking off before Esau could catch him and put him to death. Even now, his response to God’s grace was that he would worship God. His life would be changed too, as we see later on if we read the rest of this account. Here, there was nothing that was going to stop him from worshipping God, even if it meant his brother catching him and putting him to death. He was not concerned about that any more. He was concerned that God would receive his praise, worship and thanksgiving.
Then we’re told he called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. Bethel means ‘house of God’ so we still have churches called Bethel today. This place that he calls ‘awe-some’, the gate of heaven where God was, was the house of God. Then he makes a vow, a prom-ise to God, his response to God’s grace. 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. Our text, as you know, says Jacob says, ‘If the Lord does this,’ you and I know that Jacob knows the Lord is going to do this. We know that Jacob knows the Lord is going to be his God. We know that Jacob knows the Lord is going to take care of his food and clothing. The Lord is going to bring him back to this land. That was the promise that the Lord had already given. He told Jacob, ‘I will be with you, I will bring you back, and your descendants will be great.’ He was just putting that in words so that the Lord could hear. As he puts it into words, he realizes that this was the promise, not that he made in his mind, but that he speaks. Now Jacob has made even more of a commitment.
He is going to do more than words; he’s going to do a bit of action. He says, “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." He is going to give the Lord ten percent of everything the Lord gives him. We know it is not to pay the Lord back, but just as a way of thanking God for reminding him that he wasn’t alone. This was scary for Jacob—to leave his family and friends, to travel hundreds of miles to a land he had never seen, off to a land that was foreign to him, not knowing if his uncle would welcome him. Now the Lord reminded him that he wasn’t alone; the Lord was with him. The Lord would bless him. We see how the Lord blesses Jacob. He comes back eventually, doesn’t he? He comes back with wives, children, flocks and herds. He comes back to about the same place. As he’s ready to meet his brother Esau after all those years, he says to the Lord, ‘Look what you’ve done for me, Lord. I left with just my staff and now I return with two groups of flocks, herds, children and fam-ily.’ The Lord had fulfilled His promise. Jacob responded; he lived his life for the Lord after that. He realized that whatever the Lord said He would do, however the Lord directed him; he would do it rather than doing it his own way. He had done it his own way before by stealing the inheritance from his brother Esau. All of this because God had chosen him, wasn’t it?
We’re here today because God has chosen us. He has chosen us to live in light rather than in darkness. He has chosen us, made us His believers. There is no better way to describe that coming to faith than what we celebrated today with the baptism of Emily Rachel Bohl. We remind ourselves of our baptism when the infant is brought to be baptized. Through the power of God’s Word and the washing of the water, she’s made a child of God. An infant cannot walk to the altar to be baptized but is brought by faithful parents, (who probably had faithful parents bring them, and they had faithful parents). This act of baptism beautifully and accurately pictures how we come to faith—not by our own desire or our own choosing, but because God chooses us. John speaks in his gospel: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”(JOHN 15:16). Jesus, speaking to His disciples, said ‘I chose you. I chose you to be my followers.’ To me, that is the most amazing thing in our Christian life. Out of the millions in this world, God has chosen us. God’s grace has caused us to ‘see the light’, to see his vision, that Christ is the Lord, that Christ is our Savior. When we think about that and when we think about our being believers since our baptism, we realize our response then is like Jacob’s.
We are anxious to worship Him. Our worship is not just an hour here on Sunday, or isn’t a few minutes in our daily devotions, or isn’t just time when we pray before and after meals, but our worship becomes a way of life. Our worship isn’t just when we sing our hymns or just when we give our offering; it isn’t just those things we connect with worship, but again, it’s our way of life. The prophet Hosea puts it this way: “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”(HOSEA 6:6). The people of the Old Testament had brought their sacrifices so often and so long, that’s all they thought God wanted was burnt offerings. The Lord reminded His people, ‘but I desire mercy.’ As we look at our world, it makes even more sense to-day, doesn’t it? We live in a world that doesn’t like to show mercy; we hear about the sniper get-ting caught, we hear about getting even and the death penalty, and anything else for horrendous crimes. There are crimes that deserve death. When the public is outraged, then there is no mercy at all. The Lord reminds us when the world is vengeful, when it doesn’t want to show mercy, and then we ought to show mercy because we know God’s mercy for us.
In the same way, it’s ‘an acknowledgment of God,’ he says, ‘ I desire rather than burnt offer-ings.’ When we look at the world, what does it try to do? It tries to take the name of God out of everything so that it can be politically correct. As this happens it is all the more important for us, as believers, to let others know that we acknowledge God in our life. God does make a difference in our lives—not just on Sunday but everyday. That’s what the Lord says is our response to Him.
Our response to Him is also being generous to others because the Lord has been generous to us. Psalm 37 tells us: “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed.” (PSALM 37:25,26). Beautiful, from the psalm writer saying the Lord has always pro-vided for His people. You and I live in a land of great blessing for the Lord has been generous be-yond all comparison. Because of the news and Internet, we realize how blessed we really are! Other nations struggle just to survive. People live day by day, trying to have enough food to eat. You and I have more than enough. There’s nothing to say that we won’t be blessed even more as the years go by.
When we look at ourselves, at our congregation, district and synod, we find that the church is going to face financial challenges in the years ahead. It seems that when people are given more, they have been keeping more for themselves and giving less to God’s work. In our homes each one of us probably has the best of one thing or another. Generally we strive to provide the best for our families or ourselves. But, at times, in the work of the church we try to figure out what is just enough to get by. It appears as if “the best principle” is sacrificed in our Lord’s kingdom work. The Lord is looking to us to be generous, not just among ourselves and to each other, but in response to God’s grace which gives generously for work in God’s kingdom. The Psalm writer says, ‘As we are generous, the Lord is generous to us.’ We respond to God’s grace to us by our Christian living and then also by our Christian giving.
We realize that His grace is boundless. We’re just like Jacob in that sometimes we run away because we have committed sins against God and we’re ashamed of that. The Lord always reminds us that He has forgiven those sins. ‘I welcome you back into my kingdom. I will be with you to the ends of the earth.’ He says to us too that our journey ends when our life ends. We realize we aren’t going to be looking for the Promised Land here on earth, but we are looking to be in the Promised Land with God forever. Have we seen God’s vision yet? His grace to us is boundless and our response to His grace is generosity.
In our gospel today the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus by saying, ‘What are the things I can just get by with?’ The Lord says, ‘Love God. Love your neighbor. Do these two things, you’re going to do everything.’ The Lord says we show our love to Him by loving our fellow man. We do that with our generosity in carrying out God’s kingdom work. That’s our response to God’s grace, when we see God’s vision. This vision is that no matter where we are, we can say, ‘This is an awe-some place because God is here. God is with us.’
At the end, when we look at all things, we see God’s grace, we begin to understand His grace for us and our response, we agree with Paul when he writes to Timothy: “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”(1 TIMOTHY 1:17). So we say to God our Savior, the only King, be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
