Genesis chapter 28, and please hear what God himself would say to you from this portion of his word. The Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said to him, you shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padana Ram to the house of Bethel, your mother's father, and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be an assembly of people and give you the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants after you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger which God gave to Abraham. So Isaac sent Jacob away and he went to Padana Ram to Laban, the son of Bethul, the Syrian, the brother of Rebecca, the mother of Jacob and Israel. Now Jacob went out from Bershiba and went toward Haran so he came to a certain place and stayed there all night because the sun had set and he took one of the stones of that place and he put it at his head and he laid down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed and behold a ladder was set up on the earth and its top reached to heaven and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it and behold the Lord stood above it and said, I am the God of Abraham, the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie I give to you and your descendants. Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth, you shall spread abroad to the west and the east to the north and the south and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 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 spoken to you. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it and 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. Then Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it and he called the name of that place Bethel because the name of that city, but the name of that city had been les previously and Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I am going and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on so that I come back to my father's house and peace. Then the Lord shall be my God and this stone which I have set up as a pillar to shall be God's house and of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to you. We have been looking at God's promise to Eve to bring a savior from her, a seed that would come from her body and would crush the head of Satan. We have seen how God has appeared to Abraham and has given him this blessing that in him and in his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed and how this blessing has come through Isaac to Jacob. We saw how when Isaac's wife Rebecca was pregnant it was not going so well because the little youngins inside the womb were wrestling about. She got an oracle from the Lord who said there's two nations inside of you and the younger will serve the older will serve the younger. We saw how when they were born Jacob grew up Jacob stole in a sense Esau's birthright he tricked him he he took advantage of him. We saw last week how when Isaac who loved Esau more was going to bless Esau before his death that Rebecca overheard something of it and reported it to Jacob and hatched a scheme to steal the blessing covered up the smooth skin on Jacob and put the earthy smelling garments of Esau on Jacob and Jacob went in and stole the blessing and as a result Esau was furious and he vowed revenge when dad dies I'm killing my brother he said Rebecca heard that as well she seemed to have her fingers on the pulse of the family and she said to Jacob you need to go to your brother's anger subsides and then I'll send for you something she was never able to do by the way but then she went to her dad her husband and said you know my wife is just not worth living if Jacob marries one of the sons a daughters of half like Esau has please send him away and so our text starts off with Isaac sending Jacob away and he has this dream it is a wild dream of which he is blessed beyond his imagination. I want us to look at that and the blessings that God gives to him but I want to start by thinking about Jacob's nightmare or the nightmare of his life as he was there that night you know the text gives us some indications it tells us to a certain place because it doesn't even want to tell us where he is and he has this night to reflect it's dark he he seems to be all by himself and as he's there and as he's thinking I would imagine as he he's reviewing what's happening in his life and why he's on the run and it'd be like a nightmare to him my life isn't nightmare he would say first of all my families all messed up my dad loves my older brother and has neglected me doesn't love me blesses my brother but don't even call me I have to steal the blessing father doesn't love me and oh how I long for his approval my brother hates me he's going to kill me he's always been a man of the field and dad bikes him because of that but he's always this just rude individual he's never cared for me he's never taken care of me he's not been the kind of big brother that watches over his little brother he wants to kill me mom loves me but look at her life she doesn't love dad at least she doesn't respect him she's a liar and a cheat and a swindler and that's who I've become I'm the boy that only the mom can love nobody likes me looked at his life looked at his family it's all messed up no blessing there looked at his situation here I am out in the middle of nowhere you know he could think when granddad when my granddad he Abraham wanted to get a wife or my dad he said to servant with camels and gold and gifts and all sorts of things dad sends me out with nothing here I am at least there may have been some stuff but the text doesn't record he had him having anything all alone pitched dark no money running for his life uncle laban is literally a thousand miles away maybe only six or seven hundred miles as the crow flies but as people walk it's about a thousand long way he probably would ask the question am I really blessed does he really blessed the blessing is that he would be wealthy that he would have plenty of money that god would give him good things and what does he have not much that he would be fruitful and multiply and become a great nation and he's single that he would be given the land but he's running away he has no land and it's a thousand miles he would be the leader only he's running because his brother wants to kill him while he saw is at home with mom and dad he's out in the middle of nowhere and heading even further away is he really blessed what's dad's blessing anything and there is some confusion in his mind isn't there because when he stalled he saw his blessing it was prosperity and wealth and status and these sorts of things but now that dad is sending him away dad says the blessing of Abraham I thought that's what I was dealing but dad didn't say anything about that until now what's the deal did he reserve a blessing for me he'd be so confused what's going on am I really blessed am I worthy to be blessed look at my life I hate my life I hate what I've become ever feel that way ever some of us have great families and some of us this like we're with Jacob's like my family is not normal if normal is healthy we are not normal we're not healthy we are dysfunctional
I'm not blessed he would be tempted to say it's kind of amazing that he could go to sleep at all he's not a man of the field like his brother he's a man of tents and yet there he is out there with nothing but sleep does come to him and the blessing that comes in Jacob's wildest dreams are revealed to him his dreams kind of amazing really verse 12 then he dreamed and behold a ladder was set up on the earth and its top reached heaven and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it you know it says ladder and and for the translators that was probably a good word we would probably think more of stairway you know you you folks my age stairway to heaven that sort of stuff heaven's gate there was a cult that talked about that but those are the words that are used are a stairway to heaven a ramp something that was big enough to where angels ascending and descending could pass by each other without you know missing a rung on the ladder it was more a stairway
and God's revealing something to him that heaven is not closed it's open and it talks it makes it sound because the stairway the ladder it's on the earth and goes all the way to heaven but it seems like it's in heaven and it comes down to the earth and because and I say that because it seems like it's not a way for man for Jacob to come to God but for God to come to Jacob and the fact that there's angels and it says ascending and descending I think it's telling us something about the work of God on earth think about it Jacob is saying to himself there is no God I can't see him at all all this blessing I hear about is nothing my life stinks I hate it I see no blessing of God I see no God and yet God comes to him God reveals himself to him in fact the words could say the picture could be that the gods at the top of the stairway but it could also be translated and I go with those who would translate it this way that that God stood above him I think that's the better understanding of the text because when he says this is another no other than the house of God the gate of heaven that God is here he understands that this is the place of God I'll call it the house of God heaven is open angels ascending and descending he's been at work for a long time reality has just been revealed to him it's been that way even before the dream you know God seems to come when we least expect him doesn't he I mean there he is in this dream and there's God standing right above him and it's it seems like it's always that way in fact I would say in our lives there's often times of testing where we cry out God help me God lead me and it's like silence that's what happened in some sense with Jacob right here's this blessing from his father wants to give to his older brother and and it's like a time of testing and does he do what is right now not at all he acts as though there's no God at all in the time of testing and now that he's disgusted with himself maybe now that he that his life is miserable if he does any kind of soul searching and he looks at his family looks at his life he would he would have to conclude it's hopeless sometimes we succeed in the test right our Lord Jesus goes to the wilderness led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil Luke says in chapter 4 and when it's all over angels come and minister to him and he's successful here's a story where he's unsuccessful he doesn't pass the test he doesn't look like a man of faith at all and yet God comes to him and I think that's great news too because often in our lives in our weakness we fail we do not live by faith it's usually in the debrief it's usually in thinking about it afterwards we say I should have done this I should have said this I should have never done that and we reflect don't we look God shows up and it's not that God just shows up in this dream showing him that the way to heaven is open that God himself is coming to him but look at the words he says I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants by the way descendants is the word seed also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth and shall spread abroad to the west and the east to the north and the south and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed that is the blessing of Abraham isn't it you hear the words that God said to Abraham ringing in the word you are the one Jacob I'm coming to you and it goes even further not only is he given this coveted desire so to speak from the family to be the head the leader the the one in whose line the seed the Christ will come but look how God speaks further to him in verse 15 behold I am with you and I will keep you wherever you go and I will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you I added the first person singular pron I said I several times more than it was there but that is God's promise to him each one of those I'll be I am with you I will go with you wherever you go and bless you and bring you back I'm going to do all this and I won't leave until I have that's incredible what incredible blessing I think the amazing thing is that we can find Jesus Christ in this text he is the one who makes all God's dreams come true God gave the dream God makes it come true through Jesus Christ think about it Jesus is the promised seed he is the seed of the woman who crushed Satan's hand who won the victory he is the one in whom all the families of the earth are blessed and he is the stairway to heaven he is the one by whom God comes to us and reveals himself and redeems he is the one whom God sent to be the way of life and to open heaven's gate
in Jesus Christ Jacob is blessed in Jesus Christ God opens the way and this blessing God told us right here in this text is for all the families of the earth it's for all of us who would believe look at the list of blessings I put on page 11 it's not on the overhead but it is on page 11 and the only reason there's only 24 is I had to edit it down because I wanted to fit on one page in readable form
but he's made us in his image he has called us to be his only his children to be holy and blameless he's predestined our election he's given us his Holy Spirit he said nothing he will not fail us Jesus himself I will not leave you low I am with you always even to the end of the age he's promised to bless us to to watch over us to protect us he's given us an inheritance not just the promised land but the promised heavens and earth a new heavens and a new earth blessed beyond our wildest imagination blessed beyond our wildest dreams look how look how Jacob responds to this I told you I think I've kind of misled you I want to apologize for that I've told you at other times Jacob's a jerk look out he responds God comes with all these strong statements I will do this I will do this no conditions no nothing just here it is and then I read Jacob's words if the Lord does this if if if then I'm like let me say something to you though if that is the proper rendering of this text I'm going to suggest it's not in just a second but if that's the proper rendering of this text and he's not saved yet if you're here as one who hears the voice of God and all the blessings that he promises but your responses in the future I will receive him you need to know you're in a very precarious place you have no guarantee that you will live to see tomorrow and you should come to him now I've got three fill in the blanks for this third one the first one is come to Jesus if you've never been born again if you've never there's only one fill in the blank so you've got to choose for yourself which one you want to put in there but the first one is come to Jesus the second one is receive him receive the lie the life he offers receive him as the sacrifice for your sins the king of glory the the promised seed who crushes Satan head receive him for all that he is is the second person of the Trinity and the Redeemer of God's love and if you've done these two things then praise him praise Jesus from whom all blessings flow they're all in him he is the stairway he is the way that God himself has come to in himself in Jesus Christ the God incarnate will you receive it will you be found in him you say my life's messed up I've done things that are wrong you don't know how bad I am and I want to say I but I don't but I know about Jesus and he knows about you too he even knows the things you will do after your conversion and he still says come come on to me come on to me
come from a messed up family I come from a messed up life I've made some terrible decisions I'm paying the consequences of them come these blessings cannot be taken away from me come know him he reconciled to him you know we will see the difference between Jacob and Joseph in this series Jacob being a man whom God saves and blesses in a mighty way and he he just squanders his life with bad decision after bad decision after bad decision what he's going to do to his two wives two concubines and twelve children is unconscionable don't squander the blessings of God and don't don't be don't be don't be a curse to those around you be more like Joseph who is another picture of Christ who is perfect Christ not Joseph but Joseph shows us what it is to come from a messed up family and live by faith still heartache still crisis but a man of faith with whom God is with him all his days come and live by faith and live such a life that you are a blessing to others praise him as your daily way of living we come to the let's pray and then we'll come to the table and I do want to ask if you are here as one who has never been reconciled to God who does not have the blessing of God this is the time to come just pray you don't have to come up here do any of that you need to do business with God just do business with him let's pray father we saying earlier praise God from whom all blessings flow and it's true and we do Jesus you are the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father but by you and and the Father comes to us through you and we praise you Lord if there are those who need to come to you please open their eyes please wake them from their nightmare please show them your glory we pray in Jesus name