2nd Sunday in Lent –
Genesis 28:10-17 - Jacob
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“Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” No doubt you have heard those words before as
movies portray the paperboy on the street corner trying to get people’s
attention. Perhaps you have received a
newspaper on your own front porch that has had written across the front page in
big, bold, black letters the word, ATTENTION! In either case, the goal of the paperboy or
the Newspaper editor is to try and get your undivided focus on what they have
for you. Moses, the author of the book
of Genesis, does that very same thing today in our lesson. Three times in just two of these verses he
uses words that say ATTENTION! And what is
it that he calls our attention to?
Simply this: awesome is the LORD of heaven!
But before we go forward with our lesson
this morning, let us first go back…back to Isaac and Rebekah. You may remember that after many years of
being unable to conceive, the Lord blessed Rebekah and
she became pregnant with twins. But during
her pregnancy, Rebekah became anxious as the babies
jostled within her, and wondered what was happening to her. God answered her by saying, “Two nations are in your womb, and two
peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the
other, and the older will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). That younger son would be Jacob, his older
brother Esau, and the words of the Lord the promise that Jacob would be the son
through whom the promise of Abraham and Isaac would continue. This was the promise that included those descendants
as numerous as the stars, the possession of the Promised Land, and that Great Descendant
through whom all people would be blessed.
This promise was Jacob’s. God had
said so.
But now, Jacob and his mother Rebekah weren’t quite so sure that God was going to be able
to fulfill that promise by himself.
After all, things weren’t looking so good. Isaac, who favored his son Esau, was about to
give the blessing to the wrong son. Jacob
and his mother thought that God must need help.
In their minds, it was time for a human plan. So Jacob and Rebekah
came up with a scheme to outwit the scheme to give the blessing to the wrong
son – and they tricked and lied to Isaac.
All the while justifying their actions by saying, hey, it was his
blessing by right.
Of course, this scheming was nothing
knew for this family. It always seemed
that in moments of desperation they felt the need to step in and help God. Abraham schemed to protect Sarah by lying to Pharaoh
and later to Abimelech, all because it seemed to him
that God couldn’t protect her. Sarah
schemed to get the child of promise by giving Hagar to Abraham, because it
seemed impossible for God to provide that child through her old womb. And now Rebekah, in
a moment of desperation, has a plan for Jacob, but in reality she’s telling God
she has a plan for Him.
Always these plans. Plans to get what is promised because it
seems that the Promiser
is slow in fulfilling. Plans that
require the bending of God’s law. Plans
that reveal the arrogance of human plans.
And they never quite work out, do they?
There is always some fallout from the plan.
Jacob was feeling that fallout right
now. He had relied on his own cleverness
and resources, and now he was on the run.
His brother Esau was filled with rage.
He had nothing but his shepherd’s staff.
His destination: 500 miles away through desolate and dangerous
country. He was supposed to get this
blessing, that’s what God said! But now
he is leaving the very land he and his descendants are supposed to inherit. He was supposed to be a great nation, but now
there was a death threat on his head.
All nations on earth were supposed to be blessed through him, but now he
had so angered the God from whom all blessings flow, could he really expect
that? None of it had turned out the way
it was supposed to. Everything was
falling apart.
We know what that’s like too, don’t
we? Trying to take matters into our own
hands. Trying to play God. Relying on our own plans. Take a look at your offerings. Have we schemed and followed our plans
instead of setting aside a generous portion of what God has given us, all because
we don’t really trust that God can take care of us? We tell God that some of his Commandments are
burdensome and our lives would be better if we just ignored a few. After all, we say, He didn’t really know what
life was going to be like in the 21st Century when he originally
gave them. What about the times when our
prayers have taken the tone: “Lord, here is the way you should do it. This is the plan that will work. I know my life. I know what’s best for me. Let me help you.” We justify our actions by saying it’s the end
result that matters. So, if God’s
teaching of Church Fellowship seems to our reason to get in the way, we tell
ourselves its ok to bend that teaching this way and that so we don’t offend
anyone. We justify just a little bit of
dishonesty, or just a little bit of deception, or just a little bit of talking
behind someone’s back, because what they are trying to get we believe we
deserve more than they do. Or what about
living together before marriage? People
justify that too by saying, well, so many marriages end in divorce and that
isn’t right either. Or, I had a bad
experience before, God doesn’t want me to be unhappy and go through that
again.
But when was it that God made us god?
What verses are in your Bible that aren’t in mine that say it’s ok to
bend God’s law as long as it turns out ok in the end? You see, that is the problem with us. We are so good at convincing ourselves that
some sin is ok; that some sin God will just ignore because, ah well, he must
know how it is. But no sin is ok. Every one - whether big, little, or small - earns
us the right to go to hell. And our
human plans will always fail when we make them in rebellion to God’s plan or
make them because we doubt his plan.
Just look at Jacob. As a result
of his plan, he lay down his head in sadness of heart and dread of spirit as a
homeless wanderer.
And now, Moses grabs our attention.
He writes in such a way as to say: “Jacob was dreaming – and behold a
stairway!...and behold, angels!...attention, there is the LORD himself.” What an awesome sight this must have been for
Jacob. He had made so many
mistakes. Although he had been brought
to repentance, he didn’t know where he stood with God. Would the promise be taken away from him? What was going to happen to him? Yet with this vision, God pictures for Jacob in
a graphic way the comforting truth of how he takes personal interest in the
lives of his believers. How awesome is
the LORD of heaven.
First there was the picture of the angels. Angels are God’s ministering spirits, sent by
God to bring God’s help and protection to his people. They are at work under the constant
supervision of the LORD so that all the promises God gives will be
accomplished. Jacob was to know that God
would command his angels concerning him to guard him in all his ways. (Psalm
91:11)
Then there was the Lord standing at the top, saying, “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.
Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth…All peoples on earth
will be blessed through you and your offspring.” Even though Jacob had left home with the blessing
of Abraham resting on him, it didn’t feel like he had it. Could a holy God really include someone like
him in that promise? He knew he didn’t
deserve it. How angry was God that he
had taken matters into his own hands?
But now, the LORD, the covenant God who had revealed himself and the
promise to Abraham and Isaac, now says to Jacob, “All I promised first to them
I now promise to you.” The very words
Jacob had tricked Isaac into giving him are now repeated from the very lips of
God. Here was no deception. Jacob knew that he had been forgiven and where
he stood with God.
Of course, there was more to the vision than perhaps Jacob even
realized. The ladder is a picture or
type of Christ, the God-man, who came down from heaven to win a world lost in
sin back to God again. This connection
is made by Jesus himself when he said to Nathanael, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven
open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John
And Jesus is our battle plan too.
He is the one Mediator between God and man. In Jesus, there is forgiveness for our sins
of deceit and doubt. On the cross, Jesus
paid for our sins of bending his laws to fit our wants. With his innocent blood, Jesus paid for our
sins of trying to climb into heaven and play god. With his sacrifice, Jesus atoned for all the
times we have tried to take the credit or thought that we knew better. Jesus is the battle plan that works, unlike
all our human plans, because he actually dealt with sin.
In the morning Jacob awoke with a start. He had been given a glimpse into the mind of
God. He’d seen the greatest plan ever
conceived. And then, of course, there
was that final promise. “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.” Oh
how Jacob must have loved to hear that.
He was leaving the land of promise, the future birthplace of the
Christ. He was traveling 500 miles to
place and a people he didn’t know. What
would happen? God told him, everything
will be alright. I will bring the
promise to completion. I will bring you
back.
Our promised land is, of course, not the