Genesis chapter 28. The title
of the lesson, God Appears to Jacob. God Appears to Jacob. Now back in chapter 27, in verse
41, is written, Esau hated Jacob
because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. He despised, he hated Jacob. Esau had purposed in his heart that he was going to kill Jacob
after Isaac died. It didn't matter if Rebecca was
still alive, he would like for her to feel the pain because
he knew she was in on this. But he was gonna wait until Isaac
had died, then he said, then I'm gonna kill my brother Jacob. And evidently he told that to
somebody because Rebecca was told this, and she sends Jacob
away. You see here in, chapter 28,
well actually it comes back here in chapter 27, verse 46, and
Rebekah said to Isaac, I'm weary of my life because of the daughters
of Heth, that's the ones that married Esau. If Jacob take a
wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, which are the
daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? daughter-in-laws
are killing me. That's what she's saying. She's
just saying, because of their idolatry and the way they conducted
themselves, and she did not approve of it, and she says, Jacob, Jacob
is not gonna marry any of these Canaanite-ish women. And so,
she tells Isaac this, and Isaac called Jacob and blessed him
and charged him and said to him, thou shalt not take a wife of
the Canaan. of the daughters of Canaan, arise and go to Bethlehem,
to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee
a wife from there, and of the daughters of Laman, thy mother's
brother. So Rebecca, she has a twofold purpose in this. One, she did not want Jacob to
marry the women of Canaan because of the idolatry and that matter. But she also knew about Esau's
plan to kill Jacob. And so she makes this plan up
to send him away to get a wife. And in doing so, she gets him
out of the way or the sights of Esau. She gets him out of
his sights and she says, back over in chapter 27, you go away
for a little while and I'll send for you. When things cool down,
I'll send for you. In a few days, in a few days
I'll send for you. As far as I know, she never saw
him again. She never saw him again. Now
her death is not recorded, but it's not recorded that she ever
saw Jacob again. One of the writers said this,
I thought this was good. We cannot manipulate the results
of sin. We can't manipulate them to come
out to good ends or good means. When sin is conceived, the scripture
says it brings forth death. And we know this, when it's conceived,
it sure brings forth trouble. And Rebecca's just saying, look,
you just leave for a little while, I'll send for you. When he cools
down, he'll cool off and come to his senses. He never comes
back to her, she never sees him again. And so here, as I say,
she forbids Jacob to marry any of these women, so she talks
to Isaac about it, and Isaac sends him to her mother's house.
But here's a good, I want you to get this point. It is written
over in 2 Corinthians 6.14, be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers. When I read that, that scripture
just jumped out at me. She says don't marry a Canaanite. Abraham, when Abraham sent his
servant to find a wife for Isaac, he said don't you find a wife
among these Canaanites. You go back, you go back to our
people and you get a wife and the Lord prospers you, you bring
her. But don't you get one among these people we're living among.
They're idolatrous. And Paul basically saying the
same thing. He said, don't be unequally yoked
with unbelievers. It's just gonna lead to trouble.
It's gonna lead to trouble. I can say this with confidence. For a believer to purposely marry
an unbeliever, that believer cannot expect God's blessing
on that house. Now if he does, he does, but
you can't expect God's blessing. So now we come to chapter 28,
and we're going to pick it up really over here in verse 11
when Jacob has his dream of the ladder. But Isaac here in verse
one realizes God's hand in this, and he blesses Jacob. He doesn't
try to change anything. I know Isaac realizes this is
of God. This is of God. And he says,
go to your mother's house. Now another scripture I thought
of over in Galatians chapter four, verse 26. He said, the
Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all. When it comes to marriage, for
believers, when it comes to marriage, marry within the gospel. Marry
within the gospel. Go to your mother's house. It's
like if a single person is looking for a spouse, I'm not talking
about a person who believes the gospel, look within the church. I'm telling you, this is my advice.
Look within the church. Look among God's people. Look
among God's people for your spouse. That's why he said, he said,
go to your mother's house and you get a wife. And Isaac in
verses three and four, he blesses Jacob again. And this time when
he blesses him, he mentions the blessings of Abraham, the blessings
of the covenant. And Esau, He sees what's going
on here. And he realizes that the Canaanite
women were a grief. They were a grief to Isaac and
Rebekah. And so in his scheming, he goes
where? To Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman. The scripture says the son of
the bondwoman will not be heir with the son of the free woman.
So in what he's doing, he's thinking, well, Since they sent Jacob back
to get a wife from her mother's house, he said, if I get one from the
family, he said, he'll be happy with me. Maybe I can change his
mind. Do you know as well as I do, it
says in Hebrews, he found no place of repentance, though he
sought it bitterly with tears. So he goes to the son of the
bottom woman and gets away. He just keeps making it worse
for himself. Now, Jacob takes off. He takes
off and here in verse 10, it says, And Jacob went out from
Beersheba and went to Haran. Now here's where the meat of
the message is gonna be. Jacob takes off, looking for
a wife, not looking for God. He's not looking for God, he's
looking for a wife, and he's looking to save his skin. Jacob knows he's guilty. He knows he's guilty. He knows
he's guilty of this supplanting and conniving, he knows he's
guilty of that. Jacob, he's guilty. He goes out there and he's out
there in darkness. He's out there on his own. You
see in verse 11, and he lighted upon a certain place. He's out
there all by himself. And he tarried there all night
because the sun was set. He took the stones of that place
and put them for his pillow, laid down in that place to sleep.
Where does God find Jacob? Where does he find him? God finds
Jacob, and this is a good picture of us by nature. God finds Jacob
laying in the dust. He's out there laying on the
ground. He had a comfortable place to sleep before. He had
a pillow to put under his head. But now, because of his sin,
he's on the run. He's on the run. And God finds
Jacob out there at nighttime, in the darkness, with a stone
for a pillow, that's where God finds Jacob. And then it says in verse 12,
And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the
top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God
ascending and descending on it. I believe this is when God saved
Jacob. I believe before that, he was
raised up in the home. He was taught by Isaac. He was
taught the gospel. He attended the worship service
when Isaac would conduct them. He saw the sacrifices, just like
children being brought up in the Bible classes. They're taught
the gospel, if they're sitting under the gospel. They're taught
the gospel. They know who Christ is, but
not until Christ reveals himself is a person saved. Not until
then. Jacob knew all this. But when
he went out on his own because of his sin, that's the reason
he's sent out. You know, she said find him a wife, but I think
the real reason to send him out is to keep Esau from killing
him for what he did. So he's out there. And I believe
this is the first time Jacob encountered God Almighty himself. And God reveals himself to Jacob. Jacob knew about God, but he
didn't know God. I don't believe he did, not until
this night. And it's interesting, when God
revealed himself to Jacob, he gives him a dream, a vision,
a type, and it's a ladder. It's a ladder. And you know that
ladder represents Jesus Christ. This is why I believe that this
is when Jacob was saved, that the Lord made Himself known to
him, standing at the top of this ladder. You know, it's not until
you come face to face with Christ and Him crucified, with Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, that's when God reveals Himself. That's
when He reveals Himself. He's in Christ. A ladder is revealed
to Jacob, and we know this ladder is a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Don't you turn over to John chapter 1. John chapter
1. John chapter 1, look in verse
46. And Nathanael said unto him,
Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith
unto him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to
him, and saith of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile. Nathanael said unto him, Whence
knowest thou me? How do you know me? Have we ever
met? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the
fig tree, I saw thee. The Lord is sending forth His
deity here, omnipresence. I saw you. I saw you all right. I saw you before the world began.
That tree was planted for you to sit under and for me to meet
you here and to be written in the Scriptures. Nathanael answered and said unto
him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of
Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Behold, the Lord said
unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig
tree, believest thou, thou shalt see greater things than these.
And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter
you shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of Man. Now turn back to Genesis
28. And verse 12, And he dreamed,
and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and on top of it reached
to heaven. And behold, the angels of God,
what are they doing? Ascending and descending. Christ is this ladder. Christ
is this ladder. The bottom of it rested on the
earth. That's the manhood of Christ. Bone of our bone, flesh
of our flesh, that's the manhood of Christ. And the top of reaching
into heaven, right into the throne of God, that's the deity of Christ. This is a clear picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ and how God, how God saves sinners through
this one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And these angels that go up and
down this ladder are his servants. They go up and down, which shows
this. It shows that they are going
up and down getting their orders. They don't know what's going
to happen next. I don't know what's going to happen next.
They don't know what's going to happen next. But they get their orders to
go here, go there, protect this one, watch over that one. They
go up and down. They are under the authority
of the Lord Jesus Christ and He orders them. Everything He
orders them to do has to do with me and you. Everything He orders
them to do has to do with us, His people. Now here in verse 13 and 14,
And behold, the Lord stood above this ladder, And he said, I am
the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac.
He's revealing himself. Salvation comes by revelation.
He's making himself known to Jacob. And he says, the land
whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And
thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt
spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north,
and to the south. And in thee, and in thy seed,
and that seed is the Lord Jesus Christ, shall all families of
the earth be blessed." God stood above this ladder and
revealed himself to Jacob. To Jacob. If God is pleased to
reveal himself to me, to you, to any other sinner, It's going
to be in Christ. It's going to be in Christ. Our Lord said, no man knows if
the Father saves the Son and He dooms whoever the Son will
reveal Him. And He calls Himself the God
of Abraham and Isaac. God gave the promise. He made
a covenant with Abraham. And then that same covenant with
Isaac. And now Jacob is not a different God. There's only one God. There's
only one God. And that one God is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the one God. Now he gives three promises of
grace here. He promises, he gives a promise
of the land that he said he's on, which is the promised land.
Canaan is called the promised land, which represents heaven,
which represents the promised land. It's been in God's presence,
in God's paradise, in God's heaven. And he promises, promises that
I'll give it to you in Christ. In Christ we have a promise of
standing someday in God's paradise, in God's presence, on a new earth. We have God's promise on that.
In Christ we have God's promise. He establishes this promise,
standing at the top of this ladder, which represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then he gives a promise of the seed through whom all
nations would be blessed. In other words, he's telling
Jacob the Messiah is going to come through your lineage. I'm going to see to it. This
is what Esau despised. Esau despised the birthright.
He didn't see the spiritual implication of it. What Esau despised was
that, I'm gonna die, and what good is all this double proportion
to the firstborn gonna do me? But he didn't die, and then years
go by, and then he wanted it back. He wanted it back. God gave it to Jacob. God gave
it to Jacob. And I tell you what, to whomever
God gives salvation, that's who's gonna have it. To whom the Lord
gives it. Salvation is in his hands to
give. It's in his hands. And then the third promise is
a promise of his, now listen, this is, it's all good, but he
gives Jacob the promise of his presence. I'll never leave you. He said, Jacob, wherever you
go, I'll be with you. God gave Jacob this promise,
wherever you go, I'll be with you. Do we not have that same
promise in the book of Hebrews? I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. You and I, everyone whom God
saves, everyone that believes the gospel, they are never alone. You're never alone. You may feel
like you're alone, but you're never alone. The Lord said, I
will never leave thee nor forsake thee. I am with you. In one place over in Isaiah,
he said, when you go through the water, I'll be with you. Through the fire, I'll burn you
and I'll kindle upon you, but when you go through these things,
I'm with you. I'm not watching you. I'm with you. God gave this promise to Jacob
and we have this promise in the Lord Jesus Christ of God's continual
presence. That gives me great comfort living
in such a wicked world. We live in a very wicked world. And it is comforting to me to
know I have God's presence. Scripture says the angel of the
Lord encampeth round about them. You know who that angel of the
Lord is there? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He encamps about
His people. And all these angels that go
up and down this ladder, who are under His authority, He,
I'm telling you the truth, He has them watching your house.
He has them watching your back, so to speak. That's real. That's not a fairy
tale. That's real. That's real. And then Jacob, verse 16, he
wakes up. And Jacob awoke out of his sleep
and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place. And I knew
it not. He wasn't looking for the Lord.
Jacob was getting out of town. He was getting out of Dodge.
That's exactly what he was doing. And on his way out, he was looking
for a wife. He was going to go to his mother's
house and get a wife. But he was getting out of town.
The Lord wasn't on his mind. Jacob awoke with new convictions,
I mean real convictions, than he had before. Jacob met God. Surely, he said, the Lord, Jehovah,
the self-existing one is in this place, and I was ignorant of
it. You know, I'm sure, and I'm sure
of this, There's been many of you sitting in this place, ignorant
of God, ignorant of Christ, and one day, one day, God revealed
Himself to you through the Gospel, through the preaching of the
Gospel, God made Himself known to you. And you can say with
Jacob, surely God was in this place, and I didn't know it.
No, I was just coming to the service, going home, you know,
And then one day, God made Himself known. Surely the Lord is in this place.
He didn't say He was, He said He is. He's in the presence of
God. And He knew He was in the presence
of God. I don't think you can be... If
God has given you life, you can't be in the presence of God and
not know it. How can someone like, someone
that great, come to me, and me be in his presence, and not know
it? Not if he's giving me life. Now, I know a dead person. You
know, there can be people in here spiritually dead, and God's
in this place, and they don't know it. But if he gives you
life, you're gonna know it. You're gonna know it. When the
Gospels preach, you're gonna say, that's right. and your heart's gonna leap. Your heart's gonna leap in you
when you hear the gospel. You remember when Mary visited Elizabeth. She was
pregnant with the Lord. And Elizabeth was pregnant with
John the Baptist. She was like six months, I think,
with her. And when Mary walked into the
room, It says the baby leaped. John the Baptist in Elizabeth,
it says the baby leaped in her womb. Have you ever sat under
the Gospel? The preaching of the Gospel?
And had that kind of experience? You just felt something leap
within you. You just wanted to stand up and
say, that's it! That's it! That's the Gospel!
That's the truth! That's the truth! Surely God's
in this place, and He's made me to know it.
He's made me to know it now. Jacob, we read here for the first
time, was afraid. It says in verse 17, it says,
and he was afraid. You ever read through the scriptures
and every time a prophet or you go over in Revelation when they
come into the presence of God, they fall down like dead men.
They fall down like dead men. They are slain to come into such
great presence. Jacobus was afraid and he said,
is this place. And he's not talking about dreadful
or like being awful in a bad way. It's dreadful in the presence
of God. He's saying, my soul. He felt
for the first time, Jacob felt for the first time his wretchedness. He was a supplanter, but it really
came home to him. It really came home to him right
here of who God is and what He is. Right here. And the only hope he had of coming
before God is that ladder. The Lord Jesus Christ. How dreadful is this place. This
is none other, he says, than the house of God. The house of
God. Jacob had a new understanding
of God. Like Job, at the end of the trial,
he said, By the hearing of the ear I have heard of thee, but
now mine eye seeth thee, and I abhor myself in sackcloth and
ashes. Well, I think for the first time
there was real spiritual worship. And I tell you what, Jacob's
not a young man here. 80s? He's probably in his 80s
at this time. Real spiritual worship happened
for the first time in Jacob's heart and it happened when God
manifested himself at the top of this ladder. and that latter you know is Christ.
And Jacob rose up, in verse 18, Jacob rose up early in the morning,
he took the stone that he had put for his pillows and set it
up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He rose up
and worshipped. He worshipped God. I think for
the first time in his heart he worshipped God. He said, this is Bethel. This
is the house of God. Listen here. This is a gate of
heaven. He calls it in one place here
back in verse 17. He said he was afraid and said,
how dreadful this place. This is none other but the house
of God. And this is the gate. This is, this is, you got to
get this. This is the gate of heaven. This is the door. Who
said that? Who said, I am the door, by me
if any man enter in? The Lord Jesus Christ. This,
he said, is the gate of heaven. Right here, where this ladder
has been revealed, this ladder that represents Christ, he said,
this is the door of heaven. And the Lord Jesus Christ comes
along a few thousand years later and says, I am the door. I'm the door. I'm the door. Jesus Christ and Him crucified
is the door into God's presence. It's the door of acceptance. But Jacob's still Jacob. That
old nature's still with us, isn't it? Notice this. And Jacob vowed
a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this
way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to
put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace,
then shall the Lord be my God. Bargaining with God. Isn't that
something? He's still Jacob. He's still
Jacob. Here he is saying, If God will
do this, I'll do that. Aren't you glad salvation is
all of grace? And salvation is according to that covenant made
between the Father and the Son, not between, if God will do this,
I'll do this. Jacob, still Jacob. And he says, this stone which
I have set for a pillar shall be God's house and all. I tell
you, God's house, I'm looking at it. God's house is you. You're God's house. That's an
amazing, I would to God that he would enable us, as time goes
by, to really get a hold of the union that we have with God in
Christ. Let go of these things, these
old things of the world. Let these things go and cultivate
that union that we have with God in Christ. All right.