Genesis 28-29 - Part A

This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig is all about connecting you to the never-changing truth of God's Word through verse-by-verse teaching.

That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others. Before we get started with the program, we want to invite you to check out connectwithskip.com. There you'll find resources like full message series, daily devotionals, and more. And while you're at it, be sure to sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails and receive teaching from God's Word right in your inbox each day. Sign up today at connectwithskip.com.

That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. The Gallup organization tells us that America's favorite hymn is, guess what, Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound. We know the words, most everyone knows the words, Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. There have been some people that stumble over the words wretch like me. That saved a wretch like me? Who wrote that?

Well, I'll give you a brief thumbnail sketch. It was written by a man named John Newton. He was raised in a Christian home. He had a Christian mother who taught him scripture from an early age, but she died and he was raised by other relatives. Because of the bitterness of the loss of his mother's death and being transposed into other families, he grew quite bitter against God, against Christianity, and he would have been considered a profligate, just totally destitute of any spiritual desire whatsoever. Even at a young age, he had a desire to leave home and he eventually ran away from home and joined the British Navy.

He could out drink and out cuss most people and he was proud of it. He also got involved in the slave trade, the selling of human beings. His conscience grew more and more seared until eventually he almost lost his life. He became a slave himself.

He thought frequently on those long trips about his mother's words. He came back to England safe when he should have died on a couple of occasions and he gave his life to Christ and then he influenced the Parliament of England as a chaplain. It was that John Newton who knew what he was and knew what he was saved from that said, he saved a wretch like me. Jacob could have written that hymn as well. He was a wretch by all standards and yet God has a plan for him. We're going to read his story tonight. We have already started to read his story, a snippet of it in chapter 25 and then on into chapter 27. But there's a huge theme, a line that runs through this chapter. It's the theme of God's grace. Now I've discovered something after a few years of being a Christian. One of the hardest concepts that we have to deal with, interestingly enough, is God's grace.

Receiving something freely, just receiving it freely and then being motivated by that grace toward holy and godly living. As Americans, we are taught good values and the value of hard work and earning a living and earning your keep and earning your way. I don't know if any of you remember that old Smith Barney commercial some years back.

It's a financial management company where this older British bloke was in all of these commercials and he always had that tagline, you may remember it, they make money the old fashioned way, they earn it. Some of you are too young for that and that's why I give so many blank stares but others of you will remember that. There's a lot that feel that way with God. We're going to earn it.

Here's the problem. You can't earn it because God is perfect and doesn't need anything. So the whole concept of earning something before God is fallacious.

It makes no sense. That's where grace comes in. Grace is God bestowing freely His favor toward the most undeserving people. And among that crowd besides us would be Jacob. These two chapters are a love story. And I love love stories if they're the right kind.

I love this one especially. It's a love story between a man and a woman, Jacob and Rachel. It's also a love story between Jacob and his God. And Jacob is going to discover and he completely did not expect what he is about to discover, the depth of God's care and God's provision and God's love for him. Now Jacob as a human being was not particularly spiritual. He did understand the value of the spiritual blessing in the home and that's why he connived and deceived in order to get it. But he's not a particularly spiritual person.

He didn't go about getting it in any spiritual way as we remember. In fact there is no record whatsoever of Jacob praying up to this point. Now we have a record of Abraham praying. We have a record of Isaac in prayer in the field as he waits for his wife.

We have no record of any kind of spiritual movement toward God until we get to this chapter. And we see by God's grace this man start to change. Now if you'll remember Jacob was the homeboy and I don't mean in gang terms like he's my homeboy but he was a boy of the home.

Okay. He liked home. He liked the tent. He liked cooking. He liked Martha Stewart reruns. He liked being inside the tent. He was not an outdoorsman.

He stayed close to home. Now we see him on the run on a journey that takes him five hundred miles from home and he goes to Haran which is the place of his ancestors and he's going to meet up with some of his relatives. That's where he's going and on the way God has some lessons to show him. Now do you remember last time in fact it is in verse 44 where his mother says to him quick get out of here for a few days right for a few days beginning in chapter 28 as he leaves the door of the tent. The few days become 20 years. The few days those 20 years are days in which his mother Rebecca will die and he won't see her ever again and she won't see her son ever again.

But here's the good thing and this is why it applies to us. This guy Jacob is a work in progress. You've heard that saying this guy is a piece of work. This guy is a piece of work. A piece of God's work. His workmanship. A work in progress. How many of you consider yourself a work in progress? Boy I sure am. In fact maybe he even had a bumper sticker on his chariot be patient with me God isn't done with me yet.

At least it would have worked for him. Now in verse 1 of chapter 28 here's where he goes wife hunting in this chapter. And 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 Padan Aram.

That's a district of Mesopotamia. Basically he's going to Iraq to the house of Bethuel 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 peoples and give you the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants with 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 Padan Aram to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian the brother of Rebecca the mother of Jacob and Esau. Esau saw that Jacob or that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there and that he as he blessed him he gave him a charge saying you shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Padan Aram. So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son the sister of Nabajoth to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

Why is this put here? Simply to let us know that Esau is still wanting that blessing and in order to perhaps regain the blessing from his father that he lost he goes now to marry somebody in his own family one of the daughters of Ishmael because he realizes that's what dad wanted. Now this is really a warped way of thinking that is I'm going to do evil that good may come. What is the evil I speak of? Multiplying wives into yourself. He had already married some women who were Canaanites but he thought maybe I can just add to my collection of women and that will be enough to regain the blessing back.

It never will happen but it's part of the intrigue that forms the background of the story. Now Jacob verse 10 went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran and so he came to a certain place. He stayed there all night because the sun had set and he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head that was his pillow a rock and he laid down in that place to sleep. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching it's more important than ever for Christians to stand for truth in our broken culture and in the God Speaks biblical answers for today's issues collection of booklets from Skip Heitzig you'll get equipped to speak God's timeless truth into the big issues of our time. God Speaks biblical answers for today's issues is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your resources when you give $50 or more today to help reach people around the world with the good news of Jesus through Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. The place that he is at we'll discover is a place called Bethel a name that he himself calls it ancient Luz at least that is what it was called during Abraham's time that means he is about 12 miles north of Jerusalem that means on the first day of travel he must have had an early start he went about 40 to 45 50 miles depending on which route he would take. It's a long day's journey he is fleeing he's running away and I'm sure he is filled with all sorts of emotion and questions again he's always been around home now he's on his own and he's probably thinking thoughts like will I ever see my mom and dad again will my brother Esau chase me down and kill me out here in the wilderness out here in the desert and where is God in all this where is the Lord maybe he's thinking that thought maybe he has no thought at all of God but I bet you that night that first night away from home those 40 miles away from home all alone on his own he was a bit edgy. I'm sure that the night just seemed extra dark to him every little sound startled him through the night as he's there alone and a rock for his pillow. Somebody put it this way a long journey an uneasy conscience and a hard pillow that's the stuff that dreams are made of and boy is he about to have a dream that turns out to be a revelation of God.

The place that he is at Bethel is a beautiful spot it's sort of in the heart of the land of Israel it's in the mountain range the Jerusalem mountain range as I said about 12 miles north of Jerusalem it's beautiful but it's barren it's very rocky there I've been there before our tours don't go to Bethel because it is considered West Bank territory and the only reason I was allowed to I really wasn't allowed to go there I told my tour guide one year I'll meet you in Jerusalem and I took an Israeli soldier with me who they always carry guns with him and I he needed a trip to Jerusalem so I thought great I've got cover let's go to some of these places that you can't go so this was one of them so anyway all of that to say a beautiful place but a very very barren place the the last place you would ever expect God to hang out a God-forsaken place especially in that day and that age and he lays down he puts his head on that rock and he probably looks up at the sky and no lights back then no towns really to speak of back then that would give any light pollution so just black sky and brilliant stars the handiwork of God I love to go camping when you go camping you are looking up at what all of our ancient friends the patriarchs the saints of old our Lord himself the sky that they looked at and I often think when I go camping thoughts like this this is the sky that Jacob was checking out I wonder what thoughts went through his mind as he was looking up I don't know about you but when I look up at the Milky Way galaxy a couple of thoughts come to my mind number one vastness it's so vast I'm told it's a hundred thousand light years by ten thousand light years I'm told there are 100 billion stars in that Milky Way galaxy I've never counted them I've just been told that I wouldn't know for sure but I believe the count I'm also told that there are 100 billion other galaxies besides them in my Bible tells me that God spans the universe or measures it with the span of his hand the span is from the thumb to the forefinger so God looks at that huge vastness and goes it's only that big so when I look up I think vastness I think power but I don't think of intimacy with God because it is so vast I think if God is doing that to the universe and I'm a speck in it it gives me a sense of distance I imagine myself what it would be like if I were strapped to a beam of light traveling at 186,000 miles per second it would take me a hundred thousand years to get from one end of the galaxy I'm looking at to the other end so it's vast and certainly made by an all-powerful God but I just think God's distant it's so remote it's hard for me to get my mind around being intimate and friendly with the God who does that to the universe measures it like that Jacob looks up and all these thoughts are pouring through his mind and then he dreamed and behold a ladder was set up on 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 Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac the land on which you lie I will give it to your descendants also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth you shall spread abroad to the west to the east to the north to the south and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed so there's Jacob looking up at the sky it's so big it's so vast and as David said when I consider the heavens the work of your fingers the sun and the moon which you have ordained what is man that you're even mindful of him but what Jacob discovers when he falls asleep in this dream that God is very mindful of him now it's going to shock him it's going to change him it's going to change him he's going to get more spiritual thank God from this episode dreams are typical we're told that people dream every night you may not remember them but you have dreams every night but some dreams are weird some dreams are unusual when my brother Rick was a boy he used to have all sorts of strange dreams where he would be caught sleepwalking they my dad would find him down the street because he got up out of bed walked out the front door and just started walking down the street sometimes in the middle of the street it's dangerous uh Chip Lusko's son Levi was with us once in Israel and he has had episodes of wild dreams and sleepwalking he got up out of bed in his hotel room in Jerusalem went into the elevator went all the way down the elevator to the lobby walked out of the lobby and then he woke up and he was just in his underwear in the hotel lobby what a shock that would be to wake up where am I oh my goodness not all dreams are from the Lord but some can be from the Lord this one was I mean you can have a late night pizza with onions and get dreams but this is a dream uniquely from the Lord and it's interesting he sees a ladder a sulam in Hebrew literally a staircase or a stairway this was the original stairway to heaven right here and he sees angels and God's angels are both ascending going up and descending coming down first they're ascending it says that means they had been on the earth and then some are descending perhaps like they're taking shifts and one shift has finished its work and they're going up and the other shift is beginning its shift so it comes down and the whole point is that God is involved in human affairs God is involved in what's going on in the earth Jacob is thinking I'm in a God-forsaken place I've run away from home I've stolen a blessing I've been a deceiver I'm running for my life surely God can't be here and then he gets this wild dream of the angels of God that are ascending and descending God is involved in human affairs and God gives him a promise and we read part of the promise now this is what I love when God begins to speak to him in the dream and it is the Lord God doesn't reprimand him now what if you were the Lord and you knew Jacob what would your first words be to him once in a dream he has your attention by the way perhaps he got the dream because he wouldn't listen to God any other way so you don't think that people are necessarily more spiritual because they get dreams sometimes the most ungodly people in the Bible get a dream from the Lord God can't get through to them any other way in the conscious world so when they're knocked out and subconscious God can speak to them and so if God can't speak to you in a still small voice he may need to amp it up and get your attention via a dream so it doesn't necessarily mean you're more spiritual it could mean you're less spiritual and more carnal there's an old Yiddish proverb that says if if a man calls you a donkey pay him no heed if two men call you a donkey pay them no heed if three men call you a donkey buy a saddle not listening to God at all up to this point now listening to God but the first words God speaks aren't words of reprimand I would reprimand him I'd say Jacob you deceitful idiot look what you've gotten yourself into now here's the road ahead of you and how hard it's going to be these are words of grace these are words of promise and God makes three promises the promise of provision first of all I'm going to give you the land that you are that you now lie on now my mind immediately went to the fact that he did lie a lot he was a liar and God says the land that you lie on but that's stretching the point I mean he lying down on it was the same promise that God made to Abraham and to Isaac he now makes to Jacob this land the land that we call Israel today I've given it to Abraham Isaac and Jacob so from a biblical viewpoint not a military viewpoint not a recently historical viewpoint not a political viewpoint but from a biblical viewpoint it's really easy to say who the land belongs to over there well who owns the land who has the right to that land Abraham Isaac the 12 tribes of Jacob the children of Israel God makes him a promise of provision then notice also God makes him a promise of his presence he says verse 15 behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. Thanks for listening to connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you confidently speak God's timeless truth into our culture. Pastor Skip's God Speaks biblical answers for today's issues collection of booklets is our thanks for your support of connect with Skip Heitzig today request your copy when you give $50 or more call 800-922-1888 that's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate and did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.