1 Dear Friend, this is a transcript of a sermon preached by Pastor Jeremy Tan from the pulpit of Amazing Grace Baptist Church Singapore. We are committed to expository preaching because we believe it is the most effective way to expose, explain and expound the Holy Scriptures. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, [Jesus] expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27). Through careful systematic and sequential exposition, the preacher is able to declare unto you all the counsel of God (Acts 20:27), and Christians are blessed with a regular, well-balanced diet of God s Word. Expository preaching also helps us to have a high view of Scripture. We wish to extend a warm welcome to you to join us in our church services for a time of uplifting worship and helpful Bible study, which will bring rejoicing and refreshment to your soul. Do visit our church website at www.amazingracebc.org or write to us at amazingracebc@gmail.com. JACOB ON THE RUN Genesis 28:1 22 In Genesis 27 we have the scandal of the stolen blessing. The whole family Isaac the patriarch, his wife, and their two sons were involved in this disgraceful incident, and none emerged with any credit. All were at fault. First of all, Isaac at one hundred and thirty-seven years old, visually impaired and thinking his last days were at hand, insisted on giving the final oral blessing of the birthright to his favourite son Esau. Apart from poor health, Isaac was also a man in spiritual decline. He knew that God had chosen Jacob, yet he wanted his older son to have the birthright. The reason is that he loved the savoury venison that Esau often brought from the field and cooked for him. Although Esau was spiritually unsuitable, Isaac was controlled by his fleshly appetite. His palate had long since governed his heart (25:28) and silenced his tongue (for he was powerless to rebuke the sin that was Esau s downfall). (Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary, p. 166-168). Esau had despised his birthright when he sold it to Jacob for a bowl of red lentil stew, yet he wanted his father s blessing despite having disowned it with an oath to his brother. As for Rebekah and Jacob, they knew that the elder shall serve the younger (Genesis 25:23), but they had no faith and no patience in God to give Jacob the birthright. After overhearing the conversation between Isaac and Esau, Rebekah immediately called upon Jacob to deceive the father and defraud the brother. When father and son realized that Jacob had stolen the blessing, Isaac trembled greatly because he realized that God had overruled his desire to give profane Esau (Hebrews 12:16) the birthright. As for Esau, he wept because he was cheated of the blessing. No one enjoys being cheated. However, he did not cry for the spiritual loss in the blessing; instead, his tears were for the loss of the physical and political benefits. But Esau s sorrow quickly turned into deep hatred of his brother, and he vowed to kill Jacob. Esau was not a man who suffered in silence, and when Rebekah learned about his desire to kill Jacob, she turned to diplomacy. She shifted her husband s focus to their bitter
2 experiences with the two Hittite wives of Esau. What if Jacob also took a Hittite woman for his wife? The possibility of another heathen woman in the family so unnerved Isaac that he readily agreed with Rebekah to send Jacob away. Thus with her deft manipulation, Rebekah changed the subject from deception to the marriages of their sons. This brings us now to a new chapter, which is about Jacob on the run. This chapter begins with I. Jacob s Departure. Genesis 28:1-2 1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother s father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother s brother. Padan-aram means the plain of Aram, and this place was located near Haran in northwest Mesopotamia. This was the ancestral homeland of Abraham. Isaac instructed Jacob to go to the house of Bethuel. Bethuel was Rebekah s father, and Abraham s nephew; thus, Bethuel was Jacob s maternal grandfather. Laban was Rebekah s brother, and Jacob s uncle. So Isaac sent his son away on a long journey to Padan-aram to marry a cousin from among the daughters of Laban. Genesis 28:3-4 3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; 4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. In the opening invocation of the blessing, the divine title God Almighty is El Shaddai in Hebrew. This title was first used in Genesis 17:1 when God gave the covenant of circumcision to Abraham. The content of Isaac s blessing is the Abrahamic Covenant. Through this blessing, Jacob was recognized as the third patriarch. Genesis 28:5-9 5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padan-aram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob s and Esau s mother. 6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padan-aram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; 7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padan-aram; 8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; 9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife. Esau knew that his parents were unhappy with his Hittite wives, and now he saw his father and mother sending Jacob away to Mesopotamia to marry a wife from Abraham s family line. But with Jacob gone from the household, Esau saw the opportunity to get into his parents good books, and so the chance to regain his birthright. Ishmael was his father s halfbrother by Abraham, so he decided to marry a daughter of Ishmael to make amends. However, Ishmael was the rejected offspring of Abraham, and not the son in the chosen line. Esau s attempt to do the approved thing was, like most religious efforts of the natural man, superficial and ill-judged. (Kidner, p. 168-170).
3 Many people think like Esau. If I just do my best, God should be pleased enough to accept me, and I should be right with God. If not, then I should get some reward from Him. But God is perfectly holy, and we are all sinners who miss the mark of His perfection. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Think: if we all come short of God s glory, how is it ever possible for us to please Him? No matter how sincere we are, or the amount of effort we put into our religion, we read in Isaiah 64:6 that we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities like the wind, have taken us away. Since all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags to God, we have no hope before God. We are utterly hopeless! This is why religion and good works are man s vain attempts to reach God. Genesis 28:10 And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. Jacob s journey was a difficult one, and not just because of the distance. Back in Beersheba, Esau lies in wait like an angry lion. Ahead in Haran, Laban waits with his spider web to trap and suck the life from his victims. (Genesis: A Commentary, Bruce A. Waltke with Cathi J. Fredricks, p. 388-389). Jacob would not return to the Promised Land for the next twenty years, and Rebekah would not live to see her beloved son ever again. Jacob s departure leads us to II. Jacob s Dream. Genesis 28:11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. Jacob had been on his journey for a day or two and was tired, so at nightfall he stopped at a suitable place to rest. Besides tiredness, he was also lonely and afraid. He was afraid that Esau might have tailed him, and even now he could not be sure that his vengeful brother was not lurking somewhere in the shadows, and waiting to kill him. Jacob had never experienced loneliness up to this moment. People were always around him. His father had become very rich and powerful, the owner of great herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, and the master of a large number of servants. We recall that the Philistines asked Isaac to leave Gerar, their city, because Isaac s tribe had become much mightier than we (Genesis 26:16). So we are not to think of Isaac s household as a handful of tents pegged around the well of Beersheba. There were dozens of tents in Isaac s household, and their encampment was like a small city. But now in the wilderness, alone for the first time in his life, Jacob settled for a stone as his pillow, and he went to sleep. Genesis 28:12 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. The Hebrew word translated ladder is sullam, and this word is a hapax legomenon, which means that it is used only once in the Bible. A better term for the word translated ladder is stairway. This is the preferred term because of the stream of angels ascending and descending. This was heavy traffic! The ladder or stairway is likened to the mound of earth thrown up against a city under siege (2 Samuel 20:15). These angels that travelled up and down between Heaven and earth bring to mind the sons of God, including
4 Satan, who went to and fro in the earth walking up and down in it (Job 1:6; cf. Zechariah 1:10-11). Angels are ministering spirits sent by God to serve the heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14). God used angels as guards, such as the Cherubims that guarded the entrance to the Garden of Eden after the fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:24). God sent angels to communicate with men, such as when they met Abraham to give him the prophecies of Isaac s birth and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:2, 10, 20ff.). Angels were also sent as protectors, such as the two that were sent to Sodom to escort Lot and his family to safety before God destroyed the wicked cities (Genesis 19:1-22). As Jacob watched the heavenly activity in this desolate place, he looked upward and saw the LORD standing at the top of the ladder. The LORD then pronounced to him the terms of the Covenant. Genesis 28:13-14 13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14 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 shall all the families of the earth be blessed. This is the first of seven or eight revelations of God that Jacob would receive in his lifetime (Genesis 31:3; cf. 11-13; 32:1-2, 24-30; 35:1, 9-13; 46:1-4). In this vision, Jacob heard the voice of the LORD God speaking to him. God repeated the original promise made to Abraham, which was reaffirmed to Isaac, and now coming to rest on Jacob. Genesis 28:15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. How sweet to hear the comforting words of the LORD, I am with thee. With these words, he had the assurance that the God of Abraham his grandfather, who is the God of Isaac his father, is also the God of Jacob. Now let us be clear that the patriarchal lineage of father, son, and grandson does not mean that salvation is a family heritage. Faith is personal, and salvation is personal; they are not transferrable. God has children, but He does not have grandchildren! To belong in the family of God, the person must be born-again in the spirit. Salvation is through spiritual regeneration, and regeneration is the sovereign work of God. Just as we played no part and made no decision for our physical births, we do not cause ourselves to be born again in the spirit. Regeneration is not the work of the flesh because the flesh cannot produce the spirit. Regeneration is God s sovereign act of creation through the Holy Spirit. What about trusting God? Isn t that a human decision? It is a human decision produced by faith and repentance, and faith and repentance are not self-generated; they are the gifts of God (Ephesians 2:8; Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25). Now we observe in Genesis 28:15 that God promised to be with Jacob in all places. This means that anywhere Jacob went, even to far-off Mesopotamia, God would be with him. God also promised never to leave Jacob, until He brought the patriarch back home to the Promised Land and fulfilled the blessings of the Covenant.
5 Here we see the grace of God toward Jacob. Jacob was a man on the run, a fugitive running away from the consequences of his deception. He was not looking for God in this place; if anything, he was looking out for Esau! Moreover, Jacob well remembered the parting words of his father s blessing to give him a seed and a land. But here he was, fleeing the Promised Land, without a wife and no children. But God s grace reached out to Jacob in the time and place of his extremity. Friend, it is only when we recognize how utterly hopeless we are as sinners, that we begin to appreciate how amazing God s grace is. God appeared to Jacob in this desolate place and reassured the patriarch of His presence. It was grace that brought Jacob safe thus far, and grace would lead him home! Genesis 28:16-17 16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. 17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Jacob awoke with the sure knowledge that God had chosen him as one of the ancestors in the line of the Messiah. He was filled with mixed emotions: afraid, yet filled with reverential fear of the LORD. The expression the gate of heaven referred to Jacob s vision of the ladder, and the house of God testified to God s presence in the wilderness. Through the vision that he saw in this place, Jacob learned that Heaven is an actual place and an accessible place. III. Jacob s Dedication. Genesis 28:18-19 18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. When Jacob woke up from sleep early in the morning, he took his stone pillow, rearranged it as a pillar, and then anointed it with oil. The pillar and oil are regular symbols of memorial (Deuteronomy 27:2ff; Isaiah 19:19) and consecration (Leviticus 8:10-11). However, pillars were later forbidden because they were used as tokens and objects of Baal worship (Deuteronomy 12:3; Micah 5:13). Thus when the Israelites entered the land, they were directed to destroy the Canaanite pillars (Exodus23:24; 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5; 12:3), and not to erect pillars to the Lord (Deuteronomy 16:22). Jacob named the place Beth-el, which means house of God. Its original name is Luz, the city of the Canaanites. When Abraham first came to Canaan, he built an altar at Bethel (Genesis 12:8), but we are not told that Jacob knew about his grandfather s visit to this place, or even if he knew about Abraham s altar. Jacob not only marked the place with a pillar of stone and anointed it with oil, but he also gave it a new name. Then he completed his dedication to God with a vow. Genesis 28:20-22 20 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, 21 So that I come again to my father s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: 22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
6 This is the longest vow in the Old Testament. (Waltke, p. 393). God did not command Jacob to give the percentage, but in Genesis 14:20 Abraham gave to God tithes of all through Melchizedek, the priest of the most high God. Later, God instituted the tithe of ten percent when He gave the law to the nation Israel. Although the argument against the tithe is that believers in Christ are not under the Old Testament law, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived before the law, yet they gave the tithe or the tenth. In 1 Corinthians 16:2, the principle of proportionate giving is upheld, although the amount is not specified. What is that proportionate amount? It is probably the tithe. Think about it: if we appreciate the graciousness of God toward us, that His grace to us is thoroughly undeserved, then as the beneficiaries of God s grace, we should be gracious in our giving! However, Jacob s vow was not as exemplary as we think. His words if and then are not the language of faith, but the words of a dealmaker. A faithful person does not bargain with God. Faith does not say, If God will do this for me, then I will make Him my God, and do this, that or the other, for Him. Conclusion Centuries after Jacob had his vision of the ladder to Heaven, the Lord Jesus identified Himself as the ladder to Nathanael. John 1:51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. The Lord Jesus Christ is the ladder between Heaven and earth or more specifically, between God and sinners. Christ is the One upon whom the angels ascended and descended in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. We sinners can only approach God and reach Heaven through Christ, who is the way (John 14:6), and the one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5). As for Bethel, the house of God, we do not need to make a pilgrimage to a particular spot on Earth. The church is the body of Christ, composed of all born-again believers in Him, and Christ has His people throughout the world who meet regularly for worship and ministry in the local churches. Christ has promised to be with His people wherever they are! (Matthew 28:20). He said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So then we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me (Hebrews 13:5-6). In a spiritual sense, we are all like Jacob. How so? We are all people who often find ourselves in flight because of our sins. We are people who then imagine that God is not with us because of our sins. But the reality is that there is a ladder that extends between Heaven and earth for us, and the one who controls that ladder from top to bottom is the Lord himself. Astonishingly, he sends his angels as ministering spirits (cf. Hebrews 1:14). He directs our lives. He finds us in our solitary desolations and ministers to us. (R. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing, p. 362-3). Today our gracious God is with us and He continues His ministry to us. Do you know Him who is the Almighty God? He is the same God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; and He has revealed Himself to His creatures in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask
7 God to save you from your sins, and He will grant you faith and repentance to believe in Christ as your personal Saviour! In closing, I think of Jacob in the wilderness, lonely and frightened, and how the hymn Blessed Assurance relates personally to him as he took in the awe-inspiring vision of the ladder, the axis between Heaven and earth, and of the LORD God who stood at the top of the ladder and spoke to him. Like Jacob, the born again believer in Christ can identify the wonderful grace of God described in the lyrics of Fanny Crosby s hymn. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Saviour all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Saviour all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight; Angels descending, bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Saviour am happy and blest; Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. Do you know Christ as your personal Saviour? If you do not know Him, we urge you to believe in Him, and He will grant you His Blessed Assurance! Permission: We share our materials with you as a blessing from the ministry of our church. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by Amazing Grace Baptist Church. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: Copyright: Amazing Grace Baptist Church Singapore. Website: www.amazingracebc.org. Used by permission as granted on website.