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Sermon preached on Genesis 28 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 1/21/2024 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
We continue our Genesis series and come to focus on the life of Jacob. We’ve already been considering him along with his brother Esau in connection with their parents Isaac and Rebekah. But now Genesis will begin to narrow our focus to just Jacob as the next generation of the promised seed of Abraham. That transition happens in verses 1-9 where Isaac comes and blesses Jacob before sending him off to find a suitable wife back in Paddan-aram.
Stepping back then, consider Jacob’s life up to this point. Even though God had promised from before Jacob’s birth to bless him over Esau, yet Jacob kept trusting in himself and trying to get ahead of Esau. That’s what he did to buy the birthright inheritance from his brother for just a bowl of soup. And that’s what he did again when he deceived his blind father into giving him the covenant blessing instead of Esau. And so at this point in his life, Jacob does not yet appear to be a man of God. He has not been trusting in God but himself. Jacob is not concerned with heavenly matters, but with the here and now. He is concerned with getting ahead in life, no matter who it hurts or what moral sacrifices he has to make. For Jacob, it seems the end justifies the means, and his “end”, his goal in life, seems to be his own personal advancement.
But what has it got him, so far? He is now running for his life in our passage. The official story is that Jacob is headed toward Paddan-aram to find a suitable wife, and that is true. But we also know the backstory is that last chapter ended with Esau furious with Jacob’s treachery against him, and was planning to kill him. So Rebekah organized Jacob leaving until Esau’s anger subsidizes. So, while he has managed to steal both birthright and blessing from Esau, his actions have left him on the run, a fugitive, afraid of the vengeance of his own twin brother. What good is his stolen birthright and blessing when he is fleeing the very land of promise where this birthright and blessing find their meaning? Remember, how when Abraham sent his servant to Paddan-aram to find a wife for Isaac, that Abraham told his servant that under no circumstances was Isaac to be allowed to leave the Promised Land to find a wife? Abraham thought it very important that his chosen heir not leave the Promised Land under any circumstance. Yet, that’s what Jacob’s sin has resulted in him doing, and from Jacob’s standpoint, he really doesn’t know if he’ll ever make it back again. Jacob’s trust in himself has not gotten him very far.
Yet, we surely can relate. Haven’t we all tried at some point to do things our own way, instead of God’s way? And it is easy to become self-focused and consumed with pursuing big life goals that don’t have God in the picture. But, such a life, void of God, will ultimately not satisfy. But the good news is that God has intervened in the lives of his elect to call us to a new life. This is what we see here this morning with Jacob. This incident here at Bethel is God intervening in Jacob’s life with grace. This grace begins Jacob’s spiritual transformation from a life of relying upon himself to a life of relying upon God. In fact, it’s Jacob’s entire journey out of the Promised Land and back again, in which we find the larger story of God spiritually transforming Jacob by grace. This reminds us of how God is transforming us by grace too.
And so, when Jacob comes here to Bethel in verse 11, we see that this was not a planned stop. He stayed there simply because the “sun had set.” At this point, this is just some random place where Jacob had to spend the night because the day ended. Surely, Jacob was not expecting anything wonderful to happen that night. Though Jacob needed God and his grace, he wasn’t looking for it. But, it is here, when Jacob is in such need, that God chose to reveal himself to Jacob by this dream. In this dream, God reveals his presence and grace to Jacob. This is what Jacob needed, and it is what we all need.
Let’s begin then by first considering Jacob’s dream. This dream is meant to catch your attention. Genesis uses the word “behold” three times in verses 12-13 in the telling of this dream, each time introducing us to something that Jacob sees. It says, “Behold,” a ladder was setup on earth. “Behold,” the angels of God are ascending and descending upon this ladder. “Behold,” the LORD God is present!
Arguably a better translation of this “ladder” would be “stairway”, that Jacob saw some sort of stairway ascending upward into heaven. Ancient hearers of this might have thought of a ziqqurat, which were pagan temple-towers structured somewhat similar to the shape of Egyptian pyramids but with staircases that ascended upward toward the heavens. But Jacob’s stairway to heaven was not a pagan place of rebellion, for the LORD God and his angels are here!
The LORD then immediately speaks in verses 13-15, . He speaks unconditional and gracious promises, promising to be Jacob’s Protector and Provider. Specifically, we see that God bestows the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant upon Jacob, those promises of a people and a place. God promises to give Jacob the Promised Land with plentiful offspring, and to bless the whole earth thru his offspring. And what is most immediately relevant to Jacob, God promises to be with him and to keep him and to bring him back to the Promised Land. This is undeserving grace that God has shown Jacob here. Jacob has done nothing to warrant such favor from the God of heaven, and yet we know that we too have done nothing to warrant the grace that God has given us as well.
This is significant for Jacob, for from Jacob’s perspective, God was not yet his God. Yet from God’s perspective, God unconditionally and graciously establishes himself here as God over Jacob. God had chosen Jacob, even from before his birth, to be the one through whom he fulfilled his covenant made with Abraham, and here we see God fulfilling that promise. Do you see now why he didn’t need to trick his father into blessing him? Do you think that’s why God blesses Jacob like this? No, it was despite that. Up to this point, Jacob thought he could find prosperity by his own cunning. Here at Bethel, God declares that Jacob will indeed find great blessing, but not by Jacob’s doing but by God’s unconditional grace.
So, besides what God says, what does this dream mean? What is the meaning of this stairway imagery? Well, Jacob immediately interprets it. Jacob says in verses 16 and 17, “Surely, the LORD is in this place,” “this is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven”. Jacob interprets the dream as an experience of theophany, as God manifesting himself to Jacob there at that place! What is unique about this theophany is that it comes in connection with this stairway to and from heaven. God, throughout scripture reveals himself in theophany in various ways. For example, with Moses, God appeared in a burning bush. But here, God appears to Jacob with this stairway. And doesn’t this seem fitting for Jacob? For Jacob, up to this point in his life has been concerned with the horizontal dimension of his life, with earthly things. But this stairway causes him to look up, to cast his vision heavenward. For once in his life, he must look beyond the earthly. This stairway theophany is calling Jacob to reevaluate where his focus and vision has been. He must realize that heaven and earth are connected by a God who is actively working in this world. Jacob is called to see that he has access to the God of heaven who has plans to prosper and bless him, in both earthly and heavenly ways.
All Christians today, like Jacob, also have such access to God. Now, I’m sure you have not had such a stairway to heaven dream. But John 1:51 shows that this stairway to heaven is fulfilled with the coming of Jesus. Jesus said, speaking to his disciple Nathaniel, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Jesus basically said there, “I am the stairway to and from heaven!” As Jesus later said, he is the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through him. And so, “Behold,” we have access to God in Christ!
So then, coming back to the text, Jacob’s dream reveals that he has an access to God. What I would like to turn now in our second point to consider is how for Jacob this access to God is rooted at this specific location of Bethel. Genesis establishes significance for worship specifically at Bethel by describing this theophany that occurred here. This passage gives a justification for why this location would be a place of worship throughout the patriarchal history.
Notice how Jacob’s response to the dream emphasizes how the theophany is connected with that specific location. Jacob says, “Surely the Lord in this place!” “How awesome is this place!” “This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven!” The stone pillar that Jacob set up also memorializes the significance of that geographical spot. The Hebrew hints that the memorial pillar was intended to mimic and resemble the stairway from Jacob’s dream. Jacob even promises to return to Bethel and to later make this into some sort of official house of God or place of worship. So, for a season of time, this location of Bethel would serve as a place of worship for God’s people.
Yet, as God continued to reveal his will for his people, he would later further regulate how his covenant people were to worship, including them having a centralized place of worship. So, later, when God gives the Promised Land to Jacob’s descendants, that centralized place of worship ultimately becomes Jerusalem. There, God would have his temple established with the Holy of the Holies and the Ark of the Covenant. That is where the people were to go to offer their sacrifices to God. Once God so regulated his worship, he called them get rid of any alternative locations of worship. So, once the worship was centralized in Jerusalem, Bethel would no longer be an appropriate place for the house of God.
Yet, Bethel would later compete with Jerusalem in this way. If you know your Bible history, you will remember that later the nation of Israel would split up into a northern and a southern kingdom. Since Jerusalem was located in the south, King Jeroboam, king of the northern kingdom, didn’t want his people to go down to Jerusalem to worship there. So, King Jeroboam set up worship sites at Bethel and at Dan, to worship there instead (I Kings 12). That was wrong, even as prophets like Hosea (i.e. 10:15) and Amos (i.e. 3:14) would proclaim.
Yet, that conflict between worshipping at Bethel versus worshipping at Jerusalem would continue even into the New Testament times, with the Samaritans. The
Samaritans worshipped at a place called Mt. Gerizim which they identified as the historic location of this theophany at Bethel (See Hamilton in NICOT vol. 2, 250). To clarify, many would not agree with the Samaritans about that location, but that is beside the point. But that helps us understand the question raised in John 4 when Jesus speaks with that Samaritan woman at the well. That Samaritan woman essentially asked the same question, worship at Bethel or Jerusalem? And of course, what was Jesus’ response? John 4:21,23 “Jesus said to her, “The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father… But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth.”
That has great application for us. As we consider this story of Jacob’s ladder redemptive-historically, we see that God has ultimately revealed to us that our access to God is not limited to a geographical location, such as in Bethel, but it is in the Spirit and in truth. Our access to God is not through Bethel, but through Jesus, by his Spirit. So, we must recognize our “place” of worship, where we access God. It is not about fancy church buildings, stained glass, incense, or temples. Nor is it about rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. Just as it was wrong for Bethel worship after Jerusalem was revealed as the right place of worship, it would be wrong to return to Jerusalem worship now that the final location and mode of worship has been given to us. This final location and mode of worship is in the Spirit and in truth. In other words, our worship is no longer about a specific place, in the sense of geography. The fact that we are worshiping here at Petaluma today is irrelevant to the effectiveness of our worship. God doesn’t receive our worship because we do it in a certain building or in a certain city. God receives our worship wherever his people gather, because he has made his redeemed people a spiritual house of God in Christ, 1 Peter 2:5.
Let us now turn in our last point for today, to consider more fully Jacob’s response here to the LORD. Notice that his first response is fear, verse 17. Fear often has to do with fear of judgment, and Jacob would have good reason for such fear here. He had just deceived his father Isaac, and now the God of Isaac has come to him. But it seems that the Lord’s words were too gracious for him to continue to feel that fear very long, for he quickly turns his response to an act of worship. In verse 19, he makes a vow to build an official place of worship there at Bethel and also to give a tenth to God of everything that he gives to him.
But notice that this was a conditional response. Jacob’s vow is conditioned on God fulfilling his covenant promises. Now, I wouldn’t interpret this as Jacob demanding this from God, but rather as a sort of desperate plea to God, “Please be my God and fulfill these promises!” Here we see that Jacob is already beginning to be transformed by God’s grace, beginning to rely more on God and less on himself. That’s seen in the vow itself, because it says Jacob can only build Bethel into a place of worship if God safely brings him back to the Promised Land. It is also seen in his vow to give a tenth to God, because it requires God to first give him something to give back. Jacob is starting to learn to rely on God. And God did keep his promises. We’ll see in Genesis that God does protect him and bring him back to the Promised Land. Jacob will in response fulfill his vow in chapter 36. God will then reveal himself again to Jacob there at Bethel.
Let us see ourselves here. As God was starting to spiritually transform Jacob, we see our own story of God transforming us too! And yet, though we have seen our connection with Jacob, we see that we stand in a better place in redemptive history than him. We, like Jacob, have received God’s grace through the ultimate theophany which is the incarnation of Jesus Christ! This theophany is not like any other in the Bible. For it is not a temporary theophany, only for God to come for a moment and then leave. But rather, God has traversed the stairway of Jacob’s ladder in Christ, coming down once for all to bear the burdens of our sins and to bring us up that ladder back to heaven with him! Now we can know God and have a relationship with Him, through Christ by the Holy Spirit.
So, if Jacob so responded to God’s gracious presence, we too we must respond. As the Christian who has known the saving grace of God in Jesus, let us no longer respond in fear, for fear has to do with judgment. But let us like Jacob respond in worship. Let us be faithful to gather in corporate worship with God’s people each Lord’s Day. And where Jacob responded by offering to give a tithe, let us tithe as well. We are reminded here that tithing, giving a tenth of our income, is not something limited to the Mosaic Covenant. Tithing as an act of worship predates the Mosaic Covenant and is commended to you again today in Scripture. Genesis paints Jacob as having a certain love for earthly wealth, yet here he knows he should give back to God even financially. Let us see that tithing is also part of how we should respond to God’s grace in our life. Are you tithing, and if not, why not?
Another way of thinking of this application, is for us to recognize how heaven and earth are connected for us in Jesus. As that ultimate stairway to heaven, we don’t live on earth any more with just an earthly mindset. We should live heavenly-minded while we are here on earth. That is why a response of worship is fitting because it says that life is so much more than just about things on earth.
In conclusion, may our response ultimately look forward to where our spiritual access to God will once again meet the physical. No, not in the city of Bethel, but in the New Jerusalem come down out of heaven, where God will dwell with man for all eternity. Behold saints! This is our access to God!
Amen.
Copyright © 2022 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
