Lent 2 Genesis 28:10-17
March 1, 2015
All her life she’d been around women who were expecting babies, and now she was pregnant with twins. But this wasn’t like the others. As the babies developed they started to move. Not just a little, but like two kids fighting over a toy. One night as she lay in fearful sweat at the great jostling inside her, wondering what was going on, the LORD explained what was happening: “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."
How strange. According to the custom of the day, the older son would receive the greater share of his father’s physical inheritance, but in this situation God included a promise that was meant for the younger son, a promisethat wasgreater than a birthright. But this family had a history of receiving promises that were greater than birthrights. Their grandfather, Abraham, had left the comforts of Ur as an old man to live as a stranger in Canaan based only on a promise from God. “I will give you this land as a home for your descendants, one of whom will be the promised Savior from sin.”Humanly speaking it was a foolhardy plan,but God made the promise – and God always keeps his promises. So in the wildAbraham became a nation, and through him all nations on earthwould be blessed.
God then told Abraham to pass on the promise to his son, Isaac, and now Jacob was next in line to receive it from Isaac. Surely Isaac and Rebekah had talked about her message from God, but blinded by age and favoritism, Isaac was about to give Jacob’s blessing to Esau as part of his birthright as the older son.
So in his mind, Jacob was onlyreaching out for what was rightfully his. And we’d like to excuse him for his ambitiousscheme to outwit his father and stop him from giving the blessing to the wrong son.But he should have known that no human, not even a father, can stop God from carrying out his plans. If he had, Jacob would have spared himself so much heartache, sadness, fear, and loneliness. Yes, if only he’d trusted God’s plans for him.
Part I: Our plans fail
This whole family was full of scheming - always in moments of desperation, always to lay hold on a promise that God seemed slow or unable to fulfill. Grampa Abrahamhad schemed to protect himself by deceivingPharaoh and later Abimelech about Sarah when he was in their territories because it seemed God needed his help. Sarahschemedto get the child of promise by giving her handmaid,Hagar, to Abraham because it seemed God needed their help because Sarah was barren. Like father like son, Isaac later deceivedAbimelechabout his wife,Rebekah, because it seemed God could not protect him without some help. And now Rebekah, in a moment of desperation, cooked up a scheme for Jacob. “Bring me twogoats to prepare as your father likes. Put this goat skin on your hands and neck.”Pretend you are Esau to fool your aged father. It seemed so necessaryto help God out, to keep Esau from getting what God had promised to Jacob.
Always schemes and plans. Plans to get what is promised because the Promiser is slow in fulfilling. Plans that require bending God’s law to get a taste of God’s gospel. But they never work. There’s always some fallout, some trouble,some complication that later needsanotherscheme.
Jacob was feeling that fallout.Hehad worked so hard to get his blessing, and now hewa alone in the wilderness with nothing. At home is afuriousbrother who wants him dead, a disappointed father with a broken heart, and a mother alone in her grief. Everything has fallen apart.
“What have I done?” Perhaps the greatest sorrow in this world is to see a lifetime of planning fall apart in an instant. It’s especially hard for Christians because so often our plans are in line with God’s promises. God promises to bless the work of our hands, so we put great effort into being faithful stewards and anticipate his blessing. He promises to bless our families, so we train our children and teach his Word expecting his blessings to follow one-for-one with our effort. But it doesn’t always go the way we expect. Blessings are not always obvious. When it seems like things are falling apartwe become desperate, “This isn’t going according to my plan. What can I do to put everything back together?”
As he rested his head on a stone pillow that evening, Jacob’s anxious mind was surely hatching a plan. He’dmake things right again. He’d lick his wounds, find a wife from among his relatives, and let the heat in his brother’s heart coolwhile he was away. “Yes, that’s what I’ll do.”
It wasn’t the best plan. It left a lot of problems unanswered. Part of God’s promise included possession of the land. Buthe’s running from the land. Another part was that he would become a great nation. If Esau had his way, Jacob wouldn’t live long enough to see any children. Most of all was the promise that all peoplesonearth would be blessed through him. But how’s that going to happen when he has so disappointed and angered the God from whom all blessings flow? So far his plan to help God out only pushed the promise out of reach.In sadness,fear, and lonelinessJacob laid down his head to sleep.
Part II: God always fulfills his plans
As he slept hesaw an awesome vision. A vision of another plan – not his own, but a plan from God. A plan to make all things right again. Jacob sees a stairwayreaching up into heaven. Angels were ascending and descending the stairway—some coming to earth to carry out tasksthey had been given, others returning to God after their work was accomplished. At the top was the LORD overseeing and approving the work of his angels.
Jacob shivered in holy fear. He’d made so many miserable mistakes –why was God showing him such glorious things? Here before him was a window into the heart of God— a peek intoGod’s plan and how God himself will accomplish itentirely on his own. Unseen angels wereat work under the LORD’s constant supervision.Promises given by God would be accomplished without any human help. The LORDspoke from the top of the stairway:“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, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 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.”
The family of Abraham was no different fromany other family on earth. They imagined that they could reach up and help bring about God’s blessings in their lives, that by their dedication and self-sacrifice and hard work they could secure his blessings for themselves. Like them, we’re all tempted to think that God needs our help, too. But like Jacob and his family, our plans will fail, too. No matter how hard we work,there are things we can never lay hold of on our own.
How awestruck Jacob must have been;how unworthy and foolish he must have felt; how overwhelmed by God’s amazing, undeserved, unconditional love! In spite of all he’d done wrong, the LORD’s angels were still ascending and descendingto help and protect him as God went about fulfilling his promises. In his Word God assures us his “angels (are) ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit eternal life" (He 1:14)
But there was more to God’s plan.The stairwaywas a picture ofChrist, the God-man, who would come down from heaven to earth to connect a world of sin with God’s holy heaven.Jesus is the connection between God and men, the bridge from this world to the next. Many years later Jacob’s descendant, Jesus, would tell one his disciples, 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 1:51)Nathanael knew his Bible history well and understood the connection Jesus was makingbetween himself and the ladder in Jacob's dream. Jesus had complete and uninterrupted communion with His Father in heaven. Anyone who believed in Jesus as their Savior from sin would enjoy that same complete and uninterrupted communion with God. The Apostle Paul described it this way in Romans 5: "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Jesus is the ladder between sinful man and the holy God. Through faith in Jesus we have access to God's heart and may call him Father. Through baptism and the Lord's Supper, God comes into our hearts with forgiveness direct from heaven, and thorough prayer our words, spoken and unspoken, ascend to his throne of grace.
Jacob left that lonely place with a renewed trust in God’s plans for him. As we read the following chapters we see how the Lord did everything he promised. In spite of Jacob's weaknesses and failings, the Lord was in charge of his life. Without any help from Jacob, God kept his promise to bless us all through the Savior from heaven, Jesus Christ, through whom we gain access to God.
God was in charge of Jacob's future, and he is in charge of your future and mine, too. We have a ladder that links us with the Almighty, the Lord of mercy, the God who calls Himself "love." That ladder is Jesus Christ. In Christ you'll never walk alone, even when you've messed up. Even then, God is still in loving charge of your life. That's an awesome promise to claim, isn't it? No wonder Jacob awoke the next morning and worshiped the Lord at that place with a renewed commitment to the Lord. No wonder you and I worship him in this place and leave with a renewed commitment to follow him because he’s renewed our trust in his plans for us. Amen.