SIN & GRACE: A ONE-SIDED CONTEST
GRACE PROMISES A HAPPY FUTURE
Genesis 28:10-22
INTRODUCTION
Good friends of ours from Illinois stopped by yesterday afternoon for
a short visit. Gordon and Linda had their 22-year-old daughter, Veralee
and their 4-week-old granddaughter with them. This is the first time we’ve
seen Veralee since her wedding three years ago. It was amazing to see
how much Veralee has changed from the wiry, aggressive girl that played
street hockey with my boys not that long ago. I kept thinking, as we visited,
"Veralee is a wife and mom, that’s amazing." But you know, there
is a more remarkable change that takes place than children growing up
to become parents. It is the change that takes place when God grants salvation
to sinners like us. In fact, there is no greater change in the whole universe
than the change that God works when he saves a person.
There are dozens of ways that the change God works in a person is described
in the Scriptures. Jesus used the metaphor of being born to describe the
change that God produces. Paul sums it up this way, "Therefore if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has
come!" (2 Cor. 5:17) While the change that God works is sudden and
complete and as radical as being born, yet the Scriptures also talk about
the change God produces in terms of progress. Paul tells, Timothy, "Be
diligent in these matters. Give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone
may see your progress." Peter commands us to "grow in the grace
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."
These two realities, salvation is both sudden and gradual, are the reason
that the metaphor of birth is used so often to describe the Christian
life. The birth of a child happens in a moment but it is preceded by 9
months of unseen development in the mother’s womb and many hours of intense
struggle and pain. Then once the baby is born the baby grows. It is inevitable.
So it is in the Christian life. According to John 1: 13, no one is born
a Christian and no one decides to be a Christian. God in his infinite
wisdom prepares a person for the moment when he grants spiritual life.
The ways God prepares people are as diverse as the people upon whom he
works. Usually there is struggle and pain as God implants that life and
brings it to birth. Like the first cries of the newborn, the first evidences
of life in the Christian are faith in Christ and a distaste for sin. And
then, there is growth in faith, love for God, hope in his promises and
sorrow over sin.
We are going to begin this morning to trace the path of grace in the
conversion and growth of sinners like us by seeing it in Jacob. As we
have seen over the past few weeks, Jacob is a worldly man if there ever
was one. As chapters 25-27 of Genesis make plain he is cunning, deceptive
and manipulative. He cares nothing for God or for people as long as he
gets what he wants. But God has chosen him and is hot on his trail. We
are going to see how God produces a man of faith by grace. The outline
for this morning’s sermon is somewhat different in that the three points
of the sermon make a sentence that summarizes the point of the text.
I. God removes the distractions from our life… (vv.
10-11)
Have you ever tried to carry on a serious conversation with someone while
the TV is on? It’s virtually impossible isn’t it? Or perhaps you’ve tried
to talk to your dad while he’s reading the paper. My daughter Julia loves
to talk with me while I’m reading the paper. I won’t be paying any attention
to her and so she’ll begin saying things like, "Today I ran the car
into telephone pole on the way home from school. I was given a ticket
for speeding. I have to pay $300 in fines, plus the car is still sitting
by the road. I had to walk home in the rain and snow and I didn’t have
a coat." She’ll go on making up this outlandish story until I respond
with, "What did you just say?" You cannot communicate with people
who are engrossed in something else, who barely know you are in the room.
If you’re going to have a serious conversation you need to turn the TV
off, you need to put the paper down.
Over the years, doctors I’ve known have told me that it is hard to convince
people who feel healthy that they need to stop certain habits and begin
new ones if they are going to stay healthy. It usually takes a heart attack
or some other serious symptom to convince people they need to follow the
doctor’s advice. What is true in our relationships with people and in
our physical health is just as true in our relationship with God and our
spiritual health. We seldom pay attention to God when we are engrossed
in something else. When we are happy and content with our lives, we see
no need for God. We rarely believe his warnings and his commands until
we feel the pain of sin. So when God is seeking to convert a person he
often begins by removing the distractions in that person’s life. He often
begins by causing the person to feel the pain and suffering of living
apart from him. This is what we see in Jacob’s life.
Jacob was commanded by his father to leave home in order to go to his
mother’s relatives in Haran. His father wants him to go there in order
to find a wife. His leaving is also necessary because his older brother
Esau hates him and is planning on murdering him as soon as their dad dies.
Jacob was a stay at home, kind of person. He led a very comfortable life
as one of the sons of the chieftain of this nomadic tribe. Life was good;
all of his needs were met. He lived in the security of his family and
enjoyed all the benefits of being the son of a wealthy man. But now he
has left home all alone. He is traveling through mountainous country that
is very different from the desert he grew up in. He is heading for a place
he has never been before. He probably has a couple of pack animals with
food and clothing. All the comforts of his wealthy father’s household
are now gone. The warmth and fellowship of friends and family is gone.
He is by himself, perhaps for the first time in his life. He has never
lived like this before. He sleeps under the stars and listens to the strange
sounds of the wind blowing through the trees. He uses a rock for his pillow.
He is, if you’ll pardon the pun, between a rock and hard place. He cannot
go back because his brother hates him and his father has commanded him
to get a wife in Haran. The way forward is fraught with danger and uncertainty.
All that he has trusted in and hoped in is gone. He is alone, with no
one to turn to. His resources are limited. He is, for all intents and
purposes, homeless and unemployed in a foreign land. It is here, in this
solitude, with all the things he hoped for and trusted in stripped away
from him that God chooses to speak to him. This is often God’s way as
we seldom listen to him when we are happy and content in the things of
this world. We are not interested in the promise of a banquet when we
are full of the white bread this world offers. So, God, through the circumstances
of our lives, brings suffering and dissatisfaction into our lives so that
we can hear him when he speaks. He takes away the comforts of this world
so that we will listen when he speaks of the eternal comfort he offers.
It is so important to see that God has put Jacob in this position because
he loves him. The fear and the sadness that Jacob is experiencing are
necessary if he is going to know the love of God, escape hell, and enjoy
heaven. What would have happened to Jacob if he had been allowed to remain
in the camp of his father and upon his father’s death to become the chieftain
of this vast household? What would have happened if he had been allowed
to experience the power and possessions as a direct result of his deception
and manipulation? Jacob would never have heard what God is going to tell
him. He would have remained in his stubborn and unrepentant condition
and God’s work in the world would have ended with him. So God made him
unemployed, homeless and alienated from his family. He turned off the
TV and caused him to experience the pain of his disease, his sin. But
God does this to Jacob and to us for a reason, so that we’ll be able to
hear the good news.
God removes the distractions from our life…
II. In order to reveal himself and his promises… (vv. 12-15)
It is here in his loneliness and fear, while sleeping under the stars,
in this strange, mountainous land that God speaks to him in a dream. First,
Jacob sees a ladder or staircase connecting earth and heaven with angels
ascending and descending upon it. Standing at the top of the staircase
is God himself. Then God speaks to Jacob and makes amazing promises to
him. We are going to consider the content of God’s promises in a moment
but first I want us to consider the meaning of this ladder with the angels
on it. I want to consider the ladder first from the point of view of Jacob
and then for us.
Jacob would have known about angels from his father and grandfather.
The angel of the Lord had actually visited his grandfather Abraham and
promised he and his wife Sarah that they would have a son when Sarah turned
90. But also he would remember that it was angels that went to Sodom and
rescued his cousin Lot while destroying those wicked cities in the plains.
He would have been told how the angel of the Lord gave Abraham’s servant
success when he went to Haran to get his mother, Rebekah, as a wife for
his father Isaac. In short he knew that God sent angels to do his work
on the earth. That work included both God’s saving work and his work of
judgment. There is in this vision a great hope for Jacob. God is at work
in this world, in his life. God has not abandoned him but is intimately
involved in his life, just as he was in the life of Abraham and Isaac.
God is not way off in heaven, indifferent to what is happening in Jacob’s
life.
But why the stairway? What is it that links heaven to earth? God is so
different from his creation. He is so independent of it. He is so high
above it in his infinite perfections. What is it that could possibly be
the link between heaven and earth? While Jacob could not know the details
of what this ladder symbolized, yet he would know that God had built the
staircase. The link between heaven and earth was there because God made
it, not because of anything humans had done. In fact, if you’ll remember
Genesis 11, when humans attempted to make a tower into heaven, God came
and frustrated their plans by creating many human languages and thus dispersing
the people over the face of the earth. So, this "stairway to heaven"
is provided by God, not man.
I want you to turn to John 1: 51 (p. 751) to see how Jesus uses this
vision. John the Baptist has just recently baptized Jesus. John identified
Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior of the world, God’s lamb come to take
away the sins of the world. Some of his disciples are beginning to follow
Jesus; among them are Peter, Andrew and Phillip. Phillip goes to his friend
Nathaniel and tells him that he has found God’s Savior. Nathaniel is skeptical
but goes along with him. When Jesus meets Nathaniel he tells him things
about him that only God should know and this causes Nathaniel to worship
Jesus. Now look at what Jesus says in vv. 50-51, "You believe because
I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things
than that. I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels
of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Notice this is
an exact quote of the last clause of Gen 28:12 except the pronoun, "it",
referring to the ladder is replaced by "the Son of Man." In
other words, Jesus says he is the ladder. It is through him that God rules
over the world. It is through him that he brings salvation to the world.
It is through him that he will judge the world. All of God’s blessings
come to individuals through Jesus. God doesn’t do anything in the world
apart from Jesus. There is only one ladder, not a dozen. The only way
to enjoy the favor and blessings of God is through the ladder that God
has made, his Son Jesus. Jacob doesn’t know the time or circumstances
of the coming of God’s "ladder" but he does know that God’s
care for him only comes down the ladder that God built.
Now listen to God’s promises in light of Jacob’s situation. First, he
tells this man who is separated from all that is familiar and secure that
he is the God of his grandfather and father. He assures him that the same
God who made promises to Abraham and Isaac and fulfilled those promises
is now talking to him. Second, he tells this homeless and destitute man
that the land he is lying on will be given to him and his descendants.
In fact, he tells him that they will spread out to the west and the east,
the north and the south. In other words, he and his family will possess
not just the land of Canaan, but also the whole world. Third, he tells
this man who has no wife and no children that his descendents will be
as numerous as the dust of the earth. Fourth, he tells this man who is
living in fear of all the peoples who surround him, that he and his descendants
will be the cause of blessing to them. Finally, he promises this man who
has no future hope, no way of knowing what the future holds that he will
never be alone again. He tells him that the one who makes the ladder and
sends his angels into the world to carry out his will is going to watch
over him wherever he goes. He guarantees that he will return to the house
of his father.
All the things that Isaac does not possess and that he can never give
to himself, God promises to give to him. The magnitude of these promises
is astounding. Jacob’s descendants will spread out from the spot he is
laying upon to cover the whole earth. His descendants will bless all of
mankind. Please note, God does not make these promises in response to
anything that Jacob has done. In fact, as we so clearly saw in chapters
25-27, Jacob deserves God’s curse, not his blessing. There are no demands,
only promises. Jacob has never done one thing that would cause God to
be kind to him. God is kind to him because he chooses to be kind to him
and for no other reason.
We are supposed to be shocked by what God is doing here. Imagine that
a drifter entered a man’s house and killed his wife and three of their
children. Then he stole their credit cards and proceeded to live like
a king off of those cards. Finally, he was apprehended and brought back
to the city where he committed his heinous crimes. Then imagine if the
husband and father of the murdered wife and children posted the million-dollar
bail for this man and had him come live in his house with him. He paid
for the finest lawyers to defend him. He made sure his every need and
want was provided for. Then when he was found guilty and sentenced to
life in prison, the father, whose oldest son who was not at home at the
time of the attack, worked out a deal with the judge that his son would
spend his life in prison instead of the murderer. Then he invited this
murderer to live as his son in his home for the rest of his life and willed
his entire inheritance to the murderer. What would you think of this man,
this husband and father? Would you not be shocked at such amazing kindness
to such a wicked person?
God wants you to see these amazing promises he is making to Jacob and
to be shocked. What God is doing is infinitely more shocking than what
the husband and father of the murdered wife and children did. For God
is infinitely more worthy of respect then any human being. All men ought
to delight in him and obey him and be grateful to him for he gives all
men life and breath and everything else. Every person to whom God promises
eternal life is like Jacob. Every person to whom God promises forgiveness
of sins and an eternal home in heaven is worse than that murderer. The
fact that God would care for any sinner and make promises of eternal happiness
is the most shocking reality in the entire universe.
I think there is another reaction that most of us would have if we knew
a man who did such a thing. Would you not also wonder at the man’s sanity?
Would you not wonder if he is not himself wicked and perverse to do such
a thing? How can he not care that his wife and children have been murdered?
How could he possibly live with a man who has such deep disrespect for
him? What we see happen in Jacob’s life next is the beginning of the answer
to these important questions.
God removes the distractions from our life in order to reveal himself
and his promises…
III. So that we will respond with faith in his promises. (vv. 16-22)
The dream ends and Jacob is startled awake. He lays there in the darkness
of the night, full of fear and awe. He knows that God has spoken to him.
He has heard the reports of these promises made to his grandfather and
father. His father made these promises to him before he left home. But
now he hears them from God himself. He is now aware that God is not some
distant person who works in other people’s lives but not in his. God reveals
himself personally to Jacob and Jacob responds with fear and awe. But
his response is not wholly accurate. I don’t believe we should see this
as the moment that Jacob is converted to Christ. Rather, this is the first
time that Jacob knows that God exists and is at work in his life. These
are the first stirrings of faith in his life. His view of God is full
of superstitions. He ought to know that God is present everywhere, but
he only views him as present in this place. He views the place
as holy, rather than God. He limits God’s revelation to a place rather
than seeing the fullness of the vision with the ladder as a symbol of
God’s work in the whole world. But don’t miss that the result of God’s
revelation is the beginning of a change in Jacob.
Evidently he falls back to sleep and when he awakens at the first light
of dawn we see further Jacob’s response to God’s revelation of himself
and his promises. First of all he takes a stone and sets it up as a monument
to his vision. He pours oil on the stone and names this spot Bethel, which
means, "the house of God." This is an act of worship but it
is not the same sort of worship that we see in Abraham and Isaac. They
both built altars and called on the name of the Lord. He sets up a stone
monument and pours oil on it. Again, while Jacob is demonstrating faith
on one level, yet it is full of superstition and half-baked ideas about
God. It is interesting to note that the term that is translated, "pillar"
is used two other times in the OT in a positive way but most of the time
it refers to "sacred stones" that the idolatrous nations worshipped.
Then, Jacob makes a vow to God. God never commands people to make vows,
but they were not forbidden either. God simply warned his people over
and over that when they made a vow they should be careful to fulfill it.
A vow was simply a very earnest prayer for God’s blessing in a particular
situation with a statement of how the person praying would respond if
God granted their request. Vows were not bribery but rather prayer for
God’s help with a promise of how the person praying would express their
gratitude when God answered. So here, we see Jacob responding to God’s
promises by prayer. Notice that what he asks God to do exactly what God
promised him in the vision. Notice that his ultimate desire is to return
to his father’s house. He asks God’s protection and provision so that
he might return to his father’s house. Then he tells God how he will respond
when God does all this for him. He will worship Yahweh alone, he will
establish this place as a place of worship and he will use the resources
God gives him to serve God by helping others. (The tithe, or 10% of your
income, was used in Israel to support the priesthood and to care for the
poor.)
While this vow is an expression of faith it is not a pure faith. It is
interesting in the rest of the OT that while vows are generally not condemned,
they are not encouraged either. There are a couple of occasions where
vows are clearly portrayed as evil, mainly because they are being used
to cover up evil. They are made with wrong motives and are not truly expressions
of faith. In addition, I am certain that the first readers of this story,
the people of Israel, would think it quite strange that Jacob would call
this pillar the "house of God" when their life revolved around
"the house of God", the tabernacle. There is also, the emphasis
by Jacob upon providing food and clothing and the promise to give a tenth.
It almost seems that he is bargaining with God. "The more food and
clothing you give me God the more you get back because I am going to give
a percentage. So give me more and you’ll get more." So again, we
are seeing the beginnings of faith but it is not a pure faith.
Let me show you what is happening in Jacob’s life. Why do you and I commit
acts of sin? Why do we do things that God clearly says are wrong? Let
me quote John Piper from his book, "Future Grace". "Sin
is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God. No one sins
out of duty. We sin because it holds out some promise of happiness. That
promise enslaves us until we believe that God is more to be desired than
life. Which means that the power of sin’s promise is broken by the power
of God’s (promise). All that God promises to be for us in Jesus stands
over against what sin promises to be for us without him." Jacob has
lived his whole life up to this moment enslaved to the promises of sin.
He has never believed that what God promises is better than everything
that he wants and has plotted to obtain. But now, as the result of God’s
revealing himself and making these promises of a happy future, he is beginning
to respond by faith. In other words, he is starting to believe that to
have God near is better than to have his mom near. He is beginning to
see that God’s ways are better than his ways. This is the effect that
God’s revealing of himself and his promises always have on those whom
he has chosen. The way you know you belong to Christ is that the power
of sin’s promises is being broken in your life as you discover that all
that God promises to be for you in Jesus is infinitely more satisfying
than all the promises of sin.
God is preparing Jacob for that moment of spiritual birth. He is also
preparing him to grow in faith and love for God once he has imparted that
new life to him. He is preparing this murderer to come live in his house
as his son, forever. The ways of God’s preparation vary from person to
person. Let me read for you one of the ways God prepared John Piper to
live as his son. "Faith in Future Grace", pp. 51-53.
God removes the distractions from our life in order to reveal himself
and his promises so that we will respond with faith in his promises.
© Copyright
2001 John Swanson.
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