STARTING FRESH—Genesis 27:41-28:22
We are just a few weeks in a new year, and for some of us, a new year is a time for a fresh start. Maybe we refocus on what is most important, and invest our efforts there, with new energy. Maybe we lay aside some of the bad habits that keep us from our best.
Jacob needs a fresh start. He needs more than just minor changes; he needs to start over, and set a new course in life. He has lied to his father, and stolen the family birthright and blessing of the firstborn son from his brother. His brother is making plans to kill him, his mother is desperately trying to protect him from his brother, but the biggest problem for Jacob is Jacob. He is a schemer and a manipulator, who has learned behavior patterns that destroy relationships and sabotage success in life. He needs a fresh start.
Genesis 27:41-28:5
Jacob’s life, up to this point has been full of confusion and contradictions.
His family was not what they appeared to be:
They think of themselves as a godly family. They give blessings in the name of God, but they also lie, using the name of God.
The parents love their children, but in unhealthy ways. The patriarch and matriarch of the family are pulling in different directions. The heirs to the family heritage are two brothers, who are at each other’s throats.
Even now, Jacob is living a lie: His mother and father say they are sending him away to find a godly wife, but the true reason is that his brother might kill him if he stays.
We might think (or wish) that those kinds of contradictions are rare in families, but they are not so rare.
They say they are a close family, but conversation is shallow, centered on sports or activities.
They claim to be a loving family, but people don’t build each other up, and they even say mean and hurtful things.
They consider themselves to be a religious family, but their religion is more like a hobby, when there is nothing else going on.
They want the blessings of a godly family, but their source of values is not God, but other people, and culture.
Having grown up in a family of contradictions, Jacob is confused. He has schemed and lied and manipulated—to get God’s blessing! He has tried to please his mother, only to be sent away under false pretenses. Now he is fleeing for his life—not only fleeing from his enraged brother, but fleeing from whom he has become.
So Jacob leaves with nothing. The props are all gone:
The wealth of his father? All left behind! Who knows whether Esau will ever allow him to claim it?
The support of his mother, his protector and soul mate? Will he ever see her again? No!
The covenant promise of God? Through his scheming, he has obtained both the birthright and the blessing of the firstborn. But is the promise of God still good, if he lied and cheated to make it his? Even if the promise is still good, is he so far gone, that not even God can fix who he has become?
Jacob leaves home with nothing, except directions to a place: Haran, the home of his mother. (PP map) There he must find a wife (if the family is still there!) And then what? What does he know about marriage? What does he know about family life? His family was the only “godly” family he ever knew—and how “godly” was that? There would be no premarital counseling, no parenting class—just what he experienced in his dysfunctional home.
Jacob walks (or rides?) until after sunset. When he finally stops for the night, he is bone-tired. It is his first night away from home (think college or the military), and he is feeling lost and alone.
Jacob is not lost, for God has not lost him! (Read 28:10-22)
A. God was there all along (28:16)
Not just in that place! Before he was born…God spoke to his mother about Jacob and his descendants:
Genesis 25:23 The Lord said to her, "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."
As Jacob grew, he heard stories about God, and the covenant with Abraham.
Genesis 15:5 [God] took [Isaac] outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
God was with Jacob. He learned to value the covenant (the birthright and blessing), even though he abused the privileges. He had the good sense not to marry any of Hittite women, like his brother did. Even now, he has a guilty conscience and a hunger for God; God placed that in him! And this strange dream that came into his head—Was that God too? How does God work in our lives?
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I never met this woman, but her story reminds me of Jacob. Her father, who started five churches, was a better pastor than parent. Once, when she threw a fit in the car, he put her out alongside the road and drove off, leaving the young girl wondering whether he would be coming back for her.
Her mother was the only source of love and strength in the home, until she died. Her father remarried, to a woman who had never had children, and never wanted any. The girl felt like she was in the way, a huge inconvenience.
All of her mother’s belongings had been sold, every reminder gone, except for one set of dishes. One day, as a teenager, she opened up in a Bible study, with her stepmother present, to say, “I have only one thing from my mother—her dishes.” Her stepmother immediately replied, “Those are my dishes.”
And this was a “Christian” home: cold, cruel, full of contradictions.
The girl went away to college (a Christian college); her parents were relieved not to have to deal with her. The third summer, when she would have come home, her parents told her not to bother. There she was: lost and alone, bitter and confused, ill-equipped for life.
In her bitterness, God intervened. A friend introduced her to a millionaire. For some reason, his heart went out to her, treating her as his daughter. That summer, he paid for her to go to Israel. There, she began to recognize the God she hadn’t noticed in her life, not so much in the places of the Holy Land, but in little things, like God providing when her sandals broke.
In the fall, she went back to college, where she met a young man, and they fell in love. They were married, not at her father’s church, but at the millionaire’s mansion with 500 guests. Her husband went on to seminary, and almost 30 years ago her husband, my wife’s pastor, married my wife and me.
We never knew that story, because the woman never told it publicly, until many years later. By the providence of God, we were visiting my wife’s parents, and my wife went to a luncheon, where the woman told her story.
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We all have a story. Is God in it? Has he been there all along?
The disruption of leaving home for the first time. The warmth of a loving spouse. The wonder of a newborn, and the love of a child.
Too often, the pain of betrayal. The fear of illness. A “lucky” break that wasn’t really luck.
The confusion of tough ethical choices. A passion to make a difference in world?
Despair over sin. The grace of God’s forgiveness.
Jacob said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
B. God reveals himself personally
What do I mean, personally? For Jacob, it was a dream: a stairway from heaven, with angels (messengers) going up and down.
More importantly, Jacob heard the words of God’s unfailing covenant (28:13-15): “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.”
Wouldn’t it be great for God to show up like that? If we had a dream like that, would we think it was God, or the lasagna we ate?
God does reveal himself personally—in a person who walked the earth.
Hebrews 1:1-2 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. But now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son.
We can meet God through Jesus, and meet Jesus through the pages of the New Testament.
John 1:47-51 [Philip brought Nathaniel to Jesus] As they approached, Jesus said, "Here comes an honest man—a true son of Israel." "How do you know about me?" Nathanael asked. And Jesus replied, "I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you." Nathanael replied, "Teacher, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!" Jesus asked him, "Do you believe all this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this." Then he said, "The truth is, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down upon the Son of Man."
Our stairway between heaven and earth is Jesus—Jesus who lived and died and rose from the dead.
Nathaniel saw his miracles, heard his words, and knew his character…He saw him willingly go to cross…alive after he arose…ascend into heaven…He received his Spirit at Pentecost, and lives with him now in heaven.
We don’t have to wait for a dream! We have much clearer picture of God, in Jesus Christ:
John 14:6-7 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
If we are willing, Jesus himself comes to us, through his Spirit, who lives in us.
John 14:16-18 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another One to walk with you to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth...you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
C. God invites us to walk with him—into a new way of life. Read 28:20-22.
Jacob is taking his first baby steps with God. He worships (sets up rock he slept on, anoints it with olive oil—AWE). He finally steps out from behind his mother (“…the Lord will be my God”). He makes a commitment to tithe (10%; a big step for Jacob, because possessions were important to him!) He looks to the future in hope (“this stone…will be God’s house”). He sets out in confidence—not in himself, but in God.
Jacob is just beginning to walk with God personally. (Before this, was it family echo?) It will take years for him to see significant changes: to unlearn bad attitudes, habits, and behaviors, and to learn new values, habits, obedience and trust.
As Jacob walks with God, he will learn…
…to live in continual awe of the God he worships
…to handle the 90% as well as the 10% he gives to God
…that to have God with him, he must be with God
…that finally, he can trust God to fulfill his covenant, and he does not need to scheme to grab bits and pieces of God’s blessings.
Life with Jesus is walking with him for a lifetime (Jesus said, “Follow me”): Taking steps of faith and commitment, and trusting him for results…
…Not just acting out roles we learned in our family
…Not going with the flow of friends and relatives and people around us
…Certainly not playing the games of a godless world
Life with Jesus is following another path—a path where Jesus leads us—a path into a new future. It is a new start, in a life not limited by who we are, or where we came from, or where the world going.
Ephesians 4:20-24 You…did not come to know Christ [like the world. You] were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught… to put off your old self…to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
