Transformed by Grace and Truth

How does sound work? How is that in a huge room, one person can speak or play an instrument and everyone hears it? Sound "reverberates" throughout the room. To "reverberate" means to beat back as in an echo from a voice across a canyon or in a musical note sent by a resounding trumpet. The note travels back and forth across the room, reverberating. Life sometimes "reverberates" on us, beating back and forth across our journey. During such times, the child of God can wonder if God is real and really involved with his life after all. Such was the situation with Jacob.

Scripture Passage: Genesis 28:1-22
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Main Thought: By His grace, God reveals Himself to us even in difficult times. Your response of faith to His grace and truth results in a transformed life for time and eternity.

The Reverberation From God.

The Revelation of God

The Response to God

"(10)Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. (11) So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep." (Genesis 28:10-11, NKJV)

1. The Reverberation from God.

Jacob was chosen by God to receive the blessing of Abraham by his father, Isaac. Isaac sent Jacob far from home to find a wife from his mother's family in Mesopotamia. In reality, Jacob was fleeing from his brother Esau who wanted to kill him for deceptively stealing his birthright and blessing. For the first time in Jacob's life, he was on his own.

According to Josephus, a Jewish historian, he spent the night in the open because the town of Luz was a place of idolatry and wickedness. The Bible doesn't say why, though perhaps it was a beautiful, clear night. For whatever reason, it was a bit unlike Jacob to sleep out in the open when he had previously been a tent-dweller.

The climactic events of the last few days for Jacob must have done more than upset his sleep preferences. He was thrown out of his father's house on this journey which he took alone. God often uses life's upsets to shake our spiritual roots and draw us to a closer, more intimate walk with Him.

In catastophic events, God is often blamed. I'm sure many of the parents of the children in Paducah, KY wondered how God could allow these children -- who were publicly praying to Him -- to be murdered. This is a natural reaction to such an awful catastrophe. How often we blame God when bad things happen! In such a time, you would do well to use that time to pray and draw close to the LORD. In such a time, there is something God wants to do in your life. If you will seek Him out and search for His purposes, He will show you what He has in mind.

Perhaps He will show you the good that can come out of the catastrophe -- good for you or your family, or for people in your sphere of influence. "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28, NKJV). You may not see anything good in an accident, a shooting, a flood, a sickness or a death -- but God sees all things past, present, and future from eternity. Drawing close to Him during such a time offers you unparalleled opportunity to gain an eternal perspective on your life.

The prayer meeting in Paducah was a small, local event -- but in the wake of the catastrophe, the funeral was covered by CNN around the world. Think about it...the gospel of Jesus Christ and the faith of these students in Christ was proclaimed around the world! It could well be that God can find no other time in your busy life to meet you except during such catastrophe. Remember when this happens, that God is good (Psalms 107:1) and always works for the ultimate good in the lives of His children (Romans 8:28). As the saying goes, "When the night is the darkest, you see the stars the brightest!" 
"(12) Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (13) And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: "I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. (14) "Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (15) "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." (Genesis 28:12-15, NKJV)

2. The Revelation of God.

In this critical time for Jacob, out on his own, he encountered God. In a vision, he saw a ladder reaching from the earth to the heavens, with angels parading up and down, and the LORD God Himself at the top. What an awesome, frightening revelation Jacob had!

The "ladder" translates a Hebrew word for "built up" -- the earth was built up to heaven. Whether we say ladder, bridge, or mountain, the meaning is clear. It was a ladder from earth to heaven -- or was it heaven to earth? Verse 12 says the "ladder was set up on the earth." The ladder reached from eternity in heaven, where God dwells, right down to His creation, the earth.

Are there any Messianic implications in this verse? John 1:47-51 recalls the words of our LORD Jesus to Nathanael whom He had seen under a fig tree. The amazing thing is that Nathanael knew he was not visible to the human eye but Jesus saw him. Nathanael had come to follow Jesus, thinking He might be the Messiah. Because of this, Nathanael declared Jesus to be the Son of God and the King of Israel. Jesus told him that he would see greater things than this in His earthly ministry. He referenced Genesis 28:12-13: "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, NKJV). Jesus revealed the power of God at work in His ministry and the lives of those He reached out and touched. This passage from Genesis reveals another aspect of God's grace in reaching out from eternity into time and space that we might know Him and trust His power at work in our lives.

The LORD God promised Jacob the same thing He promised Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 13:14-17; 15:1,5,7,13-16,18-19; 17:1-8; 18:17-19; 21:12; 22:15-18) and Isaac (Genesis 25:23; 26:2-5,24; 27:27-29). Jacob received the blessing of Abraham -- the promise from God that:

The Land of Canaan was given to Jacob and Jacob's descendents.

Jacob would have many descendents, too numerous to count.

Through Jacob's "seed" (in the singular) all people on earth would be blessed -- the promise of God's Savior, Jesus Christ.

God would be with Jacob always and would care for him along the way, bringing him back to the Land.

God would see to it that all the promises He gave Jacob would be fulfilled.

Jacob did not deserve such a revelation from God, nor His amazing promises. Jacob had been deceiver who cheated his brother and used his father. We will see in later chapters that Jacob sowed deceipt and reaped even worse deception by his Uncle Laban (Genesis 29) and his own sons (Genesis 34,37). Does such a person deserve anything good from God? No, and neither do you nor myself deserve anything good from God. It was wise Job who declared, "...'Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?' In all this Job did not sin with his lips." (Job 2:10, NKJV).

We serve the living God who offers His grace and His mercy and His power to protect and provide for us. This essential part of His nature is found in the revelation He makes to people who do not deserve to know Him. Our holy and righteous God makes Himself known to us in many ways: through the prophetic utterance of His prophets and apostles recorded in Scripture, through prayer, and even through direct revelation at times as He did for Jacob. The greatest of His revelations came when He stepped out of eternity into time as a little baby born in a manger. He became a real human, lived a sinless life under the Law, and then offered that perfect life on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we find the greatest revelation of God's grace and power to save. His promise is that if you put your faith and trust in the LORD Jesus Christ, who died for you, you will be forgiven and given new life -- eternal life in heaven with Him. You will know the living God and have a permanent, personal relationship with Him in all of life.

"(16) Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." (17) And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" (18) Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. (19) And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. (20) Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, (21) "so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. (22) "And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You." (Genesis 28:10-22, NKJV)

3. The Response to God.

How did Jacob respond to this awesome revelation from God? Simply put, it changed his life forever. In verse 16 he declares that the LORD is real and he didn't know it. He had been raised in a household of faith but now his father's faith was his own. He personally appropriated the reality of God by personal faith in the LORD God. In the next verse he declares that the very spot on which he slept was "Beth-El" -- the house of God. In verse 20, Jacob makes a vow of his commitment to the LORD, reaffirming all the things that God had promised him. Jacob really became a fanatic for God, as you see, by making a solemn pledge to give back to God a tenth of all his increase. At this place he marked as "Beth-El", the house of God, Jacob's whole life was marked for time and eternity as belonging to God.

There is room in God's house for you. Do you belong to God? Are you part of His house? There is room in God's house for you. He wants you there! Why not settle it right now by giving you life to him, trusting in the LORD Jesus Christ? "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2, NKJV).

If you do belong to God, you are in His house, His family. How do you respond to His revelation of grace and truth? When life is good, you praise Him. When life is difficult and unbearable, do you praise Him? Remember His promises to you. God IS involved in your life and has revealed Himself to you in the past. Charles Spurgeon said it well, "What you learned in the light, trust in the darkness. When you can't trace His hand, trust His heart." (paraphrased)

Reflect on YOUR life: God reaches out of eternity into time to give spiritually dead people new life in Christ. By His grace and His power, He offers us His presence, protection, and provision through all of life's journey. (Gen. 28:15) But like Jacob, you must personally respond by faith to His revelation. And like Jacob, you too can enjoy Him and know His power at work in your life to bring about what is good and pleasing in His sight. Consider the last stanza of that great hymn, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing":

O to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm contrained to be!
Let Thy grace, LORD, like a fetter, Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee:
Prone to wander, LORD, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love:
Here's my heart, LORD, take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.
(The Baptist Hymnal, Convention Press: Nashville, Tenn., copyright 1991, p.15)

Our Creator God loves you and wants you to know Him! If you would like to contact this ministry for further information or questions, please send your e-mail to:
Email: ministryrequest1@WordTruth.Com
Web Site: WordTruth.Com

Copyright 1999, Randy Lariscy.