pilgrim people

"I Will Give to You" - Genesis 28

What would life be like if there was no special revelation from God? We would have a general idea about God’s eternal power and existence, since that is what nature makes known to us. But we would know nothing about the gospel. Had God not revealed himself specially, beyond what we ordinarily observe everyday in nature, there would be no good news, no message of redemption, no announcement of God’s promises. We would be Christless and hopeless. We would be left to speculate about God.

Thankfully, however, God has revealed himself specially. He has revealed himself in his Word, which records his mighty acts in redemptive history. He has sent his heralds to proclaim his promises. And, most supremely, he has revealed himself in his Son, who is the very “radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” And it is through him that God has spoken to us “in these last days.”

And the Holy Spirit uses this special revelation in our lives today. He takes this good news proclaimed to us in Word and Sacrament, and creates and confirms faith in our hearts. He opens our eyes to see our place in God’s great story. He shows us that we are people who have been written into God’s grand script. As God’s promises are preached to us, the Holy Spirit conquers our hearts, tames us, and causes us to live under the authority of God’s great story.

That is what happened to Jacob one night as he was making his long journey from Beersheba to his uncle Laban’s house. In the middle of nowhere, the Lord revealed himself to Jacob. He conquered Jacob, tamed him, brought him into subjection to his authority, and humbled him by the glorious promises made in his covenant. God told Jacob that he belonged to another story, not his own.

But these things were not written for Jacob’s sake alone, they were written for us as well. The were written for us so that we too might better understand the story and covenant to which we belong, and that we might respond to this announced revelation today with a life of worship and devotion to our Lord. So think with me about: 1) The Lord’s Revelation; 2) Jacob’s Response; and 3) The Lord’s Further Revelation.

I. The Lord’s REVELATION

Before we notice what the Lord revealed to Jacob, first notice where and when he revealed it to him. Jacob was not seeking the Lord. He did not leave home on a spiritual journey, searching for a spiritual experience or encounter with God. He was running from his brother Esau and intending to go to his uncle Laban’s house to get a wife. Those were his plans and motives. Yet, sleeping under the stars with a rock as his pillow, Jacob is met by the Lord.

This is one of the last places we might expect the Lord to show up. Yet, this is just the sort of unexpected thing we see the Lord doing repeatedly throughout redemptive-history. God does not wait for us to find him. Instead, he finds us. HE is the seeker, and he seeks out his own and declares his promises to them. He shows up in places where we do not expect him. He revealed himself to Moses in a burning bush somewhere in the wilderness. He revealed himself to Israel by selecting a young shepherd boy to be the king of their nation. Most supremely, of course, he revealed himself in human flesh as the son of a Jewish carpenter. He does not show up the way we might expect him to.

And notice that the Lord waits until Jacob is asleep before he brings this special revelation. This was perfect timing, because it did not allow Jacob much opportunity to scheme or plot or manipulate God’s revelation to his own advantage. He is in a position in which he can only receive.

That is often our problem, isn’t it? Because of our sinfulness, we really don’t want to receive from the Lord. We want to hear what we want to hear, not what God has to say to us, even though he has the authority to say it! When God speaks to us in Law, we don’t like it. We try to find the weasel-clause, some wiggle-room, some way of setting our own personal condition upon his command so that we will feel justified in our own conscience for our sin and disobedience.

And when he speaks to us in Gospel, we think it’s too good to be true. We don’t believe that he will actually perform what he has promised. We try to turn the gospel into law, something that we do, rather than good news about what Christ did in history. Our sinful hearts are often not willing to receive what God says, either in command or in promise. Our minds are too busy racing to manipulate the words to our own advantage, rather than simply submitting to his authority and listening to and receiving what he has revealed.

And so, the Lord waits until Jacob is asleep.

But then notice what God reveals: “a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.” Now, most likely, what Jacob saw was not a ladder, but a staircase. The Hebrew word here is very unique in the Bible. It is probably connected with an ancient Akkadian word for a flight of steps, like the steep steps on a ziggurat, those ancient temples in the Babylonian and Assyrian cultures. Ziggurats stretched high into the sky with an enormous staircase that went up, up, up, until it reached a little platform on top in which there was an altar or a shrine.

You can see something very similar to this if you visit parts of Mexico and Central America where the Aztecs and Mayans once dwelt. Ever since the Fall, humans have had a desire to reach God and ascend into the heavens and climb into his presence and be like him. The staircases into the heavens gave the impression that man could ascend into the heavens and become like him if he just put his effort into it. That is ultimately what man attempted to do at the Tower of Babel, and that is what man has attempted to do in all sorts of various ways ever since. Jacob would have been familiar with ziggurats like the one he saw in his vision. They were so common in the ancient Near East that he probably saw plenty of them on the horizon during his long journey.

But this one was different. Verse 12 tells us that “the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it.” Angels are God’s messengers sent by him to guard what is holy and to communicate his revelation. This was no pagan ziggurat designed for pagan worship. This was an axis between heaven and earth. It was filled with holy angels going up and down its steps.

Even more striking, however, is what we read in the next verse: “And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, ‘I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.” Notice what the Lord promises to him: “The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This is what Jacob’s life was all about, though he had not yet realized it. He was part of a story much larger, much more significant than his own. He was part of God’s glorious story of grace. The Lord promised him the same thing that he promised his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. The Lord confirmed the blessing that Isaac previously gave to Jacob, and he made him the next Patriarch and heir of the covenant of grace. Just as the Lord promised a land and an offspring to Abraham and Isaac, now he promised the same to Jacob. And from Jacob, of course, would come twelve sons who would form the twelve tribes of Israel. And from one of those tribes – the tribe of Judah – would come the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

Of course, Jacob had no idea at the time just how significant this promise was. He could not have imagined in his wildest dreams that people from nations all over the globe would be blessed through him. Yet, look around us; the promise has come to pass! Here we are in San Diego, CA, some 4000 years later, recognizing the name of Jacob. We are people of Asian descent, African descent, European descent, people who can trace their roots to the Pacific Islands, to the Indians of Central and South America, and we all have been blessed through Jacob, the patriarch and ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. We too have been brought into this story! God’s promise has come to pass!

And it is all by God’s grace. Notice the Lord’s words: “I will give to you,” he says. It is ALL of him, not of Jacob. The Lord does this completely independent from Jacob’s works and schemes. It is a gift from beginning to end. That is what grace is. Salvation is God’s surprising gift that is not gained through human effort or manipulation. “I will give to you,” the Lord says.

Jacob didn’t seek out God. He didn’t build a staircase into heaven or climb a ladder. Instead, God finds Jacob. As the Scriptures say, “no one seeks for God.” God does not say, “I’ll meet you halfway, Jacob.” Instead, the Lord himself brings this staircase to Jacob and he sends his angels. He descends to Jacob in his covenant mercy and promise, and he proclaims, “I will give to you,” and “I will be with you…I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.”

That is the God of grace! That is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God who has taken a people for himself and brought them into covenant and redeemed them, and declares to them, “I will be your God, and you shall be my people!” That is the purpose of this revelation.

II. Jacob’s RESPONSE

We first read of Jacob’s response in vv.16-17. Notice his reaction. He doesn’t take this encounter with the Lord lightly. God has spoken to him. He is disturbed and frightened, which is the natural response of anyone who has been in the holy presence of the Lord and received special revelation.

Whenever we hear someone talking about how the Lord spoke to him in a dream or how he received revelation from the Lord, we should be a little suspicious, especially if the person is talking about his encounter with the Lord in a lighthearted or easygoing manner. Scripture reveals something quite different. Whenever someone in the Bible realizes that he is in the holy presence of the Lord, he trembles with fear.

We think of the prophet Isaiah’s reaction when, in a vision, he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah saw angels, seraphim, who cried out, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” The prophet responded by saying, “Woe is me! For I am lost; I am a man of unclean lips.”

We also think of Peter’s response to Jesus in Luke chapter 5, when, realizing that he was in the presence of the Lord, he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Jacob’s reaction is similar: he realizes that he is a sinful man. We read in v.17 that after God revealed himself in this dream, Jacob “was afraid.” He had been in the holy presence of God, and responded with reverence and awe: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

We should also keep in mind why God revealed these things to Jacob. It was not to provide Jacob with a mere private spiritual experience. Sadly, many well-meaning Christians read events like these in redemptive history and want similar experiences for themselves. There is a lot of that sort of thing in our day: people talking about dreams or visions they have had, and how the Lord said ‘this’ or ‘that’ to them. But we must keep in mind that the purpose of God’s revelation here was not to give Jacob a mere private spiritual experience. The purpose was to renew the covenant with Jacob, making the same promises to him that he previously made to Abraham and Isaac.

Jacob’s response is full of reverence and awe. It was rightly followed by worship. Notice that in the morning he didn’t just go about his business. Instead, he worshiped the Lord. “He took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel,” which means, ‘house of God.’ He then made a vow to the Lord. He responded to God’s covenant promises by gratefully vowing to serve the Lord and giving back a full tenth of all that was given to him. We see Jacob beginning to be transformed from grasper to giver. It will still be a long road; sanctification always is. But the Holy Spirit uses this announced revelation of God’s gospel promises to begin the transformation process of Jacob. He is set in a new direction to seek the kingdom through reliance on the gracious God of promise, not on himself.

And so, Jacob worships. That is the response of one who recognizes the grace and promises of God! The person who understands the grace of God so freely given in the promises of the covenant is moved to respond in worship, adoration, and service! For that is why we have been created: to worship God, glorify him, and enjoy him forever.

And the worship we are to engage in is not a mere private experience to be done on our own, but is to be done at Bethel, in the house of God, the place where God meets his people. The Lord met the patriarch Jacob in this desolate place, and Jacob set up and consecrated a little pillar as a memorial of what God had done. Later, the Lord would establish his house within Jacob’s descendents, the nation of Israel. He would establish a place in which he would descend and meet his people: the tabernacle. And his people would respond in worship.

But once Christ came, all the type and shadow of the tabernacle was fulfilled. Now the Lord descends and meets his people in his New Covenant Church that he has instituted, and in the public preached Gospel and the fellowship of his table, which he has ordained and given to us for our spiritual health. We meet him on HIS terms, not our own. That is the only reasonable response of one who believes the promises that God so freely gives in his covenant.

It is a response that calls for our whole life, nothing less. Paul tells us in Romans 12, just after he has laid out the Gospel of grace for eleven chapters, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is you spiritual worship.” Like our father Jacob, the Lord has announced to us that we are his and not our own. He has sought us out, when we were not seeking him. He has descended in his grace and given us everything. Our only reasonable response to that revelation, therefore, is heeding his call to worship and offering our whole lives as a living sacrifice to him.

But what revelation am I talking about? The Lord hasn’t come to us in dreams and visions and given us special revelation. The Lord hasn’t shown up to us in the middle of the desert. What revelation has he given us? Thankfully, he has given us special revelation that is far better and far more full and clear than that which he gave to our father Jacob.

III. The Lord’s Further REVELATION

Turn with me to John chapter 1. We read in vv.43-51:

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, ‘We have found him of whom the Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ Nathaniel said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathaniel said to him, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’ Nathaniel answered him, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Jesus answered him, ‘Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘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 refers to Jacob’s dream and applies it to himself. Why would he do that? He does this because HE is the ladder, the staircase, between heaven and earth. HE is the only way to the Father, and no man can come to the Father except by him. HE is the only Mediator between God and man.

Yet, he is not a ladder or a staircase that we climb. The good news is not: “Be like Jesus and you’ll make it to heaven.” That would just be one more form of pagan religion that is concerned with human ascent into heaven. Christianity does not offer you a ladder of merit that says, “If you climb high enough, you’ll make it.” Nor does it offer you a ladder of mysticism that says, “If you climb high enough, then you will gain enlightenment.” Instead, Christianity is completely different from everything else offered in the world. It is not interested in human A-scent, but in divine DE-scent.

This is made clear by the fact that God chose a guy like Jacob to be a patriarch of the covenant. We look at a guy like Jacob, and we may wonder why the Lord would make his covenant of grace with him, a guy so sinful and deceitful. Of all the people in the world that God could have chose to be a patriarch in the covenant family, he chose the scoundrel Jacob. Human reason says he could have picked a more righteous person. But instead, he chose Jacob. Why did he do that? The answer is simple: God chose to make his covenant with Jacob for the same reason that he makes his covenant with anyone of us. It is all for the sake of the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Mediator of the covenant!

It is HE who came from heaven, not to show us the way, but to be the way! He did not count equality with God “a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,” and “being born in human for, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” He accomplished redemption for you and me, suffering the wrath we deserved as he was punished for our sins. It is through the blood and death of the cross, this instrument of torturous execution, that Christ says, “I will give to you.”

It seems crazy to the world. It seems backward. The world says, “Climb higher.” But Christ says, “No, I will come to you.” The message of the cross is foolishness to the world because it contradicts self-confidence and human reason. Yet, it is only foolishness to those who are perishing. To those who are being saved, it is the most glorious revelation that we could ever receive.

And this revelation is announced to us again today! This revelation of a real event in human history, not a private spiritual experience! We do not need to ask for God to reveal himself to us in dreams! He has already revealed himself most fully in his Son. WE NEED NO FURTHER REVELATION! You do not need to go off to the desert. You do not need to go away to a mountaintop retreat. You do not need to go on a pilgrimage to Israel or join a monastery or do anything like that at all! You only need look to what God has revealed in his Word about the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of his Son!

As this revelation of promise, with all of its authority, continues to conquer us, tame us, bring us into subjection to our Lord, and fill us with hope, may we transformed by it! May we respond in worship, praise, and a life of gratitude, offering ourselves as living sacrifices to our gracious Lord. For he has said to us, “I will give to you.” Amen.