Well, as we continue through the book of Genesis, we come in the book of Genesis to chapter 28. And so please turn with me there. Genesis chapter 28. We'll study together from verses 10 through 22. Genesis 28, verse 10 through 22. Listen to God's word. Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Heron, and he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father and the God of Isaac. 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 shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 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 promised you. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place. And I did not know it. And he was afraid and said, how awesome is this place? There is none other than the house of God. And this is the gate of heaven. So early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set up, set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel. But the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in his in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be the house, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will give a full tenth. To you so far, the reading of God's word, may he add its blessing to our hearts. Or is a game that all little children play the game of peekaboo, they cover their eyes with their hands and and then they pull them away and in those moment, what are they thinking? Well, they're thinking if they can't see me. If I can't see them, rather, they can't see me. So I have become invisible to them. And so it is with Jacob here in this passage. He leaves his father and mother's house in complete ruin, utterly abandoned, with nothing. And in that moment, he must have thought, God does not see me. I can't see Him. He must not See me. And so here in the passage, as we look at God's discussion, his vision with Jacob, we see God's covenant promise reestablished what we had seen in the evening service last week. God is faithful even when we are faithless. That is really what is on display here in the book of Genesis. So we're going to first look at Jacob's dream in verses 10 through 17, and then we're going to look at his response in verses 18 through 22. So simply the dream versus 10 through 17 and the response in verses 18 to 22. So Where did we come from? What's our setting? Where are we on the story timeline? Well, last week when we finished off, we had a brief vignette into Esau's life. Esau was shown to be, by his own devices, trying to patch up his relationship with his father, apart from any kind of concern about the God whom he is supposed to serve. And so we have a little vignette of Esau in between Jacob sending, or Isaac sending Jacob away and Jacob's actual departure. But that's where we pick it up. Isaac has sent Jacob away to Haran, to Paddan Aram, to find himself a wife among the daughters of Laban, the brother of Rebecca. And so here we have Jacob reintroduced. He's on his way to Laban. Now, we have to understand a little bit of the geography in order to make sense of what is taking place in this account and in order to have a sense of what Jacob may be experiencing. So Beersheba is about 60 miles south of Jerusalem. It sits kind of in the southern part of what would be the kingdom of Judah. So Beersheba is there in the south. Jacob is traveling to Haran. Haran is about 550 miles to the north. So he travels almost in a straight line up to the north to Haran, 550 miles. That's about the equivalent distance of traveling from here to Jackson, Mississippi. We have made that trip several times. It takes about 8 or 9 hours by car. So you think, big deal. But you have to remember how Jacob gets there. Jacob gets there either on foot or by camel. So if Jacob is traveling by foot, say we give him a generous three mile an hour speed for covering that distance, that means it will take him 180 hours to travel that distance. If he is walking eight hours a day, he is looking at a three week long walk. Jacob sets out from Beersheba faced with a three week long walk to get to Herod. If he lives in the lap of luxury and he has himself a camel, he's going to be traveling around seven miles an hour. It's amazing the things that you have to research as a pastor. But here you have it. The average speed of a camel, seven miles an hour. And as he travels on camel, he's looking at a 10 day ride to cover the distance from Beersheba to Tehran, to get to where he needs to go. Here he goes, the man on whom the promise rests, he goes by himself. He goes with nothing. He goes entirely alone and he goes fleeing from his own brother. We know that he is fleeing from his own brother because later on in Genesis chapter 49, Not Genesis chapter 49, but in Genesis chapter 35, when he is about to go back, God comes to Jacob. He says, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, make an altar there so that the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. Jacob is not doing a leisurely trip. He's not on vacation. He is fleeing for his life from his own twin brother. His own twin brother is seeking to take his life. And Jacob is fleeing before him. And he leaves. He leaves Beersheba not to return for probably 15 to 20 years. Do you know that after Jacob leaves Beersheba, there's never a mention of him and his mother Rebecca being together ever again? He leaves behind his family. He leaves behind his blessing. He leaves behind his birthright. And he sets out on a three-week to ten-day trip into a place where he knows nobody. That is where Jacob is heading. And he does so entirely alone. You can almost see him trudging down the road, shoulders drooping and head down, as he leaves discouraged from his own house. And so, as he leaves, in verse 11, we see more of his condition. He leaves his house and he comes probably the first or the second day that he leaves from Beersheba, and he needs a rest. He's spending the night. He doesn't pitch his tent. He doesn't have one. He lies down and what does he take for a nice fluffy pillow? He finds a rock. He finds a rock that is nearby and he sets it down and that is his pillow. This one on whom the promise of God rests. This one who has the right of the firstborn in all of Isaac's house. This man Isaac who is wealthy beyond all mention as it is recorded for us in the book of Genesis. This man leaves alone. He leaves with not a tent, no shelter. He leaves with no pillow. He has nothing. He just has what is on his back. And so, fairly early on in his trip, Bethel being about 120 miles from Beersheba, fairly early on in his trip, this lonely, despairing patriarch, is visited by the Lord God himself. God visits him to comfort him. And in verse 12, we see God appearing to him first and foremost in this dream. He dreams there's a ladder that's set up. It's grounded on the earth and at the top of it reaches into the heavens. And the Lord God sits Above it, God is above the ladder, and the angels are going up and down on this ladder. Why is this significant? Well, let's first look at what angels do. How are angels used in the pages of the Word of God? Well, we have seen angels already. We saw them in Genesis chapter 19, when we looked at the account of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah were about to be destroyed, and who does God send to do that work? He sends his angels. So God sends angels and they are his agents of judgment. You also have angels serving as those who would be the protector of God's people. That's in Psalm 91. We have an example of that sent by God to protect the people of God. We have them used as gatherers of God's people in Matthew, chapter 24, or when Christ first is born, we have the angels coming to announce. the arrival of the Messiah. So we have the messengers of God performing a variety of tasks of these angels. It's not one thing that they do. But what is in common of all the tasks that these angels perform? In all the tasks that the angels perform, they are sent By God, they don't do their own bidding. They are servants of the Lord to the people of the Lord. And so here we have a picture of God's servants ascending and descending from heaven to the place where Jacob has laid his head. They the angels are doing the bidding of the Lord in Psalm 103. We're right at the end. It talks about the angels. It says they obey the word of the Lord. They are the ones who minister to the people who do the will of God. And so that's what Jacob sees in his dream. This discouraged, this lonely man sees the angels of the Lord ascending and descending from heaven. to serve the people of God. And we have in verse 13, God above the latter and he declares himself to be the Lord. Do you remember that name when it's all when it says the Lord in all capitals? That's the Hebrew word for Yahweh. It is God's name of relationship. It is the name that God uses when he speaks of his covenant people, when he identifies himself with his people. And here, Jacob isolated, removed from all that he thought he would inherit. It's addressed by God in his covenant keeping name. He is addressed by God as the one who is in relationship. Jacob had received from Isaac the blessing of God. And back in verse four of the chapter that we're studying and here now, God confirms the words of blessing that Isaac gave to his son. God gives again. And it sounds just like the words that God has given to Abraham. Listen to them again in verse 13, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie. I will give to you and to your offspring and 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 shall all the families of the earth be blessed. God promises land. God promises offspring. God promises blessing to all nations. through the family of Jacob. The exact same thing that he had promised to Abraham. The promise given to Abraham is now passed on to this Jacob. The Lord is there and his angels are ascending and descending to serve the people of God. So, that's what Jacob hears. He hears the promise that was given to Abraham, to Isaac, and now given to him. And he sees this promise of land, this promise of offspring, this promise of great blessing. But in that moment, he stops and he looks around and what does he have? He has nothing. He has nothing. It may seem to him like this promise is not about to take place at all. So, you have this isolated, possibly this lonely patriarch, certainly this undeserving man standing before God, And God says to him, behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land in the middle of this isolation. There's this great promise of comfort given to Jacob by God himself. God's messengers, his agents are ascending and descending all around. And God declares these are for your protection. These are for your safety. I am guarding you. I am keeping you. And I am doing so through my messengers. Now, what is true for Jacob is certainly true for you and me. In fact, We live in an age where the promises of God are even greater. The promises of God are greatly expanded. Why? Because Christ Jesus has come. And as we seek to understand this whole image of a ladder, there is only one place to which we can turn, and that is to Jesus Christ. In the book of John, in chapter one, in verse 51, Jesus himself identifies As the latter, Jesus says, the latter that Jacob saw, that's me. I am the one who stands between heaven and earth. I am grounded in heaven, in my human nature. I am grounded in heaven, in my I'm grounded on earth, in my human nature. I'm grounded in heaven, in my divine nature. And so you see that in John, chapter one and verse fifty one, when he's speaking to Nathaniel. He says 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. What is pictured in this ladder finds its reality in Jesus Christ. The angels of God ascend and descend on the mediator between heaven and earth. And who is that mediator? There is but one. The only Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Lord, that is what is pictured for us in the book of Genesis, in the account of Jacob. Jesus is the latter, the mediator between heaven and earth. So our vision, the vision of the Christian. It's the same as the vision of Jacob as man. Christ is the foot as God. He is the head of the ladder. He is the top and the bottom, the perfect mediator between God and man. And so we look only to Christ to to to breach that chasm between heaven and earth. Christ comes. And He is always with you. He isn't with you because you deserve Him to be with you. He is with you because He loves you. Because He has called you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, so to speak. The land of the sins of your fathers. And He has called you into the kingdom of His Son. And now He is that ladder. That mediator between God and man. We know. that He is our mediator and that He will never leave us or forsake us. You remember the Great Commission, Matthew chapter 28. He says, I will be with you even to the ends of the age. I will be with you to the ends of the age. We forget that part of the promise that Christ gives to us. The same promise that is given to the people of Israel when they're about to go into the land of Israel. They're about to invade it. They're still on the outside in the beginning of the book of Joshua. God comes to Joshua and he says, certainly I will be with you when you enter into the land. And then that promise is repeated for the Christian, for you and me in the New Testament administration of God's covenant of grace. In Hebrews chapter 13, in verse 5, where he is urging us not to be worried about the material things of this world, the writer of the book of Hebrews says, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. That is God's Word to His people. I will never leave you nor forsake you. So, what does that mean? Well, what happens to those of you who are here who are grieving over a child who has turned his back on the faith? A child who has abandoned his love for his Saviour? I will never leave you nor forsake you. What of you who are here gathered grieving the loss of a loved one? I will never leave you nor forsake you. What about those of you who have grown weary over your constant health concerns? I will never leave you nor forsake you. What about those of us who are gathered who look around in our country and we think this country is going to pot? There's nothing left to salvage. God says, I will never leave you nor forsake you, whether you are isolated in your family, whether you are isolated in your company, whether you are isolated in your country. God says. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am that ladder, that mediator between heaven and earth, that you would have assurance that you stand before me and that I am always with you. So we are adopted into God's family. And he cares for his children. As we continue on in Genesis chapter 28 and verse 16 and 17, we have Jacob responding to what is revealed to him by God. Jacob realizes he is in the presence of God. The vision that he saw was not like a dream that you and I might have. He awakes and there is no shadow of a doubt in this patriarch's mind, but that God has visited him that night. And he awakens and he says, surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. And he becomes afraid, it says in verse 17. He was afraid and he says, how awesome is this place? You know that word awesome? Literally in the Hebrew, that is the word to fear, but it's used in a passive sense. It's like saying, how much is this place to be feared? That's what Jacob cries out when he comes face to face with the God of heaven. When he has a window into the glory and the splendor of heaven and the Lord comes and speaks to him as a man, he is afraid. He is afraid. He comes face to face with who he is, the deceiver. And he knows that he stands before a holy God. So Jacob declares this is God's house. This is the gate into heaven. And in so doing, he acknowledges his own shortcomings. And that is true for all of us. The clearer we see who God is, the clearer we know we are not like him. And the more obvious it is to us what our standing before him ought to be. Now, through Jesus Christ, we have freedom from that standing. But we know what it ought to be. And so we stand before him in joy and delight as we look into the splendor of heaven. But for Jacob, this wandering, this lonely patriarch, comforted in this moment by God, reassured that he will care for him. The next step he takes is what? To go, oh, that was nice. Let's let's move on. No. He ensures that he remembers. He ensures that he remembers what God has worked in his life. And so that's what we look at when we talk about the response of Jacob, beginning in verse 18. So, Jacob takes his pillow and he sets it up as a monument. And the purpose of a monument, of course, is what? Why do we have a monument? Have any of you kids ever visited a monument? Have you ever seen a statue? A statue of a person, maybe? Oglethorpe, downtown Augusta. Why do we have a statue of Mr. Oglethorpe downtown? So we can remember. So we can remember what he did. We stand and have monuments and we stand and look at them so that we would remember. And Jacob pours oil on this pillow to make it more solemn, in a sense, making it part of a solemnization. It's kind of like what we do when we profess our faith before the congregation. It's not a flippant thing. It's an oath, a vow, something solemn that we do before the people of God. And so Jacob sets up a monument and he assigns a name to the place. He assigns the name Bethel. The name Bethel in the Hebrew literally means house of God. You hear that last little L at the end, that is God. The first part is house, Beth is house. The last part is L, El Shaddai, God Almighty. You hear it in that part also, or in the word for God in Hebrew is Elohim, L, it signifies God. And Jacob, to help himself remember, says this place is the house of God said every time he comes to that place and he says its name Bethel. He remembers what God has done for him, so. His mind will never leave this place. And when God calls him back to that place, he does go. And so we as God's people also ought to remember there are things that you can do to help yourself. Remember, you can set up your own monuments, so to speak, in your own life. Perhaps they would be physical monuments that you can have in your house. But we as a church have monuments that we celebrate regularly. They're called the sacraments. the Lord's Supper and baptism. They are visible signs that help us remember what God has done, that He had His body broken and His blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins, that He has washed us clean from the guilt of our sin. This is what we are doing in the sacraments. We are remembering. We have a memorial. We have a monument. But you can also do it for those of you who have children just by the things that you talk about. You can set before your children time and time again. What has God done for us? Look at how God has cared for our family. Maybe it's through provision. Maybe it's in how he changed your attitude in one area of your life. Maybe it's in how he has spared one of you from from illness or from ruin in some way or another. Set those stories before your children that they would never forget, but that they would always remember. Bethel, this is the house of God. We are a temple of the Holy Spirit. So we live as God's people, not blindly reacting from moment to moment. But we live remembering almighty God and we have ways that we can set that before ourselves, just as Jacob has done. But it is obvious in our passage that Jacob is still in the middle of a process, just like all of us are. He is not quite right. He's, in fact, quite carnal in how he responds to this incident, isn't he? He comes and he sees this vision of God, the blessing of God poured out on him, that God will be with him at all times. And what does he say? Well, he basically says, we'll wait and see. That's basically what he says, right? He says, if God will watch over me when I'm on the road, if He feeds me, if He clothes me, and if He brings me back safely, then He'll be my God. So, Jacob, in this moment of great revelation, like all of us, blind to the power and care of God in his life, that God does not need to prove himself to us to be our God. He is in the beginning God created. God is. And yet he is patient with Jacob, isn't he? He doesn't hear Jacob say that and and say, well, that's it. I've had enough of Jacob. He obviously doesn't get it. He is merciful with him. He is patient with him. He doesn't deal with him according to his sins and his shortcomings, his weaknesses, but he deals with him in compassion. So, God reveals himself to Jacob. God reveals himself to you and to me. Not as some distant God. Not as a God who is up in heaven. He is the latter. He is what is grounded on earth. And He has its head in heaven. He is the God who is personal. He is the God who we call Father. That is the God whom we serve. And He sent His Son, the eternal Son, Jesus Christ, to be the mediator between God and man. That we would be able to call Him Father. That God's presence would surely be with us. Personally, despite all that we do that is sinful and that it takes his name in vain, we must remember it. We must fix our eyes on it. All of us, whether in actual physical form or but for sure in our minds, must have for ourselves a little monument. It must be a little stone that is set up in our minds that we have anointed with oil that says Bethel. This is the house of God. Let's pray together.