Well, please open your Bible this evening to Genesis chapter 28. You want to get back to Genesis here, back to the book of beginnings. And we're in a section of Genesis that deals with the generations of Isaac, the Toledoth, as I've been reminding you of that Hebrew word that means generations, the generations of Isaac. Of course, we know that Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob and Esau. And even before those twins were born, God declared that the greater blessing would go to the younger of the two, to Jacob. At this point in the story, we've already seen that everything seems to be going Jacob's way. Have you noticed that? Esau despised his firstborn birthright and sold it to Jacob for just a bowl of stew. And Esau was tricked out of receiving his father Isaac's blessing. And tonight the saga is going to continue. We're going to see that everything continues to go Jacob's way. And the title of my message tonight is this, Jacob Gets It and Esau Doesn't. So what exactly does Jacob get that Esau doesn't get? Well, let's pause for prayer and then we'll look at this chapter in Genesis. for Your many blessings upon us. And as we sang these great hymns of the faith and meant it with our hearts, we thank You for Your great love for us. We thank You for the salvation that You have wrought through Your Son. We thank You that we can proclaim it as well with our soul because of Him. Lord, I pray that as we look into Your Word tonight that You will speak to us and You will show us just how from the very beginning You began to work your plan of redemption, working it throughout the generations from one generation to the next, right down to the coming of Christ. So help us, Lord, to look into this text tonight and just marvel at your great work, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So Jacob gets it and Esau doesn't. What exactly does Jacob get? Well, as we begin this chapter, we see that Jacob gets the right wives. For starters, look at verse 1, chapter 28, And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Peddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother. And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people, and give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee. and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. And Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Paddan Aram, unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother." So what we see here is that Isaac was just as concerned about Jacob's choice of wife as his father Abraham was about Isaac's choice of wife. And so Isaac is telling Jacob, you must not take a wife from among the daughters of the Canaanites. Because, first of all, they were not Yahweh worshipers. They were the peoples inhabiting the land. They were not Yahweh worshipers. And because they were among the peoples whom God would eliminate from the land. And so it is that Isaac uses this occasion to pronounce a fresh blessing upon Jacob. And he calls for God Almighty, and the Hebrew there is El Shaddai, God Almighty, to bless him, to bless him with the blessings of Abraham. Of course, this is an explicit reference to the promises of the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant that God had entered into with Abraham. In fact, as I read through that, did you notice that even the content of the blessing that Isaac gave to Jacob reflects very clearly on the specific promises that are contained in the Abrahamic covenant. We have reference here to the seed promise and to the land promise. We'll come back and look at that in more detail in a minute. So Jacob went to Laban, the land of Haran. He got the right wives for himself from among the people that were related to Abraham. Now, I use wives in the plural because we know what happens here, right? He ends up thinking he's going to get one wife and he ends up with two wives, Leah and Rachel. And of course, this is just part of the biblical story, isn't it? These are the facts. This is what actually happened. And so, yes, we have record in the Bible of polygamy. It's a fact. It happened. But we'll notice as we go through the biblical accounts of these things that the Bible never endorses it. It never commends it. In fact, the Bible reveals that there's an awful lot of problems with multiple wives, right? Leads to a lot of problems. As we reflect upon the scriptures, we go back to the very beginning and we think of God creating man and woman and Adam and Eve. And it was his plan from the very beginning that there would be one man and one woman together for life. That is God's plan for marriage. So even though we come across wives in the plural, don't take that as an endorsement for polygamy. So Jacob gets the right wives, but Esau doesn't. I'd like to take you back a couple chapters to chapter 26 and just recount the marriages that Esau entered into, his first marriages. Genesis 26 and look at verse 34. And Esau was 40 years old when he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Berei the Hittite, and Bashamath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And we're told here in verse 35 that these were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. And it's a no wonder that Isaac and Rebekah were grieved. Because the Hittite people that Esau had married into, they were a pagan people and they worshiped pagan gods. They practiced paganism. And furthermore, the Hittites are among the Canaanites. And we just talked about them, the fact that the Canaanites were the people that possessed the land that God was going to dispossess them and remove them from the land of promise that God had given to Abraham and to his seed. And as we read on, we learn that Esau's wives especially grieved his mother. Look over at chapter 27 in verse 46. And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. Now Heth is related to the Hittites. You need to make that connection. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? So such a grief to Esau's mother's heart that he had married these Hittite wives. And she's just, it's weighing upon her. It's a great burden to her. And she wants to make sure that her other son, Jacob, does not take Hittite wives. And so her comment right here leads into chapter 28. It was her comment that prompted Isaac to send Jacob to Laban. So we see that Jacob gets the right wives and Esau doesn't. I think there is an application here for young people to consider. If you're not yet married, make sure that you get the right spouse, the spouse of God's choosing. Who would that be? Well, if you are a believer, if you are a Christian, be sure to marry of the same kind. Be sure that you marry a Christian. It would be a grief to your Christian parents' hearts for you to marry a non-believer. And of course, it would be a grief to God as well. So there is application here. Make sure you marry the right person. Do not be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever, 2 Corinthians 6, 14. Make sure that the person that you begin to get interested in, check them out right up front. I mean, they may be the most beautiful person in the world to you. But don't let their looks fool you. Make sure that they are a believer. Make sure they are a God worshiper. Make sure they are a Christ follower. And if you have Christian parents, young people, make sure they're included in the process. Make sure that you choose a Christian to marry of whom they approve. So Esau did not get the right wives. He did not choose wisely, but Jacob did get the right wives. And we'll, of course, come to that in a later study. Well, what else did Jacob get that Esau didn't get that we see in this chapter? Well, we see that Jacob gets a God encounter, and it's a magnificent one. His encounter involves a dream, a declaration, a vow, and a memorial. So let's look at each element of that, starting with his dream. Look at verse 10. And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. And he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillow, and laid down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it." And I'm going to stop right there. So I'm just introducing here Jacob's dream, his dream about Yahweh. And this was no ordinary dream, mind you. I mean, Jacob had not eaten a bunch of pizza before he went to bed at night, OK? It wasn't that kind of a problem. I did a little research into this particular area. What can you eat before you go to bed that might cause you to have wild dreams or whatever? There's a lot of folklore out there. Let me give you a list. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, turkey, cheese, steak, chocolate, and spicy food. So here's my challenge to our college students. I'd like one of you to go home tonight and eat all of those and tell me what you dream. All right. Well, that's nonsense, of course. Jacob did not have a wild dream because of something he ate. No, this was divine revelation. God was giving revelation to Jacob. And throughout the Bible, we see that God does give revelation in dreams. Now, this even in the Bible is not a common occurrence. This is something rare where God would give revelation sometimes to the patriarchs, sometimes to the prophets in the Old Testament. And even in the New Testament, there's a reference to God giving revelation in dreams. But even in the Bible, it's not common. And in our day, there's no reason for us to think that this is a common occurrence. So please, please don't go and ask God to give you some revelation through a dream. He's not doing that. We have the completed canon of scripture. The scriptures are sufficient for us in the day in which we live. So please don't come to me and expect me to interpret your dream like Daniel did. OK, don't do that. Jacob had a dream, and he saw what is commonly referred to as Jacob's ladder. Now, the term that's translated ladder might be better translated a staircase, actually. It's a stairway to heaven, if you will. And he saw this stairway to heaven with angels ascending and descending, going up and down from heaven. And at the top of the stairway, this is all in his dream, He saw a theophany, an appearance of the Lord, the Lord in some form, perhaps a human form, and he sees the Lord standing at the top of this stairway. And the Lord spoke to him and gave revelation to him. We'll come back to that in just a moment. So we see here that Jacob gets a God encounter. He gets a dream. He gets a dream about Yahweh God. We also see that he makes a declaration concerning Yahweh. Look at verse 16. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows and set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel. But the name of the city was called Luz at the first. So this dream really made an impression upon Jacob. and he hallowed the place. He thought to himself, this must be a very special place that I'm in right now. Verse 17 records that he was afraid. The word here means that he was awed. He was awestruck at what he had witnessed there. And I think any of us would have been awestruck to have a vision like he had. a vision of this stairway to heaven and the angels of God going up and down and God himself standing at the top. So he was awed. He was awestruck. This was a special place. This was a place where he could encounter God. This was his first God encounter. So it was a very special place and a very special memory for him. And he thought to himself, God himself is in this place. He even went so far as to say, this must be the very gate into heaven here. And so he hallowed the place and he called the place Bethel. Now we say Bethel usually, but Bethel in the Hebrew means house of God, Beth, house, El, God, house of God. So we see here Jacob having a dream and then Jacob making a declaration. We also see Jacob making a vow. He makes a vow to be a worshiper of Yahweh. Look at verse 20. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God." Now, as we read that and we see that word if, we should take this not as an indication of doubt, but an indication of faith. He heard God and he believed God. And based on what he heard God say, he is now declaring, if God is going to do this, then I will make him my God. He is vowing to make the Lord Yahweh his God. He is making a promise, and implied in that promise is that he would be a Yahweh worshiper for the rest of his life. based on this revelation that he had received from God. And so Jacob vows to be a worshiper of Yahweh. Have you made such a vow? Have you had a God encounter? Has the Lord spoken to you through his word? Have you not heard the gospel story, how Christ died for your sins? Have you not heard God declare that to you and you believed it? and you have accepted Christ as your Savior and Lord, that's your God encounter. And if you've had that God encounter, the result will be that you will be a worshiper of His for the rest of your life. Think of what God has done for you. He's saved you. He's delivered you from the penalty and the power of sin and one day from the presence of sin. And so you have had a God encounter. Have you made a vow to worship Him? Is this your commitment like it was Jacob's? So we see Jacob having a dream and making a declaration and vowing a vow. We also see him erecting a memorial, a memorial to Yahweh. Now I want to go back to verse 18. I already read this verse, but just to mention this memorial that he erected. says, and Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows and set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it. And so he took this stone, this very stone that he had put his head upon and slept at night and had this dream, and he set it up for a pillar. Now, this idea of setting it up probably means you think of like maybe a flat stone that he stood up on the end. Now, let's say you're journeying along. I can remember us driving from out in California and driving eastward. And there's the salt flats there. You get to Utah and so forth. And how many have ever driven along that highway? OK. All right. Now, if you've driven along that highway in the daytime and you can see as you're driving along things that are maybe on the side of the road, what did you notice as you drove down that highway? Well, there's these these rocks that have been placed And some of them spell out words. And you drive along and you start to realize people got this idea and then it just kind of caught on. And so you have all of these kind of rock displays and messages and so forth that have been set up along the salt flats. And you know to yourself, you say, those rocks did not organize themselves that way. Right. Somebody put them there. And that's the same idea with this pillar that Jacob erected. If you're journeying along in the Judean wilderness and you come upon a flat rock and it's standing upright, maybe buried a little bit into the ground, you know that it didn't get that way on its own. It kind of jumps out at you and gets your attention. You realize somebody erected this as a memorial. And furthermore, he pours oil on it. apparently an act of consecration. It may even be, and I'm speculating here, that the act of pouring the oil on it in some way stained that rock and marked it in some way. We don't really know. But the point is that he erected this memorial. And then look down at verse 22 about what he says. And this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee." And so this stone was a memorial to mark the place where Jacob had had a God encounter. And Jacob called this place Bethel, God's house. And now he's kind of in some way symbolizing that in this memorial that he erected. He's kind of thinking ahead to the fact that, you know, we're going to build a house to God here. It's kind of that idea. And furthermore, Jacob was really stirred in his heart about what had happened. And so he now makes another promise. He says, I will surely give the tenth, the tithe unto thee. And so Jacob made a commitment to tithe of all of his increase for the rest of his life, to tithe it to God. Now, we've talked about the tithe before, the Old Testament tithe. Abraham gave a tithe of the spoils of war to Melchizedek. Remember that? Here, Jacob swears to tithe of his increase. Now, we need to observe in both cases there was not a command to tithe. This was something voluntary that they did. The commandment does not come until the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. That's when Israel is commanded to tithe. And as you look into that, you realize it's more than just a tithe of 10 percent, but there are other tithes as well. But that was the nation of Israel. This was kind of a national tax, if you will. They were a nation under God in the sense that God was the head of their nation. They were a true theocracy. And so it is that we don't apply those things to us today. In the New Testament era, we are under a different principle. And we are to give according to 2 Corinthians 9, 7, to give generously and cheerfully as each one purposes in his heart. And so we've talked about this before, and if you have any further questions about tithing and whether it applies to us today, I'd be happy to talk with you more. But we see here him voluntarily, out of the desire of his own heart, making a commitment to tithe of his increase unto God. He promised to give a tithe because of this encounter that he had with God. here in Bethel. So Jacob gets a God encounter. He dreams about God. He makes a declaration concerning God. He vows to be a worshiper of God. He erects a memorial to God and promises to worship God with a tithe. Jacob gets a God encounter, but Esau doesn't. Now, I'm going to admit that what I'm about to lead into is an argument from silence, but I do think it's reasonable to conclude that Esau doesn't get anything like what we're talking about here. Esau gets no dream. There's no ladder. There's not even a pillow rock. He gets nothing, nada. Esau makes no declaration of the presence of Yahweh. He makes no vow to worship Yahweh. He sets up no memorial to Yahweh. Nothing. We have no record, in fact, that Esau ever became a Yahweh worshiper. Think about that. In fact, we're kind of left with the impression that Esau may have been led astray into the paganism of his Hittite wives. We don't know, but it's possible. So Esau doesn't get a God encounter, but Jacob does. So Jacob, what does Jacob get that Esau doesn't get? He gets the right wives. He gets a God encounter. He also gets the promises of Abraham. I want to go back now to the divine revelation that is given to Jacob, the very words that are spoken by Yahweh God to Jacob. For you see, this is really the core of the passage. This is the peak and the pinnacle. the climactic center of the passage because Yahweh is speaking here. And whenever you come across God speaking in the Bible, we really need to pay attention. So let's go back to verse 13, where we see here that Yahweh is going to affirm that Jacob is the recipient of the promises given to Abraham. Verse 13, And behold, the Lord stood above it, above that stairway, that staircase, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. Wow. This is divine disclosure. This is divine revelation directly given to Jacob. And in this divine disclosure, the Lord affirms that the covenant promises, the promises that he made to Abraham when he entered into that covenant with Abraham, those very same promises are now conferred upon Jacob. What do these promises include? Well, they include the same things that he had given to Abraham, the land promise. God says to Jacob, this very land on which you slept, this land I'm going to give to you and to your seed. You have the land promise, you have the seed promise. And God says to him, you know, as the dust of the earth, so your seed will be. Does that sound familiar? God had given the same promise to his grandfather, Abraham. And then you have the global blessing promise that ultimately finds its conclusion in God's plan of redemption, where he says, in thee and in thy seed shall all the families, shall all the peoples, all the races of the earth be blessed. And these are the very same promises that God had voiced to Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, You can read about that back in Genesis 12 and 13 and 15. And then the Lord later on affirmed those same promises to Jacob's father Isaac in chapter 26. And now the Lord is again affirming these same promises that they apply to Jacob and to his seed. So God chose Abraham, God chose Isaac, and God chose Jacob. God blessed Abraham, and God blessed Isaac, and God blessed Jacob. The Abrahamic covenant promises apply to Jacob and to his seed. They find fulfillment in his descendants. And as we read through these promises, there's one that just kind of jumps out at us. It's a very special promise. We find it in verse 15, where the Lord says, I am with thee. I am with thee. And the Lord further promises, I'm not going to leave you either. I'm going to be with you wherever you go, wherever you journey, wherever you rest your head. I will be with you. The Lord is promising not to abandon Jacob, but to see to it that everything is fulfilled exactly according to His Word. And so God affirms the covenant blessings for Jacob. And God has promised not to leave us either. This very same promise applies to us in the New Testament era. Is this not a blessing to us to consider the fact that God has promised that he will not leave us or forsake us? This same promise applies to us as believers in Christ. Wherever we go. God will be with us. If we know Christ is our savior, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, that Holy Spirit is not going to leave us. He's not going to abandon us. He will indwell in us forever. And so we have God's promise that applies to us today, and we can claim that promise. So Jacob gets the promises of Abraham. This is the best getting of all in this chapter, is it not? He gets the promises, the covenant promises. but Esau doesn't. Think about that for a moment. The promises of the Abrahamic covenant do not apply to Esau or to his seed. Esau does not get the land of promise. He's given the land of Edom, not the promised land. Esau does not get the seed promise. The seed promise comes through Jacob. The nations of the earth are not blessed through the seed of Esau. They're blessed through the seed of Jacob. And in the ultimate fulfillment of that, of course, is Christ. Christ was born and you've traced back his lineage. It goes through Jacob, not Esau. So that leaves us with an important question. Why? Why does Jacob get the right wives? Why does Jacob get the God encounter? Why does Jacob get the promises of Abraham and Esau doesn't get any of that? Well, it goes back to what God had declared even before they were born. In Genesis 25, 23, the Lord declared the elder shall serve the younger. This was God's will even before they were born. The elder will serve the younger. Esau is going to end up serving Jacob. And it's because of the divine choice declared by the Lord through the prophet Malachi. where God says, "'Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.'" And it's all explained in Romans chapter 9. I'd like you to turn there. And we've looked at this before, but it does bear repeating to make sure that we understand what the Scriptures are teaching. Romans 9, verses 6 through 16. give us a divine commentary on what happened in the Old Testament. The Bible does this very often. It's an important lesson for us when we're studying our Bibles. Let the Bible interpret the Bible, okay? So Romans 9, beginning in verse 6, Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. Now, you have to equate in your mind Israel is who? Jacob. Neither because they are of the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called." Okay, now you're starting to get the picture. There's a selection that's going on here from one generation to the next. Abraham, Isaac, not Ishmael. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. Okay, now, it's the promise and who the promise applies to? Who's the seed of promise? Well, it's Isaac, not Ishmael. Verse nine, for this is the word of promise, at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. Yes, it's the son who was born of Sarah, who is? Isaac, okay. And not only this, now we go to the next generation. But when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, were the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, and now he quotes from Genesis 25-23, the elder shall serve the younger. And as it is written in verse 13, now quoting from Malachi 1, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Who are we to question what God has done? Who are we to question the divine program? Who are we to question the fact that God chose Jacob over Esau? Let us not so question God. Verse 15, For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." You see, this is all a story of God's mercy, the mercy that He extended to Jacob. Jacob did not deserve it. If we're honest, Jacob was not a very righteous person. cheating his brother as he did, being a deceiver even to his own father. But God in his mercy chose to transfer the promises of the Abrahamic covenant to Jacob. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And so really here is the big lesson from our study this evening. It's because God loved and chose Jacob as an object of his mercy that Jacob gets the covenant promises and Esau doesn't. That's why. Because God loved and chose Jacob as an object of his mercy, that's why. That's why he gets those things and Esau doesn't. And folks, when we come to realize that God has chosen and loved us as objects of his mercy, that does something in our hearts. It fills our hearts with gratitude toward God to realize that I'm a sinner. I don't deserve his love. I don't deserve his mercy. I don't deserve his grace. Grace by definition is unmerited favor. I don't deserve those things. But while I was a sinner, Christ died for me. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. God's great expression of love toward us, and we don't deserve it, it's all his mercy and his grace. And that should fill our hearts with gratitude and praise for the God of heaven. It should cause us to want to shout, Hallelujah! Saved by the grace of God. like us to close with Ephesians chapter 2, just as kind of a meditation upon these truths. Ephesians 2 and verses 4 through 7. You know, I think I'll start back and read at verse 1, just to kind of get the context here. And you hath he quickened, and you hath he made alive, who were dead in trespasses in sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our own flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." But God. who is rich in mercy. For his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace, are you saved? And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Folks, we are trophies of God's mercy and grace, and we will be so for all eternity because he has redeemed us by his own hand, through his own son, by his great love, is abounding mercy. He has delivered us from darkness into light, into the kingdom of his own Son. And we belong to him now and will do so forever. Are you a Yahweh worshiper? Have you had a God encounter? Can I hear a hallelujah? Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for what you've done. your marvelous plan of redemption unfolding before our very eyes as we read through the pages of Genesis. We think about your promise to crush the head of the serpent way back there in the Garden of Eden, and how you began to do your work and to intervene in the affairs of man, and you chose Abraham to be the patriarch of your chosen people. And you chose his son Isaac to be the seed of promise. And you chose Jacob to become Israel, the patriarch of the 12 tribes. And as we go forward in time and through the generations, we come to the grand fulfillment of your seed promise. Through Christ, we have redemption. Through Christ, one who was born a Jew, one whose lineage can be traced back through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through him, all the peoples of the earth are blessed. O Lord, I pray that we will never lose our awe of what you have done. And may we marvel anew at your great grace that you have shown to us through the redemption that you have accomplished in Christ. May you receive the honor. May you receive the glory. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.