So hear now God's word from Genesis chapter 28 beginning in verse 10. Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 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, 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! This 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 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 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 God's house. And of all that you give me, I will give a full tenth to you. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. Let's ask his blessing upon this word in prayer. Our Father, we do ask now that you would give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand and believe all that we find written here in your word. Enlighten us to the truth contained therein and impress it upon our hearts that we might reflect that truth in our lives. We ask this in the Lord's name. Amen. Human beings, I would submit to you, tend to be poor interpreters of God's providence. What does that mean? It means that we typically struggle to understand what God is doing and why God is doing it as He is doing it. That's not to say that some people aren't better at putting the pieces together than others, and sometimes we might be perceptive and piece things together ourselves. But it is to say that typically our understanding of what the Lord is doing in the world is greatly aided by the benefit of hindsight. After we have walked through certain seasons of life, then we can more easily look back and say, oh, that's what God was doing. But even then, frankly, the conclusions that we come to are tentative. We may still be missing the mark because God has given us much information in His Word. He has given us A lot of wisdom with which to approach and interpret the world, but he has not given us unfettered access into his mind or into the secret plans contained therein. And so we have trouble. We have trouble interpreting providence, interpreting the world around us as it's happening. And the difficulty which we face in interpreting our immediate circumstances is nothing new. We see it from time immemorial. Even God's servants in the Bible had trouble, at times, understanding why God treated them as he treated them, or why God was doing the things that he was doing, or why God was allowing the things that he was allowing. Think, for example, of the prophet Elijah, if you're familiar with his story. The prophet Elijah, after much success, as he was valiant over the servants of Baal, he began to think that God had left him all alone when Ahab and Jezebel threatened his life. He viewed himself as the lone, solitary voice crying out in the wilderness during a period of great corruption in Israel. And he was actually in such despair over his lot that he was ready to die, the Bible tells us. In order to be straightened out, the Lord himself would have to speak to him and explain, in a very partial way, his plans for Israel's future. Elijah had to be alerted to the fact that his sovereign Lord had not left him alone, but in fact, he had preserved a remnant of thousands which had still kept the faith. That story is told for you in 1 Kings chapter 19. The prophet was in despair because he had misread, he had misinterpreted God's providence, feeling as if the Lord had deserted him when in fact he had not, and there were many others like him. And as we come tonight to Genesis chapter 28, verses 10 through 22, I would suggest to you that we encounter another figure who was at least at risk of misreading God's providence. Last week, if you were here, As we worked through parts of Genesis 26, 27, and 28, we witnessed a family feud that erupted in the household of Isaac and Rebecca, and the divergent desires of two parent-child duos, Isaac and Esau on the one side and Rebekah and Jacob on the other, the divergent desires of those two duos led to a clash of wills which caused everyone to scatter as Isaac's plan to bless Esau was undermined by Rebekah's scheme to have Jacob blessed instead. And ultimately, at the end of that very messy situation, Jacob did, we saw, walk away blessed against the odds. His father gave him the blessing which was originally intended for Esau. And then as Jacob departed from Beersheba to avoid his brother Esau's murderous rage, his father blessed him again, this time proclaiming the covenant promises given to Abraham. over his second born son. But as we open our text tonight, we find Jacob in a situation that does not look particularly blessed. Indeed, verse 10, as we're about to see, portrays him on the run, alone, in the wilderness, leaving behind the land, which had supposedly been deeded to him, while his brother Esau, who had supposedly gotten the short end of the stick, stayed behind. If Jacob had made any attempts to read Providence in that moment, it would have probably led him to some less than favorable conclusions. Isaac's blessing must not have took. God comes to Jacob in a dream and corrects any misapprehensions that he might have had, declaring that he was with Jacob and that he planned to make good on Isaac's words. The Lord would commit himself to Jacob. He would bestow the blessings of the covenant upon Jacob, and he would commune with Jacob in the promised land. And this was true regardless of what Jacob's present plight might have suggested. As we work our way through the text tonight, I hope you'll see all that. And I hope you'll also see the abiding hope which this text holds out for us. If you have eyes to see, which we've prayed for, Genesis 28, 10 through 22 shows that if you will come to Christ, well, then the Lord will, as he did for Jacob, commit himself to you and bestow the covenant blessings upon you. commune with you forever. But in order to see this, we have to begin first, see the story in three stages tonight, we have to begin with Jacob's journey in verses 10 and 11. Jacob's journey. Starting at verse 10, Jacob, we're told, he has left Beersheba, there in the southern part of Canaan, and he is traveling to Haran. Now, if you'll recall, Haran was a region where Abraham's family had once dwelt in Mesopotamia after they had left Ur of the Chaldeans. This was a place which was east of the land of Canaan, and it was a place actually where we're going to see Rebekah's brother still dwelt in the town of Paddan Aram. Now, Rebekah's brother Laban also had daughters who could serve as potential brides. for Jacob, and that's exactly why he is heading there at the request of his mother. He's heading out of Canaan, into Mesopotamia, in order that he might find himself a bride. But the distance between Beord and many details about that journey, the ones, those few crumbs which we are given, they suggest that Jacob's long journey was arduous, that it was difficult, that it was wearying. After walking just a few days' distance from Beersheba, he found himself in a certain deserted place with no habitations. There was no Motel 6 in the land in which he had made it in this part of our chapter. When the sun had set and Jacob was unable to travel any further, And so he decided right there where he was to hunker down under the starry sky of the wilderness. He was going to be doing some back country camping there in the land of Canaan. According to verse 11 of our text, there was no one to welcome him or to provide him with a bed in that place, and so he was forced to camp, as we've just said, in the open air, sleeping right there on the ground with a rock under his head for a pillow. Maybe you've been there before. Maybe you've not. I've rested my head on a rock before. It doesn't make for a great pillow, but it'll work in a pinch. And it's in that uninviting environment that Jacob would somehow drift off to dream, and what a dream he had. What a dream he had. But before we consider that dream, we have to stop and just say, well, what a sight this is, picturing Jacob laying there in the dirt with his head on a rock. Days prior, Isaac had blessed Jacob with what? Remember those words which Isaac uttered over his son? He had blessed him with the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty of provisions. When Jacob first heard that, he probably did not expect to be literally covered with the dew of heaven as he laid there out in the open. And Isaac had also blessed him with the promise that he would take possession of the land of Canaan and that he would prosper. But here he is traveling out of the land of Canaan while his brother, who has somehow lost in this arrangement, well he gets to stay behind. He's back home in his bed while Jacob is on the ground with his head on a rock. No pun intended, but this may have felt for Jacob like rock bottom. He was without his family, his father's blessings didn't appear to be working, and he had many, many more miles to go before he would arrive as a stranger in a distant land in Haran. If he had tried to read Providence in that moment, he probably would have concluded that he had been forsaken by God. The Lord evidently didn't approve of Isaac's lofty assurances to his son. In congregation, this just goes to show that even for God's people, the outward conditions of our lives do not always reflect the work which God is doing in us and around us. And we get sick, and we get depressed, and we suffer loss, and we have to deal with tragedies. And at the same time as all that's happening, life may be going swimmingly for our unbelieving neighbors and people we consider downright rotten. And this can lead us, can tempt us, to doubt God's plan or His commitment to His promise to work all things together for good for those who love God. If you recall that promise from Romans 8.28. But in skillful remarks, which take into account the rest of the Jacob and Esau story. John Calvin, in his comments on this passage, he shows, I think, quite clearly that the ups and downs of our lives, which tend to discourage and confuse us, they profoundly resemble at times the topsy-turvy conditions experienced by Jacob and Esau. Here's what he says. I think it's very helpful. Esau, like a green and flourishing branch, had much of show and splendor, but his vigor was only momentary. Jacob, as a severed twig, was removed into a far distant land. Not that being engrafted or planted there he should acquire strength and greatness, but that being moistened with the dew of heaven, he might put forth his shoots as into the air itself. For the Lord wonderfully nourishes him and supplies him with strength until he shall bring him back again to his father's house. Meanwhile, let the reader diligently observe. that while he who was blessed by God is cast into exile, occasion of glorying was given to the reprobate Esau who was left in the possession of everything so that he might securely reign without arrival. And here he brings home practically. Let us not then be disturbed if at any time the wicked sound their triumphs as having gained their wishes while we are oppressed. He's saying this, our immediate circumstances may leave us feeling oppressed while it seems that God allows at times the wicked to prosper. We may find ourselves in certain moments agreeing with the preacher of Ecclesiastes who said this, in my vain life I've seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evil doing. It's Ecclesiastes 7.15. But we can learn tonight from the fact that Jacob's arduous journey, it would come to an end, and he would, hate to break it to you in case you haven't read this part yet, but he would return to Canaan the enriched father of a multitude. And so who knows? Who knows when we are feeling down and out, what the Lord may be preparing for us, what the Lord may be working in our lives, how the Lord may be even using our hardships and our sufferings to accomplish his perfect will. We know that the end of the story for the Christian believer is a happy one. We don't know how the Lord will use all of those experiences we have between point A and B, but the story of Jacob and Esau does teach us not to assess these things simply by looking at the cover of the book. No, we have to look deeper and trust the Lord. The Lord is at work. And yet, the fact that God would wonderfully nourish and supply Jacob with strength, it was not clear to him at this point. It would take a word from the Lord in order to make planes, and so we turn in the second place to Jacob's dream, verses 12 through 15, because that's where that word would come in. Asleep on the ground with his head on a rock, Jacob began dreaming, we're told. And what did he see? Well, what he saw in his dream was a ladder or a staircase. Commentators argue about that. I don't think it's all that important that we settle exactly what it looked like. You get the idea. There were steps. They went up. But it was of gargantuan size. It was standing on the same ground that he was asleep on, but its top reached all the way to heaven. And when he inspected the ladder, what did he see? Well, he saw that there were angels going up the ladder and there were angels coming down the ladder. And God himself was at the top of the ladder, though we do not know what form he took on this occasion. And the ladder connected him to his creatures. And while that was quite a thing to see, it was surely meant to communicate something important. God didn't leave Jacob to figure out what it meant all by himself. Peering above the ladder, the Lord began to speak to Jacob. Here's what he said 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. The Lord calls out to Jacob and he identifies himself as the one who had called Abraham out of Haran so long ago. That place where Jacob was traveling. The one confronting Jacob in his dream was no local deity from the deserted lands that he was traversing. No, this was his father's God. This is the one that he'd heard so much about. There in this otherwise unimportant place which he had chanced upon at the end of his days, Ike. And his father's God came to him to let him know that he intended to make good on his father's blessing. Though Jacob was moving away from Canaan alone, he and his future children would come to possess it. God had come to confirm that to him. And those offspring, though not yet born at this point, they would be plentiful. Verse 14, God says, 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. When Jacob came back to the land of Canaan, his family would not be confined to a single household in Beersheba like Isaac's family. Jacob would have many sons. There would be a baby boom, if you will. while he was in Haran. And those children would permeate the land of promise when the twelve tribes, which stemmed from Jacob, took possession of it during the conquest in Joshua's day. And as God had previously guaranteed to Abraham, so he guarantees to Jacob, in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Yahweh's blessing on Jacob would be so super abundant that his family would become the very fountain of blessing for all the families of the earth. And we know from the New Testament how that is. Ultimately, this blessing would come to be bestowed through Abraham and his offspring, and through Jacob's offspring, through that son of Jacob, Jesus Christ. It's the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant went out to all who believe. And then finally, the Lord comforts Jacob with the knowledge that his long trek to Haran was no sign of his forsakenness. This journey was long, it was difficult, but it was just a layover. Jacob would make it back home. According to verse 15, God says, Behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised to you." You see, Jacob's prospects, his real prospects, they were almost exactly opposite of what a surface-level reading of Providence would have suggested. God was with him. God would never leave him. God would bring him back to Canaan and God would give everything to him that he had guaranteed my covenant. It's profound. All those wonderful things that the Lord had said to Abraham and that he had then said to Isaac, he now said to Jacob, the covenant has very clearly come to the third generation. And so in this dream, we have things which Jacob saw, The latter, the Lord, his angels. And we have things which Jacob heard, the covenant promises and clear indications of a successful future. But you might wonder at this point, and if you haven't begun wondering, start wondering now, what do these two things have to do with one another? What does what he saw have to do with what he heard? It's the relationship between the two. Well, let's think about that. God comes to Jacob in a dream. We've had opportunity to say this big word a lot in the book of Genesis. He gives him a theophany, a visible manifestation of his presence. And in this theophany, God shows Jacob that he wasn't too far from heaven. even as he was moving farther away from his homeland. There was a clear path, a clear line of communication established between the two parties, even when Jacob was in uncharted territory. And God was presently in that very moment sending his angels. What do you think the purpose of those angels are? He's sending those angels to help Jacob along his way. The Lord was with him, the Lord was watching over him, the Lord was making provision for their growing communion with one another. All of this is confirmed in the verbal revelation which follows the vision. And folks, this is a profound theophany because it serves to teach us precisely what it served to teach Jacob. And it serves to teach us what God taught Jacob because Jesus takes the imagery from this scene and he applies it directly to himself. Remember what we read in John chapter 1? When Jesus is gathering disciples to himself, Nathaniel comes and he's amazed that Jesus could have seen him somehow sitting under a tree, even though he wasn't around. How could he do something so amazing? And Jesus looks at his disciples who he has gathered, and he says to them, you're going to see things far greater than this. You are going to see heaven opened. The angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Does that sound familiar? It should. Jesus has in mind Jacob's dream. And in Jesus's handling of Jacob's dream, he is the latter. He is the latter. Jesus personally bridges the gap between heaven and earth, mediating between God and man. He is surrounded by heavenly angelic servants doing God's will and protecting his people. Through him, we approach the God that we have sinned against, and through him, that God draws near to bless us. And comparing the words of Jesus in John 1 to the words of Genesis 28, we may deduce that Jesus is the one through whom the God who communes with us sends all that is needed for our journey to the promised land. He is the one through whom the covenant blessings come to us. Here's how the Puritan commentator Matthew Henry put it. He says this, Jesus is the ladder. The foot on earth in his human nature, the top in heaven in his divine nature, or the former in his humiliation, the ladder in his exaltation. All the intercourse between heaven and earth since the fall is by this ladder. Christ is the way. All God's favors come to us and all our services go to Him by Christ. If God dwell with us and we with Him, it is by Christ. We have no way of getting to heaven but by this ladder. If we climb up any other way, we are thieves and robbers. Folks, we, like Jacob, must look to the ladder. It's not a ladder that we build ourselves. It's not a ladder that we ascend in our own mind rung by rung. We commonly call this story the story of Jacob's ladder, but more accurately, it's a ladder of God's own design. God built the ladder. He uses the ladder to show His commitment to us. He uses the ladder to bestow covenant blessings upon us. He uses the ladder to come and commune with us. It's His ladder. And all that means, since that ladder does exist, since the Lord has established it, it means that we must not judge on appearances alone. We must not judge as Jacob must have been tempted to judge. If we have Christ, if we have Christ, then we must not take a tragic reading of God's hard providences towards us. You understand that? If you have Christ, you must not take a tragic reading of God's hard providences towards you. Because even in the wilderness, God sends angels streaming from heaven to protect his servants. He orders our footsteps and he makes himself better known to us. Saints learn from this story. to believe in the benevolent hand which is paving the path before you, long before you take your first step. For if you come to Jesus and you have leaned yourself upon the ladder in faith, your trip to heaven is as assured as Jacob's return to Canaan. There is comfort to be found here in the text for those who believe, because the abiding truths contained within this revelation are reasons for thanksgiving. And we see Jacob himself giving that thanksgiving in verses 16 through 22 as we come to Jacob's vow. Jacob himself showed thanksgiving upon waking. He awoke and he realized that the dream he had had was no ordinary dream. No, he recognized it for the oracle, for the theophany, for the revelation of God that it was. He exclaims in verse 16, Surely the Lord is in this place. And I did not know it. Jacob was on his way out of Canaan. He departed from his father's household, but his father's God was still with him. He was with him in this desolate place. He hadn't gone to this place on purpose. This was not some town. This was not a destination resort. No, this was just as far as he could make it while there was still daylight. And when the daylight went away, he stopped right where he was. He did not realize that when he stopped and laid down, he had done so in a place where the Lord would reveal himself to him more vividly than he had ever done. Jacob had not experienced something like this before, at least not that we're told about. And sensing the glory and the power of the one who he had seen, Jacob is actually afraid. He's afraid. Verse 17, he was afraid and said, how awesome is this place? He develops in this moment an appropriate and a holy fear of God. Days prior, his household had been blown up by sin and he had contributed his fair share to the equation. But now, confronted by God, he humbles himself knowing that he has stood at the very entrance of God's house. He has been privileged to peer through the gate of heaven. And so it is fitting then that his next move is to mark the place and worship the Lord. He takes a stone which had served as his pillow. He sets it up like a pillar for a memorial stone to mark the spot where the theophany had occurred. He pours oil on it to set it apart from common use to sacred use. because he knows that worship would occur here. Later, he's going to come back on his return journey. We'll see this at some point, Lord willing. He's going to come back and he's going to set up an altar here and worship the Lord. But as he sets up the pillar in this place at this time, he names the place Bethel, house of God. Interestingly, the text tells us the city was named Luz at first. That's a little confusing because it doesn't seem like there's a city here. But it probably means that Jacob had called it Bethel, and then people began living there and they called it Luz. And then only later was the name restored to Bethel. Remember, when we're reading the book of Genesis, it's written from the perspective of Moses's day. And so enough time had passed for several names to be applied to particular places, and we see this at different times. in the first five books of the Bible. Different place names applied to the same place. But before Jacob departed from this newly named Bethel and left his memorial behind, he chose to make a vow to God. In verses 20 through 22, Jacob promises to make Yahweh his God, to establish a place of worship in Bethel, and to give a full tithe, 10% of his belongings to God, God will be with him, protect him, provide for his basic needs, and return him to his home. Now, upon reading these words, we might be tempted to jump to condemn Jacob. Because, on a certain reading, it can sound to our ears like Jacob is making a demand. Verse 20, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothe me so that I come again to my father's house to be, then the Lord will be my God. That sounds like a demand. How dare Jacob make demands of God, right? Especially right after receiving this revelation. Lack of faith. But actually I think that it is more proper to read this not as an indication of Jacob's lack of faith, but as his own expression of the faith that was growing within him. He believes God's Word. And he has, I do think, faith in the promises. So, what he is saying in essence is this, Lord, if you do what you've promised, as I believe you will, then I will consider myself obliged to do these things that I vow." In other words, out of gratitude, Jacob binds himself more strictly to the service of the Lord, trusting that the vision which the Lord has presented to him will come to fruition in due time. And while we don't engage in this sort of vow-making with any frequency today, here's how the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 22, Paragraph 6, describes this practice of vow making, which is what Jacob is doing in this passage. It says that the vow is not to be made to any creature, but to God alone. And that it may be accepted it is to be made voluntarily, out of faith and conscience of duty, in way of thankfulness for mercy received, for the obtaining of what we want, whereby we more strictly bind ourselves to necessary duties, or to other things, so far and so long as they may fitly conduce thereinto." The point here is that Jacob voluntary vows things in faith that are within his power to do, that are not contrary to God's word, in order to express his gratitude and obtain that which God has promised. All of this is done, not on a lack of faith, but on the assumption that God will, in fact, preserve him and bring him back to Canaan. Only God's failure could release him from this vow. And God's failure was not something to be expected. Now in the intervening years, Jacob's devotion to the Lord would be imperfect, but God would graciously work with him, for his devotion to Jacob was perfect indeed. And Jesus warns us, I think in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, 7. In that sermon, Jesus warns us against the rash and frequent taking of vows. This was a practice which was greatly abused in Christ's lifetime. But I believe that it is a misreading to think that Jesus forbids vowing altogether when it's done properly. And so we ought, I think, not to condemn Jacob's response, but to see his response as a noble and proper response. When God has blessed us, worship is the right reaction. When God has blessed us, a deeper commitment to service is the right reaction. When God has blessed us, actions based on trust rather than doubt are the right reaction. And so, think about this, when the Lord answers your prayers, when the Lord gives you provisions which you don't deserve, when the Lord blesses your family, when the Lord sweetens your experience of the faith, then you might ought to take a page out of Jacob's book and consider how you might serve the Lord with greater energy and commitment. Consider how you might be more productive in his kingdom cause. Consider how you might labor to bless the church. And don't take any rash oaths. Don't make any rash vows, which you'll be bound to if they're biblical, even if you suddenly realize you wish you hadn't taken the vow. But do seek to serve the Lord with your whole heart, knowing that if you are in Christ, the Father is drawing you up His ladder. at the end of which you will dwell in his house forevermore. Christ is the way, and the Lord with his spirit can place us on the way, and we ought to go where he leads. Congregation, God came to Jacob when he was weary, when Jacob's reading of Providence might have painted a terribly sad picture, when it appeared that he was God-forsaken. And in that moment, God chose to commit himself to Jacob, to bestow upon him covenant blessings, and to commune with him there in the promised land. And if you will allow the Lord to set you on the only way to heaven, if you will place your faith in Christ, the latter, then you can be confident that He will do these things for you too. He will send His ministering angels to care for you. We don't think a lot about angels. I don't know what they're doing right now, but the Bible says they're real and they're doing something. He will send His ministering angels to care for you. He will make His dwelling with you by virtue of your spirit-wrought union with His Son. And all of these things, these stand at the core of the truth of the gospel, which no matter how hard your providence may be, These truths are capable of putting a rainbow in your dark and cloudy sky. And so turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus, that you might know the glories of life and service to Jacob's God. He is with you. He is watching over you. And he will draw you to himself up the ladder, which is Christ. Let us pray.