Hello and welcome to our broadcast. We call it Plain and Simple. We're going to be looking in Genesis chapter 28. Have your Bible ready if you can. Well, in Genesis chapter 28, we'll break it down this way as we look at it, verses one through four, we read that Isaac called Jacob, and then verse five, Isaac sent Jacob. Then from verses six through nine, the focus goes on to Esau, and it says in verse six, Esau saw, and then in verse eight, Esau seeing, and then in verse nine, Esau went. Then from verses 10 on through the rest of the chapter, we see the focus changes and it comes to Jacob. In verse 10, Jacob went. Verse 16, Jacob awakened. Verse 18, Jacob rose up early. Verse 20, Jacob vowed. And then in chapter 29 and verse number 1, we read that Jacob went on his journey. Now it starts out with Isaac here, called Jacob. Now Isaac was a classic example of those fathers who ignore their God-given responsibility in bringing up their children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. He just got too busy for that, I guess, doing everything he needed to do. We make the same mistake, and we find that our children pay the price. Well, reading in chapter 28, verse 1, it says, 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, and go to Paddan-Ram, to the house of Bethel 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 mightest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham." Well, we see here in these verses, first of all, that Isaac called Jacob. That word means to summons him. And so Isaac called Jacob. It must have been an anxious moment for Jacob. You know, as he's going in there, he's deceived his father. He's deceived his brother. He's in trouble. And so how does it turn out? It says, and Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. What amazing grace of God we have here. He blessed him. Now, basically what we're doing here, I think, is we're dealing with a situation and moving forward. There's a much bigger picture than this little circumstance that's going on here. And it certainly wasn't little in their eyes with all the deception and the problems in their family. But their family was one little dot on this massive earth that we live in, and we have a much bigger picture here. And God is doing something, and He's only got a bunch of us sinners to use down here. He's chosen to do it that way, and that in itself. shows you the tremendous blessing and the grace of God. And so he deals with it, he said, let's get this dealt with, let's get it behind us, and let's move forward to the bigger picture. And the bigger picture, of course, in this situation, had to do with the fact that the nation of Israel was being established through this family. Well, we get into verse number five, and it says, and Isaac sent Jacob, Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Paddan Aram unto Laban, son of Bethel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother. Well, the thing we have here is that Isaac sent Jacob, verse number 5, and in verse number 7, we read that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and was gone to Paddan Aram. Now, it must have been a difficult time for everybody. They thought that Isaac was dying. Of course, he wasn't. He lived over 40 years after this day. they thought he was it must have been a very difficult time he's leaving going on a 500 mile journey would he ever see his father again he did not think so well in verse number six the focus changes to esau and we read here when esau saw that isaac had blessed jacob and sent him away to padan aram to take him a wife from thence and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge saying thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of canaan and that Jacob obeyed his father. Now, this is what Esau is seeing. He sees what, understands what he has said to him, and that Jacob obeyed, and it says that in verse eight, and Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father, then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had, Mahaliath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Neboth, to be his wife." Now he already had two wives, which we saw was a grief to his parents. Now he goes down and he picks up another wife, and it's interesting that it says here that he went unto Ishmael. Well, it would seem like he is trying to make his father feel good. Oh, well, I'm going to have to marry one of these people that's not Mubkainen. But what does he do? He goes and marries one of Ishmael's daughters. Now, this is a family that was not an obedient family spiritually. It was a family that God had rejected. Now he's picked up his third wife, and he's married into this family that God has rejected. What are we talking about here? Well, it's a kind of an example of someone who's saying, well, I'm going to marry a Christian that's worldly. I'm going to marry someone who professes to be a Christian, but someone who wants the best of both worlds. That's just dumb. Well, in verse number 10 on through the rest of this chapter, the focus comes back on Jacob, and it says that Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran, and he lighted upon a certain place. That's important. And he tarried there all night because the sun was set. And he took of the stones of the place and put them for his pillow and laid down in that place to sleep. Now, he has made it about 40 miles. Now, that's a long way to go for the first night, but he's in a hurry. Why? Because he's running away from his brother. He's a fugitive, his brother wants to kill him, and he needs to get out of there. Well, the fact that he went, that's very commendable, he did do what his father told him to do, goes off into a very rugged, rough country. Keep in mind that Jacob is a mama's boy. He's very spoiled, he's been pampered, not like Esau, who was, you know, a mighty hunter in the field. This fella's not used to the fields. He's used to sitting at home with mommy. Well, he goes for 40 miles on that first day. He finds himself here absolutely, completely alone. And that is where God can begin to talk to this young man. Well, reading on from verse 11, we read that he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night because the sun was set. And he took the stones of that place and put them for his pillows and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed and behold, a ladder set up on 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 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 of thee wow here we have some promises here this is an amazing portion of scripture First of all, we find him there alone in the dark, fear, home. What's that? Home is in the past. Where's the servants? He's out there. He's alone. He is coming to realize that whatsoever a man sow, that shall he also reap. Someone has said, oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. And so here's this young man lying in the dirt, realizing that he is in trouble. Nothing is turning out in the way that he hoped it would turn out when he was scheming back there in his homeland. We have here a beautiful type of a person being saved and the grace of God involved in it. We have a fugitive running. He's using a stone for his pillow, which shows he's not too smart. He is not seeking God, but he is sought out by God, and he has to come to the place where he understood his position before God, and this is what happens when a person gets saved. You look at Paul the Apostle, and we find him with his face in the dirt on the ground. He thought he was such a high and mighty Pharisee. God said, no, I got to get you flat here on the ground, now I can talk to you. Jacob, the same situation, he's all alone, he's in the dark, he's on the ground, he's using a stone for a pillow, and what do we have? We have God coming to him, and we see he sees a ladder from earth to heaven. From God to man, we have a ladder, and from man to God, and there is no other way, and we find Christ in this story, and it's so obvious. And John 6 and 37 says, him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. God is making some promises here, and he makes a vow. Jacob awakes, it says, and interesting, his vow even includes, we'll see as we get into this story, that he was going to tithe. The grabber, that's the story, you know, he came into this world grabbing his brother's heel. He's a grabber, but the grabber becomes a giver, and that's what happens when somebody gets saved. All things pass away and all things become new. And here, the first thing we read about this grabber is his whole attitude has changed, and he changed to having a spirit of giving. And so it's all wrapped up here in one simple phrase, and it says, Jacob awaked out of his sleep. Jacob awaked. Now, he's about 77 years old, relatively young man in that period of time, but he's a mama's boy, and he's fleeing for his life. He's a deceiver, And yet we find the grace of God. This man will have 12 sons from whom we will get the 12 tribes of Israel. What an amazing grace. Someone has written the song that says, was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved that's exactly what's happening here in this picture grace that taught his heart to fear and grace his fears relieved well since god could use jacob there's a lesson here god can use you and i god can use anybody and god has only centers to use and he does use jacob in a mighty way but we'll find as we go through this chapter that he's beginning to reap what he has sown in the past. That doesn't change. God says, I will not be mocked. Whatsoever a man sow, that shall he also reap, whether that man be a Christian or not. Pharaoh, he wanted to drown all those babies in the sea. Well, all right. Pharaoh's army was drowned in the sea. You see, God says, Whatsoever a man sow, that shall he also reap. Paul the Apostle, he was there having a part in the stoning of Stephen. What do we find a little later on in the life of Paul, whose name Saul was changed to Paul? What do we find? We find that he was stoned by those who hated him. Oh yeah, God will not be mocked, whatsoever a man sow, that shall he also reap. And so we read in verse 16, Jacob awaked out of his sleep. Now to awake is to become aware of something. And when a person trusts Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior, we become aware of a whole new world that we didn't know anything about. The Bible says, except a man be born again, he cannot see. the kingdom of God. And that word, see, means to understand. Except a man be born again, he cannot understand. The Bible is the only book in the world you can't understand until you meet the author. Well, we're out of time again. We're going to continue it from here tomorrow. Be sure and tune in. We'll try to make the program plain, and we will try to make it simple.