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As we come again to look again in God’s word, I remind my heart and I remind your heart that there is a principle of life and Bible study that is absolutely indispensable, and that’s total reliance on God’s Holy Spirit. Only God can reveal God, and He delights to do it. I think about Andrew, the brother of Peter, and when he introduced Peter he said, “We have found Messiah.” Almost three years later Jesus asked, “Who do men say that I am?” Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God,” and Jesus responded, and I’m going to paraphrase, “Andrew didn’t reveal that to you. Flesh and blood didn’t reveal that to you. You’ve known the fact for several years but My Father in heaven revealed it.” So, we are going to wait tonight for the Lord to reveal Himself. Luke 24:27, “Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them things concerning Himself in all the scriptures.” You Bible from cover to cover, every chapter every verse is all about the Lord Jesus. It must have been some day when Jesus Himself explained things concerning Himself. So, we want to see the Lord.
Let’s bow together in a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank You again that revelation comes from you. We pray, Lord, as we follow again this history and testimony of your servant, Jacob, that You would turn our eyes away from the history of Jacob, and may we behold You! Lord, we know that we’re to walk in the light as Christ is in the light, and we also know that Christ is revealed to each of us according to our own needs and capacity. Since You know all about us and You have since forever, we ask You, Lord, to show us the Christ that we need to see this evening. We thank You that You are going to do it because again we come claiming it in the wonderful, matchless name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Greetings again. I state my profound thanks again for the great privilege I have to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ to you and share Him with you. You know we’re all desiring the same thing; we want to see the Lord; we want to know Him with a heart knowledge. After the message this morning, a brother came up to me and made a comment about the shadow and the reality, the picture and the reality. He said that there was a family that had problems with mice, and they were going to try to get rid of the mice. They had the traps but they didn’t have the bait. There was no peanut butter and no cheese, so they went through a magazine and found a picture of cheese, and they put that picture on the trap. The next morning, they look over and they saw a picture of a mouse. So, how futile are the pictures. We need the reality.
This morning I attempted to give Jacob’s contribution to the history of redemption and the great message of his life. I’ll give a brief review of that.
The entire story of Jacob, as we suggested this morning, revolves around two God ordained pictures. These pictures are from the Lord. One was the birthright and the other one was the blessing. Jacob was not even in nature entitled to either of these because he was not born first. Naturally, the older brother, Esau, on the level of earth was entitled to that. But in the carnal eyes of Jacob, he wanted that birthright and wanted that blessing, and so he went after it with all of his might. I think that’s one of the main reasons we have the Jacob story, to show how earnest he was to pursue something so worthless. The challenge to us, we have the reality and do we have that same zeal to pursue the reality, the Person of our Lord Jesus.
Jacob had his eyes on the birthright, and he wanted land, and he wanted money, and he wanted a blessing for his family, and he wanted authority in the world. He thought it was all about the physical. So, at any cost he was determined to get the birthright and the blessing. He had no clue; this is so important. He was not chasing something spiritual because he didn’t understand anything spiritual. He was carnal to the nth degree, and he was going after the physical. He wanted just the double portion – the most, the best, the highest, the richest, and he wants the land and he wants family and he wants influence in the world.
Jacob knew about his grandfather and the blessing God gave to Abraham, and he knew about the blessing God gave to Isaac. He didn’t know what it was, but he wanted it, and that’s what he pursued. In keeping with his name, Supplanter, I looked that up in the dictionary and to supplant means to replace someone by treacherous or dishonorable means. I think that fits Jacob.
On your notes we have some verses dealing with the birthright. I’m going to skip those verses because I think you have that idea of how he got the birthright. Genesis 27:36, 25:30, 25:31&32, 25:33&34 read them and enjoy them but we’re going to skip that. That’s the background of the Jacob story.
What Jacob and Esau did not know was the reality, and so we tried this morning to show that reality. I tried to set before you the simplicity, it’s not deep at all and it’s not confusing. Error is complicated; truth is simple. Truth is simple because truth is a Person and His name is Jesus. If you are mixed up and all complicated, look away and look to Jesus. This morning we sang that song “Turn your eyes upon Jesus,” and it’s true that the things of earth will grow strangely dim but it’s also true that the things of God will grow strangely bright. Turn your eyes upon Jesus; that’s what we want to see.
Let me review the birthright and what did it signify. It was the right of the firstborn to become the human channel and to minister in his generation Christ. The birthright is just the privilege of manifesting Christ. For that you were created, for that you were redeemed; that’s the whole purpose. One of my prayers for this weekend is that God would open your heart that it’s your only purpose in life. If you are not manifesting Christ by the power of the indwelling Christ, then you are chasing something else. You are chasing pictures. We are going to get a little deeper into that. But the birthright was the unspeakable privilege of manifesting Christ before a hungry and a lost world. The blessing that God gave to Abraham, it’s the ability to fulfill the privilege. I have to manifest Christ but how? It’s the blessing; God blesses you with His Life, and He opened Abraham’s eyes to see that it was by grace. It’s by faith that he became the father of faith. That’s how God does it.
In the Bible when it talks about the blessing of Abraham, it’s all supernatural. Galatians 3:16, “The promises were spoken to Abraham and his seed. He does not say to seeds as referring to many but rather to one, “To your seed which is Christ. It’s a Person and His name is Christ. I suggested that there were two turning points in his life that God is using to take him from chasing pictures to go after the reality. Let me just mention those again. The first turning point we’re going to look at this evening, and that is the ladder vision at Bethel, chapter 28 of Genesis verses 10-17. The second turning point in his life was twenty years later and he’s now 97 years old and he wrestled with God the whole night and we’ll look at that after we look at his dealing with Laban, and so on.
Every Christian to be delivered from running after pictures or anything that is not the Lord is going to be dealt with exactly the same way He dealt with Jacob. In other words, in your life if you are not focused on Him, you are going to be at Bethel and you are going to see the ladder vision. If you resist, you are going to be ambushed by the Lord, and He’s going to wrestle you.
To properly understand that first turning point, I think it would be helpful to give the background that leads up to it. Even though I think you know the story, I just want to show how he stole the blessing. You saw how he took the birthright and I just want to show you this.
Isaac, his father, was messed up. God had given a prophesy to his wife, Genesis 25:23, “The older shall serve the younger,” and he knew that word, but he didn’t believe God. He not only didn’t believe God, but he believed that he was on his deathbed. The patriarchs bless people just before they die. When you open the Bible and read the record, Isaac was blind at that time, and he was 137 years old. So, he’s at a ripe old age. But he was wrong because he lived another 43 years after he was deceived into blessing. I think I can understand his thinking, for about the past 5 years I thought I was on my deathbed. I really didn’t expect to be here; I was going to watch from heaven, but God had different plans. I hope I don’t live another 43 years. Great day, that would make me 126. No!
Isaac at this time did not believe God. Genesis 25:28, “Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game, but Rebecca loved Jacob.”
Isaac wasn’t the only one that was messed up; Rebecca was also messed up. So was Esau and so was Jacob; the whole family. She didn’t want to wait for God to fulfill that promise that the older would serve the younger, so she came up with a scheme. It was her idea how to deceive her blind husband who thought he was dying. He wanted to bless his favorite son; she wanted him to bless her favorite son. Rebecca has overheard Isaac, her husband, tell Esau the hunter, “Go out hunting and catch some game and make me a meal that I delight in, and then come to my dying bed and I will bless you.” She overheard that, so she schemed, Genesis 27:8-10, she’s now talking to Jacob, “Now, therefore, my son, listen to me as I command you. God now to the flock and bring two choice young goats from there, that I may prepare them a savory dish for your father, such as he loves. Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat and he may bless you before his death.”
Isaac was messed up and Rebecca was messed up and Jacob when he heard that scheme, he had waited about almost 60 years to get that blessing, and he’s going to get it. Genesis 27:11, he had a few problems, and Jacob answered his mother, Rebecca, “Behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I’m a smooth man.” We might not get away with this little trick of yours. Genesis 27:16, “She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.” So, she takes goat skins to make Jacob hairy. Jacob went along with it because he’s going to get the blessing, and that’s worth it at any cost in his mind.
He went and got the goats, and his mother began to cook. They were always cooking up an scheme. Jacob is messed up listening to his deceitful mother, so he comes before his father, Isaac, in his Esau costume because it’s not only him, but a lot of people think they can get a blessing from God if they are somebody else. They try to be somebody else in order to be blessed by God. This is a wonderful illustration of that.
The first thing Isaac asks, he’s surprised, and he said, “Wow! That was fast. How did you go hunting and catch that so fast?” Listen to his answer, Genesis 27:20, “Isaac said to his son, ‘How is it you’ve come so quickly, my son,’ and he said, ‘Because the Lord your God caused it to happen to me.’” Ahh, Jacob! Then Isaac said, ‘Draw near, so I can touch you.’ Isaac is suspicious. Verse 22, “Jacob came close to his father, and he felt him and said, ‘The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’” He’s saying, “What’s going on here?” Then he comes right out and asks, Genesis 27:24, “’Are you really my son, Esau?’ And he said, ‘I am.’” What a liar! What a deceiver! In his Esau costume and going before his supposed dying and blind father, Isaac still wasn’t sure. So, in verse 27, “He came close and kissed him, and when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said, ‘See the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed.” He tried everything to make sure, “Are you lying, did God really bless you, your voice sounds like Jacob, and I can feel the hairs, so you must be Esau. Let me smell you.” So, he smells his son. Esau smelled like a goat, and so he was convinced.
Anyway, that’s what led up to this first turning point. Genesis 27:41, “Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing of which his father blessed him, and Esau said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are near. Then I will kill my brother, Jacob.’” Rebecca had one more piece of advice for her son, Jacob, Genesis 27:43, “Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise and flee to Heron, my brother, Laban. Stay with him a few days until your brother’s fury subsides, until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him, and then I’ll send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?” Go to Uncle Laban for a couple of days. Esau is going to forget it pretty soon. You know the record. That couple of days was twenty years with Laban, not a few days but twenty years.
We’re told that from where this story takes place to Uncle Laban’s house was about 500 miles. I don’t know his mode of transportation but that’s a long way to go. He starts his journey, and remember that he’s not spiritual, and doesn’t know about the Lord. He knows the God of Abraham was the God of his father, and of his grandfather, but he didn’t know the God of Abraham and Isaac was determined to lead him into the same reality. But he was proud; he had just succeeded now, and he goes on this journey of 500 miles, and he’s got in the one hand the birthright that he bought and in the other hand he has the blessing from Isaac and he’s pretty happy. He did it all in his own ingenuity, his own flesh and his own idea. That’s Jacob.
There are two suggestive facts that illustrate at this time the spiritual condition of Jacob. One is an expression in Genesis 28:11, “He came to a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set.” I know that the sun set because the day was over, but it set in another way, as well. He’s about to go into a darkness. It’s sort of the same thing we see in the New Testament. It says that when Judas went out to betray the Lord, there is a little expression “and it was night”. It is; there is a spiritual night and a spiritual darkness, and the sun had set on him. He had no idea that there was going to be 20 years of hardness and darkness with his Uncle Laban.
The second significant expression that I think that tells his spiritual condition is in verse 11, “And he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and he laid down in that place.” I don’t know about you, but if I want a pillow, I’m not going to choose a rock. He took a stone to use for a pillow. I think it’s another indication that this guy does not know how to rest. You don’t use a stone for a pillow. Anyway, he had no idea that the God of his father and the God of his grandfather was about to change his life completely.
Jacob had been chasing pictures and missing the reality, and now God is going to give another picture, but He’s not going to change the picture. It’s going to be the same picture but more vivid, and more of an explanation. He’s still only going to see it as a picture but it’s a picture. God is not going to force his will; He’s going to bring him to the place where he sees the reality.
Before we look at the details of this ladder vision, I want to make a couple of observations. Just to know that sometimes the Bible talks about the God of Jacob and sometimes God uses the expression the God of Israel, and that was his new name. The God of Jacob is the God of the individual; Israel became the nation, and that’s the group. I’m just going to encourage you when you read your Bible, everything God addresses to the individual applies, also, to the whole church. Everything God says to the church applies to every individual. I think that is wonderfully illustrate in those two words, “The God of Jacob and I’m the God of Israel.”
The first observation is this; there are two turning points – the vision of the ladder and the wrestling. Here is the first observation. In both cases God is the initiator. Jacob is not seeking the Lord. Jacob is not praying. Jacob didn’t ask for prayer. Jacob is just running and saving his life. He’s not seeking the Lord at all. He’s fleeing from his brother, Esau, who wants to kill him.
The second observation, there’s a difference between the first turning point (there are several differences) but between the first and second turning point. In verse 12, the first one, he had a dream, a vision. It’s different from the second. There was no dream; he was attacked; he was wrestling with a Person, and of course, we find out that Person is God. Genesis 32:24, “Jacob was left alone and wrestled with Him until daybreak.” This is no vision; this is no dream; this is literal; this is hand to hand combat. He is actually engaging in this. The Bible says that it was night; it was dark. I don’t know what went through his head. “Is this Esau?” He doesn’t know who is wrestling him. A guy jumps out of the bushes and attacks and starts fighting. “Is this Esau? Is this Laban (he had reason to do that, too) Is this some highway robber?” He had no clue at that time. I’m suggesting that sometimes God deals gradually with His people. That vision, the effects of it, lasted twenty years. Sometimes God deals gradually. Sometimes God deals all at one and just attacks you. We’ve heard both kinds of testimonies. “God showed me this and I walked away and I experienced the loving kindness of the Lord that leads to repentance. I experienced patience and forbearance, and then God brought me back to Bethlehem.” I’ve heard that kind of a testimony.
I’ve also heard the other kind of testimony where someone says, “I gave up; it’s over.” Sometimes it’s gradual and sometimes there is a crisis. It might be a storm, it might be a doctor’s report, in might be an accident, it could be somebody exposing some of your corruptness and making it public – climactic – God comes all at once and, “He touched me, on He touched me!” God works in both ways. Sometimes it’s positive and sometimes it’s a blessing and sometimes it’s a promotion, and sometimes it’s a raise, some unexpected blessing. God works both ways.
That brings us to the vision. Genesis 28:12-15. Here’s the little outline that I’m going to follow for those who like logical connection for the rest of this message. What did Jacob see in that vision, and what didn’t he see in that vision. What did Jacob hear because it was in the vision that God spoke. What did he hear? What didn’t he hear? And then how did he respond to what he saw and what he heard? So, that’s where I am and that’s what I want us to look at.
What did Jacob see. Let’s read verse 12, “He had a dream and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with it’s top reaching to heaven and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending.” Just take that as fact; that’s what he saw. He saw a ladder connecting earth and heaven, and he saw angels going up and coming down and going up and going down. That’s what he saw.
What else did he see? Well, verse 13, “Behold, the Lord stood above it and said, ‘I am the Lord God of your father, Abraham, the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I’ll give it to you and your descendants.” If I were to take Jacob aside after he had that vision, and say, “What did you see?” He’d say, “Well, I saw a strange thing; I saw a ladder that reached all the way to heaven, and it came all the way down to man. I saw angels going up and down and I saw God at the top, and I was at the bottom. That’s what I saw. And God spoke, and He said, ‘I want to bless you.’” That’s all that he saw. How do you interpret that from his point of view? It’s strange; it’s something he’s not going to forget very easily. It’s the first time that he’s starting to think a little bit spiritual about what’s going on here.
What didn’t he see? The answer is that he didn’t see the spiritual reality. God doesn’t let us guess what that reality is. He comes right out and tell us in the New Testament. It only took Him two thousand years to get to it, but He gives us the answer. John 1:45, “Phillip found Nathanial and said to him, ‘We found Him of whom Moses and the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Joseph.’ Nathanial said to him, ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ Phillips said to him, ‘Come and see.’ Jesus saw Nathanial coming to Him and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.’”
Let me stop there. Later God is going to change Jacob’s name to Israel, and Jesus said to Nathanial, “An Israelite in whom there is no Jacob, no deceit.” Nathanial said, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said, “Before Phillip called you when you were under the fig tree I saw you.” Nathanial answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?” Listen to this, “You’ll see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Truly, truly I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Who is that ladder? It’s the Son of Man; it was Jesus. Jacob was given a vision of Jesus. My guess is that when he said, “An Israelite in whom there is no Jacob,” I think he was saying, “You are a real seeker. I saw you when you were under the fig tree studying the story of Jacob.” That’s why He brought up the ladder. He’d been studying that under the fig tree, and that’s why Nathanial responded so wonderfully.
So, what did Jacob not see, and the answer is that he didn’t see that the ladder was the Lord Jesus, the only link between heaven and earth, between a Holy God and sinful man. Nobody could stand that abyss, that gulf, except our Lord Jesus Christ. Because he missed Jesus, he missed the message of the dream. What was the message of the dream? The ladder if Jesus but what was the message? The answer is that God longs to bless you. He’s up there and you’re down there but He can only bless you through the ladder. He can’t bless you in any other way. He can’t bless me in any other way. That’s the message that Jacob did not get, that the blessing must come through the ladder. What was true is true now. All of your dealings with God are through Jesus, and all of His dealings with you are through Jesus.
I really enjoyed the worship this evening because it was so full of looking to Jesus, Jesus the One who is worthy… It’s all about Jesus coming back to the heart of worship. Without Jesus, there’s no rest; you are going to put your head on the stone. There’s no rest; you are just running for your life trying to survive, and that’s all it is. God is not reluctant to bless. In fact, you don’t have to lay hold of God’s willingness; He’s infinitely willing to bless, but only through the ladder. There is no other possibility. He’s going to bless you through Jesus. That’s what he saw, and that’s what he didn’t see. He didn’t see Jesus; he didn’t see the message that all blessing must come. What did he hear and what did he not hear? When you read the record, you find out that God repeated His covenant with Abraham and with Isaac. He heard God blessing, “I’m going to give you land, I’m going to bless your seed, your family,” and he heard all that again, and then God added to it in verse 15, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and I’ll bring you back to this land, and I’ll not leave you until I’ve done what I’ve promised.” That’s what he heard.
What didn’t he hear? I showed you when I introduced the series the difference between the picture and reality. Three times in the book of Genesis when we’re reading about the blessing on Abraham, it’s called “the everlasting covenant”. Genesis 17:7, “I’ll establish My covenant between Me and you, your descendants after you throughout your generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendant forever.”
You are familiar with the expression “everlasting covenant”. That’s grace. Genesis 17:13, “A servant who is born in your house who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised. This shall be My covenant in your flesh, an everlasting covenant.” Verse 19, “God said, ‘No, Sarah, your wife will bear a son, and you will call his name Isaac, and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting for his descendants after him.”
I think tomorrow night when we break bread, we’re going to remember our Lord Jesus, Luke 22:20, “In the same way He took the cup after they had eaten saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.’” It’s all about grace. What he missed that Abraham didn’t miss in Romans 4:16, “For this reason it’s by faith, in order that it may be according with grace, so the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendant, not only those who are according to the Law but those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.”
What did he see? He saw the vision. What did he miss? He missed Jesus. What did he hear? He heard the covenant. What did he miss? He missed grace.
Alright, we’re back to the birthright and the blessing. Jesus and grace; it’s exactly the same thing but this time it’s a little different because for the first time he’s going to start to see spiritual. How did he respond. Genesis 28:20, “Jacob made a vow saying, ‘If God will be with me, will keep me on this journey that I take, will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God.’” Everything God gave was unconditional, grace, “I will take you into the land, I will give your kids the land, I will bless you and I’ll be with you and I’ll take care of you,” and not an “if” in the covenant, and then Jacob responds, “Well, I know You are my grandfather’s God and I know You’re my father’s God, but if you do this and this and this, then You’ll be my God.” Jacob is so self-sufficient. He’s going to walk away not only from the vision but walk away from Jesus and he’s going to walk away from grace, and he’s going to walk away for twenty years.
Now, after this vision, Jacob did interpret it; it became to him a religious experience. It wasn’t reality; it was a religious experience. Verse 16 & 17, “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; this is the gate of heaven.’” He’s now had a religious experience; it’s a transition from pictures, and now he’s thinking religiously, but he’s a million light years away from the reality. Genesis 29:1, “Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the sons of the land of the east.” The New American Standard says, “Jacob went on his journey,” but in the margin it says, “He lifted up his feet.” I looked up the Hebrew and after this religious experience I was going to do it for you, but I’ll fall down, he skipped. It put a joy in his heart. He had that vision and he had that great dream, “This is the place of God; this is the house of God.” When he went away, he was light in his feet; he just skipped along; he was happy because he had that religious experience.
It’s still not Christ, and now he’s going to be chasing a religious experience. I can relate to that, especially when he said, “This place,” it becomes a shrine. The Lord graciously saved me. He used the Youth for Christ a while back, and on Jan. 29, 1958, I went to a rally in Berns High School in Hartford, Connecticut, and at that time they had an altar call and I went forward and I received the Lord, and I was so happy; my heart was thrilled. But it wasn’t very long and the shine wore off, and I didn’t know what to do. So, there was only one thing to do, “I’ve got to back to that place.” I didn’t have a license, and I hitchhiked out to Hartford, and it was a Saturday and the school was closed. I found a janitor and he let me in. I was looking for the seat that I was sitting in because I thought if I was in that place, maybe I could get born again again and maybe I could experience some spiritual thing from the Lord. It was a religious experience. At that time, I didn’t know about the indwelling of Christ and walking in an unbroken union with Him.
It’s easy to look to a place. When I was invited to speak here, what a place! Nothing has changed in 47 years but what a place! God has so often visited us in this place. And I can see Jacob saying, “What a place!” and he makes a little pillar, and he sets it up, and he says, “Someday, if you do this, this, this and this, I’ll come back here and You’ll be my God.” It’s easy to become religious and go after some experience because God met us there.
Jacob is resisting the Lord. You are going to look at a wrestling match but as we’ve heard, that is just the last round. God is wrestling with him all the time; he’s in a big, big battle with the Lord. As the years go on and I get closer and closer (I’m not getting older but I’m getting closer and closer) and it really touches my heart to see Christians who are not enjoying their union with Christ. Some of them are strangers to it; they don’t even know that He’s the indwelling Christ and wants to live in exchanged life with them. I see it all around me. They have a Bethel experience.
What did God do at Bethel? The answer is He made it crystal clear that there is only one way that He will ever bless anybody, and that is through the Son of God, through the ladder. There is no blessing outside of that. There comes a time in your life where with all the chasing of pictures and religious experience, you are going to remember, and maybe you’ve heard it on the radio, maybe on a podcast, maybe you heard it from a friend or a teacher or an elder or somebody, and you heard it before; it’s just Jesus and it’s all by grace, and then you walk away.
God has got to bring Jacob back to Bethel. Maybe, this weekend, some will come back to Bethel. You know the message; you’ve heard it for years and years, and you know it’s just Him, and you know it’s by grace and by faith, and you know you were created for that, and for that you were redeemed, and you walk away. But God is going after you; God is faithful, and He’s patient. He’s not omni patient or He would never judge, but He has a lot of forbearance, and He’s going after you.
Well, anyway, Jacob walked away from that, and I pray that nobody here walks away. That’s the vision; the vision was a clear statement of the only way to live the Christian life. God longs to bless but it must come the Lord Jesus Christ. Hosea says, “Jacob found God at Bethel,” and that’s where we find Him. He’s the only link between me and God, between you and God. So, we just pray. What’s going to happen now, and Lord willing, we’ll look at it tomorrow morning. How does God deal with someone who has heard the message, its Christ, its grace, and they walk away – five years, ten years, fifteen years. We’re going to watch what God did to Jacob to bring him back to Bethel. We’re going to trace it out; it’s right there in the Bible, and we can look at it and say, “Will He do this for me, and this and this?” That’s how He does it, and we’re going to look at that in the morning, so please pray that we see the Lord because it’s so important, how God brings us back to Bethel. Let’s pray.
Father, thank You for the great truth illustrated in Jacob’s life. Thank You for being so faithful to make it so clear. Thank You for being patient, and even when we resist and make your unconditional promises conditional, oh Lord, don’t forsake us. You’ve begun a good work. Complete until the day of Jesus Christ, and we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.