A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): Pastor John Randall on the only way to heaven.

John Randall: As Jacob saw this ladder that provided access to God from earth to heaven. Folks, listen. Jesus is the one that provides access from here to there. He is the one. He's the ladder. He's the only way, not one of many. He is the way, the truth and the life. There's no other way that a person can be saved except through Christ. You can't build your own ladder. You can't purchase a ladder. He is the bridge whereby we cross the great divide. Jesus makes the way.

Guest (Male): Glad you could join us today for a daily walk. Pastor John Randall will be with us in just a bit. We'll be continuing our journey through Genesis. We've been in the middle of some high drama in chapters 27 and 28. And at this point in our story, Jacob is on the run from his brother who wants to kill him. And after a long journey, Jacob finally goes to sleep. God would speak to him through a dream. Here's Pastor John with the details.

John Randall: Genesis chapter 28. And we will be picking up in verse 6. But before I read that, I want to remind you of a passage, Genesis 25 verse 23. Genesis 25 verse 23, there was a word spoken to Rebecca while she was pregnant with twins. There was something going on inside of her, and she didn't know. And so she prayed, and she asked the Lord, what's happening inside of me? And she was given an answer. There was a response, and it's found in Genesis 25 23. And this is what it says. And the Lord said to her, two nations are actually warring in your womb.

Two nations are in your womb. Two people separated from your body, and one people shall be stronger than the other. And this last part, and the older shall serve the younger. That was a prophetic word given to Isaac in Rebecca as they were anticipating the arrival of their two children. They knew before these boys arrived that the blessing, the patriarchal blessing that came from Abraham came to Isaac would then be passed on not to the firstborn, which was culturally the norm, but to the secondborn, which would be Jacob. And this was God's plan. Although this wasn't the normal way of doing things, this is what God said.

How many of you been walking with the Lord long enough to know that God doesn't always do things in normal way or the way that every the conventional way? God God has ways of doing things the way he wants to. And so here they are given this plan of God. But as time moved forward and these boys became men, each parent had their favorite son. And as you follow the story, you come to realize that Isaac loved Esau because he was a hunter. He could provide meat that he loved. Whereas Jacob, it says, was more mild-mannered, and he was favored by his mother.

And so consequently, the family became dysfunctional. They were divided. And there were problems that we saw within the family as a whole. And although Isaac had started out when we when we first started Isaac's story, this guy was living close to the Lord. He was digging wells. He was building altars. He was worshiping the Lord. God was blessing. God had his hand upon him as a younger man. But as he got older, what happened to him? He became carnal. He got in the flesh. And he was desiring meat. You know what it says in in the previous chapter that he loved meat.

You find that he loved meat more than he loved God. He became carnal and fleshly in his older years when he should have been stronger. Listen, if you see the tape, if you you're rounding, you know, your last lap, you want to pour it on. You don't want to get carnal and back off. But that's what happened to Isaac. He started living after the flesh. It's a danger for all of us. And so what ended up happening, he advocated his role as the spiritual leader in his home. Not only that, but he lost his eyesight, and he became dependent on other people instead of being dependent on God.

And when it came time to pass on the patriarchal blessing, Isaac, you know he was preparing? He was preparing to do the exact opposite of what God told him to do. He was preparing to be disobedient to the word of the Lord. Now his wife, Rebecca, heard what he was about to do. And so she acted quickly to manipulate and deceive her husband. She had Jacob pretend to be Esau, stole the blessing that was rightfully his to begin with, rather than waiting on God to intervene. They stepped in to help God out. Isaac was deceived.

He pronounced a blessing on Jacob. And when Esau came home from hunting, discovered that he'd been double-crossed by his brother for a second time. And the only thing that brought Esau comfort was the fact that he would kill his brother once his father passed away. That was the one thing that kept him going. That was the comfort, the consolation that he found in getting ripped off twice. I'm going to kill my brother. That's basically what's going to happen. Rebecca then pleaded with Isaac, not wanting to lose Jacob, to send him 500 miles away to Haran where her family dwelt, to take a wife from among her people instead of the pagan idol-worshipping Canaanites like Esau had done.

And it would seem at that moment that Isaac like snapped back in order, like he he came back into alignment with what God's will was. And he realized that what he'd been doing was wrong. And so he brings Jacob in, and he really pronounces once again the blessing upon him and then gives him specific instructions. I'm sending you back to to your mother's family to find a wife. Don't take a wife from the Canaanites like Esau had done. Now the Bible tells us that Esau overheard what Isaac had said. And when Esau saw that Jacob was indeed blessed by his father and that Jacob obeyed the commands of his father and mother, he showed his true colors again.

You know what he did? He went to Ishmael. You remember Ishmael? Ishmael was the stepbrother of Isaac. And he went to Ishmael and took a wife from Ishmael's family just to spite his parents. This evening we pick up where Jacob's journey begins as he leaves home. Verse 10. It says, now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. And so he came to a certain place, and he stayed there all night because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head. And he laid down in that place to sleep.

And then he dreamed. And behold, a ladder was set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. And there the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham your father, the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and your descendants. Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And in you and in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I've spoken to you. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep, and he 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. In light of his brother's threats, Jacob had to quickly leave home. Unbeknownst to him, this would be the last time that he would see his mother.

Rebecca would pass away before Jacob returned years later. He's all alone. He is exhausted from his first days of traveling. And so Jacob prepared to go to sleep, and he was so tired. You know you're tired if you use a rock as a pillow. And he laid down there in that deserted place. And in the midst of that barren land, he had a dream. And within his dream, it says that he saw a ladder that was ascending from the earth all the way up to heaven like a a staircase. It was just this this this passageway as it were from the earth to heaven.

And on that ladder, he saw angelic beings that were going up and down upon it. And then in that moment as he's seeing this dream, the Lord shows up and speaks to him. This is his first real encounter with the living God, the God of his forefathers. And he informed him that the land that he was lying on was going to be given to him. He's given the patriarchal blessing here. It would be given to his descendants. And he's also given the indication that from his seed, from his line would eventually come one who would bless the nations of the earth.

That's a way of saying the Messiah is going to come from you. It went from Abraham to Isaac, and now Jacob is given this blessing from the Lord. And in addition to this blessing, the Lord says something to him that I find comforting. And it's here in verse 15, I am with you. I will keep you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this land, and I won't leave you until I've done what I've spoken to you. What an amazing promise this is in such a critical moment. Although Jacob was all alone, the Lord said, I'm with you.

And though he had no real protection, he's in a dangerous, unfamiliar territory, the Lord says, listen, I'm going to keep you. I'm going to preserve you wherever you go. And I'm not going to leave you. And I'm going to fulfill and keep the promise that I've made to you. This is what Jacob hears. And his response in verse 16 is surely the Lord was in this place, and I didn't know it. Jacob at this moment was initially unaware of the presence of the Lord until God revealed himself. Now keep this in mind. Jacob wasn't seeking the Lord, was he?

He was running for his life. He was trying to get away from the consequences of his sin and his deception. And yet even in that, God is gracious and shows up in an unlikely moment, in an unlikely place, and reveals himself to Jacob and says, I'm not going to leave you. God had every right. This guy was a liar, a thief, a deceiver. And yet God showed him grace in that moment, revealed himself in a way that he didn't expect. Have you ever had that experience where the Lord takes you out of your normal circumstances and then he just reveals himself to you in a way you didn't expect?

Seeing the Lord in some way that you did not anticipate? The last place that you think that God would show up, he shows up and says something to you that you probably wouldn't have heard had you been in your normal circumstances. But he allowed this to happen, or he took you over this direction or moved you over there so that he could speak to you. And then he spoke to you something that was personal, something that you needed to hear. I think of the disciples when they were on the road to Emmaus thinking Jesus was dead, and Jesus showed up and spoke to them.

They didn't expect to see him. And he revealed himself to them. I think of the disciples when they were in the boat and there was a storm all around them. And the last person they expected to see, any person for that matter, walking on water was Jesus. He shows up and reveals himself to them. I think of Elijah when he also was running for his life and he hid in the cave, and the Lord was already in the cave. And he said, what are you doing here, Elijah? He was already inside. He was there. What place are you in tonight?

The Lord is there. Jacob said, how awesome is this place? Is that the response to what you're facing tonight? Are you looking for Jesus? Are you saying, how terrible is this place? Are you saying, you know how awesome is this place? The Lord is even here in the midst of this. Listen, if you're feeling alone like Jacob or you feel like, you know, nobody's there. Listen, God says, I'm there. I'm I'm with you. I'm not going to leave you. I'm going to get you through this and I'm going to bring you to the other side of this.

There's something else that is significant about this particular passage and this vision that Jacob has. I need you for a moment, keep your finger here in Genesis 28, but I want you to go to John chapter 1. This is called cross-referencing. John chapter 1. As we've said before through studies that we've had, the Old Testament points to Jesus. Did you know that? It's all about him. In the volume of the book, it's written concerning him. But here in John chapter 1 in verse 45, Jesus is being introduced to one of his disciples or a future disciple.

Notice verse 43. The following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and he found Philip. And he said to him, follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said, come and see. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, and he said, behold, an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. And Nathanael said to him, how did you know me?

Jesus answered and said, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. And Nathanael answered and said to him, Rabbi, you're the son of God. You're the king of Israel. Verse 50. Jesus answered and said, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, you believe. You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, most assuredly I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. As Jacob saw this ladder that provided access to God from earth to heaven.

Folks, listen. Jesus is the one that provides access from here to there. He is the one. He's the ladder. He's the only way, not one of many. He is the way, the truth and the life. There's no other way that a person can be saved except through Christ. You can't build your own ladder. You can purchase a ladder. He is the bridge whereby we cross the great divide. Jesus makes the way. And here Jacob sees this ladder, sees angels ascending and descending. And Jesus picks up on this Old Testament passage and this vision and says, hey, listen, you're going to see the angels of God ascending and descending upon me.

Well, when Jacob wakes up from this dream, notice he tries to strike a bargain with God. Jacob was good at this. At least he started out this way. Look at what it says in verse 18. Then Jacob rose early in the morning, took the stone that he had put at his head, and he set it up as a pillar, and he poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel. But the name of the city had been Luz previously. Then Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I am going, give me bread to eat and clothing to put on so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.

And this stone which I've said is a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to you. Jacob recognizes the awesomeness of this experience, of this place. And so he calls it Bethel. Bethel means the house of God. And they're having this encounter at the house of God. This isn't the only time we read of this place called Bethel. We read of it when Abraham built an altar there many years earlier. Genesis tells us this when he sought the Lord. But Jacob takes this rock, sets it up, pours oil upon it like a sacrifice and says, okay, God, this is what you said you're going to do.

If you do it, if you do everything I just heard you say and revealed to me, then you will be my God. You bring me back to this place, you set me up, you take care of me, make sure I have bread to eat, and also close on my back, and I will give you whatever you give me, I'll give you a tenth of it. We got this worked out. I'll come back to this place and I'll worship you. You'll be my God. Deal? Jacob had no idea what God was about to do in his life because there's one thing you're going to find out about this man named Jacob.

He was a deceiver. He called his own shots. He was a man with a definite plan. And if he had ways of just finagling and getting people to do, but he he was about to meet his match. Apparently this trait of deception ran deep in the family line. And he was going to be confronted. God, but here's what you need to know. God was going to bring Jacob to the place of brokenness, of humility where he is eventually his name would be changed. It was a 20-year journey, but this is where it started. Jacob's like, all right, God, let's do it.

Let's go. We're you're going to do it? All right, we're going to do it. God's all right, Jacob. Here we go. And Jacob was going to find out God was going to break him. God was wanting to bring Jacob. And I'll say this, God wants to bring every single person in here tonight to the end of ourselves so that we can look to God. How many like Jacob say to the Lord, Lord, I'll follow you if you promise to keep me comfortable. Lord, I promise to follow you if you do this for me. If not, forget it.

And some end up starting their course, ending in bitterness, disillusionment because God didn't do what they expected him to do. But God never said it was going to be easy, but he said that he'd be with him. He makes a vow to the Lord. If you do this, then I'll do that. Jacob needed to be broken. And God was in the business of of breaking people before he uses people, humbling people so that they can be used to their full potential because nothing stands in the way of being used by God more than pride and ourselves.

And so Jacob had to come to the end of that just like his forefathers. Well, it says, notice chapter 29, the journey continues now. So Jacob went on his journey, and it was a 500-mile trek on foot. And Jacob went on his journey, and he came to the land of the people of the east. And he looked and he saw a well in a field. And behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it. For out of that well, they watered the flocks. A large stone was on the well's mouth. Now all the flocks would be gathered there, and they would roll the stone from the well's mouth, water the sheep, put the stone back in its place on the well's mouth.

So Jacob finally makes it to Haran, and he he shows up and he comes to a field and he sees a well and he sees sheep. And of course, he was a shepherd himself. And when he arrives there, he ends up God is uniquely directing him this whole journey and he's going to meet his family. I mean, what's the chances? You traveled 500 miles, and God puts him right where he's supposed to be. It says in verse 4, Jacob said, my brethren, where are you from? And they said, well, we're from Haran. And he said, do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?

And they said, we know him. And they didn't say he's he's doing good. He's fine. Hey, is he well? They said, he's well. And look, his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep. And then he said, now Jacob, now get this. This is Jacob, man. This is how he operates. He's he just arrived. He doesn't even know these people. He starts telling them what to do. He says he he he said, look, it's still high day. It's not time for the cattle to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go feed them. Like, who is this guy that just came out?

Like, he's telling us what to do. He just got here. That's how Jacob operates. That's how he was. And he knew what he was doing. And these guys the problem was they were lazy. That's one thing you can't say about Jacob. He was not lazy. And he didn't deal kindly with lazy people. He said, listen, you're supposed to be watering the sheep right now. What are you doing? They were just lying around. But they said, well, we can until all the flocks are gathered together. And they've rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and then we water the sheep.

Now while he was still speaking with them, this is a great moment. Rachel came with her father's sheep for she was a shepherdess. And it came to pass when Look at this. When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and he rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and he watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. You say, what's so significant about that? Jacob saw Rachel. And he went over, he's picked up that stone, moved it out of the way.

If you could just see it, just grabbing that rock. I want to see how strong I am. I think so. He went over and he grabbed it, you know, and just wanted to show how strong he was. I think. And and then he watered the flocks. And this guy was active. You know, I was talking to a friend recently and we're talking about, you know, Isaac, he meditated in the field. But Jacob, he moved the stone. And there's different ways to approach a woman, you know? And he he he was trying to show off or Isaac's just there waiting, you know?

But but Jacob's intentional at this point. He rolls it away and and then he he he's active, feeds the sheep, waters them. And then look at verse 11. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept. Now that's an awkward moment. I don't know if it's dehydration that's set in or what, but this guy's like he just he kissed her and then he wept. It's a very interesting greeting. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's relative and that he was Rebecca's son. So she ran and told her father. Then it came to pass when Laban heard the report about Jacob's sister's son that he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him, uh kissing in the family, and brought him to his house.

And so he told Laban all of these things. All what things? What he telling? They telling that he had the patriarchal blessing upon his life. They telling him about Esau? Probably not. Did he tell What did he tell him? He told him a lot. He's going to find out this is the wrong guy to tell everything to. But he told him. And Laban said, you surely you are my bone and you are my flesh. And he stayed with him for a month. At this point, Jacob's like, yes. I found the woman I'm totally into. I uh I love Rachel.

I like her. I want her to be my wife. You will find out. I I met my family. They've got flocks. I mean, this I guess it's okay to deceive people and get away I got away with it. Things are going so well for me. He thought it seemed to be going Jacob's way. But after a month's time, old Uncle Laban came up with a plan of his own, strikes a bargain with his nephew, a bargain for a bride.

Guest (Male): Things would get very interesting from here on. We'll hear what happens next on tomorrow's program. Today on a daily walk, we listened in to Pastor John Randall's message, Jacob's Vows. As we leave you, we'd like to say how much it means to us each and every time we hear how God is at work on our listeners' lives. It would be so encouraging to hear from you. So please write today while it's fresh on your mind. Let us know how we can pray for you, too. Our email address is a daily walk at gmail.com. You can call us toll-free at 877 242 0828.

Visit our website to listen to today's message again or share it with someone who might benefit by hearing it. We're at a dailywalk.org. And while you're there, check out Pastor John's daily devotional. It's a video devo released each weekday morning just for you. It takes only 8 minutes to watch, and it's a good way to start your day or watch on your break at work. We're now able to send them to you by text if you wish. Simply text the word a daily walk to 877 242 0828 and be encouraged each morning with Pastor John.

Again, 877 242 0828. Today we'd like to get an excellent resource into your hands from Pastor Charles Stanley who is now with the Lord. It's titled How to Listen to God. His voice waits to be heard. You know, there are so many voices coming at us each day in the world coupled with the daily routine of life. It can sometimes leave us confused and frustrated. How do you distinguish between God's voice and all the others? And how should you respond to it? Allow Charles Stanley to help using personal experiences from his life and ministry. And of course, the word of God, too.

We're making it available to our a daily walk listeners for the cost of just $12 at a dailywalk.org or call us 877 242 0828. That's 877 242 0828 and a dailywalk.org. Here at a daily walk, we look to the Lord to provide. And very often he does so through our listeners. We are very grateful for that. We know these are difficult and challenging financial times for many of you, but if God has blessed you with a little extra this month, we'd very much appreciate your support. This would be a wonderful time to hear from you.

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