Sermon Tone Analysis

! What Jacob did not see

 

15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.

I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, *“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”

***17 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.”

Genesis 28 15-17

 

What I like about the life of Jacob is that he is a man whose character is not all good or even mostly good.

His character, and his habit of twisting things and getting things twisted seems more “realistic”.

Yet this is a man for whom the Lord had a special place – a man who gave his name historically to the People of God.

His story does not begin in Genesis 28 – he had already done quite a lot which he would regret – but it would seem that his spiritual pilgrimage began there – out in the loneliness near Bethel.

This is the story that many people remember – the story of a memorable dream of a ladder to heaven.

It is notable that Jacob himself reflects on what he had not noticed when he wakes after the dream:

 

*“Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”*

* *

This is the comment of a man who lies down to sleep in a nowhere sort of place called Luz as he journeys in search of a bride, back the way his grandfather Abraham had come.

And this will become a place of great significance – simply because it was there that God spoke to him and renewed the ancient Covenant with him.

That should be enough!

A place worthy of a stone monument – an Ebenezer kind of place, a place to be visited and revisited.

(No wonder so many Welsh – and English – chapels are named after it!)

It is at Bethel that Jacob’s spiritual pilgrimage really begins.

Here he sees in a dream the famous ladder joining earth and heaven.

Here he sees the Lord and he awakes with fear and with a desire to commemorate the experience.

Here tonight when we meet around the Lord’s Table it is a good time to reflect on our pivotal experience of God – on the beginning of our own spiritual pilgrimage.

And so I propose this evening to divide up what I have to say about Jacob so that it fits into our service.

As we gather at the Lord’s Table I want us to reflect upon the time and place when God showed Himself to us – a time and a moment we wish to commemorate as we commemorate our Lord’s body and blood.

There is no place so sacred – no moment so worthy of a memorial than here at His table.

So reflect with me about the way Jacob experiences the presence of God.

It will change his life for ever.

Then – a little later we will go on to see how that experience fitted in to the difficult times that Jacob faced:

 

·       *when Laban’s attitude changed                      Genesis 31 v 2*

* *

·       *when Esau approached                                   Genesis 32 vv 6 & 7*

* *

·       *when Joseph seemed dead                             Genesis 42 v 36*

 

These too in their way were character shaping experiences – but of a wholly different kind.

In these Jacob sees – but only the outward marks of danger or disaster – what he *does not see* is the Lord behind the scenes at work on his behalf.

We need to balance these two aspects of our own experience – the thrill of finding God’s promises for us, the wonder of His transforming grace – and the hard facts of the real world around us that often challenges that faith in His promises.

FIRST OF ALL, AS WE GATHER AT HIS TABLE CONSIDER THE COVENANT GOD MADE

 

For us this table represents the New Covenant in Christ’s body and blood

 

It represents in a more glorious way the BETHEL EXPERIENCE of all believers who come to consider the Lord and His communion.

Like Jacob we recognise that

 

“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”

17 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.”

It is quite possible to meet at this Table and not recognise what it means.

It is possible for time to pass and still observe this ceremony – until one day when it becomes to us too “the gate of heaven”.

I can think of no better description for the Lord’s Supper than that.

And this will be our Memorial – our Bethel  - to which, like Jacob we will need to return often.

Let us share the meal together.

*1 Corinthians 11:23-32 (NIV)*

\\ 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,

\\ 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

\\ 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” \\ \\

26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

\\ \\

 

*HYMN 230*     divide verses 1 & 2 from remainder?

!

What Jacob did not see 1    -  Laban’s attitude changes

 

When Jacob paused at Bethel he was on his way to Laban’s home in the hope of finding a wife.

God had made a promise – renewing the covenant with Abraham and Isaac and now with Jacob:

 

15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.

I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

That reminds me of Paul’s words – The Lord will complete that which He started…

 

At first it must have seemed to Jacob that everything was going right.

Surely the Lord was keeping His promise and He was with him.

He meets the beautiful Rachel and romance blossoms.

But it didn’t stay that way.

It doesn’t always – does it?

Laban  deceived Jacob with his other daughter Leah – but Jacob served out his time for his beloved Rachel.

But then came the problem of Rachel’s barrenness  - and that compounded by Leah’s fruitfulness.

Things were beginning to go wrong.

And out of this came compromise and all the problems that go with that.

In the course of that time Jacob became rich in cattle and herds and the time came for him to leave.

But his leaving was misunderstood by Laban.

*31* Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father.”

2 *And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude towards him was not what it had been.*

3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

4 So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were.

5 He said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude towards me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me.

6 You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, 7 yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times.

However, God has not allowed him to harm me.

Superficially this was a most dangerous moment.

A crisis point – a time to move out.

And as Jacob looks at the circumstances it does not seem that God is working with him as He had promised?

It was a small consolation that God kept Laban from physically harming Jacob – but I guess most of us would have understood how Laban might feel.

Jacob is escaping with lots of cattle and flocks.

So Laban pursues Jacob:

 

22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled.

23 Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

24 *Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”*

25 Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too.

26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done?

You’ve deceived me, and you’ve carried off my daughters like captives in war.

27 Why did you run off secretly and deceive me?

Why didn’t you tell me, so that I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of tambourines and harps?

It is interesting to consider how Jacob felt as Laban overtakes him.

Where is God in all of this?

 

Jacob is not to know – at first – that God has been busy behind the scenes working on his account.

*Jacob did not see this – but God was at work*

* *

And as we read on the narrative we find that another stone features in the story – another memorial to an awkward situation resolved:

 

MIZPAH

 

45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.

46 He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.”

So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap.