Interrupted by Glory

Introduction

Opening Hook:

In the introduction to his book, “Just Mercy,” Bryan Stevenson describes going to death row to tell Henry that he wasn’t at risk of execution anytime soon. He was just supposed to deliver this simple message - he was terrified and wanted to leave quickly. However, when they started talking, the hour-long meeting turned into several hours because Henry wanted to share his life story. They connected deeply through singing hymns together, and Henry’s gratitude for simply being treated as a human being profoundly moved Stevenson.

The key moment came when Henry didn’t want their visit to end - they kept talking way past the scheduled time, until the guards insisted. What struck Stevenson was how this man on death row had transformed their encounter from a perfunctory legal visit into a deeply human connection. Henry’s parting words about hoping Stevenson would come back affected him deeply.

This experience in the prison visiting room - a “non-place” between freedom and confinement - transformed Stevenson from an intimidated law student into someone who found his calling. It helped him understand that his work wasn’t just about delivering legal information, but about restoring humanity to people who had been stripped of it by the justice system. Consider starting with the vivid image of Jacob - alone, on the run, in a "non-place" as Brueggemann puts it. This sets up both the physical and spiritual state of someone about to be interrupted by God. The fact that it happens in a "non-place" is particularly powerful - it shows God meeting us in our wilderness moments.

The framework of the journey (vv. 10–11) is not very important except that the event happens “between places” where nothing is expected. It happens between safe, identifiable places. Here everything is risky. It is enough in this memory that a “non-place” is transformed by the coming of God into a crucial place. The transformation takes place during sleep, when Jacob has lost control of his destiny. He will not resist this Other One in the night. And in the process, this “non-person” (i.e., exiled, threatened) is transformed by the coming of God to a person crucial for the promise. Brueggemann, W. (1982). Genesis (p. 242). John Knox Press.

If you have your Bibles or on your devices, let us turn to Genesis 28:10-22. If you are willing and able, would you stand with me as I read God’s word this morning. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Amen

The Divine Initiative ("I was not aware of it")

God meets Jacob in his flight, not his arrival (talk about how he is on the run)

I wrote a paper in seminary that one day I hope to tease out more someday. It is titled the “Divine Passive”. It is an exegetical look at the letter of Paul to Philemon specifically vs 15. Paul is seeking to reconcile the relationship of a former slave, Onesimus, to Philemon. There is a statement within Paul’s letter that has always captured my attention. Philemon 15 “Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever—”

The Greek word for ‘separated’ is in the aorist passive indicative tense, which means that this is something that is happening to Philemon. This is not something that he is in control of but that there are divine purposes taking place out of his purview.

God was doing something in the plan and the life of Onesimus that would eventually lead him to faith in Jesus. While it was a great inconvenience and maybe even a hardship for Philemon, what Paul is saying is you have now gained a brother… celebrate with me, embrace him now as a brother.

It begs the question, what is God doing in you now that will lead to His inevitable glory? Those things in our lives that are difficult, those steps of faith we’re being encouraged to make, those difficult decisions that will have consequence, or those situations that are out of our control, how are all of these being used for the ultimate glory of God?

It doesn’t diminish or dismiss the hurt/hard; it doesn’t excuse bad behavior; it doesn’t mean it isn’t trying… but maybe, just maybe, God is going to work and meet us in the midst of it.

While it seems that God is silent, that God is passive, He’s constantly at work for your good and His glory.

It’s in the midst of circumstances that God meets us. The uniqueness of Christianity and who we understand God to be is that he comes down to meet us. The world system and our natural thought has always been that we have to somehow have to reach God (we can think of Babel or the man and woman in the garden trying to be like God). This is the entirety of other faiths… I have to be good enough then God will bless/meet/enrich me. Christ (God in the flesh) comes down to meet us. He reaches to you and to me.

Jacob wasn't seeking this encounter, he was in fact running for his life.

God often finds us when we're running, just as with Paul on Damascus Road… maybe that’s your story.

Paul is persecuting the church and God knocks him off his horse as he’s looking to lock up Christians (Acts 9)

Nathaniel is at home and Philip comes to tell him about Jesus; Andrew runs to get his brother Peter

Jonah is pursued by God as he is in active rebellion

God pursues Adam and Eve as they are hiding after having disobeyed YHWH’s command

The profound realization that God was present before Jacob knew it

Genesis 28:16 “When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.””

The Radical Reorientation

Jacob’s Dream:

Jacob sees what many scholars think is more like stairs than a ladder. Many speculate it’s probably like a ziggurat that we see in that area today (Pic)

Brueggemann's insight about Jacob finding "the world of the dream more convincing than his old world of fear and guilt"

The promise comes in a dream. But the response of Jacob is in his wakefulness (vv. 16–22). Jacob is the trusting man. He finds the world of the dream more convincing than his old world of fear and guilt. In his wakefulness, he resolves to embrace the new reality of the dream. He accepts the fact that the kingdom is at hand. He is prepared to repent and believe. He repents, deciding here and now to abandon his old presuppositions of fear for the new reality of assurance. Brueggemann, W. (1982). Genesis (p. 246). John Knox Press.

Encountering God demands a response

Augustine of Hippo having just had his conversion experience in a garden of a home where he was staying says this, “I kept saying these things and weeping with the bitterest sorrow of my heart. And, behold, I heard from a nearby house the voice of someone—whether boy or girl I know not—chanting, as it were, and repeating over and over: ‘Take it, read it! Take it, read it!’ And immediately, with a transformed countenance, I started to think with greatest concentration whether it was the usual thing for children to chant words such as this in any kind of game, and it did not occcur to me that I had ever heard anything like it. Having stemmed the flow of my tears, I got up, taking it to mean that nothing else was divinely commanded me than that I should open a book and read the first passage that I should find…. And so I went hurriedly back to the place where Alypius was sitting. I had placed there the copy of the Apostle, when I had got up from the place. Snatching it up, I opened it and read in silence the first passage on which my eyes fell: ‘Not in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and as for the flesh, take no thought for its lusts.’ No further did I desire to read, nor was there need. Indeed, immediately with the termination of this sentence, all the darknesses of doubt were dispersed, as if by a light of peace flooding into my heart. Augustine of Hippo. (1953). Confessions (R. J. Deferrari, Ed.; V. J. Bourke, Trans.; Vol. 21, p. 224-225). The Catholic University of America Press.

When we encounter the living God, nothing stays the same. We were living with a particular purpose in mind but that purpose aligns itself with the Living God when we encounter Him and are born-again. Don’t be surprised if your affections, goals, plans, and purpose change when you encounter him. Many of us sitting here today have experienced that no doubt.

Maybe you’re like myself or my kids who have grown up in the church, what a gift that can be. There is a knowledge of the Lord from a young age. It continues to shape and mold but your trajectory may not be as drastic as others who did not have that grace.

As a youth pastor for many many years, I would hear youth (and adults) trying to outdo one another in their testimonies… we would make it a point that after some dynamic, dramatic retelling of a testimony (which praise the Lord for)… a youth would get up and go… “I don’t have much a testimony”… we would gently and full of grace go… OH YES YOU DO! Look at what God is doing in you and through you… you are yielded to Him… you have experienced HIs goodness/kindness… look what you’ve been kept from… look what you are giving yourself too. And it would never fail that the one who had the more drama filled testimony would speak up and encourage the youth saying, “your testimony inspires me when it gets hard because I see that you can do it… it gives me hope when my flesh is weak.”

The vow as a "yielding that reorients life" rather than just a bargain

The appearance of God leads Jacob to make deep commitments and overriding decisions. The appearance does not leave Jacob free to be an interested spectator of some religious phenomenon. The appearance presents a word of promise which demands a decision. Jacob now decides in ways that reshape his existence, for promises are covenantal acts. God makes promises to Israel. And in response, Israel makes vows to God. Vows are not contracts or limited agreements, but yieldings that reorient life. Brueggemann, W. (1982). Genesis (p. 248). John Knox Press.

The twelve disciples and the women that followed Jesus (they left everything to follow him); Paul; Barnabas (sold many things to bless the church); John 4 (Samaritan woman evangelizing the whole town).

Even Jacob's imperfect response (the vow) shows the beginning of transformation

Some people jump on Jacob because his vow seems conditional

Some people love Jacob’s response because this is the first interaction we know that he has with YHWH and he responds with the best he has (probably has nothing at this moment in time… he’s using a rock as a pillow).

What we can take away is at this moment, Jacob is changed and God receives this imperfect, beautiful act of worship.

When we respond to God with clumsy, imperfect, innocent acts of worship, God is praised.

If we don’t know to pray… start. Take up the psalms and pray them.

If we don’t have a lot to give, what can we give… over and over we see that God multiplies and moves in the offering we give to him.

If we don’t know scripture enough to share with people… share what we know and commit to reading and memorizing more.

Jesus as Our Bethel (The Contemporary Application)

The dream Jacob has is at Luz. He renames the place Bethel (which means house of God)… it’s a place where Heaven and Earth are connecting.

Let us make the connection with the New Testament… there’s a beautiful connection to John 1:51:

John 1:47–51 “When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.””

In Jesus, heaven and Earth are connected.

We know the heart of God in Jesus. We know the presence of God in Jesus. We know God because of Jesus: John 14:6–9 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

Notice that Jesus (God in the flesh) reveals Himself to Nathaniel in whom there is no deceit, but we see in our text today, that God even reveals himself to deceivers like Jacob. There is hope for you, for me, for your family, for my family, for your friends, for my friends.

Let us not think that anyone is too far from the grace and reach of God.

Christ becomes the place where Heaven and Earth meet.

John 1:5 “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Every place becomes potentially sacred because of Christ's presence

We need not fret of sacred and secular… Christ brings that wall down. Every place we go, the divine is present.

Might I continue to challenge the notion of “bringing Christ into places”… Christ is there (especially if you are/other believers)… it becomes God how are you working, how can I come alongside what you are doing?

We too are called to abandon our old presuppositions for a new reality in Christ

Conclusion

God meets us where we are, not where we should be

Transformation is both immediate (the encounter) and gradual (the journey)

Like Jacob, our response might be imperfect, but God works with us

The call to reorient our entire lives around this new reality

Prayer: God, help us to be aware of your presence…