Untitled Sermon

Thankful Series

Still Blessed

Still Blessed

Genesis 28:10-13

I. Intro

A. Church as we continue this journey through the series of Thanks we are now paying particular attention to the character of Jacob. Now I must admit that Jacob is a character in which many people can relate to in different places and times in their lives. I truly must make mention that we have to honor the fact that although Jacob did some messed up stuff God was still with him. You all know that we have to go to Bells Chapel today so don’t be stingy with your shout and Amen because this sermon will be concluded before you include your shout and your amen!

II. Text Work

A. Can I take five minutes to deal with my classical theologians in the house? You know this is a very familiar passage and has been preached on numerous occasions so let us go ahead let them shout first. You have heard the story of the visionary dream that Jacob had in which he saw God standing above him or the ladder better interpreted stairway to heaven and the angels going up and down and then God promising him the inheritance of his fathers . Then we hear the voices of commentaries saying that the Rock that Jacob slept on was Jesus and the Ladder was the Heavenly gateway that God had allowed Jacob to have a sneak peak into the holies of holiness of the heavenly realm all to solidify his faith that God was with him can you say Amen? Somebody may say God was in their spiritual imagination How Jacob saw God’s Angels going up and down the celestial escalator like going to the upper level of a high prices merchandise store because all the good stuff is generally upstairs. But church before we get to the vision and the promise and the response let us get from where he was to where he is!

B. First we are talking about Jacob the second born of Isaac and Rebekah. The one name In separate popular etymologies, the Heb name yaʿăqōb is connected with Heb ʿāqēb, “heel,” because Jacob was born clutching the heel of his brother Esau (), and with the verb ʿāqab, “cheat,” because Esau said that Jacob had cheated him twice (27:36). The name may be a shortened form of Heb yʿqb-ʾl, “God protects,” a name known from extrabiblical sources.” The same brother who had knowledge from staying home and studying tricked his brother for some red soup and lentils and got his birthright. The same brother who followed his mother’s direction and dressed up in goat hair and served an imitation Esau bar-b-que sandwich to his blind father and lied in order to get his blessing, and this same brother after the death of his father ran because his brother Esau wanted to kill him. Yes this brother Wortham is the immediate character of the story in who we just read is in a vision talking directly with God!

Look at somebody and say God can use anybody!

Walters, S. D. (1992). Jacob Narrative. In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 3, p. 599). New York: Doubleday.

III. Close

A. As I get ready to head to my seat give me a just a few minutes to give my little theological nuggets and we shall head down to bells Chapel. Church what I really want to get across today is a couple of things. First obedience will lead to the blessing. Understand that Jacob is on a journey that his Father has ordained in order for him to find a suitable spouse to be the birth canal for God’s holy nation. His brother Esau cut off his blessing marrying a Canaanite woman out of spite to make his father and mother angry. Let me help somebody doing things out of spite does not hurt that person but hurts yourself by cutting yourself out of the grace and goodness of God and those who love you.