Love Builds Up - Genesis 28:1-22

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Love Builds Up
Genesis 28:1-22
20211128
Hopeless in our ﬂesh but overﬂowing with hope in God
Introduc)on
Where we begin today is captured well by Paul’s statement that knowledge puﬀs up but love builds up (1 Cor.
8:1). I say this because acLng upon knowledge – knowledge gained in unceremonious fashion has brought the
Isaac and Rebekah household to a place of uPer devastaLon. No one in their right mind could look at where
the family is upon Jacob’s exit and say – “There that is the family model I want to uphold!” No way!
The husband and wife – relaLonship has some major issues. Rebekah has manipulated and deceived her
husband while leading her youngest son down a most dubious path. Isaac is unable to see but that doesn’t
mean he lacks the ability to discern what has happened – last week he clearly declared to Esau that Jacob had
come in deceiZully and taken away the older brother’s blessing (27:35). The blood is boiling over and Esau is
ready to kill Jacob.
The Hi^te daughter-in-laws now are a convenient excuse to get Jacob out of town quickly. I even think both
Isaac and Rebekah saw this an expedient way to get Jacob out of the threat range of Esau as he fumed in his
anger.
This is why I say Paul captures what is going on well – knowledge puﬀs up but love builds up (1 Cor. 8:1).
Everyone in the Isaac and Rebekah house has a bit of knowledge they are operaLng from – completely puﬃng
up - while no one is aPempLng to build up in love.
What we want to learn from our study is that the pursuit of what we want in and through the power of our
wits and cunning most deﬁnitely doesn’t lead to a building up in love. God, as he jumps directly into Jacob’s life
pushes through the nonsense and declares reality. God states plainly that Jacob is the one to take on the
Abrahamic promises and he does so in a declaraLon of grace. Again, Paul states, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I
hated (Ro. 9:13)” – quoLng the OT prophet Malachi (Mal. 1:2-3).
It is without a doubt that deceiZulness, cunning, using our wits, accumulaLng knowledge are a constant threat
to our relaLonship with God and with others because we use these human devices to control our
environment.
1. How many Lmes have you thought: Just one more Lme and then I’ll stop? That is deceiving yourself.
2. How about: They will never know that I got my way at their expense because I’m more aware and they
are just too dim to see it? That is cunning.
3. How about relying upon your wits to get you out of trouble? Thinking fast and peddling what needs to
be heard in order to deﬂect what is headed your way – using your wits.
4. My nemesis: accumulaLng knowledge. Thinking if I can ﬁgure out what is really going on I can make
myself and others aware of what is happening in any given situaLon. The challenge with this is no
amount of accumulaLng knowledge is enough and also it plays right into the major lie of our current
age that peddles content in an unending torrent.

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When I take a step back from all of this and when you take a step back from these tendencies that we are
prone to. I mean really stop what you normally do and take a step back. This allows our focus to change. And it
changes for the bePer! For when we take a step back, we can ask the most fundamental quesLon – Where is
God at work? What is God up to? Then, friends, we have the privilege to turn to him and away from our fool
hearted aPempts to control our environment using deceit, cunning, our wits, or through the accumulaLon of
knowledge. Now – as God grabs ahold of us, the long-term tendencies of our life don’t always just melt away
but rather through the process of sancLﬁcaLon, which can be quicker in some areas but slower in others, we
are morphed into the man or woman God is calling us to be.
In the passage today elements of all that I have just shared are present but the inescapable and most
capLvaLng aspect of the chapter is not the human, not the human at all - but the divine. God enters into
Jacob’s life, the heavens are opened and the angels can be seen ascending and descending, and God simply
declares what he will do.
What we witness is mercy over merit. Jacob clearly doesn’t deserve the favor of God but that is what he gets.
God’s choice is for Jacob. No maPer how much deceit or conniving or jockeying for posiLon has happened nor
does it maPer how much will happen for surely God knows our heart and is indeed greater than our heart (1
Jn. 3:20). So, though the consequences of his acLons remain for all the fallout is surely just to Jacob’s south but
the eternal purposes of God are advanced. This leaves us hopeless in our ﬂesh but overﬂowing with hope in
God - dependent upon God’s grace and it is towards this end that we will see God’s word takes us. Going
through this passage, engaging in the study of God’s word we want to end up: Hopeless in our ﬂesh but
overﬂowing with hope in God.
Outline: Knowledge Puﬀs Up vv1-11 – Love Builds Up vv12-22
Knowledge Puﬀs Up (vv1-11)
1. I’ll contend that Isaac and Rebekah recognized they had a real problem on their hands.
a. Jacob has, with the help of his mother, cheated Esau out of the patriarchal blessing that Isaac was
intending for his oldest son.
b. AddiLonally, the wives Esau has taken have been a real source of consternaLon for the family.
i. So, what is lem to do? Get Jacob out of sight! Simply move the problem to a place where he
cannot be seen and maybe just maybe in Lme the result will be peace gained for the family.
2. vv1-2 “Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife ....””
a. This is what I mean by moving the problem further away. An expedient soluLon is taken up for back
in Gen 26:34-35 “When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the HiBte to
be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the HiBte, and they made life biCer for Isaac and
Rebekah.”
b. And then last week, amer hearing of Esau’s plan to kill Jacob, Rebekah completely sidesteps the root
cause of the problem being the goat skin wrapped Jacob deceiving blind Isaac for Esau’s blessing
with her help and instead reminds Isaac of her “loathing of life – because of the HiBte
women” (Gen. 27:46-48)

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3. So, here we go. Everyone being knowledgeable of the mess they are in as a family they grab ahold of a plan
that will simply move Jacob out of the blast zone of Esau’s anger. Send Jacob up north!
a. It is conveniently overlooked by Isaac and Rebekah that this was far far from Abraham’s idea when
his own faithful servant went up north on a similar errand.
i. Then it was strictly forbidden to take Isaac out of the land promised to Abraham by the
LORD (Gen 24:6;8).
ii. Now – in order to keep Jacob from being anywhere near Esau – it is deemed worth the risk!
1. Clearly, Jacob is the promised and favored one as stated by the LORD to Rebekah in
Gen 25:23 “Two naFons are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be
divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.””
2. And we know this to be true from having simply read the Scriptures as well as any
other Bible knowledge obtained in our lives on the topic of Jacob.
b. But that being said – the eﬀort being undertaken is not foreign to us, is it? We observe an issue.
Maybe it is with the public school system. You noLce that the school has conLnued to change away
from a place of learning to a place of indoctrinaLon: like here in the state of Oregon where
ideologies are being pushed instead of subjects like reading and math.
i. I say this because currently, demonstrated proﬁciency in reading and math are not required
to graduate (as signed into law by Senate Bill 744 July 14, 2021 Kate Brown).
ii. This leaves you as a parent in a real predicament. Do you leave your child there thinking you
will simply undo the indoctrinaLng eﬀects of the 7 plus hours your son or daughter spends
at the school?
iii. Or do you push for change through the school board or by becoming a subsLtute teacher? –
because the ﬁeld is open to all who have a high school diploma now because the state of
emergency here has pushed a good deal of educators out (hPps://www.oregonlive.com/
educaLon/2021/10/oregon-temporarily-drops-college-degree-requirement-for-subsLtuteteachers-to-alleviate-shortage.html).
iv. Lastly, you decide enough is enough and you determine no way will my kid be in that school!
So, you get your son or daughter out.
v. I’m not using this example to pick on anyone’s school choice (these problems are widely
known) – all I’m trying to highlight is that apart from a reformaLon the problem will remain
in some form or another. The soluLon of taking our kids out of the schools is valid but does
not directly pressure the public educaLon system to reform.
c. This is the same with Jacob and Esau. UnLl their relaLonship is made whole through a reconciliaLon
process animosity will sLll be there. But that is not what is embraced by Isaac and Rebekah so they
send him away – move the problem out of sight.
4. However, an important step is taken by Isaac. In addiLon to the patriarchal blessing that sLll stood over
Jacob, even though it was obtained deceiZully, Isaac also bestows the Abrahamic blessing upon him.

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a. vv3-4 “God Almighty bless you and make you fruiKul and mulFply you, that you may…”
b. This is right and good – although I’m placing it in this secLon and billing this as an eﬀort to push the
problem away, the reality is that nothing is done apart from the Sovereign hand of God. Truly, the
moLve here is unknown to us but the working is clearly of the LORD and this will be touched on
more in our next point.
i. Jacob now has the blessing that was handed down from Abraham, to Isaac, and now is
placed upon him. How much he values this is unknown – but it is declared over him.
c. v5 “Thus Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, the...”
i. The problem is out the door and the possibility of Esau killing Jacob is greatly diminished
and the bonus of maybe not having more Hi^te daughter-in-laws is an addiLonal beneﬁt.
ii. Transi)on: Now all of this is observed by Esau, he gains knowledge, and he responds to
what he sees in a very ﬂeshly manner.
5. vv6-8 “Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife…”
a. Esau is observing all of this unfolding. He is having everything stripped away from him. It truly
appears that the hand of the LORD is against Esau and for Jacob.
i. The older brother has despised his birthright – so it was taken from him.
ii. He also had his blessing taken by the conniving eﬀort of Rebekah and Jacob.
b. Now you can’t jump too far ahead if you know the story (yes this is in line with God’s plan) – for
truly Jacob I loved but Esau I hated as the prophet Malachi declared (Mal 1:1-3) and as repeated by
Paul (Ro. 9:13).
i. But noLce here how Esau responds. Not in awe of God’s proclaimed will being carried out
but rather he conLnues in a ﬂeshly manner.
ii. Seeing that the Canaanite women are not pleasing to his parents, he decides to take some
acLon.
1. Before I get to that - for the curious, the way Hi^te women relate to Canaanite
women is that the Hi^tes are descendants of Canaan the son of Ham – so, Hi^tes
are Canaanites. Along with Sidonites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites,
Arkites, Simites, Arvadites, Zemarites, Hamathites. (Gen 10:15-18)
c. Back to Esau’s plan. So, instead of clearly thinking about God’s rejecLon of Ishmael as a natural
oﬀspring of Abraham (Gen. 17:18-21) and instead of embracing the one woman and one-man
marriage relaLonship insLtuted by God at creaLon (Gen. 2:24-25).
i. Esau doubles down on polygamy and takes a wife from the oﬀspring of Ishmael as seen in
v9.

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6. His younger brother is also content to be oﬀ and away from the threat of being killed by Esau. I think this
was a rather quick departure. In Gen. 32, which we will get to in a few weeks, Jacob states how he crossed
the Jordan with just his staﬀ.
a. This is quite diﬀerent from the camels laden with gims that the servant of Abraham went north with
to ﬁnd a suitable wife for Isaac (Gen. 24). Jacob departs with just his staﬀ.
b. Nonetheless Jacob is content to be away. The blessings are his, his life remains, and the favor of his
parents seem to be upon him.
c. vv10-11 “Jacob leQ Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place...”
ii. I picture him a liPle Lmid here out under the open sky (being a man of the tents) but also
smug and saLsﬁed that he has pulled oﬀ such a feat as to get the birthright and the blessing
that culturally belonged to his brother Esau.
Transi)on: Culture or not what we turn our aPenLon to now is really the focus of the passage. God jumps right
into the middle of everything and declares what is to happen with his chosen vessel, the person clearly
without merit but the chosen recipient of God’s mercy.
Love Builds Up (vv12-22)
1. Jacob has put himself to bed for the night, rolled in his tunic, a stone at his head or under his head like
some kind of pillow.
a. In the vulnerability of the night Jacob the Creator God reveals a scene that could never be put out
of his mind.
i. v12 “And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and…”
1. This is like Jn 1:51 When Nathanael declares Jesus the Son of God – Jesus replied,
“You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you,
you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the
Son of Man.”
ii. This is the vulnerability of the night when Jacob cannot have his full defenses up, his cunning
and conniving are not at full up shields mode. He is asleep and God gets his aPenLon.
b. vv13-15 “And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham…””
i. The promises we have been looking at and seen unfolding in God’s plan of redempLon
without any hint of reservaLon are placed squarely upon Jacob, God’s chosen one.
1. They are even expanded.
2. NoLce how God says to Jacob – I am with you and will keep you wherever you go
and will bring you back to this land.
3. God is clearly direcLng his own through this night vision.

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a. I so enjoy the nights. Never having experienced anything like the vision
described here or others described in the Scriptures – sLll, like many of you
the nights of my lifeLme have been used by the Holy Spirit.
b. Omen to impress upon me those who need to be prayed for, or to consider a
certain passage of Scripture afresh, and so on.
c. I delight in and am terriﬁed of these aspects of the night.
ii. In this case, with Jacob, God is standing over the sleeping man while showing him the
ascending and descending of angels. The promise of keeping Jacob wherever he goes is
magniﬁcently declared as only the King of Kings can declare. God directs his own.
1. This is the ﬁrst Lme, but certainly is not the last Lme, that God speaks to Jacob. And
so appropriate for our start of Advent to be reminded that God is not afraid to
engage in the lives of men.
2. Most poignantly displayed in our Savior being sent to earth to be born of woman and
to live the perfect life to provide the atoning sacriﬁce for all who have been given life
on earth.
3. Transcendent God is not above interacLng with his image bearers. What we see
throughout the Bible is his constant engagement with people and working with them
in spite of their imperfecLons to draw them near to himself.
4. He is bigger than our sins and he can work his plan and can bring himself glory all
while sLll holding us accountable for our acLons. We all suﬀer under the curse of the
fall – sin is a blight upon this world and the only cure is faith in Jesus Christ.
iii. The cure is introduced by God. He reveals more and more of himself throughout Lme and
through the Scriptures – here in Genesis we are seeing it. How does Jacob respond to this
revelaLon? How do any of us ﬁrst respond to being called by God?
1. It varies. And if you have never responded to Jesus’ call on your life, I expect your
experience will be unique as well.
2. What is standard is being set free from sin: someLmes it is a rapid release other
Lmes it is done over Lme.
3. Paul writes, ““But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves
of God, the fruit you get leads to sancFﬁcaFon and its end, eternal life. For the wages
of sin is death, but the free giQ of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.” (Romans 6:22–23)
iv. The funny thing is that although this is the spiritual reality upon God’s working it is not
always manifested in ways that we would think are proper and ChrisLan – but who are we to
say they are not?
1. God meets each of us exactly where we are! You do not have to clean yourself up
and make yourself presentable for God to be triggered to suddenly work with you.

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a. That is why I have said in this passage we clearly see it is mercy not merit. For
we are more like Jacob than we would like to admit!
2. He responds when he awakes in a very Jacob way. And I respond to God in a very
Nathan way, you (insert your name) respond to God in a very you way.
a. This can do two things:
i. It can cause us to beliPle the response of others and or it can cause us
to grow in our appreciaLon for God’s love as demonstrated by his
mercy for such a diverse group of sinners.
ii. As a church we of course want the laPer. To grow in love and to build
each other up in love.
c. Back to Jacob, his aPenLon has been arrested by the night vision. He recognizes the encounter was
with the One true God and has a reverent fear.
i. vv16-17 “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place...””
2. However, what really is idiomaLc Jacob is the vow he takes in the morning, which we will get to in a
moment. vv18-19 para describes him se^ng up the stone he slept on as a pillar, anoinLng it with oil,
naming the place Bethel. These are what you might expect from this type of man from this period of
history.
a. But the vow reminds us very much that we are with a coherent Jacob who has gathered himself
who has gathered his wits about him and it is like he makes a deal with God.
b. It just comes across as out of place. God unilaterally declared what he was going to do for and
through Jacob and yet in the morning Jacob works at sweeLng the deal.
i. vv20-22 “Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me...””
c. As we witness this vow we should not be too hard on Jacob because in fact whenever we come into
contact with God we approach him from what we know, we approach him from our experiences in
life, and this is exactly what Jacob is doing.
i. God is gracious. He hears this vow, he pays aPenLon to every word, and when he speaks
with Jacob later in Gen. 31:13 he idenLﬁes with him through the words that Jacob spoke
and the acLons he took! Saying, to Jacob “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a
pillar and made a vow to me.”
ii. Amazing! God directs his own but does so in an individualized way. Love builds up! Praise
God for his tenderness towards us for we would be absolutely crushed under the weight of
his perfecLon if it were not for his mercy.
d. Now to apply this very idea to building up in love. The idea planted in the beginning. Of course, we
want everyone to grow in their faith and if they do not know God, we want to introduce them to
him.
i. One sure way to get oﬀ course in a hurry is to load up someone with requirements.

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1. The faith we have is profoundly simple. We are in desperate need of salvaLon for the
wages of sin are death.
2. What then is required? To heed the call upon your life, when you are summoned by
God you respond in faith – trusLng Jesus for your salvaLon.
3. Then repeatedly doing that. Recognizing the gospel is for you from your ﬁrst
response to your dying breath taken on this side of eternity.
Conclusion
As I say this and we draw to a close it should be obvious that the Bible does not teach that the ChrisLan life is
like an endless vacaLon – for it is not - but the ChrisLan life is simple:
I was passed along a quote from Spurgeon that will help put on the trajectory I see we need to take in
response to the text before us today.
“To become a ChrisLan is to enlist for a soldier. To become a believer is to enter upon a pilgrimage, and the
road is omen rough: the hills are steep, the valleys are dark, giants block the way, and robbers lurk in corners.
The man who reckons that he can glide into heaven without a struggle has made a great mistake. No cross no
crown: no sweat no sweet: no conﬂict no conquest.” C.H. Spurgeon
UlLmately what we are amer in our look at Genesis 28 is to determine what a walk with the Lord looks like. To
determine: is Jesus Lord of all? or do you as a sinner think you retain rights that are not yours? Clearly in the
passage no maPer what the human response might be it is God who grabs ahold of those who are his and
directs their life. He indicates that is what he is going to do with Jacob.
Friends, throw yourselves at the feet of the cross in humble submission to God. Recognize today that it is
mercy over merit that is needed and it is by God’s grace that you are here to receive the truth of the gospel
once again. For we are Hopeless in our ﬂesh but overﬂowing with hope in God. For God is Love and Love Builds
Up!


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