Sermon Tone Analysis

Sunday June 18, 2006

Genesis: Genesis 29:1-Jacob is Confident that God Has a Plan for His Life

Lesson # 164

Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 28:10.

This morning we will study Genesis 29:1, which records Jacob excited and confident about his future after encountering a vision of angels and the preincarnate Christ who revealed the Father’s plan for his life.

God’s plan for Jacob’s life involved inheriting the privileges, promises, responsibilities and blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant as well as carrying on the Messianic line.

Genesis 28:10 records Jacob leaving Beersheba and Genesis 29:1-12 records him arriving in the city of Nahor where his uncle Laban lived, which is called in Genesis 29:1, “the land of the sons of the east.”

The journey from Beersheba to Haran was approximately a seven hundred mile journey.

Now, we must remember when approaching Genesis 29 that initially Jacob was running from Esau, which was the real reason why his mother sent him to her brother Laban.

The reason Rebekah gave Isaac for sending away Jacob was to secure a wife for him but this was a lie since she did not give Jacob the bride price needed to secure a bride.

In fact, Genesis 28:44 records that Rebekah was planning on Jacob being a way for only a “few days.”

So initially when Jacob set out on his journey to see his uncle Laban, he was not intending to find a wife for himself.

But rather he was simply looking for a place to hide out, biding his time, far away from the wrath of his brother Esau who he just took advantage of.

But the purpose of his journey changed when the Lord appeared to him at Bethel and made promises to him of numerous descendants (See Genesis 28:10-15).

Genesis 28:10, “Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.”

Genesis 28:11, “He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place.”

Genesis 28:12, “He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”

Genesis 28:13, “And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, ‘I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.’”

Genesis 28:14, “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”

Genesis 28:15, “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Therefore, Jacob is seeking a wife in order to fulfill the Lord’s promise of numerous progeny.

As we noted the excuse that Rebekah gave Isaac for sending away Jacob to her relatives to get a wife was used as a pretext to protect Jacob from Esau.

What originally was the false purpose for Jacob’s journey has become the real purpose of the trip as a result of Jacob encountering the Lord at Bethel.

Also, remember, we saw that in Genesis 28:2-4, Isaac stipulated to Jacob that he was to take a wife from among the daughters of Rebekah’s brother, Laban.

This has become the purpose of Jacob’s trip now that the Lord has appeared to him at Bethel and confirmed his father’s stipulation.

At this point in his life, Jacob is forty years of age.

Genesis 29:1, “Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the sons of the east.”

Jacob finally arrives in the city of Nahor or Paddan Aram in what is now known as northern Syria, which is near the city of Haran and is part of a territory called “Mesopotamia,” which extends east to the Persian Gulf.

The expression “the land of the sons of the east” is a general designation for the territory east of Palestine and suggests both that Jacob is unaware of his precise whereabouts and is in a place of danger.

The expression “Jacob went on his journey” in the Hebrew text literally means, “Jacob lifted up his feet” and is a unique expression, which means, “to put into action (his original journey).”

This expression indicates that Jacob went on his journey encouraged and joyful, after the Lord appeared to him at Bethel and gave him reassuring promises and now confident that the Lord had a plan for his life.

This expression indicates that Jacob had a life changing experience at Bethel where he encountered a vision of elect angels, the preincarnate Christ, receiving promises from Him that revealed the Father’s plan for his life, which was to inherit the promises, privileges, responsibilities and blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant and to carry on the line of Christ.

After his encounter with the Lord at Bethel, Jacob went from being a scared, lonely, isolated individual with doubts about his future to an individual who was courageous, confident about the future and God’s love for him, aware that he is not alone.

His doubts about his future have been replaced by confidence in the future because he has encountered the living God.

I’d like to ask a question of each of you today and that question is this:

Do you know that God loves you and that He has a plan for your life?

There is one single momentous event in history that proves it and that is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Upon a cold Roman cross God showed His love by sacrificing His Son so that we might receive the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:6, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

Romans 5:7, “For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.”

Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:9, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”

Romans 5:10, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Romans 5:11, “And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

God told the nation of Israel that He had a plan for them and He did this through the weeping prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Now, you might be saying to yourself, well mister…you don’t know how much of a wicked sinner that I am but may I say to you…that I’m no better than you.

According to the Bible, we are all sinners in the eyes of God.

Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

The Bible teaches that the entire human race at the moment of physical birth became sinners as the result of Adam’s sin in the garden.

Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

This seems unfair…why did God do this?

Romans 11:32, “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”

Galatians 3:22, “But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

So we are all sinners because of Adam’s sin and because of this we are all qualified for grace and a gift.

When you receive a gift, you don’t work for it, do you?

When you receive a gift, you simply accept.

Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God loves to give gifts and He loves to give to the helpless and hopeless…like you and I and like Jacob!

Grace is for the sick and the weary and for the miserable and the destitute like Jacob.

If you realize that you are a sick sinner and need a Savior, you have come to the right place.

Grace is all that God is free to do for the entire human race because of the Finished Work of Jesus Christ on the cross, which was accomplished through His death as our Substitute.

Jesus Christ is God’s indescribable gift to the human race.

2 Corinthians 9:15, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

God’s plan for all men is that He wants all men to be saved because He loves all men.

1 Timothy 2:4, “God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Once you get saved, God has a fantastic plan laid out for you from eternity past.

God’s plan from eternity past for every believer is that they be conformed to the image of Christ or in other words, that they possessed the character and nature of Christ.

Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Romans 8:29, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”

Romans 8:30, “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who is against us?”

Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

Romans 8:33, “Who will bring a charge against God's elect?

God is the one who justifies.”

Romans 8:34, “who is the one who condemns?

Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

Romans 8:35, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

Romans 8:36, “Just as it is written, ‘FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.’”

Romans 8:37, “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”

Romans 8:38, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers.”

Romans 8:39, “nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

After we get saved, God wants us to grow up to spiritual maturity meaning to become like Christ.

Ephesians 4:15, “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.”

Ephesians 4:16, “from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

We must eat our spiritual food every day in order to grow up to spiritual maturity.

Matthew 4:4, “MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.”

The Word of God gives us the power to become like Christ.

Hebrews 4:12, “The Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and is a critic of thoughts and intents of the heart.”

God promises to complete this work of conforming us to the image of Christ.

Philippians 1:6, “I am confident of this very same thing, namely that, the One (God the Holy Spirit) who began in all of you a good work that is divine in character, will bring it to completion up to the day of Christ who is Jesus.”

God will complete His plan of conforming us into the image of Christ at the rapture of the church when He will give us our resurrection bodies.

Philippians 3:20, “For our citizenship exists from eternity past in the realm of the heavens, out from which also we ourselves at the present time are eagerly anticipating as Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 3:21, “Who will cause our humiliating body to be outwardly transformed to be identical in essence with His glorious body because of the power that will enable Him to marshal all things created to Himself.”