“House of God”
Sermon Title: House of God
Scripture: Genesis 28:1-17 ESV
Introduction
Today’s passage picks up the story after the consequences of the spiritual darkness in Isaac and his family. At the same time, we saw the grace of God that is committed and faithful to His chosen people. You may remember from Isaac’s life that God never condones sin, however, God can still use the messiness of our brokenness to accomplish His perfect will and sometimes He will allow us to make those mistakes and sins so that we may know there is no true solution without God.
This is a truth that follows as the story transitions over to Jacob. In Chapter 28, we begin to see Isaac truly coming around after God broke his spiritual darkness. Things are off to a good start with Isaac calling Jacob and blessing him. Isaac doesn’t scold Jacob but properly blesses Jacob as Jacob, and we see Isaac sending Jacob away to Rebekah’s hometown and instructing him to find a wife from their kin, just as Abraham had done for Isaac all those years ago. Isaac did stumble, but now he is realigned with God’s Will and His Word. Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife from among Rebekah’s family (Genesis 28:1–5).
Jacob’s Blessing
As for Esau, overhearing Isaac’s instructions to Jacob, learns his parents are not happy with his Canaanite wives, and in light of the recent events tries to fix things himself. What we actually see is that he still doesn’t understand the most important thing, and he’s still barking up the wrong tree. He tries to fix the situation by marrying a woman from Ishmael’s family as if that will actually do anything.
Where do we find Jacob? Away, moving farther and farther away from home, further and further away from the land that God had promised to give Abraham’s descendants. Alone, in the middle of some place where there is dirt beneath him as his bed and a stone for a pillow.
Jacob received the blessing, the covenantal blessing of Abraham, passed down to Isaac, and now it was his, but why does it look like Esau is the one with the blessing?
Esau is at home, he has wives, unless Isaac’s opinion about his son has changed he should still be Isaac’s favourite son, he has security, and he still has his possessions. While Jacob is homeless, alone, no one to comfort him, the ground is his bed and a stone for his head, and he has nothing, and he is on the run from his brother who wants to kill him.
If I didn’t know the story and I was just looking at the circumstances, it would seem to me that Esau was the one who is blessed.
When we compare the two brothers at this moment in time, Esau fits more with our expectations of what a blessing should look like. After all, none of us, when we make plans in our life, plan for failure or suffering. We plan things so that our life and whatever we do will lead to success and happiness. No one in their right minds ever plans to make themselves unhappy and miserable in suffering. When we’re in suffering, we’re making plans to get ourselves out of that suffering as fast as possible.
Jacob’s life right now looks anything but a blessing. Esau has everything, but what is the one thing Jacob has that Esau doesn’t?
Jacob has a dream that tells us exactly what Jacob has that Esau does not. He sees a stairway set up on the earth reaching to heaven, with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. The Lord speaks to Jacob, confirms the covenant given to Abraham and Isaac, and promises, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go” (Genesis 28:12–15).
Verse 12 tells us that in his dream he saw a ladder, but a better translation would be a stairway. The ESV which we are using today uses the translation from the Latin Vulgate which translated this word as a ladder. However, a stairway fits the context a little better.
So in this dream, he sees angels going up and down the steps and at the top was God. God establishes the covenant He made with Abraham and Isaac, and verse 15 is the main point:
“I am with you.” (Genesis 28:15)
So what is it that Jacob has that Esau doesn’t? It is God’s Word, His promise that said, “I am with you.” It’s the presence of God.
God says to Jacob I am with you, not I will be with you in the future, but I am with you, I have been with you, whether you realize or not.
The way God speaks to Jacob is like when a father says to his child who’s learning to swim for the first time, “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere, until you’re done swimming.”
This was the moment when God was not the God of his grandfather or his father, but his God.
Jacob wakes from his sleep and realizes that the Lord was in that place even though he did not know it. In awe and fear he calls it the house of God and the gate of heaven (Genesis 28:16–17). Jacob then vows that if God will be with him, keep him on his journey, provide for him, and bring him home in peace, then the Lord shall be his God (Genesis 28:20–21).
Jacob truly begins his relationship with God. He begins a journey of faith that is not simply a faith passed on from his parents, it’s not the culture of his household, it is a genuine relationship and presence of the Lord.
True Blessing
Brothers and sisters, what does God’s blessing look like? What does God’s blessings look like to you? Is it success and achieving all the things you hope for and pray for? Is it where everything in life goes smoothly and happily? Everything being and going the way you hoped?
And while these things are good things that God blesses us with, if those are the only things you see as God’s blessings, then how does that set us apart as God’s people from the world? How do you know that blessing is from the Lord?
There are so many people who worship false gods, there are so many people who live godlessly, and so many people who live as enemies of God and enemies of God’s people who also have all the so-called blessings of health, wealth, and success in all manners of life and happiness. Are you going to say one side is true blessings, while the other is a fluke? How do you know that? How can you tell?
If we were to look at this like an algebra equation where the same things on both sides of the equation cancel out each other, what is left?
Jacob’s reaction is as if he won the lotto, but the reality of his circumstances is that what his blessing looked like was just dirt and stones with nothing in his hands, no home, uncertain future, and being chased by the dangers and worries of the world.
What this means is that God’s blessing was never a matter of what, but who.
God’s covenantal blessing was never about Abraham’s wealth, the number of livestock nor the number of servants he has. It was never about Isaac sowing seeds and reaping a harvest a hundredfold. It was never about Isaac finding water wherever he dug a well.
It was always about what God said:
I AM WITH YOU.
The blessing was always God Himself, His Holy Presence. That was what Jacob had that Esau didn’t. That is what we have, what you have, who you have, in your circumstances, and the world does not.
Christ the House of God
In his dream, the stairway is a place where heaven and earth meet and God’s promise to be with him reveals a truth that what Jacob calls Bethel, which means the house of God, is not a place that is fixed in one place. But what Jacob saw was only a small portion of what is fully revealed to all of us today who have the full revelation.
What do I mean by this?
Jesus tells Nathanael that he will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man (John 1:51).
Here I want you to remember three things: heaven opened; angels of God ascending and descending; and lastly, on the Son of Man.
Now compare that with Jacob’s dream. Jacob sees heaven, the angels of God ascending and descending, and they are going up and down on what? The ladder, the stairway (Genesis 28:12).
What does this mean?
Jesus is the true stairway, the fulfillment of the stairway of Jacob’s dream!
But the apostle John takes it one step further. Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” and John tells us that He was speaking about the temple of His body (John 2:19–21).
Jesus is the true temple of God, He is the true house of God and the fulfillment of the house of God in Jacob’s dream.
But wait, Jacob said one more thing about the dream: he said, this is the gate of heaven!
Jesus says that He is the door, and whoever enters by Him will be saved (John 10:9). He shows us the fulfillment of this gate fully when Jesus says that He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He is the gate, He is the place where heaven and earth meet, and there is no other way to heaven and to the Father, except through Jesus.
And Jacob, though he probably didn’t see Jesus from his dream, was able to see beyond the things and circumstances and see the true blessing in the presence of God.
It is the power of God that turns ordinary things, and ordinary places into a house of God. It is the power of God that turns ordinary sinners into the children of God, ambassadors of God, priests, and builders of God’s Kingdom on the earth.
Brothers and sisters, sometimes the blessing that we receive will not always bring a happy smile to your face. Sometimes, it will look nothing like what you think a blessing should look like. Sometimes it will look as uncomfortable as sleeping on a pile of dirt and stones.
Sometimes the blessing will betray your expectations because we have in our minds a framework for what a blessing should look like and how a blessing should work, because our experiences and our natural way of life is to plan for comfort, peace, and happiness.
And as I said earlier, no one plans from the start to walk into pain and suffering, except for our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
His plan from the start was to walk willingly into pain and suffering, and to His own death, so that He may be the stairway where heaven and earth meet, through which the blessings of God flow into the world through His people, just as God intended.
Conclusion
Brothers and sisters, Jesus is the house of God. What that means for us today is that regardless of where we are, wherever He takes us, wherever and whatever circumstances He may lead us, there Christ will be with you, and so there the house of God will be.
Whether you believe this or not will determine whether or not your response and attitude towards God is that of Jacob, who recognized God’s blessing in a pile of dirt and stones of his circumstances.
In light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in light of our understanding that the blessing is God Himself, we can see that while Jacob may have thought that he’s running away; he was being sent out by God.
In the same way, brothers and sisters, we too have been sent out.
Wherever Christ has called you to be, a student in school, a medical practitioner in the hospital, in the office, in a place of business, or any field of service, there Christ will be with you and that is where the house of God will be.
Therefore, these places are no longer ordinary schools, homes, and workplaces. Through Christ who is the meeting place of heaven and earth, the true Bethel, where you stand becomes a house of God.
Sometimes, our blessings need to look like Jacob’s pile of dirt and stone, so that God will not just be the God of Abraham and Isaac, but He will be the God of Jacob, and He will be the God of Uptown, and He will be your God.
He may not always promise that He will heal you or heal others, He may not always promise to provide and grant you success, but He did promise you the best blessing, to be with you.
But when God is with you, you have everything.
