Pentecost 20 - Genesis 28:10-17

The Two Ways that God Touches Your Emotion

1. Fear that Leads to Respect

2. Faithfulness that Leads to Hope

Genesis 28:10-17 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: "I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 "Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 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 spoken to you." 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." 17 And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!"

We speak of things that touch our emotions. In every circumstance of that kind, there is a catalyst and an effect. The catalyst is that which initiates the action and which evokes the emotion. The effect is the response that we display. If you are touched emotionally, you are not the catalyst. When you feel something because of God – remember that He is the one who is leading the way. He generates the response.

We have to be careful about this because there are also other catalysts that evoke responses – especially when paired with our emotions. Satan can be a catalyst. Our sinful flesh and natural mind outside of faith can cause a reaction. Even those nearest and dearest to us in life can be catalysts that create an effect.

But, how do we truly know we have been touched by God? We stay grounded in His Word. That means we won’t always get the reactions we anticipate. The catalyst determines that. That means not every feeling or intuition (reaction) we have is proper. If you are not the sole arbiter or righteousness and purity in life, then you follow someone who is – that’s where God comes in. Jacob struggled for a long time trying to forge his own path – trying to be his own religious catalyst. He wanted to taste heaven. He wanted to be touched by God – but he was forcing the issue.

·       Being swayed by his mother to steal the birthright from Esau.

·       Lying to his father, Isaac.

·       Running away in shame.

·       Even after this account Jacob continued doing the same thing – had children with servants of both Rachel and Leah.

As Jacob ran away from home, he truly had nothing. The stone he took as a pillow that evening was indicative of his loneliness and desperateness. Part of the LORD’s plan in coming down from heaven to Jacob was to touch him emotionally in a way that would reveal the hollowness of Jacob relying on his own to move forward. Jacob needed a humbling reminder that without the LORD he had nothing of significance in life. And God’s plan worked. Jacob’s first reaction to seeing the stairway with angels was fear. He was afraid of God because God had confronted Jacob directly and revealed the futility of the ways in which Jacob had tried to circumnavigate God’s will and purpose for his life.

God’s magnificent display of power that evening was the catalyst that led to Jacob’s reaction of fear. And hard as it was to endure, Jacob needed that. We do well to wonder in what ways does God act as a catalyst in our lives to wake us up out of the slumber of unbelief and futile living? We’re conditioned to resist change or shame. We can speculate how – it probably differs for each of us. Media, technology, affluence, power and control – they all drive us to ignore the confrontation of reality that exposes our weaknesses and limitations. The world and your own sinful flesh will never run short of ways to suppress the catalyst of God’s righteous law and judgment. We’ve become so accustomed to disregarding inconvenience in life that it even leads us to reject the truth when we don’t like it. Like Jacob, we want to run and hide from the will of God in our lives and seek our own paths instead. We want to make excuses for our infractions against God’s law and portray our lives in a much cheerier way than we deserve.

We need the same humbling reminder that Jacob received that evening. We need to be touched by God in this way. Correction and discipline from God are blessings. We need them in our lives, lest we run away from Him. Fearing God in this way is not a bad thing either. It’s part of every believer’s healthy walk of faith in this world. We should recognize the awesomeness of God in the settings where we see Him in His Word. We should not resist calling Him “Lord” and “Master” and we should not hesitate to believe that His Word alone is the way to life and fulfillment. God touches our emotions in these ways and it’s a necessary part of faith. Beware of ignoring those moments or resisting them because it means the difference between true faith and vain idolatry of the self.

Yet, God tells us that there is so much more to faith than fear – at least the terrifying kind of fear. God also works as a catalyst of mercy to bring us forgiveness to assure us that we have a home in heaven with Him. God exposed Jacob’s futility to present a clearer picture of His grace. So, He does the very same thing with us when the Law exposes our sins – God uses that to help us see even more clearly what Jesus alone could accomplish for us.

In the text, we see this in God’s promise to Jacob. This was no ordinary promise. It carried Messianic implications. This promise was the same one that God first gave to Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham. There are essentially three parts. 1. God would bless Jacob and his descendants with the Promised Land. 2. God would make Jacob’s descendants numerous. 3. and God would bless all nations of the world through Jacob’s seed. This last aspect of the promise is most directly pointed at Jesus, because He was the Seed. This also helps us appreciate the significance of this promise because it even predates Abraham. It was first given to Adam and Eve just moments after they rebelled against God. He assured them as He did to Jacob – the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent’s head.

Other parts of this promise would have a fulfillment in Jacob’s own life. His children would indeed become the 12 tribes of Israel that settled in the land of Canaan. He would have an extremely large family – one could even say as numerous as the dust. But, ultimately, God was pointing to His own Son with these words too. The greater fulfillment of this promise was that in Jesus, people have a place in God’s land. Even the most wicked sinners find grace, healing, and life through Jesus when they follow in repentance and faith. Every individual that believes in Jesus increases the innumerable family of God – the Holy Christian Church. Through Christ’s own fulfillment of God’s promises we too are privileged to count Abraham and Jacob as our family members by faith. We are son’s and daughters of those whom God first delivered these words and we receive an equal share in heaven by the same Mediator of our sins.

Just as Jacob had nothing in himself to claim these blessings, so we have no credit of which to boast in ourselves. This is a product of God’s free and unconditional love.

Jacob rightly felt the effect of fear when God confronted Jacob with His almighty power. Each time we rightly view God’s law in our lives it serves as a catalyst to the same effect – and God uses that as a necessary function of our faith. But He doesn’t leave us in a state of fear. A much greater catalyst is His faithfulness – the completely trustworthy words of promise that He has given to each generation and that remain as strong today as they first were. This work of God doesn’t not produce terror, but comfort. It leads us to respect and worship God. It causes us to come back to His Word often to receive the same good news. In short, it gives us hope.

Jacob did not know in that moment what his life would amount to. He barely knew what the next day would hold. And yet, he was touched in such a way by God that he humbled himself in repentance, but also rejoiced in God’s grace. Jacob took what little he had – that stone which supported his head overnight, and he made an altar of praise to God. He honored God with his words – dedicated that lowly plot of God as “Bethel” – in Hebrew – the house of God. For the first time in his life, as far as we know from Scripture – Jacob didn’t try to figure everything out by himself. His joy and hope in life did not come from what he did. Jacob stopped trying to run from the emotional pain of knowing he had disobeyed God and that he had mistreated those whom God had put in his life to guide his way. For the first time Jacob stopped making these same mistakes, because God touched him with the sting of the Law and the healing of the Gospel. And it woke Jacob up.

You and I walk the same path as Jacob. You don’t have to waste time trying to climb the ladder to heaven yourself. God comes down to you. He connects with you in His Word. He confronts you with the same stark law that exposes your situation. He delivers the very same promises of hope to you in the same words that He gave Adam, Abraham, and Jacob. Don’t discount these treasures and blessings. This is the way of faith. It’s going to be portrayed as an odd and unpleasant way by the world. Your flesh is going to plant seeds of doubt in your mind as to the necessity and effectiveness of your faith. Remember Jacob’s lesson and Jacob’s hope. Trust not in what you carry along the way – for you may find yourself one day with nothing but a stone under your head.

Rather, trust in Jesus as your catalyst. That means He is almighty Lord – standing in full justice and righteousness – condoning no sin. But it also means He is Your Friend and Savior – extending unlimited forgiveness and mercy. Emotionally speaking, God will touch you in different ways. You will feel different effects depending on the circumstance of your life and the status of your faith. But as long as He is in control, you are safe and blessed. Amen.