Homeless
Jacob
was homeless. The great patriarch of
God’s people, the man after whom the entire nation of Israel would one day be
named, was homeless. Now, that doesn’t
mean you should think of Jacob as a homeless man like you would see in Grand
Junction or Denver: standing on the corner of the street with a sign in his
hand asking for food or money. Jacob
wasn’t begging for handouts exactly. But
Jacob was homeless in a very real way: he did not have a home, he did not have
a job, he did not have any friends with him, he did not have a wife or kids, he
didn’t even have a place to stay the night at the time. He was traveling alone through the countryside
with whatever he could carry. And so one
day as he was moving north on foot a good 50 miles from where he had grown up,
the Bible says that “he stopped for the
night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under
his head and lay down to sleep.”
A stone? Jacob used a stone for a pillow? He didn’t have an extra blanket? Another coat?
Something other than a rock to put under his head? We can’t say for sure, of course, but if
Jacob had to use a stone for a pillow, we could probably assume that he wasn’t
traveling with a whole lot of belongings.
And even if were able to carry quite a bit of camping equipment and food
and the other necessities of a long trip, Jacob’s destination was a place
called Haran, 450 miles away! And so no
matter what he was bringing with him, he was not in the best of situations. Even with good weather and a 20 mile walk per
day, it would still take him the better part of a month to get to where he was
headed without anyone else there to help him on the way.
It Was Jacob’s
Fault
But it
was Jacob’s fault. It was Jacob’s fault
that he was homeless at that point of his life.
It was Jacob’s fault that he was on a 450 mile journey. It was Jacob’s fault that he was traveling
all alone. Because he had just deceived
his own father, tricking Isaac into giving the birthright to him instead of to
his brother Esau. And when Esau found
out about what Jacob had done, he wanted to kill him. And so Jacob had run away. A grown man had to run away from his home
because he did not want to deal with the fallout from his actions. Jacob had disobeyed the Lord by stealing the
birthright that the Lord had promised to give him; Jacob had lied to his
father’s face; Jacob had gone behind the back of his older brother. And so as Jacob lay there that night with a
stone for pillow, he had no one to blame but himself. He was responsible for his actions. And now he had to deal with the consequences.
But it
was at this point in Jacob’s life, after he had just disobeyed the Lord, after
he had just mislead his father, after he had just made his brother so mad that
Esau actually wanted to kill him… it was at this point in Jacob’s life when the
Lord came down to him for the very first time.
Jacob had a dream in which he saw a
stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels
of God were ascending and descending on it.
There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of
your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants
the land on which you are lying. Your
descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the
west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will
be blessed through you and your offspring.
I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring
you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have
promised you.”
A Gentle
Reminder
Jacob
didn’t deserve to have the Lord himself appear to him, of course. Or talk to him in this dream. Or even acknowledge that he existed. Jacob certainly had not been an exemplary
Christian as of late. But maybe that is
why the Lord began his announcement to Jacob like he did: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.” And although the Lord commonly refers to
himself in this way, I’m sure that it struck Jacob a little differently
considering the situation he was in: “I am the God of Abraham. You know, your famous grandfather who would
be very disappointed in your actions right now.
The man to whom I promised this land which you now have to run away from. A man who had his faults, but a man who
certainly never tried to steal things from his own family members. In fact, he was known as a very generous
giver, not a thief. Oh, and I am the God
of Isaac as well. You know, your father
whom you just lied to. An old man who
can’t see anymore and is close to death.
A man whom you will probably never see again because you know full well
that you can’t go home anytime soon. I
am the LORD their God. And you have not only disappointed them; you
have disobeyed me.”
Now the
Lord obviously didn’t say all of these things to Jacob. He simply stated who he was: “I am the LORD,
the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.” But I’m sure that the proclamation of this
name of his Lord was a gentle reminder to Jacob about what he had just done and
why he was lying in the middle of the country with a rock as his pillow in the
first place. And Jacob needed that
gentle reminder. Before he began his new
life up in Haran he had to be reminded about the sin he was trying to leave
behind. Because he had not only let down
his father and his brother; he had let down the one who had promised him so
much, the one who had been with him for so long, the one who had been with his
father and grandfather for the last couple hundred years. Jacob had let this God down. And Jacob needed that pointed out to him.
We need
one of those gentle reminders every so often too, don’t we? We need our own sinful actions and attitudes
pointed out for us from time to time because we just don’t like admitting that
we’re wrong. We usually don’t have to be
beaten over the head with God’s law, of course; and we normally don’t need to
be vehemently reprimanded for our sins before we get the point either. Sometimes it may just be your spouse who has
to give you that “look” or a good friend who doesn’t let you get away with it or
a parent who makes you walk the line or a few simple words of Scripture that you
read or hear or remember that wake you up a bit. Because those gentle reminders often times do
the trick: they help us realize how unchristian we were really acting or how
unloving we were really sounding or how selfish we were really being. And the Lord is good about sending those
gentle reminders our way. Because he
does not want us to overlook our sin. And
he doesn’t want us to overlook our Savior either.
The Lord Comes
Down to Us
And
that’s exactly why he appeared to Jacob.
The Lord didn’t just give him a gentle reminder about the God he had
sinned against; the Lord also reminded him about the God who would always keep
his promises. Isn’t it interesting to
you how gracious the Lord is to Jacob here?
“I will give you and your
descendants the land on which you are lying…
All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your
offspring. I am with you and will watch
over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not
leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” In spite Jacob’s disobedience, the Lord
immediately reassured him with his promises.
He reminded him that this land would one day belong to his
descendants. He repeated his pledge that
all nations on earth would be blessed through him. He guaranteed Jacob that he would never leave
him until all of these things were accomplished. And so although Jacob had just committed some
serious sins, the Lord readily showed him his grace. Because that’s the way our Lord works: he
shows his grace to sinners time and time again regardless of what we end up
doing. He forgives sinners time and time
again regardless of how awful those sins are.
And he comes down to sinners time and time again regardless of how many
times we mess up. And that fact is clear
not only from this entire story in Genesis 28, but also from the stairway in
Jacob’s dream itself.
The stairway, or “Jacob’s ladder” as it is
sometimes called, is an interesting part of this dream that God gives to
Jacob. Angels are going up and down on
this stairway as the Lord himself stands at the top. But notice that this stairway isn’t there for
Jacob to climb up. He is not commanded
nor invited to go up to heaven to meet his Lord. That would be impossible for Jacob to do. No, the stairway was there in that dream to
show Jacob all of the angels that the Lord was sending for him and for rest of
his believers. That stairway was a
symbol of the Lord’s love. It was a sign
of his care and dedication. It was a
visible reminder to Jacob that his God would continue to send his help and his
protection to this earth even after Jacob had messed up. And not only would he keep sending his
angels, one day the Lord himself would even come down. And that’s how this story hints about Christ:
one day he would come down to this
earth.
The Lord
never asks us to come up to him; he always comes down to us. He doesn’t even require us to meet him half
way; he meets us where we are: down in the trenches, surrounded by troubles,
mired in the effects and consequences of sin.
That’s where he meets us: in a manger, in the house of a hated tax collector,
on the side of the road with a pair of skin-diseased outcasts, next to a well
with a promiscuous Samaritan woman, in an olive grove to meet his betrayer, on
the steps of the Roman governor’s palace, up on the hill they once called the
Place of the Skulls. Jesus doesn’t wait
for us to make our way up to him.
Because he knows we can’t. And
even if we could, he knows we wouldn’t.
And so he came down to us. He met
us there when we were homeless. When we
were at fault. When we had a rock under
our heads and didn’t know where to go.
And he gave us the promises of his love.
He reassured us with his grace.
And no matter where our path has led us, he has never left us since.
He Will Always
Be with Us
Just
like he never left Jacob. After the
dream Jacob had about the stairway, he eventually made it to Haran. He married there - a couple times - worked
hard, had 12 sons, and finally made it back to his brother in the Promised
Land. And although Jacob certainly fell
into quite a few more sins throughout his life, all of the promises that the
Lord had given him there at Bethel were fulfilled. The Lord did not let him down no matter how
many times Jacob messed up.
The Lord
will not let us down either. He will
continue to come to us through his Word - whether it is the Word written, the
Word in the waters of baptism, or the Word connected with the body and blood of
the Lord’s Supper - and he will remain faithful to us no matter how many times
we mess up in this life. Because we
will, won’t we? We will inevitably
sin! And we will need that gentle
reminder from our Lord about those sins that we must claim. But the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, will also give us that gentle
reminder about our Savior who came down to forgive us. Through the thick and thin, the ups and
downs, the good and bad, your Lord will not leave. You may disobey him, you may forget about him
and ignore him and lose sight of him from time to time, but the promise he gave
to Jacob that night is the same promise he gives you every night: “I am with
you and will watch over you… I will not leave you until I have done what I have
promised you.” And with those words of
the Lord ringing in our ears, we eagerly wait for the day when he will
physically come down to us again to take us home.
Amen.
“I will not leave
you until I have done what I have promised you.” - Gen. 28:15
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment