JACOB'S VISION Gen. 28: 10-22
It is now a proverb among men that “Men’s extremity is God’s opportunity”. When in the midst of the fire and the lions God delivered His Hebrew children. It was while Stephen was being stoned that God opened the heavens before him. It was when John was exile in Patmos that the Revelation came. It was after the sun had set on Jacob’s path that he saw the ladder. The valley of Achor becomes the door of hope.
1) THE WEARY WONDRER:
“He tarried there all night, because the sun was set”. Jacob’s plight was a sad one, as the terrified fugitive he was run for his life. Night overtook him in a “certain place” . These certain place and experiences into which we often run unaware, but places appointed by God where we shall meet with Him. It may be a Christian friend, a church service, and a season of deep affliction. Jacob, like every other self-righteous sinner, was seeking to have success by a life of deceit and unreality. Such a life is a life of misery through constant dread and discovery.
Is the sun of they hoping setting? Is the night of dead and despair gathering around?
2) THE WONDROUS VISION:
“Behold a ladder set up on earth, and the top of it reach to heaven”.
a) THE COURSE: GOD’S GRACE.
This new and heavenly way was revealed to
Jacob, by God Himself. Jesus Himself said, I
Am the way the truth and the life.
.
b) THE VISION:
The ladder reaching from earth to heaven is a picture of Christ Himself. This ladder, like the salvation of Jesus Christ, was set up on the earth. It was a way of excess for man. It’s top reach to heaven. The ladder of Christ Cross did not come short of the very throne of God’s holiness. All man’s ladder’s failed to reach heaven.
c) SALVATION:
Christ as the way to God is:
1) Long enough,
2) Big enough
3) Strong enough.
3)THE GRACIOUS WORD: Vs.13-15.
“Behold the Lord stood above it”
God by the way of the ladder revealed Himself and His will to Jacob. It was a foreshadowing of Christ and it’s reconciliation. The Gospel of God preach to Jacob, offered a threefold blessing:
a) A POSSESION: “The land whereon thy liest, to thee will I give it.” Those who trust Christ, the living ladder, will receive an inheritance among the saint in light.
b) PROTECTION: “I am with thee, and will keep thee”.
At the feet of Jesus this promise is ours, “the Lord, they keeper”
c) PRESSANCE: “I will not leave thee.”
At the foot of the Cross-is the promise of grace sufficient. “I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken”.
4) THE HUMBLE WORSHIPPER:
a) HIS ATTETUDE:
“Jacob awaked and said, surly the Lord is in this place” To those still asleep the Cross-of Christ is but a confused dream; to those awake, it is a “dreadful place” dreadful both to God and man and to the devil. The experience of Jacob at the foot of the ladder has been the experience of many at the foot of the Cross-, and very much in the same order.
I) The Lord is in this place and I new it not” God in Christ, on the Cross and I new it not. What a discovery.
ii) This is a dreadful place, dreadful because it is the place where the awful question of sin has been settled; where the rough of God fell upon the head of His Son.
iii) This is the rough of God, here God dwells in Christ as a hiding place for sinful man.
iv) This is the gate of heaven: The door of axsess into eternal and unfaiding glory.
b) HIS VOW:
” Jacob vowed a vow saying, if God will be with me, … then shall the Lord be my God. Let us make this covenent without the if’s for the promise of grace are unconditional.
Jacob promise a tenth part of his income to God, if God would bless him. Consecration goes deeper down than the tenth, it embraces all. “You are not your own; he are bought with a price: glorified God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s”. Present your body a living sacrifies” Rom.12:1.
5) THE STONE OF WITNESS:Vs.22
It witness to:
i) His need Vs.19.
ii)God supply Vs.20.
iii) His faith vs.21-22.
iv) God’s super abounding grace.
JACOB’S RETURN
Now it is 20 years since Jacob made His covenant at Bethal with the God of all grace. God has blessed him abundantly as Jacob himself said: “With my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands.” The blessings of God is not a passing emotion, but the abiding favour of His presence and power. Therefore, something that cannot fail. As the Word says: “The blessing of God, it maketh rich and addeth no sorrow.”
1. HIS DESPERATION: 7
“Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.” Jacob feared his brother and tarried behind alone.
The fear of man bringeth a snare, but by the mercy of God, Jacob fell into the arms of grace and love. He was alone, now was God’s opportunity to get into close contact with him. Lone souls are fit subjects for the fellowship of heaven. Come ye yourself apart that the Lord may have a better chance of dealing with the innermost thoughts of the heart.
2. DETERMINATION: :24
“There wrestled a man with him.”
When Jacob was alone, the Divine overcomer drew near. All at once Jacob found himself wrestling with God. This sounds so natural. In te pride of our heart, our self-will refuses to bow submissively at the first manifestation of the Divine will, when that will is to deliver us by yielding rather than by self-effort and carnal wisdom. Jacob’s will, like ours, or like some’s, always strives to trick or to supplant the will of God by its own will. Thank the Lord that He does not give up wrestling with us. He knows that the only hope of success as His servant, lies in entire submission to Him.
3. DIVINE REVELATION: : 26,27.
“I will not let Thee go accept Thou bless me …. What is Thy name? (Hoe is jou naam?) And he said, Jacob.”
Now that his strength is broken, the resister becomes the clinger. Tis is the true attitude of blessing, clinging to the overcomer. “A broken and contrite heart, Oh God, Thou wilt not despise.” This submissive and helpless cry of entire dependence, is always sure to bring such an answer as will ever change our character and revolutionize our whole life. Clinging to the pleading Christ is the all-conquering attitude of a conquering soul.
4. DYNAMIC TRANSFORMATION: :28
“Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”
A new name indicates a new nature; the new nature comes not by struggling, but by yielding. The measure of our submission to Christ, will be the measure of our victory for Him. Jacob now graduated from God’s school. He got his PGM-degree – POWER WITH AND WITH MEN. The way to prevail with men is to prevail with God; to way to prevail with God is to cling to Him with a stubborn trust.
5. DEFINITE MANIFESTATION: : 29-31 “…”
No man can remain the same as before, after he has been in the presence of a holy God. The all-surpassing glory of such a moment, is sure to blind the eyes to the sinful pleasures of the world by transforming the inner life. Your appetite changes. Have you come into such a close contact with Jesus by the Holy Spirit, that you can truly say, I have seen God. “As he passed, he halted upon his thigh.” His walk evidenced the fact that he was a conquered man. Does your walk and conversation prove that you are a prince with God by bearing the mark in your life that you are wholly surrendered to God?
7. DELIGHTFUL ELECTRIFICATION: 33:3