Assurance Amidst Turmoil || Genesis 28:5-15 || Session 46 || Verse by Verse Bible Study

What can the sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau teach us about God's covenant and our own life's journey? This verse by verse Bible study episode delves into the relationships and choices that define the lives of these Biblical brothers, with a close look at Genesis 28. We explore Jacob's journey to Paddan Aram under the shadow of his deceit and Esau's rebellious response to his parents' disapproval of Canaanite wives. Unpacking these dynamics sheds light on how God’s promises unfold through Jacob's lineage despite the turmoil. Join us on this journey through Genesis and discover the profound truths about faith, grace, and God's promises.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:19

Hello and welcome. My name is Glenn and I'm here with Steve. We are Reasoning Through the Bible Today. If you have your copy of the Word of God, turn to Genesis, chapter 28. We have these two brothers, jacob and Esau.

Speaker 1 0:31

Jacob has tricked his brother into selling him his birthright and then later he deceived his father, isaac, into getting a blessing on top of the birthright that rightfully belonged to his older brother. Esau, with this, god's hand of providence is working through this, but we have this anger and frustration and resentment that's going on within this family because of the deception and the scheming and favoritism in between the father and the mother and the two brothers. It's a dysfunctional family but nevertheless, god is going to work through this. But we're going to see our man, jacob here, take some actions over the course of the next several chapters, where he's going to learn a very hard lesson. He's going to learn what happens when you deceive people and he's going to learn that you can't really get away with sin because it's going to come back to bite them.

Speaker 1 1:28

The common phrasing that we have today is what goes around comes around. But in the Bible it talks about the law of sowing and reaping and Jacob is going to reap what he sows. We're going to start today in Genesis, chapter 28, starting in verse five. Steve, if you could start there and read down to verse 9.

Speaker 2 1:47

Then Isaac sent Jacob away and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob, and Esau. Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram to take for himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he charged him saying you shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan, and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father, isaac and Esau went to Ishmael and married, besides the wives that he had, mahaloth, the daughter of Mishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth.

Speaker 1 2:33

Esau knew that Isaac didn't want his sons to marry Canaanites. We talked about this earlier, that Canaanites were very ungodly people. Later, in the Old Testament, we learned just how ungodly they are. They were very terrible in their practices and the purpose for not marrying the Canaanites was to make sure that they married a godly woman and not a woman of these very, very evil Canaanites. Both Esau and the Ishmaelites were showing no indication of respecting God's covenant with Abraham. Remember Esau? He had already had two wives that were Hittites. If I remember correctly, that was back in Genesis, chapter 26, verse 34. When we look at this, Steve, when we look at this Steve, Jacob goes off to Rebekah's brother's area and Esau sees that his parents don't want the brother to marry from the Canaanites, so he goes off and marries an Ishmaelite. Before we get into the specifics of that, what emotions do you think were going through?

Speaker 2 3:49

Esau's mind at this point. I think that possibly he's seeing Jacob, his brother, who he thinks stole his birthright, even though he didn't Esau sold his birthright and that just recently took his blessing, which Esau really didn't have a right to. The blessing he sees now Jacob is obeying his parents is what the text says here. It looks to me that Esau is a little bit jealous of Jacob. Jacob is receiving the birthright and the blessing and he's doing what the parents are telling him to do the blessing and he's doing what the parents are telling him to do. And it seems to me that, when we look at the text, that Esau is experiencing a little bit of jealousy of his brother Jacob.

Speaker 1 4:34

So let me just read part of 8 and 9 again here. It says so. Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father, isaac, and Esau went to Ishmael and married there, and this was again besides the Hittite women that he had. So if we were to ask ourselves what was Esau trying to do when he married the daughters of Ishmael, it's not completely crystal clear whether he's so angry that he's trying to get back at his father or is he trying to please his father Because he's not marrying a Canaanite. But who is he marrying?

Speaker 2 5:14

He's marrying from the Ishmaelites I kind of lean towards he's trying to get back at his father because he sees that Jacob was obeying the parents by going back to the relatives to Rebecca's brother. If Esau was going to try and please his father and his mother, it would seem to me that he would do the same thing and go to that area. But he doesn't. He goes to a different area.

Speaker 1 5:39

He goes to the Ishmaelites to the Ishmaelites what the motivation between Isaac and Rebecca was that Jacob would marry a godly woman, not the ones of the Canaanites. All Esau saw was that, oh, he don't want me to marry a Canaanite, so he goes off and marries somebody that's also not a godly tribe. Whatever the motivation, he's still acting in a fleshly manner. He's not marrying a godly woman. That's the issue here. It's sort of like okay, they don't want me to marry a Canaanite, I'll go over and marry somebody just as bad. It kind of makes you wonder Esau, dude, let's go follow the Lord and marry a godly woman. God's promise when he went through Isaac to Jacob, not through Ishmael or Esau. This is what the rest of the book's going to follow. We have to remember what's going on in this family dynamic because it plays out in the whole entire last half of the book of Genesis. Next, remember where Jacob is. He's just deceived his brother. The brother Esau is ready to murder Jacob. He's very angry at him. So the mother says go off to where my brother Laban lives and go there until Esau cools off. Jacob at this point is running from his very capable brother. As he is escaping, he meets God in this next section of what is commonly called Jacob's Ladder. I'll go ahead and read that. I'm starting in 2810.

Speaker 1 7:09

Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went towards Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set, and he took one of the stones of that place and put it under his head and lay down in that place. He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven. And behold, the angel of God were ascending and descending on it. 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. 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. 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.

Encountering God in Times of Despair

Speaker 1 8:12

Keep in mind again Jacob is running from Esau, because he just defrauded him of this blessing and he's afraid of what Esau will do. So he's likely very scared, likely very lonely, maybe homesick. He travels a long way. He must have left rather suddenly, because no mention of a tent here. He didn't have a bedroll. He's sleeping on a rock for a pillow and only the cold ground to sleep on. He must have felt bad. This is a low point for Jacob. First question have we ever been to a place where we're discouraged, we're feeling bad, we feel alone, we feel like there's danger out there? I'm in a very, very low spot in my life and God shows up to encourage you. Have you ever been in a spot like?

Speaker 2 9:05

that this happens after he's received the blessing. He's got the birthright, he's received the blessing, Yet he's caused this turmoil in the family or at least his mother did, coming up with these schemes. Now his brother is wanting to kill him. He's being told you got to leave, yeah, you're going to go get a wife. But behind the scenes his mother said you got to do it because your brother's wanting to kill you.

Speaker 2 9:30

It's quite often that we see after a period of victory that there's some depression that comes with it or getting to a place of a low spot. Elijah did it after the scene at Carmel where God came down and consumed and the battle there with all the other pagan priests. He was in a low spot, we saw, with a lot after being saved from Sodom and the riches that he had, he was in a cave. Now we see kind of a similar thing here with Jacob. He's at this low spot, but then God does come in and encourage him. God comes and encourages Elijah. God does seem to come in when people reach these low spots and give them encouragement.

Speaker 1 10:13

God is most likely to show up when we are at our lowest point and need him the most. That's when God shows up. Notice here as is the pattern with Isaac and the pattern with Abraham, it's also happening with Jacob. God shows up, and it's not the case that they were out seeking God. Jacob is just at a really low spot. He's running from his brother that's trying to kill him. He's going to a place he's never been. He's probably homesick. He's at a low point, and that's when God shows up, is when we need him the most. My friend, if you're in a really low spot, reach out to God. He will show up. He is giving you this message today because he knows that you need him, giving you this message today because he knows that you need him With this. This is the place, right here in this chapter, where Jacob meets God and God gives him this message. But this is where he meets God. We can drive a stake in the ground, because later he's going to go through a lot of travels. He's going to go through many, many different things that he has to do in his life. Later in the book of Genesis, he's going to come back to this exact spot and he's going to meet with God again.

Speaker 1 11:24

The lesson here is that all of us should have a point in time where we can point to it and say, right there, that's the spot where I met with God. We all should have a place where we can drive a stake in the ground and say, right there, that was the time where I got right with God. We should not just assume we're right with God. We need to get serious about it and there needs to be a point in time where we say, okay, I am going to give myself fully and wholly and completely to God and I'm going to listen to everything that he says. That's the point that we meet with God. He's going to give myself fully and wholly and completely to God and I'm going to listen to everything that he says. That's the point that we meet with God.

Speaker 1 12:03

He's going to name this place Bethel, and we all need to have a Bethel. We all need to have a place where we say, right there, that's when I got right with God. And, my friend, if you've not had a Bethel, if you've not had a place, a time in your life when you've intentionally, purposely, got right with God, then now's the time. Don't take another step. Don't take another day without it. We should ask ourselves whether I'm just playing with God and playing religion, or whether I have truly met him. That's what happens here. He truly meets God. He had heard about God, but he didn't meet him until Jacob's ladder. Jacob met with God, but he's going to wander a bit before he comes back and meets him again. With this we have this dream of Jacob's ladder. Before we get into the specifics of what's in the dream, steve, how careful should we be today about this idea of getting messages from God in dreams? Does God speak to us in dreams today?

Speaker 2 13:06

When we see these events that happen in Scripture, we should pay attention to who the characters are, and they're here in Scripture to highlight God working with people that he has chosen for specific purposes, with Jacob. He's in the lineage of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, and God is coming to each one of these individuals, reassuring them and reconfirming the covenant that he's given to them. They're special events and special people that God is using. Does God always work through dreams? No, he's doing it with special events here in scripture, and we shouldn't take from that that that's how he always works with people. Now, can God come to people in dreams? Yes, it's possible, but in his general statement, the question is what special thing, what special purpose is it that God is utilizing for the person?

Speaker 2 14:10

There are people that claim that God comes to them in dreams. What you should look at is what purpose do they then go with? Are the things that they go with is it congruent with what scripture says, or is it some new thing that is not godly and not adherent to what scripture says? If it is the latter, then you can trust that who they saw in their dream is not God. It's another spirit, and that's how you can test whether or not they've had this vision. In general, though, I think we're past the time whenever God works with special people through coming to them in dreams.

Speaker 1 14:52

The wisest advice I can give about getting messages out of dreams is to be extremely cautious and just a little bit skeptical that it's real. We live in a day when I've heard a lot of testimony in recent years of Muslims coming to be Christians to follow Jesus Christ because of dreams that they've had. It's not isolated cases. You hear about enough of these, to where, okay, it sure seems like God is reaching out because you hear these independent stories, and so I'm not going to question whether God's capable of reaching out to people. He's powerful enough. He can communicate in any way he wants. If somebody tells me that they've gotten a message from God out of a dream, I'm not going to question whether God's capable of doing that. What I am going to do is say exactly what you were saying, steve, is that we need to take any message we get, even from this alive human being in front of us, or whether it's from a dream or a vision, or an angel appears or any of these kind of things. We need to take that and compare it to the written Word of God and see if it lines up. Remember, I believe it's Galatians, am I right, steve?

Speaker 1 16:06

Chapter 1, the Apostle Paul says if we or an angel from heaven give you a message that's different than the one we've already given you, let him be accursed. And he repeats it in the very next verse. Let me say again, and he repeats it again If we meaning the apostles that were still alive at the time or an angel from heaven, so if we see a vision, the word of God's already told us. If we see a vision or a dream and it's contrary to what has already been passed down to us by the apostles, we need to reject it. That's why I just say be very cautious, because the human mind is capable of deceiving ourselves. We just need to be quite careful. Now let's look at what's taught here in this actual vision. He has this dream. The vision of Jacob's ladder In verses 13, 14, 15 is the message in the vision. What does God promise Jacob in this vision? Starts in verse 13. What does God promise him in verse?

Speaker 2 17:12

13? It's the same three things that he has promised to Abraham and Isaac. First he says the land on which you lie, that I'm going to give this to you. Your descendants there in 14 are going to be like the dust of the earth and are going to spread out to all the corners of the land. Here and in you and your descendants at the latter part of 14, all the families of the earth will be blessed. That's the same three things that he originally told Abraham. He confirmed with Isaac. Now he's confirming it with Jacob.

Speaker 1 17:44

Then he goes on in verse 15, and God tells Jacob here, I will keep you and I will bring you back to the land. He says there quote I will not leave you until I have done what I promised. I find this very comforting. Remember the state of mind that Jacob's in. Jacob is running from his murderous, angry brother and he's away from everything he had grown up around. He's lonely, he's sleeping on the ground. God comes in and gives him these hugely important promises, but he wraps it up at the end by saying I'm going to keep you. He says comforting words. He says I will not leave you until I have done what I promised. I'm going to bring you back to the land. I'm going to do it Once again.

God's Unconditional Promises and Everlasting Presence

Speaker 1 18:32

This is God making a unilateral promise to somebody that has just done a sin, that has just disobeyed God by stealing his brother's blessing, even though he disobeyed God comes in and says I will do these things. I'm going to give you the land. Your descendants are going to be blessed. I'm going to make a great nation through things. I'm going to give you the land. Your descendants are going to be blessed. I'm going to make a great nation through you. I'm going to bring you back to the land and I will do what I promised. The fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant is once again we mentioned this every time it comes up. It's a unilateral, unconditional promise by God to bring these things about. Unilateral, unconditional promise by God to bring these things about. It is not conditioned on Israel's obedience because he just disobeyed. Nevertheless, he comes in and promises them all three parts of the Abrahamic covenant, the exact same promise that he made to Abraham and Steve. I just find this amazing.

Speaker 2 19:28

And God coming and affirming this to Abraham, isaac and Jacob. You can't take anything out of it other than what you just got through saying it's a purpose that there's three times that God comes and says it not just once, but he says it three times to three people. It's just amazing to me how as many times that this is said throughout the book of Genesis that people want to just throw it away because of something that happens centuries later with a group of leadership of the nation of Israel.

Speaker 1 20:03

Was there anything in here that Jacob did that deserved God's special visit?

Speaker 2 20:11

No, no other than he is in the lineage of what God had promised to Abraham and Isaac. That's really the only thing, Did he?

Speaker 1 20:19

do anything that earned God's favor? No, he did not. Is there anything that we have done where we earned God's favor, because we've gotten God's favor of having this opportunity of salvation given to us? Did we earn that? Were we good enough? Did we deserve it?

Speaker 2 20:37

No, we didn't. We're fortunate enough, though, that if we believe and have faith in Jesus Christ, in God, that we can have the salvation, but it's a unilateral promise on his part that says if you believe and have faith, then you can have eternal life.

Speaker 1 20:54

God gave a unilateral, unconditional, unearned promise to Abraham. He gave it again to Isaac. He gave it again to Jacob right here. None of them earned it, but nevertheless God says I will bring these things about. It is very similar with our Christian salvation in the church age. God gives us a wonderful gift of salvation and we didn't earn it, we didn't work for it. All we have to do is receive it. That's the great glory of our God. He gets all the credit. God showed his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, christ died for us Romans 5.8. And it also says in the New Testament we love because he first loved us. Says that in 1 John 4.19. So just like Jacob didn't earn and didn't deserve this Abrahamic covenant put on him, we don't deserve our salvation that he puts on us.

Speaker 1 21:51

God made the same covenant with Abraham and he's repeating it now here. God promised the land to national Israel forever and he'll keep his promises. He repeats it even after they disobey. He promised that unconditionally. I will do these things. The land promise to ethnic Israel is still in place today. It depends on God alone to keep it and he will fulfill His promise. Israel has a place in future prophecy. Now it doesn't mean that they're saved. It doesn't mean they're right with God. It doesn't mean they have salvation in a New Testament sense. It just means they're going to get the land God has promised them. That, of course, we'll deal with the specifics of that when we get to the book of Romans in the New Testament. Moving on in this passage, god says I will bring you back to the land. He says I'm going to do it because I promised it. Who is responsible for keeping that? Steve?

Speaker 2 22:49

God is responsible for keeping it, because that's what he says. I will be with you and I'm going to do this. I will, I will, I promise I'm going to bring you back. Everything is dependent on God bringing it about.

Speaker 1 23:03

He not only gave this promise to Jacob, he says I'm going to keep it. So if we continue that into the church age, who is responsible for keeping the church?

Speaker 2 23:16

Jesus is responsible for keeping the church. He tells Peter, upon his confession of who he was, he's going to build his church. It's him building the church. He's the one that keeps it together. Paul later in his epistle says that Christ is the head of the body that's known as the church.

Speaker 1 23:37

What analogy did Jesus give over? In the New Testament was the shepherd and the sheep. Who's responsible for keeping the sheep? Who goes out when?

Speaker 2 23:44

one of the sheep gets lost. Jesus goes out to find that lost sheep.

Speaker 1 23:48

Just like here in Jacob, he goes to this man that had just sinned and says I'm going to give you this great promise oh yeah, by the way, I'm going to keep it, because I promised Same thing in the church age. He has given us the gift of the church. He has brought us in and given us this wonderful gift of salvation. He's responsible for keeping it. So, just like Jacob, he didn't get the gift because he was good enough and he can't keep the gift because of trying to work hard enough to keep it.

Speaker 1 24:19

We're going to see he's going to still mess up. So God doesn't turn his back on him because of one sin. Likewise, with us, he's not going to turn his back on his saved New Testament church just because we mess up. Now. That doesn't give us a license to sin, but it tells us that I can rest in Christ. I don't have to go through life worried about whether or not I'm really saved or worried about whether or not I'm good enough to be part of God's family. I give you assurance you're not good enough to be part of God's family, and neither am I, but it's a good thing that our salvation rests in His promise and not on my ability to keep it.

Speaker 2 25:03

That is such a powerful message, Glenn. I encourage our audience to go listen to the series that we did on Colossians. The study in Colossians Paul talks about being in Christ and what you get by being in Christ, and either in Christ or out of Christ. That's really the conclusion that comes from Colossians is that you can go and enjoy your Christian life. That's what we should be doing is enjoying our Christian life, not worrying about whether or not we're going to heaven. If we're truly believers and we truly have faith, I believe that God lets us know that we have salvation. I think it's the inner part of the natural man that keeps questioning whether or not we have the salvation. I think through that it robs us of being able just to relax and live the Christian life. Go, do the things that God wants us to do.

Resting in God's Promises

Speaker 1 25:59

Let me read it again because it's so comforting. The last part of Genesis 28, 15 is the Lord God saying I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. Those are such comforting words. And this isn't the only place in the Bible he says this. Deuteronomy 31, verses 6 and 8, he says the same thing I will not leave you. He says that to Israel Over in Joshua 1, 5,. He says I will not leave you to Joshua In Hebrews 13, 5,. He quotes Deuteronomy 31, telling it to the church I will not leave you. John 14.18,. I will not leave you as orphans. Matthew 28.20,. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Steve, do we get the message that I am not responsible for working hard enough to keep my salvation? All I'm going to do is get tired when I can really rest in the glory that he's the one keeping my salvation.

Speaker 2 27:01

It's a powerful message that we just need to embrace so that we can be freed from this burden that we put on ourselves.

Speaker 1 27:10

God promised Jacob to bring him home and he'll promise you and I to bring us home. But we're going to stop here for today on that wonderful note. That's a high mountain experience. Jacob was in a low point in his life where he needed that high mountain experience, and God gave it to him. I hope these words have comforted you. We're going to be back here next time, reasoning through the Bible, and we trust that you'll be back here with us as well.

Speaker 2 27:35

Thank you so much for watching and listening and, as always, may God bless you.