Genesis 28:1-22

God rewards obedience.  God’s greatest reward is Himself.  These are principles that we would all do well to remember.  God seeks for obedient men and women to who He can reveal Himself and bless in ways that exceed our imagination.  Jacob begins to understand this principle in the passage before us today:

JACOB HEARS THE VOICE OF HIS PARENTS:  Rebekah was greatly distressed by the wives of Esau and did not want Jacob to marry a wife from the land of Canaan.  Like Abraham she knew the importance of a spouse who would not influence towards idolatry and pagan practices that were so common in the land.  She wanted a wife for her son from her own family so that Jacob’s family would be the influence on her and not the other way around.  For all of the faults that we can see in Jacob’s life and character, one quality that we can admire is his obedience to his parents.  I am sure that Jacob had many opportunities to marry young ladies from the area as Esau had done, but Jacob listened to the advice of his parents and obeyed.  Interestingly Esau becomes jealous of his parents approval and decides to take a third wife from the daughters of Ishmael, Abraham’s other son.  I find it ironic that he thought he could make up for his original sin by committing more sin.  This is the condition of men who are blinded by their own sin.  They have an amazing ability to rationalize their own sinful behavior in what is almost always absurd.  Obedience opens our hearts to God while disobedience blinds our hearts to God.  

JACOB RECEIVES A VISION FROM GOD: As Jacob goes on his journey he stops to sleep on a stone and while he sleeps God appears to him in a vision.  God repeats to Jacob the same promises that He had made to both Abraham and Isaac.  He was given the promise of the land surrounding him the promise of a great nation through his descendants and the promise of great blessings. Jacob is awestruck by God’s appearance to him and does just what is expected in this situation; he falls on his face to worship.  Jacob builds an altar and considers the ground where God appeared to him as sacred.  God is so gracious to appear to Jacob personally and confirm with him the promises that had been made to his father and grandfather.  Jacob may have heard much about the promise, but that is far different than hearing it from God.  I think that the important issue to note here is that Jacob needed to have his own relationship with God and not simply rest on the experiences of his parents.  God does not have grandchildren so it is important for every person to trust Christ personally and not simply trust in the faith of their fathers.

JACOB MAKES A VOW TO GOD: As Jacob is leaving the land of promise he vows to God that if God will bring him back safely into the land and fulfill the promises that had been made to him that He would worship God alone.  I really don’t like conditional vows very much, but Jacob is honest and vows that he would worship God alone if God would prove Himself faithful to His word.  Jacob has trusted in his own schemes for a very long time so now he finds himself needing to trust God.  God has certainly proved Himself faithful to us over and over again.  He deserves all of our loyalty, service and worship.