Not How You Drive but How You Arrive
God Revealed His Purpose-Genesis 28:10-15
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, 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. 12 He 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. 13 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. 14 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. 15 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.”
The Man Who Finished Strong
If I were going to pick men and women to help carry out an enormous promise, would I choose men who were liars, who were willing to deceive those closest to them, who were self-centered? I think not. However, strangely enough, that’s exactly what God did. He reminds us that His ways are not our ways. He has different reasoning for choosing men and women through whom He would carry out His promise to Abraham. I admit that I don’t understand God’s thinking, but I am so thankful that He did choose imperfect men and women to fulfill His plan. That gives me great hope that God could use even me, an imperfect sinner. Jacob had a deceitful heart. Yet as we study Jacob’ we will see how God used him to carry out His promise to Abraham. Be encouraged that God uses imperfect people and be reminded that our mistakes don’t disqualify us from living by faith and being called faithful.
“Lord, I know I am far from perfect, and I have made many mistakes in my life. Thank you for reminding me that my mistakes do not have to render me unusable. Teach me from Jacob’s life. Encourage my heart as I see how you worked in and through his life.”
Where is Bethel in your life?
Jacob’s Beginning with God
§ God Continues to announce His plan to use certain following believers to fulfill His provision of a Redeemer to make Salvation possible for all who believe.
§ God used an unexpected event to get Jacob’s attention and inform him of His plan for Jacob as His chosen servant.
An Unusual Journey
§ Jacob stopped to rest during this six-hundred-mile journey.
§ God revealed Himself to Jacob in a dream.
He renewed the covenant promise to Jacob and his descendants.
§ God, sometimes, speaks through dreams and other means.
§ God’s primary voice to us is through His Word.
§ God’s Word serves as the test for all truth.
§ God’s approaching Jacob was symbolic of God’s coming to be with His people as seen in the coming of the Messiah.
Jacob Became Aware of God’s Presence
§ Jacob awoke from his dream
§ He was keenly aware of the presence of God.
§ He marked the place with a stone marker.
§ He called the place Bethel.
What were the circumstances that led to the change in Jacob’s Heart?
§ He felt loneliness.
§ His future was in doubt.
§ He was aware of his sin.
§ He feared his brother, Esau.
§ There was a turning point.
§ Jacob had an encounter with God.
God Reveals His Purposes to Those He Chooses
It will be worth it all.
It will be worth it all someday
It will be worth it to go the straight-and-narrow way
When we finally see His face
And feel His warm embrace
It will be worth it all that day
These present troubles don't compare
To all the glory our God has prepared
Cause when we finally see His face
And feel His strong embrace
It will be worth it all that day
And I can hear the Father, As He says well done my good and faithful servant. Well done.
It will be worth it all!
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
