Genesis 28:10-22 | Stairway to Heaven

If you have a Bible, go and grab it and turn to the book of Genesis. Genesis is the first book in your Bible. We'll be looking at chapter 28, verses 10 to 22. Last week, we saw Jacob lie to his dad and run for his life. And now in Genesis chapter 28, verses 10 through 22, we pick up right where we left off in the previous story. Genesis chapter 28, verses 10 to 22 says this:

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it. The Lord was standing there beside him, saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying. Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.” Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker. He poured oil on top of it and named the place Bethel, though previously the city was named Luz. Then Jacob made a vow: “If God will be with me and watch over me during this journey I’m making, if he provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safely to my father’s family, then the Lord will be my God. This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God’s house, and I will give to you a tenth of all that you give me.” — Genesis 28:10-22 (CSB)

Let's pray. Lord, we pray even as we set our mind on your word this morning, that you would help us to see supernatural things. Help us to have a view of your glory and in turn to be able to respond in faith. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Jacob's Desperate Situation

Last week, we saw an exhilarating soap opera drama: a son lying to his father, a brother trying to kill another brother. And after this exhilarating chase, comes an anxious crash. Jacob runs away as a rebellious, lying fugitive, lying down in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere between Beersheba and Haran, in the midst of this wilderness, Jacob has nowhere to go. And it's in this ambiguous, dangerous, unfamiliar place that God decides to demonstrate to him his amazing grace.

There are going to be two things that we look at this morning. First, we're going to look at Jacob's view—what he saw in this place. That's going to take up most of the sermon. And second, we'll see how Jacob responds in Jacob's vow. So we'll look at Jacob's view, and we'll look at Jacob's vow.

Jacob's View of God's Promise

Let's start with point number one, Jacob's view. Read with me again from verse 10: “Jacob left Beersheba and went towards Haran. He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place and put it there at his head and lay down in that place.” Jacob's had a chaotic few days, and in this place that Jacob ends up landing in to catch his breath is pretty ambiguous. We don't know much about it. All that we know about this particular place at this point in the story is that it's between where Jacob was from and where Jacob is going. It's on the road. It's a foreign land.

All we know about this place is that it's about as significant as a pit stop that you might make on a road trip. He needs to lie down to rest so that he can continue walking on this journey. So night falls; he grabs a stone from the place, sets it down, he lies down in that place, on this rock. It's a pretty hard pillow to sleep on. And this isn't like a fun camping trip in Joshua Tree. Night descends and Jacob has nowhere safe to set his head. He doesn't even have time when he was running away from his brother to grab the materials to be able to pitch a tent for himself. The only place that he has to lay down his head is a rock.

I wonder if you've ever felt stranded like that. When life sold you a hard bill of goods where you feel like you have nowhere to go. You look at your bank account and it feels about as cushy as a stone that you have to lay your head on. Jacob lies down, not sure whether he's going to be attacked in the evening, whether he's going to be safe through the night. Think about all the worries that may go through your head. It's in this particular evening, in this certain place that God decides to reveal his glory to Jacob.

You can see that in verse 12:

And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it. The Lord was standing there beside him, saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying. Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” — Genesis 28:12-15 (CSB)

This pit stop turns from Union Station into literally heaven on earth. Jacob dreams of this stairway that goes from the ground of this place all the way up to the heavens. Angels are ascending and descending on this stairway, almost like this celestial escalator of angels. They're moving up and down. And it's at this place that God appears to Jacob. It says that God was right next to Jacob. And the promise to Jacob has everything to do with this particular location, this place, this amazing sacred place where angels ascend and descend. And God will give this land, this place to Jacob's children and his offspring. It will be as vast as the people of the earth, and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed. He's promising Jacob a people, a place, and power. The same promise that God gives to Abraham is now being given to Abraham's seed, his offspring. Jacob's going to receive this extraordinary promise for the future.

I mean, think about all the things that Jacob must be going through in this moment right now in this evening: to be stranded out in the wilderness, and to have God give him this extraordinary promise. I mean, that may even feel difficult for a guy like Jacob in his circumstance to believe. I mean, if anything, God has done the opposite of what he said that he will do. I mean, have you ever received a promise that sounded too good to be true? An email letting you know that you are the millionth customer to click on the website? A call from a lawyer letting you know that you've received an extraordinary inheritance that you didn't see coming? A scam caller letting you know that they're holding your grandson hostage? All those things sound pretty unbelievable and the total opposite of what reality offers. What God tells Jacob here is too good to be true. And yet, God goes out of his way with his words to establish his promise to Jacob in three parts.

Three Foundations of God's Promise

Just notice the way that God breaks down this promise that he's giving to Jacob. First, Jacob should believe in the Lord's promises because of who the Lord is. Notice how God introduces himself. He says, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham and Isaac.” Jacob probably heard stories of the Lord's faithfulness from his parents and what his grandparents experienced. He probably heard about them living in Canaan, how the Lord supernaturally provided a child for Abraham and Sarah, how the Lord provided a ram in the place of Isaac, how the Lord provided a spouse for Isaac and Rebekah. That God isn't going to abandon Jacob just because he left the land that God promised. The Lord will be with Jacob wherever he goes. And the reason why Jacob can trust in this God is because this good, almighty God who has demonstrated his faithfulness from generation to generation will be with him. He doesn't bank on Jacob's job performance or Jacob's own abilities. God starts by establishing who he is as he gives his promise to Jacob.

Second, Jacob should believe in the Lord's promises because of what God says he will do. Notice the amount of times that God talks about all the stuff that he's going to do in these verses: “I will give. I am with you. I will watch over you. I will bring you back. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” The expectation for Jacob isn't based on what he brings to the table. It's not based on his own performance. The fact that this promise wasn't even given to him based on whether or not he was doing particularly well. After all, if you read the previous week's story, you know Jacob is a liar, a deceiver, and someone who's running for his life. He's not a great guy. You don't give a promise like this to a fugitive. The reason why God's promises are going to be true for Jacob isn't because of what he's done for the Lord, but because of what God said that he will do for him.

Do you believe that God will act for you? Do you believe that God's capable of doing things to save you? Because if you start to think that it's based on what you can make out of a messy situation, if you start to believe that God helps those who help themselves, you will bear a burden on your shoulders that you were not designed to bear. We believe that we are saved by grace alone. I love what Sinclair Ferguson says about that, that the reason why God saves us is because God loves us, not the other way around. It's not like God hates us until the moment that Christ sheds his blood over us, and then God suddenly flips a coin and starts loving us. It's because God loves us that he sent his Son to save us. It's precisely because of what the Lord will do that Jacob can trust in God's promises.

Third, Jacob should believe in the Lord's promises because of who the Lord is for. These promises are directed towards him specifically. You know, the word that God says the most while he's talking to Jacob is “you.” He says the word “you” 10 times. It's almost as though God, through repetition, is telling Jacob, “I mean it. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to watch over you. I will be with you.” It's like Oprah giving away cars but just to one person over and over and over again. “You're getting blessed. You're getting blessed. You are getting blessed.” Why repeat it that many times? Why be that repetitious? Because our hearts are too prone to doubt God's promises. Doubts are like weeds; they constantly grow up and they need to be plucked out of our heart's garden.

I mean, there's a reason why we respond to good things that happen in life with disbelief, why we call things literally too good to be true. Our reality every day has catechized us into believing that any fairytale promises that we've been given in life will not work out, that we should have contingencies in our mind. Because we've been disappointed time and time again. I mean, in fact, I wonder if you're here this morning doubting whether or not God desires this kind of promise for you. You might not doubt God's promises for Jacob, but you may be wondering whether I am just eisegesizing these promises and extending them down to this room. I mean, after all, we can't just take a Bible passage like this in the Old Testament and then immediately extend it and make a beeline into this auditorium. If we did that, then you may have some other awkward passages in the Old Testament that you would rather not immediately apply to the people in this room.

But friends, this promise in Genesis chapter 28, verses 10 to 22, are for you. If you're in Christ and you're sitting in these pews, the promise that God is giving to Jacob extends to you. And the reason is because of who Jesus is, what Jesus does, and who Jesus is for. In fact, this promise, if we understand it rightly in light of how Jesus understood this promise, you would understand that every single line that God gives to Jacob applies to you this morning.

Jesus, the Stairway to Heaven

First, because of who Jesus is. Jesus is the God-man. He's truly God and truly man. And as God, he is the Lord who promised Jacob all of these blessings. And as man, he is the Son of Abraham, the one through whom all the peoples of the earth would be blessed. John 1 tells us that God became flesh and dwelt among us. And Jesus as the God-man is the tie between heaven and earth. He is the gateway between heaven and earth. In fact, he is the stairway to heaven.

We're looking at this passage tonight, but I want to ask you to turn your Bible to John chapter 1. You'll see Jesus having a conversation as he's calling his disciples. In verse 49, in this section, Nathanael hears from Philip about Jesus being the Messiah. Philip goes and talks to him at this fig tree, and so Nathanael gets up and goes towards Jesus. And Jesus looked at Nathanael and says, “I saw you.” Here's a man with no deceit, and he's shocked. When Jesus says that he saw him under the fig tree, this is what happens in verse 49:

“Rabbi,” Nathanael replied, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!” Jesus responded to him, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” Then he said, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” — John 1:49-51 (CSB)

See, the problem with Nathanael was the same problem that Jacob had. He was limited by his physical sight in such a way that he didn't know what he was actually looking at. His physical eyes could only see what was immediately evident. And even then, he was wowed. In fact, that Jesus saw him, even when Jesus' physical eyes didn't see him, was enough for Nathanael to recognize that this man is a rabbi. And Jesus responds to Nathanael by saying, “I am more than that. I am more than just a teacher. I am literally the Son of Man on whom angels ascend and descend.” He is the God-man. Jesus is referring directly back to Genesis 28 and saying that what Jacob saw with angels ascending and descending on this stairway, “You will see angels ascending and descending on me.”

It's easy to doubt God's promises when you're just fixated on what your eyes can see. But don't trust your senses. Don't fix your eyes on what's around you. Fix your eyes on your Lord, on Jesus, on who he is. Your hope isn't founded on your sight, or your own level of spirituality, or your lack of sinfulness. The only hope that you can have in this life isn't on your competence, but on Christ alone.

But our hope isn't just on who Jesus is. For those of you who are here last Sunday night, that's called representation. It's also based on what Jesus does. Notice the way that Jesus fulfills this amazing promise to God's people. Jesus fulfills this amazing promise by fulfilling this promise that God gives to Jacob, that “all the peoples of the earth will be blessed.” And that indeed happens through Jesus, the Son of Abraham. He does what no one else can by bearing our sins in our place on the cross. Jesus is able to reconcile all things in heaven and on earth. That's what Colossians 1:20 says, that through Christ, God was pleased to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. The reason why you and I have this hope isn't just because of who Jesus is, but what he does. Not based on our own reputation, but because of Christ's reconciliation. By taking the punishment for sin on his shoulders, he gives us peace with God by satisfying God's wrath on the cross. Christ is everything that we need to be able to stand right before a holy God. It's not just that God is promising to do something remarkable for us in the future, but that God has already done the unfathomable work of redemption for us through Jesus' death and resurrection. We're to fix our eyes on Christ, who he is and his saving work on the cross.

But it's not just who Christ is or what Christ does. It's who Christ is for. In Acts 2, Peter stands up right after Pentecost and proclaims the Gospel before thousands of people. And the people who hear it are cut to the heart, and they ask Peter, “What should we do?” And Peter replied:

“Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” — Acts 2:38-39 (CSB)

You know, the scope of what Peter says that this promise is for, “as many as our Lord will call,” for you, for your children, for all who are far off. Even stranded in a certain place, this promise is for you. I don't know if you feel like you're stranded in life. I can tell you that this promise is offered to you this morning. If you're not a Christian, you could be made right with God, not on the basis of anything that you've done, but because of Christ's reconciling work for you on the cross. You can be forgiven of your sin and have a restored relationship with your heavenly Father. And this promise is given to you. What better comfort could you ask for in the midst of the brokenness of this life than to know that the God who gave this promise to Jacob is also with you wherever you go? Matthew 28 says that Jesus says that he is with us until the very end of the age. And Jesus gives us his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to dwell in us. That there's nowhere too far, and there is no place too desolate for God to be absent. That in your pain, God is with you. In your grief, God is with you. Even in your fear, God is with you. The God of all comfort is present with us in every season, in every difficulty, in every place. And God is indeed here in this place, in this story.

Jacob's Vow and Our Response

Let's read again from verse 16. When Jacob awoke from his sleep, “he said, ‘Surely, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.’” Jacob wakes up and his entire perspective has changed. The Lord was there in this place, and he had no idea. I mean, have you ever woken up from a dream that was stressful or overwhelming? This happened to me just like two nights ago. You're set up in this really stressful situation and you're having your own soap opera playing out in this dream world, and you wake up and your face is tense and your forehead is scrunched. You're thinking to yourself, “That wasn't even real.” This is supposed to be restful. By the time you're out of the shower, you've already forgotten everything that you've dreamed about. You use reality and what you can see around you as an anchor to dismiss your dreams away.

See, for Jacob, it's actually the exact opposite. He wakes up and he lets his dream inform his reality. He saw something that he knew that he couldn't see with his physical eyes. “The Lord was in this place, and I didn't know.” And notice how many times Jacob says, “This is, what an awesome place. This is. This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.” He receives this vision of God's glory and he lets that inform his present reality. The rock didn't change. He woke up and it's still a rock. His environment didn't change. He's still running for his life. The only thing that changed was Jacob's perspective. He's given a glimpse into God's infinite, beautiful glory, and he knows that he is standing on holy ground. And if Jacob's promise is for you, and for all who are far off, then that means that the Lord is in this place as well. Because the house of God isn't a landmark building, the way that the Arch is or the Santa Monica Pier. The house of God is the church, the people. 1 Corinthians 3 tells us that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The house of God. Literally where God dwells. You are looking at it right here. And you may look around and think, “This is a pretty pathetic bunch.” But if you could get a glimpse of a spiritual reality that Jacob saw, if we could stare through the crack of our physical world into the spiritual reality of what's happening in this room right now, you would be blinded by the manifold glory of God displayed to the evil princes and principalities of this world. You would find this place, these people, to be infinitely glorious. Because the God that dwells in us loves to radiate his infinite perfections through his church. That's why the hymn writer writes, “How sweet and awful,” not bad, “Aw-filled,” awful, “is the place with Christ within her doors, while everlasting love displays the choicest of her stores.” If you want to see God's glory displayed, look around. This is it.

If that reality's true, if Jacob's view of God's glory in God's place is true, that means that we should also commit to Jacob's vow. Point two, Jacob's vow. Look at verse 18:

Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker. He poured oil on top of it and named the place Bethel, though previously the city was named Luz. Then Jacob made a vow: “If God will be with me and watch over me during this journey I’m making, if he provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safely to my father’s family, then the Lord will be my God. This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God’s house, and I will give to you a tenth of all that you give me.” — Genesis 28:18-22 (CSB)

Jacob wakes up, he takes this stone pillow and he turns it into a stone pillar. He sets it up as a marker, and he makes a vow, “If God really will do all these things that he promised, then the Lord will be my God, and I will follow him.” And you may hear that kind of commitment and think, “If?” “What do you mean, 'If?'” Right, it almost sounds sacrilegious after everything that God promised Jacob, after everything that Jacob saw, for him to throw out a conditional, “If God comes through, then I'll follow him.” But before you judge Jacob, I want you to judge yourself, because that's not what Jacob's actually doing here. Quite the opposite. And it comes through understanding what setting up this stone as a marker means. In 1 Samuel 7, after Israel has victory over a pagan nation, Samuel takes a stone and he does the same thing. He sets it upright. He makes a marker or a pillar, and he says, “The Lord has helped us to this point.” The term for that is an Ebenezer, right? A stone that you've set up. That's what we mean by when we sing “Come Thou Fount,” we talk about raising an Ebenezer. It's the same picture of raising up this stone as a marker, a remembrance, a physical symbol of hope. Not just in light of what the Lord will do, but what the Lord has done.

Jacob isn't setting the stone up to make a deal with God, but to recognize the reality that he saw around him. See, every “if” that Jacob is saying here isn't given in fear or in doubt. He's saying, “if” in anticipation. If indeed, the God of heaven and earth is going to promise me all of these things, then the Lord will be my God. It's like you hearing amazing news and you're saying, “Well, if that's true, everything's about to change.” Because if the Gospel's true, if God's promises will come true, then what other response could you have than to commit yourself to the Lord and build God's house and to give of your resources to him? Is there any other response that would be appropriate than to commit to being God's people in God's place with an offering that reflects God's power and blessing? Because that's what Jacob's doing. He's saying, “The Lord will be my God. This will be the God of my people, my descendants.” He's saying, “I'm going to build God's house here, in this place.” “And I'm going to give a tenth.” In the same way that Abraham gave a tenth of Melchizedek. I'm going to recognize that this blessing comes from God, and in response, I'm going to bless God right back.

See, it's after this onslaught of a blessing from the Lord that Jacob swears his vow to follow God. Because for the first time in his life, he's not dealing with God the same way that he dealt with his brother or with his father. It's not about deception. Jacob switches to reception. Because when you've been given that much grace, when you've been promised that much, when you've received that much goodness in your life, that makes you free to respond. Not with manipulation to get more or to get ahead, not with reluctant obedience. You can respond to God with love. Because he who has been forgiven much loves much. And Jacob's received so much in this moment that out of his abundance, he's able to respond to God's grace with faithful obedience. The same is true for you and I.

If you are blinded to the way that God's at work in your life, if you're fixated on the circumstances of your everyday, earthly, broken realities, you will clutch your purse. You will be stranded by your own doubt and difficulties and despair. And you won't be willing to let anything go because you will fear that you're going to lose everything you have. In order to be able to make Jacob's vow, you need to have Jacob's view. Because if a God is this good, if he's this gracious, if he's this kind and loving, of course you build a house to him out of gratitude. Of course you commit to him to be your God. Of course you'd joyfully give up all of your possessions to the Lord if he's been this good. If there's anything that you're struggling to give up to God, can you possibly outgive the Lord who saved your soul from hell? I mean, can you possibly give anything to God that he has not outmatched in multiples of infinity? How could you not respond to a God like this with joyous love and commitment? I mean, show me a content Christian who really understands the good news of the Gospel and what the Lord's done for him, and I will show you a committed Christian. Because they know that God is with them and cares for them. Because they know that God will provide food to eat and clothing to wear. Because they know that the Lord will bring us safely home.

What empowers a widow to look at her only two coins and to be able to joyfully drop them in the Lord's treasury? Only if she knows that her inheritance is far greater than what she has. If you ever doubt that, if you ever struggle to give something like that up to the Lord, all you have to do is remember your Ebenezer. Your stone that's set up as a marker. You remember the way the Lord has been faithful to you. I mean, think back on all the times in your life where you felt like things weren't going to work out. Hasn't God been faithful? Hasn't God demonstrated time and time again that he will always pull through? Not just in the physical circumstances of your life, think about your own soul and the inheritance that you have, that you get to anticipate for the future. What better news could you receive? What better hope could you possibly meditate on for the future than to know that the Lord is faithful, that he is for you. The Lord God Almighty forgives you of your sins, that he washes you with his righteousness, that you are able to be united with him in heaven forever.

Not just the Ebenezers of all the examples in your own life. Not even the Ebenezer of your own salvation. This stone is special. Did you know that the word for marker here in the Hebrew overlaps with the word for stairway? It's almost like Jacob is setting up this stone as the very first step on the stairway that shoots all the way up to heaven. It's a reminder for him of what he saw in his vision, that this is the base, the foundation from which this stairway is built. And he takes the stone and he anoints it with oil. And you know what the word Messiah means, or Christ means? The Anointed One. And what do you do with a pillar? You set it down on the ground and you prop it up. It's no wonder that our Anointed One was hung on the cross, set in the ground, raised for our justification. Jesus tells Nathanael, “You will see the Son of Man raised up and angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” And it happens at the cross. That on his body, he will unite heaven and earth. Hebrews 10 tells us that we enter the heavenly Holy of Holies through the curtain that is his flesh, and we build the house of God, the church, the temple of the Holy Spirit on this rock, this cornerstone.

Do you believe that this God is with you? That he'll be with you wherever you go. That he will not leave you until he's done what he's promised. Because if you do, you could walk out of this room, knowing that even if everything that you see with your eyes is falling apart, your God will not leave you or forsake you. He will be with you in the same way that he was with Jacob. He will continue to be with you until the day that you are safely home with him. And if you ever doubt, let the Spirit of Christ who dwells in you point you upwards to see the heavens opened and to see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would give us this kind of hope. That you would pierce the darkness of our own doubts with the hope of your word and a true view of your glory. I pray that you would help us to see this vision and to be encouraged that this all-powerful God who demonstrated his love by sending his Son to die for us, continues to be with us. We ask, Lord, that you would continue to be with us until you bring us safely home to be with you again. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.