Jacob’s Dream
Sweet Dreams • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro
Intro
Never part with your illusions. Without dreams you may continue to exist, but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain
Sweet Dreams - Mysteries Revealed. There are many biblical characters who have received special dreams from God, dreams capable of revealing the divine plan for them.
Although most of the dreams we have are simply dreams, something empty and vain:
They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.
Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night.
As we will see through this series of sermons, it can happen that God uses dreams as a tool to guide His children, encourage them, give them a new purpose:
For God does speak—now one way, now another— though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds,
The Scriptures present us with a personal God, close, willing to use any means, even a dream, to reach His children, to reveal Himself to them, to interrupt their nightmares and give them a dream, a new purpose, a new mission.
Thanks to this series of sermons we will also notice how God reaches everyone through dreams: great kings, evil deceivers, youngs and olds. Everyone will receive a dream from God.
However, we must have balance and not run after dreams:
“I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’
Today the Lord speaks and reveals Himself to us first of all through His Word.
The story of Jacob. In order to fully understand the meaning of the first dream, we must know better the recipient of the dream.
Son of Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob was on the run because he had deceitfully appropriated his brother Esau's birthright and the resulting blessing.
Jacob’s name means “conniver, manipulator, deceiver.”
Edward E. Hindson
Jacob's problem is the problem of many today: seeking happiness and not justice.
Be more concerned to be right than to be happy.
“The Time Of Jacob’s Trouble”, Volume 45, Sermon #2645 - Jeremiah 30:7
Charles Spurgeon
This selfish pursuit of happiness had led Jacob to betray, lie, simulate, manipulate, causing pain to others. A destroyed life, which had destroyed other lives.
Meeting God. Jacob, the deceiver, meets God, the Redeemer—and his life is completely and irreversibly changed.
Kurt Strassner
Sermon's outline. There will be at least five more occasions when God will reveal himself to Jacob, but today I wish to consider the dream of "Jacob's ladder."
His Nearness;
His Protection;
The Reciprocity;
The Belonging.
N.1 - God’s Nearness
N.1 - God’s Nearness
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
God was with Jacob. A fugitive, alone, far from his home, Jacob finds himself in the deepest solitude, in an unknown place.
But it is precisely in that remote place that he discovers how close God is to him.
It is no coincidence that in the dream, in addition to the ladder that unites, connects the earth with the sky, God was present:
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.
At that time there was a belief that gods were territorial, relegated to their place: the god of the mountain, the god of the river, etc.
Through this dream, the Lord makes Jacob understand that He did not remain in the tents with Isaac and Rebecca, but that God was in that unknown place with Jacob.
Moses will declare that God is close to His people in a special way:
What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?
Application. This sign reminds us all how close God is to us, participant in human events, not indifferent or distracted but a God present in our lives.
Jesus interprets the sign. In the entire New Testament only Jesus speaks of this dream and gives us the interpretation:
He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
The good news is that God is no longer above the ladder, but even closer: Jesus himself is the ladder!
You are wondering how you ended up so far from home, so distant from the plans you had for your life, and you are convinced that it is impossible for God to reach you in the remote place where you are... Wrong!
God, through the merits of Jesus, is close to you:
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
His circumference is nowhere, but his centre is everywhere.
God’s Nearness To Us, Volume 33, Sermon #1973
Charles Spurgeon
God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
N.2 - God’s Protection
N.2 - God’s Protection
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.”
A stone is not enough. Jacob was running away from his brother Esau.
Esau was not only angry with Jacob:
Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
Because of this, during the night, every noise for Jacob represented a threat: "maybe it is Esau..."
That is why Jacob uses a stone as a pillow: he could have access to a weapon to defend himself.
Application. Even today, there are many who have made their anger and fear weapons to defend themselves, and on these uncomfortable stones they try to sleep.
But God appeared to Jacob and in the dream promised him divine protection.
The Lord renews His promise of protection on your life.
You do not need any stone to defend yourself, you do not need to rest on your anger and on your 'resentment, because God is your defense.
Interestingly, after the dream that stone is transformed into an altar: the pillow stone has now become a pillar stone, what was a weapon on which Jacob had shed tears of pain and remorse, has become an altar on which the oil of thanksgiving is poured (Genesis 28:18).
God tells you to leave the stones. Like the apostle John we want to rest our heads on the chest of Christ, because He is the only one capable of defending us.
1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Protection, Divine
The story has been told of a believer, Frederick Nolan, who was fleeing from his enemies during a time of persecution in North Africa. Pursued by them over hill and valley with no place to hide, he fell exhausted into a wayside cave, expecting his enemies to find him soon. Awaiting his death, he saw a spider weaving a web. Within minutes, the little bug had woven a beautiful web across the mouth of the cave. The pursuers arrived and wondered if Nolan was hiding there, but on seeing the unbroken and unmangled piece of art, thought it impossible for him to have entered the cave without dismantling the web. And so they went on. Having escaped, Nolan burst out and exclaimed:
“Where God is, a spider’s web is like a wall,
Where God is not, a wall is like a spider’s web.”
N.3 - The Reciprocity
N.3 - The Reciprocity
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.
Angels ascend and descend. In Jacob's dream, in addition to the ladder and God, we note intense angelic activity: these divine agents ascended and descended on the ladder.
Meaning that there was not only the offering that ascended toward God, but also the blessing that descended toward the earth, toward Jacob.
Application. This aspect of the dream emphasizes to Jacob, and also to us, that our relationship with God must be based on this blessed reciprocity.
In fact, Christian life is not only based on serving God (making angels ascend toward God), but also receiving from God (the angels descending toward Jacob).
Balance is essential in Christian life. Many are engaged in serving God without allowing the Lord to pour out His blessing on them: this is religious activism.
Others, however, only pretend to receive from God. They approach that "ladder", they go to Christ only to receive, without recognizing that Christian life is not only receiving, but also giving, donating!
Illustration: "God is good, all the time " (x2).
N.4 - The Belonging
N.4 - The Belonging
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.
The God of Jacob? When God presents Himself to Jacob He highlights two important aspects:
Jacob does not yet belong to God. Abraham and Isaac belong to God, but not Jacob.
No matter how close Jacob was to his grandfather and father, the Lord does not list his name yet.
Application. It does not matter what your relationship is with the disciples of Christ. You can be the husband, the son, the parent of a believer, but this does not guarantee that you belong to God.
I hope today, all of us can say: "the Lord is my God".
Jacob can also belong to God. Being the God of Abraham and Isaac is one thing, being the God of Jacob is another story.
Yet even a disloyal, cheater and manipulator like Jacob was, could belong to God.
Application. Maybe you think that belonging to God is something that concerns good people, religious people, those who are predisposed to be good, but not for you.
You have convinced yourself that the Lord can be the God of people like Abraham, Isaac, but not of a Jacob like you.
And yet, this is the extraordinary news: the God we serve can also be the God of Jacob.
When for the first time God is experienced by Moses, this is how he presents himself:
Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
A holy reaction. Jacob built an altar and he did it right away.
My prayer is that you too may raise your prayer to God, your offering to the Lord, recognizing that God is near to you, ready to protect your life.
