Genesis 28 I. If there be little poetic or romantic charm in the history of Isaac, what a wealth of it there is in that of Jacob! A double deceit, followed by banishment from his country; this expulsion relieved and brightened, first by a glorious vision and then by unexampled prosperity in the str... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 28:10 In his dream Jacob saw three things: I. A way set up between earth and heaven, making a visible connection between the ground on which he slept and the sky. II. The free circulation along that way of great powers and ministering influences. III. He saw God, the supreme directing an... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 28:10 I. Consider the circumstances under which the vision here described was granted to Jacob. He had left his home and was suffering trial and hardship; he was a friendless and unprotected man. II. Look at the nature of his vision. From this glimpse into the secrets of the unseen world,... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 28:10 Jacob makes his brother's hunger an occasion for bargaining with him for his birthright. Esau says, "What profit shall this birthright do to me?" Neither one nor the other knew what good it would do. The vision of something to be realised now or hereafter dawned upon Jacob a vision pr... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 28:11 I. The ladder whose top reached to heaven while its base rested on the earth is the Son of Man who was also the Son of God. If we attempt to approach God otherwise than through the humanity of Christ, utter failure and disappointment shall be the end of our efforts. But the access whi... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 28:11 Sleeping to see. One may be too wide-awake to see. There are things which are hidden from us until we lie down to sleep. Only then do the heavens open and the angels of God disclose themselves. I. It does not follow that God is not because we cannot discern Him, because we are not aw... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 28:12. I. Jesus, the Ladder, connects earth with heaven. II. This ladder comes to sinners. III. God is at the top, speaking kind words down the ladder. IV. Advice to climbers: (1) Be sure to get the right ladder; there are plenty of shams. (2) Take firm hold; you will want both hands. (3... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 28:15 Jacob's life began in moral confusion. There was no great moral flaw, such as we find in the life of David; but there was a want of perfect openness, frankness, generosity, in carrying out his aims. And yet, to such a soul, God in His goodness came and came quietly and comforted him w... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 28:16 At Bethel Jacob gained the knowledge for himself of the real presence of a personal God. He felt that he a person, he a true living being, he a reasonable soul, stood indeed before an infinite but still a true personal being before the Lord Almighty. Then it was that the patriarch ent... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 28:17 I. It must have been the freshness of Jacob's sense of recent sin that made a spot so peaceful and so blessed seem to him a "dreadful" place. Everything takes its character from the conscience. Even a Bethel was awful, and the ladder of angels terrible, to a man who had just been dece... [ Continue Reading ]
Genesis 28:20 Jacob and Esau are very like men that we meet every day commonplace, ordinary men, neither of them distinguished in character or ability. They were children of a weak father and of a crafty mother. Neither of them has any special religiousness. In the case of Esau the sensuous half of... [ Continue Reading ]