Scripture: Genesis 28:1-4, 10-22
This is Part 4 of our sermon series, “The Gospel According to the Old Testament.” And I will make three points. Number one: The Power of Prayer. Number Two: God’s Promises. And Number Three: God’s Provision…
Many of you of my generation remember the movie Wayne’s World, about two teenagers who host a low-budget cable-access show. In one scene, Wayne walks into a guitar shop, picks up a guitar, and starts playing the opening riff of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” The clerk immediately stops him and points to a sign on the wall: No “Stairway to Heaven.”
The joke works because every kid with an electric guitar wants to play that riff. And don’t think I wasn’t tempted to ask Kyle for a choral arrangement this morning.
Because today’s scripture is about—believe it or not—a stairway to heaven. Our ESV says “ladder,” following the King James tradition, but most modern translations use “stairway.” The difference isn’t important. What matters is what Jacob sees—and why he sees it.
To understand that, we need the backstory.
Jacob is the younger of fraternal twins. His older brother Esau was entitled to two priceless things: the birthright—a double share of the inheritance—and, more importantly, the covenant blessing tied to God’s promise to Abraham. As far as Isaac knew, Esau was the son through whom God’s saving plan would continue.
But Jacob cheats his brother out of the birthright and deceives his father into giving him the blessing. When Esau realizes what happened, he vows to kill him. Their mother Rebekah hears about it and sends Jacob away under the pretense of finding a proper wife among her relatives in a distant land called Haran.
In reality, she’s trying to save his life and give Esau time to cool down.
So in today’s scripture Jacob is on the run—leaving home, fleeing his brother, carrying guilt and fear with him. But before he leaves, Isaac blesses him again, in verses 3 and 4, reaffirming the covenant promise that I preached about in Part 2 of this series. Isaac’s blessing includes these words:
God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you… May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring…
That’s the moment that sets the stage for what Jacob sees next.
I want to pause for a moment and reflect on this blessing. This is not the main point of my sermon, but I feel very convicted to share it! This is Point Number One, the power of prayer.
Everything that Isaac speaks to Jacob in this blessing comes to pass. Sure, maybe it ends up taking a lot longer than Isaac or Jacob imagines. But isn’t that often the case with the best blessings God has for us? Maybe the road to receiving the blessing will be a lot bumpier and hillier and curvier than either of them imagine. But… the fact remains: God does bless Jacob in precisely the way Isaac asks God to bless him.
And make no mistake: Biblically speaking, a blessing is asking God to do something—even when the “asking” is only implied. So when Isaac says, “May God give the blessing of Abraham to you,” Jacob, the implied prayer is, “God, will you please give the blessing of Abraham to Jacob…”
So a blessing is a kind of prayer… spoken to the person being prayed over. And it’s a kind of prayer that expresses great confidence that God will act on behalf of that person. It’s a kind of prayer with very high expectations about what God can and will do through the prayer.
And when we look at the course of Jacob’s life—when we see that every part of this blessing is fulfilled, when we see the way God carried Jacob through danger and hardship—we must conclude that God chose to deliver his promises and work in powerful ways, on Jacob’s behalf, through the spoken words of this blessing. God chose to do powerful things through this blessing.
This may be hard for us to comprehend. Because you and I don’t typically think of blessings as anything more than fond wishes for someone! Remember that great Irish blessing? “May the road rise to meet you,/ May the wind be always at your back…” All we usually mean by these words is, “I hope you have a safe trip.”
God’s people in scripture had a much higher view of the meaning of a “blessing.” Otherwise why on earth would Rebekah and Jacob—in the previous chapter of Genesis—have worked so tirelessly and gone to such great lengths to secure the blessing from Isaac. And why was Esau so absolutely heartbroken, so murderously angry, that he didn’t get the blessing?
You can read the previous chapter: When Isaac tells him he blessed Jacob instead, Esau doesn’t say, “Whatever, Dad. Those words aren’t going to affect my life one way or another.”
No! Esau wants to murder his brother because he understands that through this blessing—through this special prayer of Isaac’s—Jacob will be receiving some life-changing—even world-changing, eternity-changing—benefit that Esau himself will miss out on!
Here’s a question to consider: If God wanted Jacob—not Esau—to receive the covenant blessing, why didn’t God just make it happen directly? He already told Rebekah before the twins were born. So why involve Isaac at all? Why use a human middleman? Why have that middleman speak these words to Jacob? Why wouldn’t God simply speak to Jacob himself and say, “You are the one,” and tell Esau, “I’m choosing your brother”?
I don’t know… Except scripture shows us, again and again, that God really wants to do mighty things through the prayers of his people.
Take Genesis 20. Abraham, for the second time, lies about Sarah—tells people Sarah is his sister, not his wife. A king named Abimelech takes her into his household to marry her. Until God comes to Abimelech in a dream and says, “You are a dead man because of the woman you have taken.” A plague falls on his house. Abimelech protests: “I didn’t know! I acted in integrity!” And God agrees.
Then comes the astonishing part. God tells him: “Return the man’s wife… for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live.”
Think about that. God is already speaking directly to Abimelech. God could simply say, “Return her, and I’ll heal you.” But he doesn’t. God chooses to heal through Abraham’s prayer. And verse 17 says only after Abraham prays are they restored.
God doesn’t need to work this way. But he chooses to. The truth is, God often accomplishes through prayer what he will not accomplish without prayer.
Do we believe prayer can change our lives and change our world? Do we pray like we believe that? Do we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ like we believe that? Do we seek their prayers for us like we believe those prayers make a difference?
[Reflection on Romans 15:30-31. See journaling Bible. Paul is asking these believers in Rome to pray as if Paul’s life depended on it… because it did.]
I spent six years serving a small-town First Methodist church before coming here. On paper it had around 700 members. On a typical Sunday, about 180 were in worship. Some had moved away or passed on, of course. Some were homebound, and I visited them regularly. But there were many able-bodied people who rarely came to church at all—maybe Christmas and Easter—yet still considered themselves members in good standing.
And I found myself grieving that reality. It’s like, somewhere along the line people’s expectations had shrunk. Church had become something optional. The prayers of God’s people in church had become something peripheral. People learned to live as if what happens when God’s people gather doesn’t really matter.
But it does. Among other things, when we aren’t present, we aren’t there to pray for our brothers and sisters who need us. We aren’t there to be prayed for. We aren’t there to lift up the needs of the community we’re trying to reach with the gospel. We quietly start expecting less from prayer… which is exactly the same as saying, we start to expect less from Almighty God.
O Lord, let us at Five Forks Methodist be people who believe you do mighty things when your people gather to pray. We need to be praying for one another. And I hope it goes without saying: I need your prayers.
Especially in light of our recent staff transitions, many of you have reached out to tell me you’re lifting me up in prayer. You don’t know what that means to me. I don’t take your prayers for granted. I need them!
And that’s what we all need!
And good news—we’re seeing powerful things happen among us as we pray.
I’ve got to tell you about our brother Mark Gray. I share this with Mark and Liz’s permission. Many of you know Mark has been battling pancreatic cancer. A couple of weeks ago he went to Charleston for an extremely delicate surgery to remove a large tumor. The risks were high. There were a lot of unknowns. The surgeons warned him they might even have to stop once they got in there, depending on what they found.
But Mark had the surgery… and I visited him after he came home. He was overflowing with joy. Everything about this operation turned out to be the best-case scenario. The mass was removed completely. No complications. It didn’t even take as long as expected.
So when I visited him before the snowstorm last weekend, the doctors were hopeful—but we were still waiting on pathology.
Then last Thursday came the call: the pathology report was clear. Negative lymph nodes. Negative margins.
Praise God!
So why did the surgery go so well? And why did the results land on the far edge of the most hopeful predictions? We give God the glory. We believe he chose to show Mark mercy—and we also believe he invited us to participate through prayer. Mark and Liz prayed. Their church family prayed. Friends prayed. And God answered in a way that fills us with gratitude.
And listen carefully… Sometimes, as we know from experience, God shows loved ones his mercy by taking them home to be with Jesus. If one belongs to Christ, every prayer for healing is answered with an emphatic “yes”—sometimes in this life, sometimes in the life to come. That is not a lesser mercy. That is not a failed prayer.
But the fact remains: God often chooses to bring healing on this side of eternity through the prayers of his people. And in Mark’s case, that’s what we’re celebrating. We praise him for it.
So, with all this in mind, Five Forks Methodist… let’s keep praying boldly… and expecting God to act powerfully. Not because prayer guarantees the outcomes we want, but because God wants us to participate with him in his mighty work—and the primary way we do that is through prayer.
I want us at Five Forks Methodist to have high expectations for what God will accomplish when his people in this church pray.
In fact, you may have noticed we have tables set up behind that curtain asking you to participate in our church’s prayer ministry and other ministries of care. Prayer is at the center of each of these ministries. Please… after the service… go look and see how God would have you serve in these ministry areas.
And that’s Point Number One, the power of prayer.
Point Number Two: God’s promises…
Before today’s scripture, Jacob is a mess—a scheming, swindling, manipulating, lying, cheating mess. Hardly the obvious candidate for “beloved Bible hero.”
So we might assume that once God appears to him—once Jacob sees the stairway to heaven and hears God promise to be with him, protect him, prosper him, and bring him safely home—surely now Jacob gets his act together.
But not so fast.
Look closely at God’s promises in verses 13 to 15. Notice they are unconditional. God does not say, “If you do this… then I’ll bless you.” He says, in effect: I am going to do these things for you. No strings attached.
Which is good news, because Jacob’s response to God’s unconditional promises is, to say the least, disappointing. In verses 20 to 22 Jacob says: “If God will be with me… if he will keep me… if he will provide for me… then the Lord shall be my God.”
If, if, if…
God says: I will.
Jacob says: If you do… then I will.
Jacob attaches strings to his obedience. God attaches none to his promises.
And yet—God keeps every promise he makes.
I’m not suggesting that Jacob doesn’t grow in his faith over time. By all means, he does become more faithful, more sanctified. But God’s love, God’s faithfulness, and God’s covenant promises never depend on that growth. They rest on God’s character, not Jacob’s performance.
And brothers and sisters, if we are in Christ, the same is true for us.
Some of you came to faith a long time ago. Back then you were on fire for the Lord. You knew God loved you, forgave you, adopted you into his family, and nothing could separate you from his love. You got off to a strong start!
But that was years ago. Since then there have been failures, faults, sins, disappointments. And now you’re tempted to think: God must surely be tired of me now. I’ve let him down so many times! I shouldn’t expect anything from him anymore.
It even affects your prayer life. You don’t ask God to do anything bold… on your behalf… because who are you… just a lousy sinner.
If you feel that way, hear this: you are not worse than our dear brother Jacob. And God kept every promise he made to him—every single one.
If God keeps his promises to a mess like Jacob, why would you doubt he’ll keep his promises to you?
That’s what grace looks like. God’s promises are gifts of grace! And that’s Point Number Two…
And this is Point Number Three: God’s provision: What has God given us in and through his Son Jesus Christ? In other words, where do we see the gospel in today’s scripture?
Back in John chapter 1, one of Jesus’ disciples, Nathanael—also known as Bartholomew—places his faith in Jesus after Jesus reveals something to him that only God could know. Nathanael says, “You’re the one! You’re the Son of God!” And Jesus responds, in so many words, “You believe because of that? You ain’t seen anything yet!” Then John 1:51: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”[1]
Jesus is directly referencing today’s scripture. Except the angels aren’t climbing a stairway anymore. They’re ascending and descending on him.
In other words, Jesus is saying: I am the stairway that Jacob saw.
Think about that…
Every religion in the world offers some version of a “stairway to heaven.” Follow these steps. Meet these requirements. Obey these laws. The Five Pillars of Islam. The Eightfold Path of Buddhism. Even many people who call themselves Christians quietly believe in their own good works more than they believe in Christ.
But Jesus doesn’t say, “Here are the steps you must climb.” He says, “I am the steps.”
He doesn’t say, “Be perfect and you’ll reach heaven.” He says, “I’ll be perfect for you.”
He doesn’t say, “I’ll show you the way.” He says, “I am the way.”
Jesus lived the life of perfect obedience Jacob could not live—and you and I cannot live. He died the death sinners deserve to die. The stairway Jacob saw ultimately points to the cross of Christ: heaven and earth joined together in Jesus.
That stairway is open to anyone who confesses Christ as Lord and believes God raised him from the dead. And if there’s someone here today who needs to take that step, today is the day of salvation. Don’t assume you have unlimited time. None of us does.
But for those of us who already belong to Christ, listen again to Jacob’s words:
“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
Jacob speaks these words, please notice, while wide awake. The vision is gone. The angels are gone. The stairway is gone… so far as he can see. All that remains is a pile of rocks in the middle of nowhere.
Jacob is homeless. Broke. One preacher points out that he uses a stone for a pillow because he obviously doesn’t even have a knapsack or a bundle of clothes with him. Otherwise he would use those soft things as a pillow. He’s on the run from a brother who wants him dead. Nothing about his circumstances looks hopeful.
Except one thing: “Surely the Lord is in this place.”
Not “was”… is… At this very moment… staring at this pile of rocks in the middle of the of nowhere… running for his life… The Lord is even in this place.
Jacob realizes that even in this barren, frightening place, God is present. And suddenly the pile of rocks becomes the gate of heaven—not because the scenery changed, but because Jacob sees reality differently.
We Christians have something even greater than Jacob had. The New Testament teaches not only that the Lord is with us, but that Christ dwells within us through the Holy Spirit. As Ephesians says, Christ makes his home in our hearts through faith.[2]
Which means whatever you’re facing right now—illness, financial strain, addiction, depression, family fracture, divorce, grief, fear—it may feel just as barren as Jacob’s desert.
But listen… Whatever problem you happen to be facing, I invite you—and me—to ask ourselves this question: How differently would we feel about this problem if Jesus Christ himself, at this moment, walked up beside us, put his arm around us, and said, “I’m right here with you. I know all about what you’re facing. I love you more than you can imagine. I’ve got all the power to solve this problem. So trust me: we’re going to figure this out. We’re going to get through this. Okay? And on the other side of this problem, when I, by my power, have come through with a solution, I guarantee it is going to be glorious. Even this pile of rocks will become something glorious! Just wait and see! And trust me in the meantime.”
If Jesus Christ did that, wouldn’t that make all the difference?
Wouldn’t it make all the difference to realize, despite what you see with your eyes, “The Lord is in this place, and I didn’t even know it!”
Jacob discovered that the Lord was already there. And the same is true for us. Even when we don’t see it.
And because Christ is with us—even within us—no place is godforsaken,
no future is hopeless,
and no pile of rocks is beyond redemption.
[1] John 1:51 ESV
[2] Paraphrase of Ephesians 3:17