Jacob - Gods Unchanging Grace - Genesis 25 - Sermon 2 of 5 — Roy Hession

Jacob Flees Esau and Receives Isaac’s Blessing

Chapter 27, verse 41. And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then will I slay my brother Jacob.

And these words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. And she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said unto him, Behold thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. And arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran, and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away. A few days. It turned out to be twenty years.

Until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him. Esau had a longer memory than she thought. Then I will send and fetch thee from thence. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?

And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do to me?

And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother.

And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people. And give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee, and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.

And Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Paddan-aram unto Laban, son of Bethuel, the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob and Esau's mother. And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Heron.

Did so, I'm sure, with a heavy heart, homesick, unhappy, feeling somewhat guilty about the whole situation which had occasioned his journey. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set.

And he took the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord, God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed, and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south.

And in thee, and in thy seed, which is Christ, shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places, whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I was spoken to thee of.

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel, which means the house of God.

But the name of that city was called Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I will go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God.

And this stone which I set up for a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. As I've been contemplating the whole range of the biography of this man, which is before us, and all the things related to it, I'm embarrassed with the wealth of deep messages that there are embedded for us in it.

In fact, one can hardly deal with them all. I think in the early part of this story, there's a word for parents, for us parents, a word for Isaacs. For although Isaac knew that God had chosen the younger son to have the supremacy over the elder one, he was nonetheless bet on putting his choice on Esau, and passing on the coveted blessing, and with it the promise that Messiah would come to the eldest.

It's a great word of how this man was really flying in the face of the plan which he really knew deep down. It's really a story, if you like, one part of it, of Isaac being broken. He was. He agreed with God eventually.

But God had to bring it to pass by overruling the wrong thing that Jacob did. And why did Isaac set his heart on Esau rather than Jacob, the man whom he knew God had chosen? Why, simply because he did eat of his son's venison.

Parents Taking Sides With God

I believe there's a word for us parents. I believe we are called to take sides with God, sometimes against our nearest and dearest. It doesn't mean we're to be hard or forever nagging. When I thought that this was the lesson here, when I said I don't know some of us need this too much.

We're too hard, can be too censorious, and yet not all of us may be falling into that danger. We may be falling into the other one. Of not in our spirit, at least, if in no other way, taking sides with God against, if necessary, a darling son.

Or daughter, who's going the world's way and rebelling against God. We may take it easy. We may say, well, they're not so bad. And I don't believe God's likely to answer our prayers until, in spirit at least, we take God's aspect of the matter and see that darling son or daughter as one who's rebelling against the will of their God.

And sometimes we are in danger of doing this because, like Esau, there's something about them that attracts us. They're doing so well in their A-levels at the university. They're so good at sport. They made such a nice match.

They're getting on so well in their career. It's right to be pleased. It's right, in a sense, to have, well, a right pride, not a pride that makes you feel yours are better than others, you're gratified, and yet how easy it is for that fact to make us go easy in our attitude to their, perhaps, rebellion against the Lord.

It's very easy, of course, to act carnally. But, oh, it's easy to lose our vision. Because we eat of our son's venison, we may get a little reflected glory. And I have to challenge my own heart about this in my own family.

How easy I find it is to lose my vision for my own child, son. Because there's so much about him that I appreciate and like and feel glad about. Well, I just give you that. It needs balancing. What a terrible thing if someone said, now that gives me the right to charge in.

My dear friends, God's got another word for us. All these things are so beautifully balanced in scripture. And then Rebecca's could find a word here. Mothers who have a right ambition for their children.

An ambition which perhaps is in line with the purpose of God as Rebecca's was. And the child concerned is ready for it too. And yet how easy it is for a Rebecca to scheme and push and want her child to go forward and go ahead of God and involve their son or daughter in things that grieve the Lord.

What a terrible phrase that is in the book of Kings or Chronicles about one of the mothers of those ancient kings of Israel. His mother was his counselor to do wickedly. And Rebecca was. But what did she want?

She wanted what she knew God had promised. But she was no more prepared to wait God's time than Jacob was. And she was as culpable as Jacob was. And then here's a word for Esau. Before we even think of Jacob, the real message of Esau is brought out in Hebrews 12, 15.

Esau’s Birthright and the Danger of Profanity

And what a word it is, we can hardly pass it over even though we're mainly concerned with Jacob. Looking diligently, lest there be among you any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. It's so easy to be an Esau. For a young person really to be an Esau.

Living only for the things of time and sense. And not aware of the fact that they have a wonderful birthright. And not only older people, all of us. You know, as a member of that race for which God gave his son at Calvary, you and I have a wonderful birthright.

It's my birthright to have my sin forgiven. It's my birthright to walk with Jesus. It's my birthright as a member of that race for which Jesus bled, one day to stand with him in glory. But the things of time and sense can become much more precious to us and attractive to us than our birthright.

And it's possible to barter our birthright for what is nothing more than a morsel of meat. The passage in Hebrew suggests one thing for which we can do this, lest there be any fornicator or profane person.

That's what he had in mind. Of course, we can barter our birthright for all sorts of things. But he's thinking of fornication. How completely contemporary this is. For one fleeting bit of pleasure, I can wreck everything and forfeit so much.

I believe this is basically the problem with so many of us. Whenever there's a spirit of rebellion amongst young people or any age, do you know what I think is the bottom? Sex. Why must I be in at a certain hour?

Why must I do this? And my observation is that in every case that I've observed, sex is the problem. And what we all need, young and old, is not only self-surrender, but sex-surrender to Jesus. To put this thing into those dear loving hands who can work it out so much better for us than we can.

We can afford to let him have it. We can afford to give up our rebellion. We don't have to grab at these things. Theory, we won't have anything at all. The one who made us knows our nature. And he knows how to adequately and wonderfully, in his own way and time, to provide for that side too.

But Esau must have that plate of lentil soup. And he was ready to part with that precious birthright. In his case, it was a spiritual thing. He was the one who normally would conduct the family worship.

The head of the eldest son did that. He acted as a family priest. And he was to know that from his line would one day come the Messiah. But it didn't mean a thing to Esau. A plate of soup was more important to him than that.

And we read, you know, how that after, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. The birthright was a spiritual thing. And therefore of little interest to a man like Esau. But the blessing was a material thing.

It conferred on the one who had it, the major portion of the goods. And he wanted that. But God saw to it. I know it wasn't right of what Jacob did. But God overruled it. God saw to it that if he despised his birthright, then he would forfeit his blessing.

And he wept over it. We may not want Jesus. We may not want to come really back to him and walk with him. Other things are more important to us. Oh, but there are some things we want. If there's prosperity in life, we want that.

If there's happiness in life, we want that. And if there should be a heaven, if that's really so, then we want that too. But God has ordained, if we despise our birthright, the Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to forfeit that blessing.

Instead of happiness, problems and misery. Instead of that prosperity that God's planned for us, dear knows what may be the lot of that one. And instead of standing side by side in glory, cast out into outer darkness.

You know that when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. Though he sought it carefully with tears. For he found no place of repentance. What does that mean? Did it mean he wanted to repent and couldn't?

No, no. To repent means to change your mind. He couldn't get Isaac to change his mind. Isaac saw what had happened. I break. Jacob's blessed and he shall be blessed. I can't reverse it. And do what Esau might, he couldn't get his father to repent.

And I won't be able to get God to repent of this great edict. No Christ. No crown. No Jesus. None of the obvious sweetnesses in life and beyond life that go with him. But whereas he won't repent, I can.

And the wonderful thing is when I do, at whatever late hour, in spite of everything I may have forfeited, everything I may have involved myself in, grace flows like a river, not only to forgive but to unmask the mess and give me back that birthright which I despise.

Repentance, Grace, and Recovering What Was Lost

What a word there is here then. For any of us. I find that in my life I can be an Esau, not over the initial, the fact of my initial salvation, but over many another thing. And I have an opportunity on this, on that occasion, either to have something more from Jesus or to indulge myself along some time, some life.

The Lord's had to show me that time which he was calling me to spend with him, I wanted to spend on something lower, devoting it to some earthly interest of some personal interest, some hobby or something.

And I've had to repent that in that case at least, in some measure, I sold that precious birthright of that new something Jesus was giving me for something less. So it's got a word for us Esau's. May the Lord interpret it to us.

God’s Call to Jacob at Bethel

Our chief concern, of course, is with Jacob. If you go through the story carefully, and I've been through it, I see there are six occasions when the Lord, when Jehovah, appeared to Jacob. I suppose that would be one way in treating the story.

I've been puzzled to know how it is. You had six mornings, you take the six appearances. You've only got five. In any case, it didn't quite seem to be the way. Now we read this morning of the first appearance of God to Jacob.

Oh, he knew that there was this promise concerning him, but there'd be no personal face-to-face revelation of God to him until it was given him at Bethel. God had got his choice of Jacob. He's made his plans of Jacob, but only now does he call him.

And that, of course, fits in with that verse we were looking at, Romans 8, 29 yesterday. Whom he did foreknow, then he did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his son, and whom he did predestinate, then in due course he called.

And at Bethel is the time when God called Jacob in the here and now. But he did so, as he does with us, in pursuance of a choice and a sweet plan that was already in his heart. Now the thing that I want to emphasize here is, when did God appear on this first time to Jacob?

I know it was at Bethel, but in a later chapter we get a little, the thing put in its setting. Genesis 35, verse 1. This is years later. He's on his way back from Laban. And this is the fourth appearance, by the way, of God to Jacob.

And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. When did God appear to him?

When did God make himself known to him? In the day that he fled from the face of Esau his brother. In the day when he got himself into a jam, purely as a result of his own wrongdoing. The absolute grace of it, here it is, unchanging grace.

Grace That Meets Us in Our Guilt

The fact that Jacob has done what he has, made an enemy of Esau, and now having to flee. Why, God chose that particular time, the time perhaps of his greatest culpability, to make this wonderful, gracious revelation of himself to him.

And as you read it, did you not notice how gracious it was? How uncalled for, how unexpected. That's grace. Undeserved, uncalled for, unexpected. There's no word of reproof at this particular stage as to what Jacob's done.

God doesn't take a stick to him. He doesn't deal with him about it. He just reveals himself as the one who's chosen him, and has got a glorious plan for him. The things you would expect to have been spoken about, that's going to come later.

Actually, the trade that God will have to deal with very deeply, has only just begun to appear. It's got to work itself out far more fully, and he's got to be involved perhaps in far more difficulties before God can deal with the essential thing that's wrong with him.

But he begins right there in grace, making himself known. And it's the same with us. So often the time when God chooses to bring his son to us in a living way, is the time when we're in a jam. And when, if we're willing to admit it, we're the cause of it.

Sometimes in the hour of our greatest culpability. And yet, the revelation he makes to us is not that of the big stick. It isn't always of tremendous conviction of sin about it. Oh yes, there is a measure.

And perhaps things have got to be put right, that has got us into that jam. But the basic trade that's caused it all, God leaves for the moment so often. He knows we couldn't bear it. I'm sure Gordon Bolt, who's working in the kitchen, won't mind me alluding to his testimony.

As we heard him give his testimony at the barbecue, on the tape, he was just amazed at this amazing, delightful peace he'd got. These arms of love that had found him. It was later he had to see what had to be done about his past.

But I'm sure God, with him and with us, he's got further things to show. But he keeps that fact sometimes at the beginning. He's come to reach a sinner. To embrace that one and make himself known. Did you notice that hymn we sang?

Come not to find, but make this heart a temple worthy of thee as thou art. He doesn't come to find us worthy. He comes to make us such. And he may not be in all that hurry. Indeed, he's got to allow some of the things in us to work themselves out far more.

Until he can really deal with us and change us. And make the temple worthy of him as he ought to be. And so here he is. He takes Jacob as he is. And oh, how gracious Jesus is. He takes me, he begins with me as I am.

With great gentleness. And he knows that only love can win me. Only grace can soften me. And so he begins with Jacob as he is. In this time of greatest darkness and culpability. And absolutely overwhelms him.

But he's much to do with this man. And he will. But always in mercy and always in grace. Now I want you to look for a moment at the thing which Jacob had done. We haven't read the story of him getting the blessing.

And stealing, getting the birthright and stealing the blessing. It's so familiar. But we do need to look at it again. You know, we just take it for granted. Well, perhaps the taking, the getting of the birthright wasn't such a dirty trick.

After all, I don't suppose Esau ever really wanted the thing. I believe he was often missing when family prayers should have been conducted. And I think there were many occasions when Jacob had to deputize for him.

And in any case, what profit shall this birthright do to me? This is much more important, a plate of fine steaming lentil soup. And perhaps it wasn't such a dirty trick that Jacob did. But on the other hand, it was all this old Jacob nature.

He needn't have done it, had he really known. God was on his side. God had got things planned. But maybe Esau didn't have too much to complain about that. Oh, but that other trick. I wonder if you see what a dirty trick it was.

As viewed through Esau's eyes. He was the eldest. And his father wanted to confer on him the final blessing, which would be to make him lord over his brethren, and to confer upon him the major portion of the goods.

And of course he wanted that. And with great eagerness he goes off to hunt the denizens. And he's delighted, he's got it. Only to find that his brother has dressed up as him, has dissembled and got that blessing from his father by deceit.

And what perhaps was the horridest thing of the lot was him to discover that his own mother had been a party to it. Is it any wonder that Esau hated Jacob and said, when my father's dead and the morning's over, I'm going to have my own back on that man.

Please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast wind it in either direction. Is it any wonder that Esau hated Jacob and said, when my father's dead and the morning's over, I'm going to have my own back on that man.

Unbelief, Self-Protection, and the Loss of Grace

And so it was he fled from the face of his brother Esau. And yet it wasn't just straight, if I may put it, the regular sin, the real sinfulness of it was unbelief as we've seen. And as I said yesterday, the sins of the saints that bring us into trouble with other people are not always what I would call straight, down the line, regular sin.

There's so much sometimes we think is good, we can't afford to be too generous to such a person. And we tighten up on them. And we insist on our rights, after all rights are rights. And we're so concerned about that, we don't really see what we're doing through the eyes of another, not through the eyes of Jesus.

So lacking in caring, so lacking in grace. Oh, I've done this myself. I'm so prone to this concern for oneself, for one's rights. Can't afford this, we shouldn't do this. And we treat another person other than in the same spirit of grace that Jesus has treated us.

We know all the time, I'm an heir of the promises, I could afford to let go of my rights. I don't think we can ever see the wrong of what Jacob did unless we compare him with his grandfather Abraham. It's then you see, was there ever a man who by faith afforded, saw he could afford to give up his rights.

When there was a question of a choice of the land, when Lot was to go, this man let Lot, his nephew, have first pick and he chose the best as it seemed. He said, I can afford, I'm God's man, he'll choose for me.

And sure enough afterwards, God said to Abraham, Abraham, the whole lot's going to be yours one day. Abraham chose, do you know what he did? He chose not to choose, but leave it to God. Not so Jacob, either before he met the Lord or after.

And not so me all too often. You can only see how wrong Jacob was in comparison to perhaps Abraham. Someone suggested to me the other day, David. Was there ever a man who let God do it? He perceived that the Lord had anointed him to be king.

When he got there, by no means of his own. On two occasions, he only got to let his spear drop and his foe would have been dead, Saul. He said, God forbid that I should raise my hand against the Lord, he's anointed me, I never asked to be anointed, it's up to him.

Or there were moments when he nearly took vengeance as against Nabal the fool, you remember him. But he didn't. God held him back. So you see how wrong Jacob was, how wrong we are in the light of those men that God helped to go this way.

But of course, even Abraham only learnt these lessons by failure. But that's another study in itself, is it not? And so here's this man. And you may be in the same problem. Maybe there's something, got something against you.

I may be an Esau, back home, in your church, in your job. That's a Christian, look at that. But was it I wanted to act in a way contrary to the Spirit of Christ? No, I didn't see I could afford to let go.

I thought there was no other option but to fight back or to strike or to look after number one. Both Jacob and ourselves have acted in a way unworthy of an heir of the prophecy. And so here he is. In the day that he fled from his brother Esau, that was the day, if you please, when sleeping in that lonely spot with nothing more comfortable than a stone for a pillow, he had this amazing dream.

Jesus Christ as Jacob’s Ladder

And this dream's important, very important, for Jacob and even for us. For the Lord Jesus points us in the New Testament back to that dream and says it's a picture of himself.

If you like to look, John chapter 1, verse 51.

He says to Nathanael, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open. And the angels of God ascending and descending on whom? The Son of Man. That ladder, I believe in the Hebrew it's more correctly that staircase that linked earth to heaven.

The miserable, unhappy Jacob with God is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us of the perpetual nearness of God to man, of heaven to earth, and that in the most unlikely places when we least deserve it.

So that we say, the Lord's in this place, in this situation. And I knew it not. And if you're in a difficulty, a problem, with other people maybe, and you put the wrong foot forward, that's what's happened if you were honest enough and I have so often.

And here I am in this situation, unhappy situation. Things have gone wrong. Do you know the Lord is in that situation? And we knew it not. Did you know it from that very place? There's a ladder, there's a staircase that leads to God and to heaven and to every sweetness that we need.

And the ladder, the staircase is the Lord Jesus Christ. Just look at the features of this lovely dream. First of all, He saw heaven open. Now that's a new one when you're feeling bad about yourself. The one time when you feel that heaven must be shut is when you know you're so wrong.

Don't you believe it? Heaven is open for sinners even while they're still sinners. And then there's a connection, a ladder, a staircase. And it says the bottom of it was on the earth. And this ladder, this staircase that links us to God and to heaven and to happiness, the bottom of it is on earth just as low as we see ourselves to be.

I shall never be so culpable but I'll find that there the cross is planted. The bottom of it is where the sinner lies, where the failure lies. I don't have to go up into heaven to bring him down or into depth to bring him up.

He's available to me as I am and where I am. And the top of it reaches to heaven. This Jesus who died in my place and who's available to me as I am, He's my great high priest who makes available to me the holy of holies of God's presence.

And if I'm willing to come to Him at street level I'll find myself in Him at heaven's level. How wonderful. This wonderful ladder, this wonderful staircase, the top of it, the bottom of it on the earth where I am, where Jacob was, and the top of it in heaven.

Christ’s Provision for the Needy and Guilty

And then will you notice He saw the angels of God ascending and descending upon that ladder. The picture of the Lord Jesus as a ladder or a staircase would give the impression that we've got to do the climbing.

That we've got to climb up that ladder, up those stairs. And there are some choruses and hymns that talk about I'm climbing Jacob's ladder. Well the trouble is I'm sometimes too lame to do any climbing.

Therefore that ladder, if I've got to do the climbing, is available for only for some who've got a little more strength than I have. And when the sinner knows himself to be such, what can he do? I've often felt that when I know I've got away from the Lord and things have gone wrong, I know the way, I've got to really tidy up, I've got to be nicer in the home and sweeter and more humble, and I'll get there.

But whenever I think that, I'm defeated before I ever begin. Because I know I won't succeed in taking the first step, or if the first, certainly not the second. Here's a ladder, here's a staircase, and Jacob was not required to do the climbing.

The angels of God on this ladder were taking his knees up to God and bringing God's infinite supply down to him. And that's how it is with our Lord Jesus. Not that we really need the ministrations of angels.

We're told they are looking after us. None of us know how much we owe to these messengers of ours. They're our servants that God sends for us. But it really isn't a lot of teaching about angels here. But rather the fact that in Jesus, my needs, my failures are already brought to God.

And I can expect His supply for my desperate need to come down. And all I've got to be doing is to come to Him at street level. Be coming to Him at earth level. Be coming to Him at the sinner's level, as we heard.

And I find in Him at that level, even before I've been able to turn over a new leaf, what I need. I don't need to turn over a new leaf, but rather to turn back the old leaves. And then there was the Lord at the top of the ladder.

And gave Abraham unbelievable promises. And made known to him that he was to be the heir of those promises made to Abraham in the early days. The land was to be his land. Here he was a stranger running away from his brother.

He was going to have a great seed. A great nation was to spring from it. And in that seed, and in one particular seed, all families of the earth were to be blessed. Here God is linking it with that first promise in Genesis 3 .15.

It's from Him that Jesus is to come. And the whole thing absolutely amazes him. I never expected this. The Lord was in this place and I knew it not. All I want to tell you in the place of mess, the place of confusion, if I will repent and go to Jesus, I'll be given intimations of His sweet purposes for me that may almost take my breath away.

He's not only going to forgive the mess, He's going to un-mess the mess and speak to that messer things that person feels they never deserve. Oh, you see, I little thought that this dark place would turn out in this way.

But the Lord was in this place and I never knew it. And so He said, how dreadful is this place. None other than the house of God, the gate of heaven. I wonder, have you had an initial experience like that?

Or a renewed one, or do you need one of grace meeting you in that place? And say, oh, this is the house of God. This, what place? The stony place. And will you notice the pillow of stone was set up as a pillar of testimony.

And oh, how the Lord loves to turn our sorrows, our troubles, our dark moments into testimony. And so He goes on His way. There's a lot to be done yet. That tray in Him that's got Him into that jam where God has met Him, has not yet been fully revealed.

And grace is, but grace is still grace. He'll go the wrong way later on, but God isn't going to allow that to thwart His purposes. But He's not going to allow His child ultimately to go on in those same old ways.

And we shall watch God's dealings with Him. Perhaps as a hint of the old tray still there, when He can't really consent to receive grace as grace, He must intrude a little bargain on His part. Well, Lord, if you'll do all that, I'll make a bargain.

I'll pay you tithes of all. I don't know if that's a right interpretation. It might have been an honest response to grace, but it could look a little as if He couldn't consent to receive it all as gift.

And you know, it's hard to receive it all as gift. You feel you've got to make some promise, but your promises haven't worked before and don't think they'll work this time. Yes, there may be a little bit of this old thing trying to get by His efforts, by His promises, what grace has already planned.

But let it be. He's found the Lord. He's begun. He now knows in consciousness He's God's man. That makes perhaps some of His later actions all the more culpable. But God's going to help Him. God's going to meet Him as He's surely going to meet us.

Prayer for Trust in God’s Unchanging Grace

Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we do want to thank Thee for all that we see in this Thy holy word. We see ourselves, but we see our Saviour. And Lord Jesus, none of us knows our deepest needs yet, but how we thank Thee that in whatever place of difficulty, whatever situation our attitudes have got us into, Jesus, Thou art our ladder out of everyone.

Thank You for Thy cross reaching the place where we are. And thank You as we come to Thee admitting the little we do know that needs forgiveness. Thou dost bring us into fellowship with Heaven. Thank You, Lord, for speaking to us such lovely things about our future.

Lord, You don't give us quite the same details You gave Jacob, but in Jesus we know there's much more. And we can take it on trust that Thou who didst not spare Thine only Son, but delivered Him up for us all has surely got for us things every bit as good or better than You planned for Jacob.

Lord, help us to trust Thee as that sort of God and go deeper in all our hearts. We ask it in Thy name. Amen.