Relentless Mercy (Genesis 28)

Sermon Text: Genesis 28

Sermon Title: Relentless Mercy

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:1, 31-39

Review from Genesis 27

The moral of the story: God brings his grace into the lives of people who do not seek it, don’t deserve it, and continually reject it and don’t think they need it. God comes to give a blessing to the most scandalous person in the entire family. You will never be blessed if you fail to understand it comes only by grace – or else you will try to steal it and will never get it because it is not you that is getting it.

The blessing is permanent. The blessing defines the direction of your life and the disposition of your heart. You cannot bless yourself.

The difference between repentance and remorse…

Will God’s plan be done if I live a sinful life?

On the Cross, Christ lost the first born privileges and dressed up like us so we could dress up like Him. He dressed up like us and came in to the Father and received our inheritance so that we could inherit His righteousness.

Jesus did what Rebekah did – “let the curse fall upon me.” He is our Rebekah – takes the curse. He is our Isaac – He gives the blessing. He is our Jacob – he dressed up in different clothes for us. He is the true Esau, marrying a foreign bride.

Introduction to Genesis 28

Remember the downward spiral of man recorded in Genesis 1-11? The Fall, the build-up to Noah’s Ark, and the “dead end” of depravity at Babel seemed to all happen so quickly.

Now, early into the third generation after Abraham, it seems as if this elect family is headed down the same path, only a little more quickly. It all rests with Jacob. Childless, single, swindling, Jacob is fleeing after stealing and deceiving, leaving the Promised Land and each day is in danger of being murdered by angry Esau. Think about how lonely and afraid Jacob must have been.

“When the LORD appeared to Jacob, he must have crouched in fear. He had just deceived his blind father (Deuteronomy 27:18); he used the Lord’s name in vain. Had the Lord come to punish him for his sins? Will the Lord curse him for his evil deeds? “ (Greidanus).

Jacob is fleeing more than 400 miles north. Jacob is running as fast as he can away from the Lord, His Word, and the Promise. The LORD pursues Jacob with relentless mercy and says “I am the LORD” and “I will give you” (v. 13). “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave until I have done what I have promised you” (v. 15).

Israel would hear the message: “God is with you wherever they go” (Greidanus).

·         When the Lord mandates Moses to bring Israel out of Egypt He promises, “I will be with you” (Exodus 3:12).

·         Moses encourages Israel to capture Canaan with, “Have no fear or dread of them because it is the LORD your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).

·         The Lord assures Joshua, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5).

·         When Israel is in exile, the Lord said, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you” (Isaiah 43:2; 41:10).

·         Jesus is called Emmanuel meaning “God is with us” (Matthew 1:23; John 14:9-10).

·         After Jesus rises from the dead, he promises his disciples, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

·         “They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them” (Revelation 21:3).

·         Read Romans 8:31-39

When we understand that God is on our side – His wrath was appeased – He is pleased: Then and only then will we be motivated by His relentless mercy. Think about it – Jacob dressed up to get something – to steal something – then in mercy God comes to freely give Jacob what he tried to steal.

The italics below are from “Holiness by Grace” by Bryan Chapell

We know what it means for our worship to seem terribly important but painfully dull.

The inevitable consequence of obedience without delight is the erosion of holiness. You might obey Him but you will not love Him.

In Romans 12:1 Paul writes, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Paul did not say, “I urge you by the guilt you will assume if you are negligent” or “I urge you by the rejection you will face if you fail.” “Serve me,” he says “by keeping in view not my anger nor your shame, but my mercy.”

There is nothing more effective than guilt to get people to obey God’s standards, and nothing less effective in sanctifying them to God. Christians punish themselves to get rid of their guilt. Their guilty feelings are the penance that they think God requires of them in order to renew his love for them. These Christians offer God the gifts of their own depression and self-hatred to satisfy his wrath. If we make ourselves feel bad enough and carry a burden of remorse long enough, we will merit God’s grace. This always leads us into a downward spiral of great despair and more futile resolve to make things right with him. When we sin we will decide to let the guilt consume us more and will wallow in our guilt to punish ourselves with it.

Despise our well-intended attempts to bribe God with our despondency and discipline, we will find that we love this unappeasable God less and less as we try to please Him more and more. Eventually it all becomes meaningless. Lasting service comes when we serve God from his acceptance, not for his acceptance.

Genesis 28:12-13

What is your ladder? What or Who is at the top of your ladder? For true joy and growth in grace, both answers must be right. Potential ladders: works; baptism; attendance; sacrifice. Potential prize’s: assurance; security; comfort; identity.

Jesus is the ladder.

The promise given in vv. 13-14 most closely parallels that found in 13:14-16.

“Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John 1:49, 51). This is the first recorded account of Jacob meeting Yahweh.

The Father is at the top of the ladder. The Father is the prize.

“The gospel of Jesus Christ reveals what that splendor is. Paul calls it the “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4). Two verses later he calls it “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” When I say that God Is the Gospel I mean that the highest, best, final, decisive good of the gospel, without which no other gifts would be good, is the glory of God in the face of Christ revealed for our everlasting enjoyment. The saving love of God is God’s commitment to do everything necessary to enthrall us with what is most deeply and

durably satisfying, namely himself” (John Piper’s God is the Gospel).

Genesis 28:16-17

Commenting on Jacob’s reaction to his dream, Calvin says, “For who can comprehend the immense multitude of gifts which God is perpetually heaping upon us” (Calvin’s Commentary on Genesis).

In Jacob you see healthy fear that results in God being His refuge. The Christian who understands the Gospel should have simultaneous fear and joy. God is the storm and the mountain cave (Piper’s Pleasures of God).

The ladder should be contrasted with the Tower of Babel (Bab-ili – meaning “gate of God”).

Genesis 28:20-22

The longest recorded vow in the OT

Jacob the grabber turns to Jacob the giver. Notice the difference between Esau (Bless me! Bless me!) and Jacob (give, give).

The Christian who understands the Gospel is more preoccupied with the One who has been encountered than the things that were promised (Kinder).

I am not more spiritual, humble, or repentant than other people. God persistently sought to love me until He broke me open to Him (Keller). God says – you love me because I kept after you and broke into your heart.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the land of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

God says, “I love you just because I love you.” Remember when you were newly married or dating? Wouldn’t you ask the other person, “why do you love me?” Be careful answering that question. Whatever your answer is “because of this factor” – the person’s identity shifts to that factor “this gives me worth, security, identity.” The right answer is “I love you just because I love you.”

When my wife loves me this way it frees me to do all other things without worshipping them and it frees me to lose anything without losing my identity. But think about what can happen to the heart of a man who is loved like this by God.

“On the Cross Jesus Christ took bomb after bomb after bomb of God’s wrath and did not abandon you. He could have stopped it if He would have abandoned you. If He didn’t abandon you when Hell itself was coming down on Him then He will not abandon you now. But you have had a bad week and you think He has abandoned you? Do you think He is going to let your life go off the rails now?” (Keller).

However, let me close with this thought: If that does not move you to obedience and holiness, you haven’t understood a word I have said.