Jacob's dream of the ladder and then his struggle with God. What do they mean and signify?

We all want to attempt at living a fulfilling life
- Something useful
- Eternal significance.
- Problems: obstacles and our own failings.

Isaac marries Rebecca. (Most romantic story in whole Bible.)
- Two children: Esau and Jacob.
- Esau first, Jacob is born holding Esau's heel
- God's purposes through Jacob.
- Any better? No! Both had their failings.
- God cares for Esau's descendants too.
- Eg, His command to Israel on their travels:
Deut 2:4-6 Give the people these orders: 'You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, but be very careful. Do not provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, not even enough to put your foot on. I have given Esau the hill country of Seir as his own. You are to pay them in silver for the food you eat and the water you drink.'"

Now back to their youth.
Isaac favours Esau and Rebecca favours Jacob.
All kinds of problems and resentments.

We have to be careful in our own families.
And we must guard against being over sensitive.

Esau's advantages: Birthright and father's blessing.
Hungry: Sells his birthright for porridge.
Blessing.
- Isaac (blind, in his old age) tells Rebecca that he is to bless Esau.
- First Esau must go and kill an animal and cook it and bring it to his father.
- Rebecca tells Jacob she will prepare the meal.
- She makes Jacob's clothes feel and smell as if they were Esau's.
- Jacob take the meal and says: I am Esau, here is your food which I have prepared - eat it and bless me.

Isaac doubts the identity. Jacob reassures him that he is Esau.
Isaac gives him the blessing.
Esau comes and asks for the blessing but Isaac, realising he has been deceived, cannot bless again.
Anger and hatred and plot to kill.

Jacob's bad behaviour leads to many problems.
- Runaway from home, homeless, flees to his Uncle Laban.
- Hired labourer and is treated unjustly.

However God's purposes are not stopped.

While running away and homeless he lies down to sleep.
Dream.
Gen 28:11-13 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 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. 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. (NIV)

Link between heaven and earth.

True for us all.

Prophet Hosea thinks back to stories of Jacob.
Hosea 12:3-4
3 In the womb he grasped his brother's heel; as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there.

Hosea considers his life and sees how it is a parable of the situation in his day.
    The very name Jacob means Deceiver.

But God was able to transform Jacob into one who Persevered in Faithfulness.

It was a long and painful process for Jacob but it brought him to love justice and to know God in the end.
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Hosea sees Israel’s deceit and faithlessness but sees that they too can return to God and be remade
    (just like Jacob their ancestor).

And so to us.
    We too must be fashioned by God and made fit for His service - even though it is a long process.
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Before we go on let’s look at Hosea’s description of the nation.
Hosea 12:1a
1a    Ephraim feeds on the wind; he pursues the east wind all day and multiplies lies and violence.

`Feeds on the wind.
    Inner emptiness.
    The Nation has lost its soul.

Scriptures ‘Spirit of God' same word as ‘Breath of God’
    ‘Breath on me Breath of God’

    People of Israel have only the East wind
        - hot and dry and lifeless.
    Spiritual dryness and emptiness.

Do you think there is an inner emptiness in Britain to-day?
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H has shown us the downward spiral.
Eg:
(1) No knowledge of God.
Hosea 4:6
6    my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
Land where the knowledge of God is not important.

(2)    Moral anarchy
Hosea 4:12
1    The LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land.
2    There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

(3)    Feverish hedonism and materialism
Hosea 4:10-11
10    "They will eat but not have enough; they will engage in prostitution but not increase, because they have deserted the LORD to give themselves
11    to prostitution, to old wine and new, which take away the understanding
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So what hope is there in the story of Israel's ancestor - Jacob?
vs 3: At birth, J grasped at his twin brother’s heel .

This refers to:
Gen 25:2426
24    When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.
25    The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.
26    After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

Then we get story of Jacob bargaining E out of his birthright.
Gen 25:2934
29    Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished.
30    He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.)
31    Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright."
32    "Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?"
33    But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
34    Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

The in Gen. 27 story of how Jacob deceived his blind father Isaac to steal E’s blessing.
You know the story   EXPAND.

After this J had to flee for his life.
    He is frightened, friendless and empty.
        Just like Israel in Hosea’s day.
    Sleeps in open.

    Dream.
    Filled with dread.
        First time in his life he is aware of God.
    Ladder - Angels
    Meaning there is a way back to God.
51    He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." (NIV)
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In this experience he discovers himself.
Word of God:
Past - Abraham and Isaac.
Future - This land I will give to your descendants forever.

BUT this was only the beginning of Jacob’ conversion.
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Another very significant encounter with God.
Jacob wrestling with God.   Gen.32.
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But what lay in between?
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J. Continued his journey fleeing   from E. and reaches Uncle Laban.
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Marries Leah. Two daughters Leah and Rachel.   Works for Laban. - business partners.
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In spite of his encounters with God - old self comes back.
Seen in:
(1) Family relationships
Loves Rachel but neglects Leah, yet Leah, not Rachel, bears him most children.

Family story - illustrates deep craving we all have for love and recognition.
    When thwarted - emotional bitterness.
    This is Jacob’s family and is partly his fault

    How true of family relationships to-day.

(2)   Business dealings
    Jacob continues his clever deceiving business dealings, but meets his match in Laban who is also a wheeler dealer.

Life for Jacob and family gets intolerable.
Runs away.
Laban and his men chase after and catch them and intend to do them harm them.
    But do a deal.
        Jacob never to return to Laban.
    But where is he to go?
- Back to his brother E. from whom many years before he stole his father’s blessing.
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First thing J. does is send messengers ahead to E.   Messengers return.
    Esau has no message but ominously messengers report E. is coming rapidly with 400 men.

    J. is afraid.   What is he to do?
    Not alone now.
    (Many years before he had fled (alone).
    Not alone now.   Wives. children animals.
        Their safety.
    He can’t go back to L.
        Trapped!
He must get alone with God.
1.   Sense of worship as he remembers who God is and his promise.
Gen 32:9
9    Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, `Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,' (NIV)

2. Confession
Gen 32:10
10    I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. (NIV)

All his life comes before him
    Cheating,
        Esau, Isaac Laban.
    Carelessness
    about spiritual welfare of his family.

Yes - Esau, Laban, Isaac, Leah and Rachel had had their faults,
        but that was no excuse.
Jacob was unworthy before God and he confessed it.   Prays for deliverance.
        Save me, I pray, from Esau.
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One thing he desires.
    Be alone with God.
Gen 32:2224
22    That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23    After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.

Gen 32: 24    So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.

Extraordinary story.
    Jacob wrestling with a man - all night.
    Gradually realises it is God with whom he is struggling.
    In this strange night conflict Jacob is revealed.
Gen 32:24-29
24    So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
25    When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
26    Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
27    The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered.
28    Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."
29    Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.
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Points:
1.   All his previous struggles against Isaac, Esau, Laban, his wives
        all these had been against God.

Have you and I ever realised that our sins against others have really been against God?

2.   At first J does not know with whom is he struggling - later he realises.
    You and I perhaps just think our struggles are merely human.
    They could be to do with God Himself.

3.    Struggle Changes to Clinging
    This is point that Hosea sees.
        At first Jacob resists God.
        Later he clings on to God until he blesses him.
We too should cling.
    Be persistent in prayer.
    God likes us to be in earnest.

    Before God blesses him He asks his name.
    Name reveals personality.   Jacob - (The deceiver).
    The Lord says “I am changing your name”
    God in His mercy takes away our reproach.

Jacob emerges with a wound?
    Broken     Renamed    and Blessed

We need to be broken that God can re-make us.

What is the new name?
Two meanings.
    (1)   The one with whom God struggles and perseveres.
    (2)    The one who struggles and perseveres with God.
    The name is Israel.

It describes the history of the people of Israel from then till now.

If God ever stopped persevering with Israel - no hope for any of us.

He would stop persevering with you and me and the world.

Costly Struggle

Descendant of Jacob
The one true Israelite knew that struggle in His own life, death and resurrection.
John 12
Gethsemane.
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    So in the struggles of World, and in yours and mine.
    God isn't aloof.
        He is in there.   Bearing with us.
        Break, mould, refashion - even using our sins.

Hosea draws the lesson:
Hosea 12:6
6    But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always. (NIV)

We too must RETURN to God.(N.T. word repentance)
HOLD ON to Righteousness .    Never let go.
Patiently wait for God.
    There really is nothing to alarm us.
The earth may quake, nations topple, but nothing can separate us ...

Come to Me all Ye That Labour and Are Heavy Laden and I will give you rest.   Take My Yoke Upon You and learn of Me.   For I am meek and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.

Genesis 28 and 32.

Jacob's dream of the ladder and then his struggle with God.

What do they mean and signify?