Go
FILTER BY:

← back to list

Jul 03, 2016

Experiencing the Wonder of God's Presence

Passage: Genesis 28:10-22

Preacher: John Huizinga

Series: Experiencing God through the Wonder of . . .

Category: Practicing the Presence of God

Keywords: , bethel, crooked, god's presence, i am with you, jacob, luz

Summary:

For the rest of the summer we’re going to practice the presence of God. We believe God is with us. Jesus promised to be with us to the very end. ‘I am with you always,’ he said. Yet often we feel far from God. Or we miss the Lord. Or we struggle to believe. Or we confuse the training of religious exercise and ritual with its goal: to actually experience God-with-us. Over and over the Bible gives us the story of those who had a divine encounter. Each experienced God with them. Some were surprised. Some were relieved. But all were changed. It is my prayer that as we share their stories we can share our stories, and find in these the grace and truth that we are made to live in relationship with God who is there with us and for us. With each message we’ll be given some suggestions for becoming aware and present in the presence of God. We can’t manipulate God or make a God-thing happen, but we can prepare ourselves to be ready for his coming. Today we read of Jacob at Bethel, who speaks for all of us, ‘Surely the LORD was in this place and I didn’t even know it.’ We’ll read from Genesis 28 and begin our journey in the wonder of God’s presence. Have you ever had a chance encounter with someone you know, and you almost went right past them, because you weren’t expecting to see him or her? And you said, sorry, I didn’t see you, I wasn’t expecting you! It’s moreso with God. So we’ll get some suggestions on what to do so that we change our expectations, that we may experience God’s presence.

Detail:

Jacob can’t believe where he is

as the sun sets on that terrible day.

With his mother he had deceived his father.

His brother hates him.

Jacob left . . . is how the day began for him . . .

left his home.

He needs shelter for the night,

but he looks out and only sees the city of Luz.

His actions tell us he didn’t want to go there.

In ancient times a traveler

should be able to count on the hospitality of others, and the normal course of action would be

to enter the town and expect to be given lodging

by the town’s people.

But Jacob doesn’t enter the town.

He risks staying out in the open.

Staying at a distance,

with only a rock for a pillow,

to weather the night alone.

 

Is he just scared?

Perhaps the reputation of the town made him

think twice about getting too close.

‘When he reached a certain place he stopped for the night,’ we’re told in the story.

A certain place, that’s all we read,

a place with a reputation,

there was something about that place

that kept Jacob away:

Luz was the name of that town.

‘Luz’ means to turn aside.

The word is used in a negative way.

It means either turning away from wisdom or

being a crooked, twisted person.

It referred to almond branches, which grew in a twisted fashion.

Since it doesn’t seem that there was a grove of almond trees in that area,

most likely the town was named Luz because

the people there were somewhat crooked.

‘Turn aside,’ this is not a friendly place to be.

 

How did I get here?

Jacob cries as he stops for the evening.

He’s at a place he’d never thought he’d be.

He’s not pushing ahead, he’s retreating.

He’s going back to Haran.

Haran is where Grandpa Abraham came from,

God led him out of and away from there.

It’s not home for Jacob,

tho mother Rebekah wants to make it so for him.

It’s like Israel wanting to go back to Egypt.

It’s like the early Christians

going back to Old Testament law.

It’s like you,

made to belong to God

and to enjoy the assurance of his presence

with you always,

but instead feeling you’re stuck in a certain place

away from what’s wise and good,

facing all the crookedness of things gone bad.

 

Jacob’s there outside of Luz,

Unsure, his life crooked, all bent out of shape.

Don’t go there, Jacob!

Yet he has to go thru there!

All he has done has led him here, of all places!

Is this now who Jacob is, someone in a place like this?

 

He is supposed to be a blessed man.

He carries the promise of life from God.

Or is he turning away from all that –

and who could blame him, really!

His brother Esau holds a grudge, a few verse before this story in chapter 27 we read, He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

His mother tells him to ‘flee.’

The last thing Jacob hears as he leaves

is his mother lying again to his father.

So now he’s out of the house.

And he wonders if he’s out of luck,

our of grace,

out of God.

 

Are you at that place, too?

Wondering where the blessings are?

Not seeing any promise?

Stuck in place, and not knowing how to move ahead.

It’s time to pray

but you’ve been praying the same prayers

for a long time . . .

You’re pretty convinced God isn’t there,

and if he is, it doesn’t make much of a difference.

Longing to see the crooked made straight . . .

but finding yourself turning aside from faith . . .

 

But where does Jacob meet God?

Right here.

Homeless, alone, afraid, on his own –

he meets God near a twisted, crooked place.

At this point Jacob feels

guilty about his past

uncertain in the present

fearful of the future.

To all of that, God says in all grace and truth,

vs 15 - “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go . . .”  

There is no place Jacob has been

or can be

or will go

that our Heavenly Father is not already there!

 

These are the first words recorded

that the Lord spoke to Jacob!

If we had to guess what God would say to him now

we’d probably come up with different words

than what we read here.

Look what you’ve done Jacob!

Look at where you’re at Jacob!

How could you, Jacob!

Don’t think I’m running after you, Jacob!

You’re on your own, Jacob!

And what do you suppose

God would say to you right now?

Given who you are,

what you’ve done and not done,

what your circumstances tell you about yourself!

 

We have our assumptions,

but look at what God DOES say!

 15 “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Here is the grace of God.

Look, does Jacob ask for God’s presence?

Does Jacob pray for God’s guidance?

Does Jacob merit any kind of care from God?

No, no, no.

The grace of God responds in all our judgments:

God has NOT washed his hands of me.

The presence of the LORD has not passed me by.

I am not alone nor on my own.

God is present even there for Jacob!

And if God is there for Jacob

of all people

in THAT place

of all places,

you can be sure God is with you too

right now

in the place you find yourself

with that word of blessing, promise and life!

 

We are made by our Creator

to know and experience the Lord with us!

 

The picture we get is of a staircase

coming from heaven to earth.

And those stairs are crowded

with the messengers and presence of the Lord coming down from heaven to earth,

to Jacob.

Do we get the picture?

The steps between heaven and earth are well worn.

 

Let’s be careful in our interpretation.

This is not a ladder to heaven for us to have to climb.

Remember that old Sunday School song,

We are climbing Jacob’s ladder?

That’s not really the case, is it?

It is God in all divine presence and providential care that treads those stairs down from heaven to earth,

The good news of the gospel is not

that somehow we have to find the strength

to climb up to God,

but that God comes to us,

to be with us for saving good.

 

The message of the dream is this:

Jacob, I’m nearer to you than you think I am.

Although I am in heaven and you are on earth, there’s a stairway that reaches from me to you.

And my angels are constantly watching over you.

I’m with you wherever you go.

When you travel, my stairway travels with you.

I was with you while growing up in Beersheba

in a troubled family.

I was with you when you tricked Esau.

I was with you when you deceived your father.

I am with you tonight.

Everywhere you go, I will go with you.

 

Jacob has lived by his wits.

His mother Rebekah has lived by

her manipulation and control.

His brother Esau now lives in anger.

His father Isaac lives in failure and weakness.

God judges, see where all your ways have got you?

The Lord will not give up on Jacob.

So this is both our assurance for today

and our call to faith for tomorrow.

To trust that God is present

and the Lord’s presence is for our good

even if today is not a good day at all.

That Jesus is our goodness -

His way

His terms

His good -

and I will offer in trust

my desperate, hurting, broken, striving ways

to the only One who saves me.

 

Jacob awakes to confess,

surely God is in this place and I didn’t even know it!

This is the starting point for all we do,

our answer to

how did I get here?

why am I facing this?

how do I get thru this?

God is in this place! For good!

Angry.

Failed.

Lost.

On the run.

No matter, God is in that place with you.

Today we encourage one another

in the gospel of the God of Jacob,

the God in whom we can trust

to be at work in all things for our good,

even if this thing before us right now isn’t good at all!

 

While I am struggling with the problems of today,

God is hard at work providing solutions

for the things I am going to face tomorrow.

He’s already there,

working creatively in situations I have yet to face,

preparing them for me and me for them.

Where is Jacob?

Outside of Luz, a twisted, crooked place,

yet the LORD is there!

’How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.’”

Corrie Ten Boom said, “For all these years, I’ve been going all over the world, with one message: There is no pit so deep that the love of God is not deeper still.”

The phrase “house of God” in Hebrew is the word “Bethel.”

Imagine! Luz is turned into Bethel!

A twisted, crooked place

is turned into the house of God!

You can try to turn away from God

but wherever you turn God is there!

 

It’s an awesome place

in which you find yourself right now!

Can you give thanks for that!

How can I say that?

 

By faith alone.

We all want to know if God is with us.

And we all want to be able to experience his delivering, blessing, caring, forgiving presence.

And we all want to know if God being with us

makes a difference.

So what can we do to be open and aware of this true God who is with us always?

 

We can’t make God come to us,

We can’t manipulate blessing from his hand.

We can’t order or summon God to do our will.

 

But we don’t have to live like Jacob either,

missing the presence of the Lord.

We need not be afraid of the Lord.

 

The cross and empty tomb of Jesus bless you and me with his promise to be with us to the very end.

In John 1,

Nathanael says to Jesus,

“You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.”

Jesus responds by saying, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”   (John 1:51)

It’s that staircase all over again!

Jesus is referring to Jacob’s story in Genesis 28.

Jacob’s ladder is not a what; but a who!

Jesus is the top and bottom of that ladder:

our life connection with and belonging to God.

He is the way from God and to God.

 

So what does it mean?

I know Jacob’s situation isn’t any better when he gets up in the morning.

He’s still afraid.

But now it is different; it is holy.

Jacob is given a vision of a different, holy future.

When he tried to rest his head

on that stone pillow the night before

he approached his future the only way he knew -

the only way forward looked like

fending for himself,

running away,

and going thru life like his mother Rebekah –

he is off to Rebekah's brother, after all:

more of the same scheming, manipulation,

looking out for number one,

because God couldn’t be trusted.

 

But . . .grace -- meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.” reminds  Ann Lamott.

There is a Leonard Cohen song that goes,

"There are cracks, cracks in everything . . .

 that's how the light gets in"

 

Jacob is called to be holy.

Jacob is called here to his true self –

not what he has been labeled and

not what he has done or been made to do,

not even the consequences of his sin.

He is Jacob: a deceiver a cheat a swindler.

He is Jacob: Rebekah’s daughter on the run

and going backwards in life.

But he is not any of these things

because of the powerful promise of God’s presence.

Jacob’s vow means,

“Lord, I am taking you at your word.

I believe you will do what you said

and therefore I am committing myself to you wholeheartedly.”

But he said something first before he said that.

Jacob said ‘If. . .’

If you do show me that you kept these promises,

then I will be yours.

Given who he is and what he’s done, even this

small step shows a transformation is beginning.

 

Our trust has to be deeper than thinking life with God

is only found in my church affiliation

or because I say I believe in God.

It’s a trust that goes beyond

the ‘ifs’ and the ‘thens’ of life

to pay attention to God’s being with us

in all things to change us for his glory, his purposes.

 

How can we do that,

we who may find ourselves in situations

where we don’t know what to do,

or feel powerless with the task before us,

or don’t see a good choice open to us . . .

How live in the assurance that

we don’t make our bed in a crooked, twisted place

but in Beth-el,

the very home where God is present with us?

 

[what you hear depends on if you’re listening – Robert Lamm, Good to Go]

 

Did you ever unexpectedly

cross paths with someone you know,

and you almost went right past her,

because you weren’t expecting to see her?

And you said, sorry, I didn’t see you,

I wasn’t expecting you!

It’s moreso with God.

 

We can learn to expect to sense

and experience God with us:

Through the exercise of our love for God

with heart, soul, mind and strength.

 

When we by faith love the LORD,

with all our heart, soul, mind and strength,

we open our souls to be aware of God with us.

This is because we usually think

the problems between us and God are out there – bad circumstances in my life,

sufferings, losses,

what the culture science have taught me,

bad experiences with those who are hypocrites,

a boring church, or something like that.

Like Jacob, we think the problems are out there:

Bad family,

Homeless and on the run,

All alone.

But God invades his dreams to tell him

the problems out there are nothing

compared to the problems inside you.

And it starts with you

not even knowing I am with you.

 

By mind, soul, strength, and heart,

we can draw near to God.

And his promise is that when we draw near to God, GOD COMES NEAR TO US.

 

On the back of your worship handout

there is an exercise for you to take home

and do by yourself or with another,

to help us pay attention,

be more aware that Our Lord is with us always.

 

Can you focus on one exercise

of heart

or mind

or soul

or strength?

And in this way prepare yourself

to meet with God!

Surely God is in the place,

it’s a shame if we don’t even know it.

 

The wonder of God’s presence,

that’s what we will practice

for the rest of our summer together.