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[0:00] Seeking God's blessing, we'll turn again to the portion of scripture we read, Genesis chapter 28, and we'll read again at verse 12.

[0:33] 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.

[0:48] A ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. Now, after Jacob received the blessing instead of Esau, Esau's heart was immediately filled with an intense hatred against his brother, and just like Cain, he sought to kill his brother.

[1:18] But he made no secret of that, and he started to tell others that once the days of mourning for his father were at hand, he would slay his brother, Jacob.

[1:31] Now, because he made no secret of it, word eventually came back again to his mother, Rebecca, and she again lays a plan. And the plan for her this time is for her son, Jacob, to leave the family home, and to go to her own previous family home, the home of her brother, Laban, who was far away in Paddan Aram, way to the east of the land of Canaan.

[1:57] Now, it wasn't only because of her fear of Esau that she did that, but she was also concerned that Jacob would take to himself one of the daughters of Canaan to be his wife.

[2:08] Now, that was also a fear that progressively came upon Isaac, his father. Now, Isaac had been chastened by the Lord's dealings, and he was now urgent himself to bestow the blessing on Jacob, and to make sure that Jacob got a wife that was suitable for him.

[2:26] And so Isaac also sends Jacob away from the house, and he charges him, you shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Now, that is an important charge.

[2:38] You're not to marry anyone in Canaan itself. Rise up and go to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother's father, and take a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

[2:52] So this must have been some kind of revelation from God to Isaac, that Jacob was to leave the home and go eastward to Paddan Aram. And he was there to marry one of the daughters of Laban, his mother's brother.

[3:08] Now, when Esau hears this, and when he discovers that the daughters of Canaan aren't pleasing to his father, we're told in verse 9 of this chapter, chapter 28, that Esau went to Ishmael.

[3:22] Now, that's the tribe of his father's brother, the Ishmaelites. And he took unto the wives which he had another one. He had already married twice.

[3:34] And he took this other woman to be his wife, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son. Now, there again you find Esau. He's going outside of the Canaanite daughters this time, but he's still marrying outside of the covenant.

[3:50] And he takes a heathen woman to be his wife. Now, you see a couple of things here with respect to Esau. Now, I said last week that when you read this narrative, I suppose in the first instance, your heart goes out towards them as a man who's somehow unjustly treated.

[4:07] But when you probe further, you see it differently. Now, here again, the same thing. You almost feel sorry for this man as though he's trying to get back into his father's favor by marrying someone who is not as degenerate as the daughters of Canaan were.

[4:23] But the fact is that it's still the same old Esau. What's he doing? Well, he understands that Jacob has left the home. So this is his own opportunity to get back, as it were, into the place of the birthright.

[4:36] He hasn't given up on that. But he still hasn't given up. Although he urgently implored his father, and although his father is still blessing Jacob, well, mysteriously, his father is still alive.

[4:50] He's not dying after all. He thought his father was on his deathbed. But now that his father is living and regaining his strength, then he'll get back into the previous position. And he'll change the picture around.

[5:02] And he'll still inherit the birthright. He'll still inherit the blessing. So again, you should feel no sympathy. It is the matter of evil again, his own evil inclination and his refusal to accept the word of God.

[5:15] He puts his own selfish interest before the word of God. And then, by the way, you'll notice his intense hatred of Jacob. You know, if the whole thing had done any good to Esau at all, he would have softened in his heart and said, Very well, if Jacob has the birthright, let me close in with it and let me be blessed along with my brother and through my brother.

[5:39] But no, like Cain, he develops a hatred. He cannot stand the exaltation of somebody younger over himself. And so he goes out to seek to kill his brother Jacob.

[5:52] Now again, that's the pride that rules in the heart of the ungodly. It's a pride that cannot stand the exaltation of others over and above yourself. And that can only be chastened by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[6:08] Now what of Jacob? Well, here he is sent away from the home by his mother and by his father. And you could call him the heir of heaven.

[6:19] There's no doubt about that. He has precious promises. But when you look at this poor man leaving the house, he's got nothing. He's got nothing. The heir of heaven is walking in darkness.

[6:32] He looks as though he's God forsaken. He's got nothing but his stuff. When he looks back many years later at this incident, when he's an old man, he looks back and he says, With my stuff I crossed the Jordan.

[6:44] As much as to say, this was all I had. In spite of getting the promise and getting the blessing, my trickery, as it were, and the way in which I went about it, caused me to leave the home with nothing but the shirt on my back and the staff in my hand.

[7:01] That's all that this man had. And he goes to take a long, solitary journey into what was to him a no-man's land. He had to go really to a place of chastisement where he would be taught by the Lord how to serve him properly in faithfulness and in truth.

[7:18] Now he walks 45 miles from Beersheba, northwest, northeast, until he comes to a place just on the perimeter of the promised land, a place called Luz.

[7:34] And there Jacob is tired. He is exhausted. It's a rocky place and it's a barren place. But in that place he lies down because the sun is setting and he cannot go on any longer.

[7:47] He's gone very far and it is time for him to sleep. And all he's got to lie on is one of the rocks of Luz. As I mentioned, it was a rocky, hard place.

[7:58] And he lays down with a stone for a pillow. And again, when he looks back at this incident, when he's an old man, he calls this day the day of his distress.

[8:10] The day of his distress. And make no mistake, my friend, Jacob is in a really distressed and agitated state of mind. And it would be hard for us to understand just how many thoughts are crowding his mind and how difficult it is for him to understand what's going on in his own life.

[8:30] And why he's found in this no man's land, nowhere, going nowhere, as far as he can see. Now if you would examine it closely, you could understand that there are three questions especially that are agitating his mind.

[8:46] Three questions distressing his soul. And the first one is this. Is God with me or is he not? Is God for me or is he not?

[8:58] Now my friends, there are many times when the Christian soul comes into a place where he asks this question. Ah, it may be our own sins and iniquities that took us there.

[9:11] But when we are in that place and the despair comes in, there is no sign of God. And we ask the question, well is God for me or is God not?

[9:21] I have no doubt Jacob thinks, why did the Lord not intervene in this matter earlier on? Why was I kept waiting so long for this birthright?

[9:33] So long that I had to intervene myself in this way and I brought all this upon myself. Where was the Lord? Why are things as they are if God is with me?

[9:44] And if the love of God is upon me, why are things like this? And why am I in this situation? Why is Esau still in the land? And why am I cast out like a nobody into no man's land?

[9:58] Now my friends, it wasn't the first time Jacob felt like that. Many times in his life, he felt in such a way that he could say, all things are against me.

[10:09] All these things are against me. And that is how he feels when he comes to this place. Now do you know that yourself? Have you ever come to a place in your providence where you feel God forsaken?

[10:22] You feel destitute? And you feel that if the Lord was on your side, you could not possibly have the providence which you know how. Well that is the way that Jacob undoubtedly felt.

[10:35] The second question is this. What will happen to me in Paddan Aram? Now that again is an important question.

[10:46] Jacob was raised in the land of promise. He loved the land of promise. And now he was being put out of the land of promise by a very strange turn of providence.

[11:00] And he's going to be a stranger in a strange land. Now it's all very well to say, yes, he's going to his mother's brother's house, his uncle Laban. But he knows nothing of them.

[11:12] As far as he knows, most of them are spiritually wayward. He doesn't know if they worship the Lord or not. He doesn't know what's going to be fallen there.

[11:22] It's a new territory. It's a new country. And 99% of it is immersed in heathenism and in idolatry. And Jacob fears stepping out there.

[11:34] He fears it. He fears its temptations. He fears its snares. And he fears its persecutions. Who knows what these heathen will do when they lay hands on a man like Jacob.

[11:46] We're well aware of the kind of things that heathenism takes people into. When people forsake God, they decline morally, socially, spiritually, in every way.

[11:57] You have the epitome of the thing in Sodom, where the degeneracy had become so great that homosexuality had become rife in that place. And it was almost impossible for a stranger to pass through it unless without being assaulted.

[12:12] And without being assaulted by groups of men. Now, society can degenerate. And here he is going by a strange providence into a very dark place.

[12:23] The only beacon of light is his mother's family. And he's not even sure what they are like themselves. So he fears the immediate future. What will happen to him?

[12:34] And the third question that is exercising his mind is this. Will I ever return? My father has blessed me. But I've left the home.

[12:45] And what does that blessing mean to me now? Esau has left. And who knows if I shall ever come back? Esau is still in the home. Will the land be mine? Will the promises be mine?

[12:56] Will the spiritual good things which I have loved, will they ever be mine? Or are the promises now null and void as far as I am concerned? Now, my friends, in this state of soul, Jacob needs the great physician.

[13:14] He's lost and alone in a desolate place called Luz with no man in sight. Night has fallen and he's laying down to sleep. Now, this man may need chastisement, but before that, he needs his soul restored.

[13:31] Sometimes, even if you're going to discipline your child, if he is badly hurt, you'll have to tend to that first before the discipline itself can take effect. That is the state of soul into which Jacob has fallen.

[13:45] He needs a touch from the great physician to lift him up before he can start to learn the hard way. And that is the way in which the great consoler comes in.

[13:57] He restores my soul and he visits Jacob in exactly that way. The prophet Hosea tells us that God met him in Bethel. And as I said last week, that doesn't mean he was converted in Bethel.

[14:11] It just meant that God came to him. already a believer in Bethel, but he came to him in a remarkable way. So much so that Jacob never forgot this place.

[14:23] He renamed it. He called it Bethel, the house of God. And Luz became to him the gate of heaven. The Lord can do that, my friend.

[14:34] And by faith, he can change the most barren situation into a situation that's filled with his own presence. Look at the way in which he does it to Jacob.

[14:45] Now, God found him in a vision. And then God expounds that vision to Jacob. Now, look first at the vision in verse 12.

[14:58] And he dreamed and behold a ladder. Now, that word really would be better translated as a stairway or a staircase. This is a stairway to heaven.

[15:11] It doesn't present a picture to you of the kind of ladder that you see. You make an image in your mind's eye of the kind of ladder that you put to the side of a house or a building. It's not like that at all. It is a succession of steps.

[15:24] It is a broad stairway, sweeping stairway, ascending all the way up into heaven. And on the top of it, he sees a vision of the Lord God Almighty.

[15:36] And God is standing there. He is standing on top of the stairway. And on the stairway, there are angels of God ascending and descending on it.

[15:52] Now, there's a significance in that too, in the fact that they are ascending up towards the Lord and then they are descending down towards Jacob.

[16:02] and the Lord expounds this vision to him in verse 15. He explains the vision. At least that's how we understand it. That verse 15 is an explanation of the vision.

[16:15] And the explanation is like this, Behold, I am with thee and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest and will bring thee again to this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee off.

[16:32] Now, what I want to do is to look again at the questions distressing the soul of Jacob and look at the way in which God answers them individually and particularly and the way in which the vision confirms these answers to Jacob.

[16:54] The questions in his mind, the answers the Lord gives and the way in which the vision confirms these things. Now, the first question is this, is God with me or not?

[17:08] And how wonderfully he answers it in verse 15, Behold, I am with thee. It is as simple as that. But it is as profound as that.

[17:20] And it is as marvelous as that, that I am with thee in your distress, in your poverty. though you only have a staff in your hand and a stone under your head.

[17:33] And in spite of your failure, Jacob, in spite of these skins which you allowed to go on your hands and behind your neck, in spite of your stealth, in buying the birthright of Esau, and again in deceiving your father, in spite of it, I know your heart, I know your soul, I know your motive in these matters, and I am with thee in all these things.

[17:58] And how precious when the Lord drops that word into your soul, when he applies a precious promise of scripture, something that tells you, I am with you in your situation, in your destitution, I am there and I am present.

[18:15] Now to understand the full meaning of this expression, we have to go to the vision. And there is one part of the vision that brings this home to us very clearly.

[18:27] And that is the actual stairway itself, which unites earth and heaven. Because that is what the stairway does. The stairway connects the place where God resides to the place where I reside and you.

[18:47] The stairway. And what is the stairway? Well, let the scripture explain itself. If you go forward to the New Testament and to the gospel according to John and in chapter 1, you'll find the meaning of what the stairway is.

[19:05] John chapter 1 and we'll read at verse 47 just towards the end of the chapter where Christ is calling Nathanael to be a disciple.

[19:24] John chapter 1 verse 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile like Jacob.

[19:39] Not Jacob at least after God wrestled with him. Nathanael saith to him Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said Before Philip called you when thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee.

[19:52] Nathanael answered and said to him Rabbi thou art the son of God thou art the king of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him Because I said to thee I saw thee under the fig tree believest thou thou shalt see greater things than these.

[20:10] And he saith to him Verily verily I say unto you Now listen Hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man upon the son of man Now what does that tell us?

[20:30] Well it tells us this that the stairway linking heaven and earth is Christ personally That is what it tells us It tells us that the great link between God and man is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ He unites heaven to earth Without Christ in other words there is only a brass heaven There is no access into the presence of God There is no way in which God could speak to you in the way of grace and mercy and no way in which you could ever pray to the Lord God No way whatsoever But the stairway uniting the two is the Lord Jesus Christ and how marvelously He unites heaven and earth In unity with the person of the God He took the dust of the earth into union with it and He is God and man and so unites heaven and earth But not only does

[21:30] He unite them in His person He unites them in His work What my friend does Christ do? He unites earth and heaven What does He do? He unites the soul to God He takes what is lost forsaken and destitute and He welds and marries it into the presence of God He forms a relation between the Father and between poor needy sinners That is the stairway to heaven It is Christ and Christ personally And that is why Christ is called Emmanuel God with us In Him we have access into the presence of God Now you'll notice that on a stairway like this you can ascend into His presence and He can descend to yours Is that not right?

[22:25] It is a stairway that goes two ways We can ascend by faith into God's presence with our prayers and our petitions and God can descend as it were to our own situation and our own need and through Christ He fulfills our every need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus Now where is the foot of this stairway?

[22:53] Well it's where Jacob is It's where Jacob is in other words the bottom of this stairway is where the poor and the needy are crying to God for mercy That's where the bottom of this stairway is Wherever there is a broken and a contrite heart or wherever there is a calling upon the name of the Lord there is the bottom of the stairway so that by faith you have access into the great presence of God so that God is with you and you are with God and the foot of the stairway is where you are tonight my friend you say God is not with me well God is beside you God is near you God is wherever the cry of faith of the poor and the destitute ascends into his presence because there Christ is it's just like these ladders perhaps that the helicopters drop down when they're coming to meet a man who needs rescued the helicopter comes and drops the ladder right to your situation this is where the stairway is it's not as though you have to travel to Jerusalem to find the bottom of the stairway the bottom of the stairway is where you are calling upon the name of the Lord there by faith you have access into this grace wherein we stand call upon the name of the

[24:12] Lord Jesus Christ and God is beside you and God is for you and then again of course there's this the stairway is there whether you see it or not and it's there to your faith you know Jacob wakes up and he says this in verse 16 surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not it's as though he's reproaching himself and it's as though he's saying well I received a vision of these things but I ought to have known them without the vision itself why was I so wayward as to be filled with unbelief or to doubt that the Lord was with me ought I not to be calling upon him in sincerity and in faith said I not that if you would believe thou should see the glory of God that's what Christ said and if you but believe this stairway will be as real to yourself as it was to

[25:18] Jacob in a vision you will not see the vision you will not need the vision because Christ will come close to your soul believe trust cling to the Lord and the stairway will become very vivid to your faith so then my friends God is with us and he is with us in Christ and if you but cleave by faith in the Savior then God is with you however sad and destitute your situation is let's take it a stage further the second great question that's agitating his mind is this what awaits me in Padna Ram are the enemies in front of me am I going into darkness well I'm certainly going into the unknown I have never passed this way heretofore I know not what's beyond the Jordan except it's a land of danger and of trouble and of persecution what does

[26:20] God say well verse 15 I am with thee and listen to this and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest now there you have his answer by word I will keep you wherever you go and how does the vision confirm that well it confirms it by the angels of God ascending and descending upon the stairway now I believe it's right to think that Jacob saw legions of these angels myriads of them many of them ascending up into the presence of God and many of them again descending down right to where he is himself there in laws now what does that convey to us well it conveys this what is an angel well Hebrews tells us that the angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be the heirs of salvation the angels are spirits which God created and they are constantly in this world serving the people of

[27:40] God they minister they minister to the heirs of salvation their mission when they are sent by God is to help the people of God to guard them to watch over them and they do this of course invisibly they do this and the people of God themselves are unconscious of it they are not aware of the countless ways in which God's angels encompass them and in which God's angels protect them now we're told here that they are descending and that means that they are sent by God God is giving them as it were a message to minister and to help the poor and the needy think my friend of how glorious that is here is a worm Jacob a worm and who is serving the worm well it is the exalted creatures who never sinned that shows you the great dignity of the heirs of heaven that the angels themselves are sent to minister and to serve them so they are descending from God with an errand to fulfill a duty to perform and then again they ascend into heaven why because they have finished their task and they return for another it is ceaseless the angels are continually doing the will of

[29:04] God you remember even the picture of the seraphim in Isaiah chapter 6 we're told that with two wings they covered their feet and with two wings they flew and with two wings they covered their faces covering their faces because of the holiness of God covering their feet because of the impurity of their service they are conscious that even when they descend and ascend the stairway they are unprofitable servants he charges even his angels with foolishness but with two they fly why because they are ready always to do the will of God they always appear before the face of their father in heaven and they say what wilt thou have me to do is that not how you should be Christian friend you should certainly veil your face and you should veil your feet unprofitable but you should not always be ready to fly to do the will of God to do the slightest thing that will further his cause or that will help his kingdom well they've hardly descended with their errand when they are up again to receive a new commission from the king of kings and the lord of lords now you'll notice here that they are ascending first and then descending the end of verse 12 and behold the angels of God ascending and descending upon it now you could ask why are they ascending now

[30:38] I must admit that when I first came across this question I thought it may be a bit foolish I thought well what's the point really of asking why they're ascending first rather than descending is it not just one possible way of two and that's it he could perhaps just as easily have said that they were descending and ascending but when you think about it it might somehow have seemed more appropriate for us to say that they were descending all they begin in heaven that is where their commission begins they are sent by God to descend and then they ascend but Jacob's vision is of the angels ascending and descending now the more you think about it the more important that becomes why well in this way what Jacob understands is this that the angels have been around him already and he knew it not it is not only a matter of surely the Lord is here and I knew it not it is a matter of

[31:51] I have been surrounded with angels on my way from home on the 45 mile journey when I felt lost lonely and alone and when I lay my head on this pillow and felt destitute the angels were with me and that is why he sees them ascending as much as to say they have already done something on my behalf and they are returning into the presence of God and it's as though Jacob again is reproaching himself for not being alive to the invisible not being alert to the unseen realities of God not being as it were of a spiritual enough mind to grasp what the Lord is doing continually in his own soul and around about him and my friends these things can be so and they are very often so when we have sinned in one way or another our minds are blinded to these things we do not see the glory of God if only we would open our eyes by faith to see the invisible and even if sometimes we don't understand how or exactly what the angels are doing yet to believe it and to believe it so powerfully and effectively that it moves our souls to think of these myriads of glorious beings being sent by the father to uphold and to keep you to watch you to guard you in your providence to give you deliverance from danger and who knows how many other countless things the psalmist said it he believed it he didn't necessarily see the thing

[33:26] Elisha saw it and Elisha servants saw it they saw the angels of God guarding them but Elisha only summoned it as it were from God so that his servant could see it he believed it by faith he got the benefit of it and you can by faith also ah my friend take time every day especially every sabbath day to think of the way God keeps you how he watches over you and how he has given you many things many blessings and dealt with you in goodness and kindness and give him praise and thanks for it so that you will say the Lord is in this place although it may look destitute to others I mean I suppose if someone was to look and say well here is Jacob and he's in no man's land and here is Esau and he's in Isaac's house here I said oh well Esau is the man who's got it all going for him and he's wrong Jacob is the man who is surrounded by the angels of God and sometimes the heir of heaven is walking in darkness and the heir of hell is walking in sparks of his own kindling

[34:37] Esau's kindling sparks but Jacob is an heir of heaven although he has for a moment to walk in darkness now there's something else too with respect to that you'll notice that the angels are ascending and descending on the stairway and that of course takes us back to Christ every angel who serves and ministers does so in and through the Lord Jesus Christ there is no interchange at all between heaven and earth apart from this blessed stairway and how we have cause to thank the Lord for that if it was not for Jesus Christ and him crucified there would be no help from God none of the legions of heaven would be sent down to help you at all but as it is they are and from your birth to the hour of your death they are there is it not true that the souls of believers when they pass into the presence of God do so in the presence of angels was Lazarus not carried by angels into the bosom of

[35:46] Abraham the angels even sever the wicked from the just we have told on the day of judgment and the angels conduct the lost into the lost eternity that is also the case that the souls of unbelievers are taken into hell itself by the angels and they are cast in and the believers are taken into heaven by the angels also at every step of the way God's protection God's providence God's care his kindness and his mercy love now I don't know but you might be about to leave home yourself maybe you're going away to study somewhere place you've never been before you've never passed this way heretofore perhaps in the providence of God you have to change your job you have to change your home or something of that kind well my friend if you are looking to the Lord then fear not I will keep thee in all places whether thou goest will you not take that for yourself and though you be surrounded with an evil host

[37:00] God knows how to guard you and how to keep you you just stay faithful to him my friend and you'll discover that the Lord's keeping is the most beautiful thing in the world and I mean that stay in your place stay in your place and you will see the beauty of the Lord's keeping there's nothing like seeing his work seeing it in your own life and it's a great reward to see that when you walk in his way now there's another thing too that's in his heart and that's this will I come back will I ever come back and notice how God answers this at the end of verse 15 I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of and what is that what has he spoken to him of well it's verse 13 and 14 and behold the

[38:02] Lord stood above it now it's even interesting the way the Lord is standing he's not sitting he's standing it's as though well I don't know but when the Lord appears standing it gives you the impression that he is actively participating in what is going on at least that is certainly the impression I get when Stephen is being stoned he sees a picture of Christ standing at the right hand of the father not sitting we know that he sits there but the vision that he has is of Christ standing as much as to say that Christ is afflicted as it were with the very stones which they are casting upon a member of his own body as much as to say that Christ is standing and he is interceding for Stephen at that very point it is an active Christ that we are presented with and here it is an active Lord he is active as it were sending the angels receiving them and commissioning them in any case the Lord stands and says in the and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed in other words

[39:24] Jacob I will not only keep you in a place of trial and temptation which you are going to be in and Jacob doesn't know it but for 21 years I will bring you back and I will fulfill every jot and tittle of all my promises towards you every jot and tittle will be fulfilled now my friends sometimes you feel that there is such a difference between what you are just now and what God has said you will be as the Lord not promised that he will take you into heavenly rest that you will be like Christ himself you will look like him you will see him as he is and you shall be like him has he not promised that your soul will be made perfect pure without the slightest taint or spot of sin and you say to yourself oh well if these things be so why am I this but does

[40:25] God not say I am going to do it for you you will indeed be brought into my presence unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory be glory and majesty unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before him is that not a wonderful promise a wonderful promise he will let none of his promises fall to the ground he will do it he will accomplish it and 20 years later Jacob comes back to Bethel and he says with my staff he says I crossed this Jordan and now I am two bands what he means by that is this I crossed this place he says with nothing except the shirt on my back and the staff in my hand and I'm back here now and I'm in two groups because of the vast way in which

[41:29] God has prospered me yes the chastening of the Lord was there but in along with the chastening was the blessing of the Lord and he came back and he inherited the land of Canaan is that not a wonderful thing the God of our providence the God of our grace will do all things for us and he will let none of his promises fall to the ground last of all how does Jacob respond well in verse 17 we're told that he was afraid that's what the presence of the Lord does we noticed recently how often we've read that that the presence of God brings fear reverence well we know of people who can sit in the presence of God and it doesn't move them that way at all we can only conclude that they don't feel it that they don't know it when God is present it produces awe and reverence and he says how dreadful is this place this is none other but the house of God

[42:29] God is here and this is the gate of heaven so he rises up in the morning and he takes the stone for his pillow and he pours oil on top of it and he renames the place and he calls it Bethel the house of God and you'll notice he makes a vow and Jacob vowed a vow and said if God will be with me this is verse 20 and will keep me in the way that I go and will give me bread to eat and rain to put on so that I come again to my father house in peace then shall the Lord be my God and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth to thee now here again people say well Jacob is bargaining with God as much as to say even after this vision well if you do that I'll do this but that's not the way in which you should understand the word if in verse 20 when he says if

[43:37] God will be with me he's not doubting the thing he's not saying well if you'll do it it's if in the sense of since we all use if in the sense of since we say well if that is the case then this is what I'll do and what you mean is since that is so then I'm doing this you're not doubting the thing it's just well if that's the case then this is the result that's the way Jacob means this he's not saying well you do that and I'll do this I've said I'm going forward in thy strength and

[44:39] I'm going forward to praise and to honor and to glorify thee I would that such a time would come into the hearts of many men and women present even here and in many places throughout our land that we would take stock at a place called Bethel or Luz and say well from now on I am going to walk forward more carefully seeing as thou hast shown me thy glory then thou shalt be my God and this stone which I have set for a pillar will be God's house in other words I will come back here many years here on and I will worship the Lord at Bethel we'll look at that another time and finally of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth to thee now as a man of God he always had given the tenth the tenth was always the portion that the people of God gave to God and as far as I am concerned still is still is that it is the right thing to do with what

[45:43] God gives you before you do anything else with it to take a knife to it and to cut a tenth and to give it to the Lord to give it to the Lord and it is marvelous to see the way in which the Lord will undertake for you when you give the tenth to you have promised me prosperity well he says that will not change it I will give the tenth to thee my friends sometimes it's harder in prosperity to give a tenth than it is to give a tenth in poverty is it not true sometimes that the more you have the harder it is to give Jacob will not be like that he says if thou art going to bless me abundantly with my father's goods and provisions then I will still give the tenth to thee and Jacob knows that if he gives a tenth to God he will never be put to shame and he will never be found wanting

[46:47]  God will supply all his need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus well what a visit my friend that was to Jacob and Bethel and what a strength to his soul and now we have reason to thank the Lord for breaking into our own distress on many occasions and showing us his glory may we go forward in that and seek his glory and pray for new visions and revelations of his grace and mercy in Christ Jesus may he bless our thoughts on his word let us pray our gracious God do thou undertake for us do thou give us a vision of the great stairway that unites heaven and earth and may we through Christ have access into thy presence to know the blessing which makes rich and brings no sorrow with it for Christ's sake Amen You