September 17, 2004
Genesis 28
WHEN FAMILY FAITH BECOMES PERSONAL FAITH
I grew up in Africa in a missionary family. I was surrounded by Bible teaching and prayer and explanations of the Gospel from very earliest memory. My parents and most of the adults around me not only talked about faith, but they lived it.
When I was just short of my 18th birthday, I graduated from high school. I remember saying good-by to my parents and two younger brothers at the Nairobi airport. I then turned and walked alone across the tarmac and up the stairs into the airplane, leaving behind my family, my home and the only life I’d ever known.
A week or so later, I arrived at college. It was a Christian college in California. I remember during the first week, they brought all the new students together for an evening campfire service. A number of students gave testimonies that night, about how God had worked in their lives to bring them to college. I sat there listening to their stories, and reflecting on my own life. And then we sang a song that was new to me.
The words went like this:
In the stars His handiwork I see,
On the wind he speaks with majesty,
Though he ruleth over land and sea
What is that to me?
I will celebrate Nativity,
For it has a place in history;
Sure, He came to set His people free-
What is that to me?
Till by faith I met him face to face
And I felt the wonder of His grace
Then I knew that He was more than just a God who didn’t care,
That lived away out there
And now He walks beside me day by day,
Ever watching o’er me lest I stray
Helping me to find that narrow way –
He’s everything to me.
And as I sat by the campfire that night, singing along with several hundred other college students, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the strong awareness: “God is here!”
You see, for me, God had always been in Africa, in my home, in the familiar surroundings of my secure childhood. Now, here I was, half a world away, feeling very much alone, feeling (on the emotional level at least) as though I had left God behind in that other world. Yet suddenly he met me and overwhelmed me with a sense of his presence. He was “more than just a God who didn’t care” who “lived away out there” or “away back there”. He was here and now, walking beside me day by day, watching over me lest I stray.
Approximately a year later, I transferred colleges and went to Western Washington State University in Bellingham, Washington. I arrived in Bellingham knowing absolutely no one. The year was 1969. Most of the men students had hair down to their shoulders. A peculiar odor hung over many of them, which I later discovered was the smell of marijuana. I was living in a co-ed dorm, with men and women free to be in each other’s rooms at any and all hours. It was a world that was utterly strange to me, and I felt very much alone and very lost. But I will never forget my first evening in the dorm. I sat visiting with the other 3 guys who would share my suite, getting acquainted with each other. They asked where I was from, and in the process of explaining my background, I suddenly, without really planning it, found myself sharing my testimony and what it meant to have a personal relationship with Christ. Later that evening, as I lay in bed about to drop off to sleep, I was again overwhelmed with the realization: God is here! Even in this strange, one might even say godless, environment, I was not alone. God was with me.
Because of these experiences and others I have had over the years, I have always identified strongly with Jacob and the experience he had in Genesis 28.
He was forced to leave his home and his family and go to stay with relatives he had never seen in a place he had never been. On his journey, darkness overtakes him far from any human habitation. So he takes a stone for his pillow and lies down, alone and lonely to sleep. For Jacob, God had always been associated with his father’s tents, the security of home and family. Yet it was there, in the wilderness, in his aloneness that God came and revealed himself to Jacob.
It was there that something very significant happened in Jacob’s heart and life. It was there in the wilderness that for Jacob, family faith became personal faith. As we trace Jacob’s experience in this chapter, we will see what is involved in family faith becoming personal faith. I would challenge each of us to examine our own lives and see whether this transition has happened in our own lives. Because I believe the Scripture teaches us:
FAMILY FAITH MUST BECOME PERSONAL FAITH IN ORDER TO BE GENUINE, LIFE-TRANSFORMING FAITH.
The stage is set in the early verses of the chapter.
v.1-5: So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham.” Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way…
In these verses, Isaac is back in character, submitting to the revealed will of God for his family, and speaking words of prophecy and blessing over his son Jacob. In these verses he clearly passes the baton of the blessing of Abraham to Jacob.
We might say that the family blessing, and with it, the family faith has been transferred to Jacob. And so Jacob sets off to go to Paddan Aram, a distance of over 400 miles.
On the journey, he is overtaken by darkness in an isolated and lonely spot, and lies down to sleep with a stone under his head. As he slept he had a dream. The dream had three components in it. Each one, in the original Hebrew text, is introduced by the Hebrew word for “Behold!” In Hebrew this is a literary device to underline and mark something for special attention.
Behold! A ladder or stairway resting on the earth with its top reaching heaven.
Behold! The angels of the LORD going up and down on the ladder.
Behold! Yahweh (the LORD) stood at the top of the ladder.
What we learn from the symbolism of this vision is clear and very comforting. First, there is a link between heaven and earth. There is a ladder, a staircase. Earth and heaven are not separated. They are linked.
Secondly, there is two way traffic between heaven and earth in the form of the LORD’s angels. They go back and forth. The word for angel in the Bible means “messenger” and the book of Hebrews informs us: Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. (1:14)
What Jacob’s dream tells us is that these ministering spirits are able to go back and forth between heaven and earth as they carry out the tasks given to them by God. What the New Testament teaches us is that chief among those tasks is serving God’s people who are on earth.
The third component of the dream is Yahweh himself standing at the top of the ladder. He is the sovereign One, ruler over heaven and earth. He is over all, and yet He is connected to the earth.
In Jacob’s dream, God then opened his mouth and spoke to Jacob. This is what he said:
v. 13-14:I am Yahweh, 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. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
In these verses, God in his own words repeats what Isaac has already said. He identifies himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac, and he clearly states that the promises given to those two men have now been passed on to Jacob. Jacob is the inheritor of the blessing, the baton has been passed to him. This comes straight from the mouth of God himself, so there can be no misunderstanding. The promise contains the same essential ingredients: possession of the land, his descendants to become a great nation, and the Messianic promise that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through his seed.
We might call this part of God’s words the family promises, or the family faith. But God doesn’t stop there. He goes on to make this very personal and focuses on Jacob himself. This transition is made in verse 15, and for some reason again the translators have chosen to leave out the Hebrew markers: The text here begins by repeating the word “Behold!” What I am about to say I want you to pay particular attention to.
I think it is enormously significant what God says next to Jacob. I am with you!
Remember we said that family faith must become personal faith in order to be genuine, life-transforming faith.
I think we have here the first clue as to how that happens.
This comes throughout this chapter. It is there in the components of the dream: the link between heaven and earth, the angels going back and forth, God’s own visible appearance, and now these words. Not only am I giving you these wonderful promises. But here is my personal word to you: I am with you.
This is at the heart of all true personal faith: The sense of God’s presence. This is what happened to me, each time I was isolated from my familiar props, the external things that supported me and made me feel secure, each time God clearly communicated with me: I am with you. It was a very personal realization that this God was my God.
We see this awareness expressed in Jacob’s own words when he awoke.
v. 16-17: When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Jacob became aware of the presence of God. He became aware that, even though he was isolated and alone, far from home and all that was familiar, God was with him.
Family faith becomes personal faith when we experience God’s presence: When his presence becomes an ever present reality in our lives.
I think Jacob’s words are revealing. Surely the LORD is in this place and I was not aware of it. Stephen Charnock, the Puritan writer in the 17th century writes: “A God forgotten is as good as no God to us.” Theologians have long taught the omnipresence of God. Scripture clearly proclaims that God is present everywhere. But if we are not aware of it, if it’s not personal, what difference does it make in our lives? How does it affect our thinking, our acting, our feeling? It is simply an abstract attribute of God. It belongs in the category of “family faith” or “general faith.” In order for that family faith to become personal faith, the reality of God’s presence must become real to us. Only then will his presence impact our lives.
But I believe there is another step or ingredient to family faith becoming personal faith.
In these verses, God has reiterated the family promises. But he here also personalizes those promises to Jacob and his own life experiences on the journey he has already embarked on.
v. 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.
These are marvelous promises. And they are specific to Jacob. What a comfort they must have communicated to his heart. God was promising to protect him on his journey and bring him back. He clearly says: I will not leave you.
It is interesting to see Jacob’s response in v. 20: If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God.
These words can be interpreted a couple different ways. Some read this as a rather cynical bargaining on the part of Jacob; a kind of bribe. “God, if you do this for me, then this is what I will do for you.”
I don’t see it quite that way. I see it more in the sense of cause and effect. We might render the word “if” as “since”. “Since you have promised to do these things for me, I acknowledge you as my God.”
I believe what Jacob is doing here is expressing the fact that his family faith is being transformed into personal faith. “You are my God.” In verse 13, God identifies himself: I am the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. In later passages, God identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Here we have it in testimony form in Jacob’s own words: Yahweh will be my God.
Jacob’s family faith became personal faith. One very significant step in that process was learning to put his trust in the promises of God. And Jacob does so in very specific and concrete ways: If you will watch over me and give me food to eat and clothes to wear.
During my second year of university, I was working my way through school. It came time for the spring term, and I did not have enough money for my school fees. I was only short about $180, but I didn’t have it. During spring break, I caught a ride to Yakima, Washington, to spend the week at my grandfather’s home. While there, I was able to get a temporary job in the apple orchard of a family friend. I was able to earn about a quarter of what I needed. But then the week was over. It was time to decide. Do I go back to school or not? The night before I was to leave, the man I’d worked for came over to give me my wages for the week. As he gave me the check, he said: “I know you’ve got some school bills coming due, so I’ve included a little extra in the check.” The amount of the check was double what I’d earned, $100.
This provision gave me the confidence that God wanted me to return to school. But I still needed another $80 to be able to enroll in classes. I caught the bus back to Bellingham. When I arrived back at the dorm, I picked up my mail. In it was a letter from my parents. When I opened it, a check fell out. It was for $100. The letter read: “We just thought you might need a little extra help with your school fees.” They were not aware of my need. The letter had been sent several weeks before. It was the only time in 4 years of university that they were able to send me any money to help with expenses.
One of my room mates, an unbeliever who was aware of my dilemma was standing next to me when I opened the letter. He took one look at the check and muttered to himself, “I don’t believe it!” as he walked away.
That day marked another step in my family faith becoming personal faith. I trusted the promises of God and he met my needs in a very personal way.
FAMILY FAITH MUST BECOME PERSONAL FAITH IN ORDER TO BE GENUINE, LIFE-TRANSFORMING FAITH.
That brings us to the third observation from this chapter.
Look at Jacob on what we might call the “morning after”.
v.18: Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel (which means “house of God” in Hebrew).
Then in v. 20, we find that Jacob takes a vow. Not only will he follow Yahweh as his God, but look at what he promises in verse 22: And this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.
That raises some interesting questions for us. Did Jacob follow through on this vow? And if so, what did he do with this tithe? To whom did he give it? These are questions that must remain unanswered. We simply don’t know. But what is so clear to me is the natural response of the believing heart. When family faith (or maybe what we can even call academic faith) becomes personal faith, we are moved to worship and service. It is an impulse of the heart that almost cannot be denied. Our heart cries out: Lord, I want to worship you. I want to serve you. What would you have me to do?
Back to the story about my school fees. It was Sunday afternoon when I arrived back at the dorm. You might have picked up on the fact that I needed $80, and the check was for $100. That night I went to church. When the offering plate came by, I put in $20. I never gave an offering with greater joy. When family faith becomes personal faith, the heart yearns to respond.
Where there is no echo of the heart to worship and serve, one is left to wonder: Is there genuine, personal faith?
FAMILY FAITH MUST BECOME PERSONAL FAITH IN ORDER TO BE GENUINE, LIFE-TRANSFORMING FAITH.
That which transforms the life is that impulse of the heart toward worship and service that accompanies personal faith.
So, here is the question for each of us to consider. In my life, has family faith, or academic faith, or nominal faith become personal faith?
How does that happen? Family faith becomes personal faith when we experience God’s presence. When God’s words: I will be with you, become personal to us. When we begin to do what the devotional writers refer to as “practicing the presence of God.”
Then, family faith becomes personal faith when we put our trust in the promises of God. There are so many of them in the Scriptures, given specifically to believers. I cannot even begin to list them here. But it isn’t enough to just know them. We must trust them.
Then, as our faith becomes personal, as we sense God’s presence and see his working in our lives we will be moved to worship, love and service, and our life will be transformed.
Maybe you come from a Christian home, at least a nominal one, but your family faith has never become personal. Or maybe this whole thing about faith and God is new to you. Where does one begin? I am not going to pass on a technique or a methodology. I simply want to share a Scripture in closing.
It is found in I Chronicles 28:9. In this verse, David is talking to his son, Solomon. How will David’s faith become Solomon’s faith? How will family faith become personal? Listen to David’s words:
And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him he will be found by you.
There it is. God is searching every heart and every thought and every motive behind the thought. If there is, anywhere in you a desire for the Lord, he will know it. If you seek him, even at the level of thought and motive, he will be found by you. Just seek him. Just desire him. And you will find him. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say: He will find you.