Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

21 January 2024

Reading From Genesis 27-29

“Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 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 itstood 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. 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.  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.”

–Genesis 28:10-15

     At Babel we saw mankind pridefully building a monumental tower to reach God on their terms and make a name for themselves.  Here in Jacob’s dream, we see a spiritual connection made by God between Himself and humanity. We also receive a message from God that He will bless Jacob and his family with the land and that He will bless the entire world through them for His glory and our good.  God would be the one doing His work through humanity rather than human beings attempting to manufacture the good life on their own.  We know that this blessing of new life, abundant and eternal has come through Jesus, who as for His human heritage was an offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  He is the Way, the Truth and the Life[1] and through Him the children of God enjoy “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.”[2] 

     The imagery of the angels ascending and descending with God the Father at the top and Jacob at the bottom speaks of constant divine communication,[3] intervention,[4] and presence.[5]  When God is approached via the way He has provided, revealed through Christ Jesus and His Word, a life-giving relationship is available to be cultivated and enriched.[6]  By the blood of Jesus applied through the power of the Holy Spirit, we may find rest,[7] peace,[8] fulfillment,[9] satisfaction[10] and fullness of joy in the Presence of God the Father.[11]

      There is also a prophecy in this passage with several fulfillments.  God tells Jacob that He will be with him wherever he goes and that He will bring him back to this land.  This was hundreds of years before the Exodus,[12] over one thousand years before the exiles would return from Babylon,[13] and thousands of years before the creation of the modern Jewish state in 1948.[14]  God sees the entire arc of history all at once.  Ultimately, it would be Jesus[15] who would bring all children of Abraham,[16] everyone who has ever believed and called on His marvelous Name,[17] into the eternal family of God to be together with Him forevermore in the true Promised Land, the New Eden that will be the New Heaven and the New Earth.[18]

“God, may I be reminded that I must approach You on Your terms and not my own.  You are God and I am not.  I must decrease and You must increase in my life and in the world around me.  I am grateful that I didn’t have to make a way to reach You.  I wouldn’t have been able to in my own strength and intellect.  You have provided the Way for me.  Fill me up with Your love and help me show that love to everyone I encounter.  Let me begin anew each day in doing Your work on the earth.  Thank You Jesus for the tremendous blessing You are to me and give me the empathy and spiritual wisdom and power I need to continually extend Your love and message of grace to others.  Amen.”

 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Hebrews 9:15

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[1] John 14:6

[2] Ephesians 1:3

[3] Romans 1:19-20, Psalm 19:1-2, John 10:27-28, II Timothy 3:16, Jeremiah 33:3, Job 33:14,

[4] Numbers 11:2, Psalm 107:35, Exodus 14:21-22, Daniel 6:22, Acts 16:26

[5] Isaiah 41:10, Zephaniah 3:17, Joshua 1:9, Matthew 28:20, Psalm 23:4, John 14:16-17, I Corinthians 3:16

[6] I John 2:3, Hebrews 4:12, John 1:4

[7] Psalm 62:5-12

[8] John 14:27

[9] Proverbs 13:12

[10] Isaiah 58:11, Matthew 5:6

[11] Psalm 16:11

[12] Joshua 3

[13] Ezra 8

[14] Israel | Facts, History, Population, & Map | Britannica

[15] Luke 24:44

[16] Galatians 3:29

[17] Romans 10:13

[18] Revelation 21-22