Jesus in Genesis: A Rock Pillow and the Redeemer's Presence

OUTLINE

1. Understanding our Past (Genesis 28:10-11)

2. Understanding His Promise (Genesis 28:12-17)

3. Understanding the Path (Genesis 28:16-18)

QUESTIONS:

1. What stuck out to you from today’s passage?

2. For all of us, our past is problematic. None of us are perfect, therefore we all have a past that punishes us. How has God used your past to point you to the Prince of Peace? How can the act of hitting ‘rock bottom’ be an incredibly helpful thing? Are you uncomfortable letting someone hit ‘rock bottom”? (Genesis 28:10-11).

3. God’s promises to Jacob are profound. They are not based on anything Jacob has done to earn or deserve them. The only time Jacob has used God’s name up to this point has been blasphemous (Genesis 27:20). Has God ever surprised you with His kindness that leads to repentance? During your darkest times, where have you experienced God doing His deepest work? (Genesis 28:12-17)

4. How can a Holy God love and accept unholy sinners? This is the most important news, message and truth in the world. Why do you think we so quickly forget it and move away from it (Galatians 1:6; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4)? What happens when an individual or a church moves away from the purity and simplicity of the Gospel? What does it look like for you to relentlessly focus on the Gospel of Jesus?

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE:

Genesis 28
Jacob Is Sent Away
1So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. 2Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. 3May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 4May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham.” 5Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.6Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take to himself a wife from there, and thatwhen he blessed him he charged him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” 7and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram. 8So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father Isaac; 9and Esau went to Ishmael, and married, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.

Jacob’s Dream
10Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. 12He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. 14Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”18So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. 19He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. 20Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, 21and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. 22This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”