City Life Starter

Written by Efe Abbe

The Word

Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, 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.”

Genesis‬ ‭28‬:‭10‬-‭15

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ ‭The Message‬‬

“…And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭28‬:‭20‬ ‭ESV

Reflection

Jacob is on the run from the land God promised to give his grandfather and father. If the point of all his scheming was to get the rights and blessings of the first born son, his efforts seem moot now that he has to leave the land of the Promise. At this point in the Genesis narrative, I’ve thrown my hands up because in my humanity my question is “Is this the man God is really going to use to fulfill His Promise?” And that’s exactly the point. Moses, the author of Genesis, has not cared to paint Jacob in any glowing light because this story isn’t ultimately about Jacob – it’s about God.

Jacob has done nothing (in fact he’s done the opposite) to earn being God’s choice to inherit the Promise, still God graciously comes looking for him even when he’s knee deep in the consequences of his deceit. The amazing thing is that God finds Jacob and promises not to leave him even though He knows that Jacob isn’t completely all in – as we’ll see in the rest of the chapter when Jacob conditionally agrees to trust God.

This is God’s character (Exodus 34:6-8) and all His actions towards humanity can be summed up as: God keeps looking for us in order to never leave us. He looks for the rebellious creatures He made in His likeness out of His grace and compassion; God’s pursuit of us in His love is unwavering and mind blowing.

Application

The Promise that Jacob inherited was set in motion from the garden of Eden, when humanity first failed God (Genesis 3:15). God promised to undo the effects of our sin and rebellion through the promised Messiah. Jesus, Jacob’s future descendant and God in human form, fulfilled this promise.

Like Jacob we have done the opposite of earning God’s gift of His Son Jesus. Yet in His grace, “God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him” (Romans 5:8).

God raised Jesus to life and has permanently undone all the eternal effects of our sin. All who humbly receive Jesus by faith have been brought back to God and the best part is that, in Jesus, God has made a way for us and He will never ever leave us.

Prayer

Dear God, thank You for not giving up on me and on everyone You have made. Thank You for Your deep grace and compassion, that moved You to pay the costly price of Your Son for me. Please help me to love and honor You by surrendering my life to Your will and goodness, amen.