Proper 11
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
Object:
Jacob is on a journey from Hebron to Haran, Abraham's original home in northern Mesopotamia. In the context, two different reasons are given for the journey. According to the Yahwist account in Genesis 27:41-45, Jacob is fleeing to save his life from the wrath of his brother Esau. In the priestly account of Genesis 27:46--28:1-5, Jacob journeys to find a wife from his own clan. Both reasons may be involved, because God's purpose works its way through all sorts of motivations. Before Jacob takes leave of his father Isaac, however, Isaac blesses Jacob with the wish that Jacob may become the bearer of God's promise (28:3-4). Our text for the morning tells how that comes about.
A day's journey out, Jacob camps for the night at a place originally called Luz. As he sleeps, pillowing his head with a stone (undoubtedly covered with his cloak), he has a dream of a ladder -- or more properly, a stepped ramp -- reaching up into heaven, with angels descending and ascending on the ramp. And above the top end of the ramp, the Lord stands and addresses Jacob.
God identifies himself as the same God who spoke to Abraham and to Isaac, and then he gives to Jacob the same promise that he gave to Abraham (cf. Genesis 12:1-3). Jacob will have many descendants; God will give them a land to call their own; and through them, God will bring his blessing on all the families of the earth (28:13-14). In short, through Jacob and his descendants God will continue his work of restoring his world to the goodness that he intended for it in the beginning. God's plan is continuing to be worked out in history.
An additional promise to Jacob personally follows, however. God will protect Jacob and bring him back to Canaan, and God will never leave Jacob until all that God has promised him is fulfilled (v. 15). Jacob is journeying under the protection and guidance of a divine guarantee. That is the same assurance that our Lord gave to us when he promised, "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matthew 28:20). And it is the basis of the same confidence that Paul expressed to the Philippians, "I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day (i.e. the second coming) of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). Our lives are not lonely battles and aimless excursions through the valleys and heights of our everydays, but guided and watched over by the Lord who is working out his purpose through us.
Jacob is awestruck when he wakes, realizing that he has encountered God at the meeting place of heaven and earth (vv. 16-17). As a result, he sets his stone pillow up as an altar and names the site, "Beth-el," "the house of God" (vv. 18-19), marking it forever after as a holy place.
These last four verses, 16-19, have often been misused in sermons and meditations and at summer camp sites. Some worship leader will tell us that a church building or some structure or outdoor setting is "the house of God" with God present there. And contrary to the text, and indeed the scriptures as a whole, God then is understood as available anywhere at any time according to our word (contra Deuteronomy 12:5; Isaiah 55:6). But Jacob has been privy to the place where heaven meets earth, and there is only one location of that meeting place for us -- in Jesus Christ. In him, we encounter the Father, and only through him (John 14:6). And it is only because Christ has promised to be with two or three gathered together in his name (Matthew 18:20) that we can say our church building or some other worship location is the place where we meet God. We cannot command God's gracious presence, but nevertheless, he grants himself to us in his Son.
Lutheran Option: Isaiah 44:6-8
Here in the strongest terms we encounter the monotheism of the Old Testament. There is no other God besides the God revealed to us through the witnesses preserved for us in the scriptures. God is the first and the last (v. 6), the Alpha and the Omega (cf. Revelation 1:8), the One at the beginning and at the end of human time and history, the eternal Lord, before and after all things (cf. Psalm 90:1-2). It is in Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), spoken to exiles in Babylonia who were surrounded by foreign deities, that we find the strongest statements in the Old Testament of the sole Godhead of the Lord.
But on what basis does the prophet Second Isaiah proclaim that fact? On two bases of history. First of all, God has had the power to rule over nature and empire and other gods in order to deliver his people Israel from slavery in Egypt. He was not thwarted by the gods of Egypt or by the power of a Pharaoh or by the waters of the Reed Sea. He "redeemed" his people -- bought them back from their servitude (cf. Leviticus 25:47-49), which is the meaning of redemption. And God became their King and their Redeemer (Isaiah 44:6; cf. 6:1; 43:15, et al.).
Second, God is the One who rules over all of history. He can tell what is coming in the future, because he holds the future in his hand. He has a plan that he is working out over all the span of time, and he therefore knows what the future holds and what the end will be (Isaiah 44:7). No other religion or deity in the world has a purpose that over-arches the entire human story. Indeed, most religions of the world try to escape out of human history. But the Lord God of Israel and of Jesus Christ has that purpose, and he is day by day, month by month, year by year, century by century accomplishing it.
The proclamation of verse 8 can therefore also be spoken to us, good Christians. "Fear not, nor be afraid!" For we too have been redeemed from our slavery to sin and death, have we not -- redeemed by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ? And we too have been told by our Lord what the end of human history will be -- the Kingdom of God come on earth even as it is in heaven. Therefore, we too need not fear either things present or things to come, either life or death, principalities or powers, or anything in all creation, because we know -- we know with certain joy -- that God rules over our lives and universe and is directing them toward his glad conclusion. What is the world coming to? It is coming to Christ, when every knee will bow to him and every tongue confess, that he is Lord of all, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11; cf. Isaiah 45:23).
A day's journey out, Jacob camps for the night at a place originally called Luz. As he sleeps, pillowing his head with a stone (undoubtedly covered with his cloak), he has a dream of a ladder -- or more properly, a stepped ramp -- reaching up into heaven, with angels descending and ascending on the ramp. And above the top end of the ramp, the Lord stands and addresses Jacob.
God identifies himself as the same God who spoke to Abraham and to Isaac, and then he gives to Jacob the same promise that he gave to Abraham (cf. Genesis 12:1-3). Jacob will have many descendants; God will give them a land to call their own; and through them, God will bring his blessing on all the families of the earth (28:13-14). In short, through Jacob and his descendants God will continue his work of restoring his world to the goodness that he intended for it in the beginning. God's plan is continuing to be worked out in history.
An additional promise to Jacob personally follows, however. God will protect Jacob and bring him back to Canaan, and God will never leave Jacob until all that God has promised him is fulfilled (v. 15). Jacob is journeying under the protection and guidance of a divine guarantee. That is the same assurance that our Lord gave to us when he promised, "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matthew 28:20). And it is the basis of the same confidence that Paul expressed to the Philippians, "I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day (i.e. the second coming) of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). Our lives are not lonely battles and aimless excursions through the valleys and heights of our everydays, but guided and watched over by the Lord who is working out his purpose through us.
Jacob is awestruck when he wakes, realizing that he has encountered God at the meeting place of heaven and earth (vv. 16-17). As a result, he sets his stone pillow up as an altar and names the site, "Beth-el," "the house of God" (vv. 18-19), marking it forever after as a holy place.
These last four verses, 16-19, have often been misused in sermons and meditations and at summer camp sites. Some worship leader will tell us that a church building or some structure or outdoor setting is "the house of God" with God present there. And contrary to the text, and indeed the scriptures as a whole, God then is understood as available anywhere at any time according to our word (contra Deuteronomy 12:5; Isaiah 55:6). But Jacob has been privy to the place where heaven meets earth, and there is only one location of that meeting place for us -- in Jesus Christ. In him, we encounter the Father, and only through him (John 14:6). And it is only because Christ has promised to be with two or three gathered together in his name (Matthew 18:20) that we can say our church building or some other worship location is the place where we meet God. We cannot command God's gracious presence, but nevertheless, he grants himself to us in his Son.
Lutheran Option: Isaiah 44:6-8
Here in the strongest terms we encounter the monotheism of the Old Testament. There is no other God besides the God revealed to us through the witnesses preserved for us in the scriptures. God is the first and the last (v. 6), the Alpha and the Omega (cf. Revelation 1:8), the One at the beginning and at the end of human time and history, the eternal Lord, before and after all things (cf. Psalm 90:1-2). It is in Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), spoken to exiles in Babylonia who were surrounded by foreign deities, that we find the strongest statements in the Old Testament of the sole Godhead of the Lord.
But on what basis does the prophet Second Isaiah proclaim that fact? On two bases of history. First of all, God has had the power to rule over nature and empire and other gods in order to deliver his people Israel from slavery in Egypt. He was not thwarted by the gods of Egypt or by the power of a Pharaoh or by the waters of the Reed Sea. He "redeemed" his people -- bought them back from their servitude (cf. Leviticus 25:47-49), which is the meaning of redemption. And God became their King and their Redeemer (Isaiah 44:6; cf. 6:1; 43:15, et al.).
Second, God is the One who rules over all of history. He can tell what is coming in the future, because he holds the future in his hand. He has a plan that he is working out over all the span of time, and he therefore knows what the future holds and what the end will be (Isaiah 44:7). No other religion or deity in the world has a purpose that over-arches the entire human story. Indeed, most religions of the world try to escape out of human history. But the Lord God of Israel and of Jesus Christ has that purpose, and he is day by day, month by month, year by year, century by century accomplishing it.
The proclamation of verse 8 can therefore also be spoken to us, good Christians. "Fear not, nor be afraid!" For we too have been redeemed from our slavery to sin and death, have we not -- redeemed by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ? And we too have been told by our Lord what the end of human history will be -- the Kingdom of God come on earth even as it is in heaven. Therefore, we too need not fear either things present or things to come, either life or death, principalities or powers, or anything in all creation, because we know -- we know with certain joy -- that God rules over our lives and universe and is directing them toward his glad conclusion. What is the world coming to? It is coming to Christ, when every knee will bow to him and every tongue confess, that he is Lord of all, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11; cf. Isaiah 45:23).
