[Genesis 28:1_22] 2026.01.25 The God of the fathers and the sons of doubt
[Genesis 28:1_22] 2026.01.25 The God of the fathers and the sons of doubt
The God of the fathers and the sons of doubt
Passage: Genesis 28:1-22
Big Idea: The God of the fathers is faithful even to sons of doubt and promises to be with them as they follow God the Son.
1. A father repents from his doubt
2. The God of the fathers’ promise to a son of doubt
3. A son of doubt makes a vow to take a bow
It’s been a while since our Church has handed out pamphlets to the people of Kogarah.
I still remember handing out leaflets to people who were just outside of our Church.
There were kind people who smiled politely as they picked up the leaflets.
There were also people who were not so kind and didn’t even try to hide their disgust as they walked away from you.
It’s not a nice feeling getting rejected and despised, time and time again.
When people reject me or others handing out leaflets about Church, or if they reject and despise us when we try to share God’s word with them, they’re ultimately rejecting God, who sends us.
If God iss the person whom they are ultimately rejecting, then God must get more rejection from the people of this world than anyone else in history.
There are many people who doubts God and the existence of God, including many people of our modern era who wants nothing whatsoever to do with God.
And so, why does God, the ancient God of the Bible want anything to do with modern day doubters?
Why does God even bother to reach modern day doubters, who doesn’t care about God at all?
In today’s passage, we see a man who, after experiencing God for many years, still doubted whether God’s way is the best way.
We’re also going to see his son, who wasn’t someone even his family could trust, but who ended up starting his own journey of faith with the God of his fathers.
And so, please open up your Bible to Genesis chapter28, beginning from verse 1.
We’re going to see three things:
1. A father repents from his doubt
2. The God of the fathers’ promise to a son of doubt
3. A son of doubt makes a vow to take a bow
Before we begin, let’s pray, “Our Heavenly Father, by your Holy Spirit, please help us to see a glimpse of your mercy and your grace as we hear from your word. And by your Spirit, please overcome our doubts and help us believe in Jesus, in whose name we pray, Amen.”
1. A father repents from his doubt
Last week, as we were reading the end of Genesis 27, we saw a broken family becoming even more broken.
Here’s a quick summary: a mother told her younger son to lie to his blind father, so that he could get his blessings that the father had wanted to give to the older son.
When the truth came out, the older brother was comforted by the fact that once his father died, he would kill his younger brother.
The family was messed up! And so, to de-escalate the situation, the mother devised a plan.
The older son married two local girls who were giving the parents a hard time.
And so, Rebekah, the mother, said to Isaac, the father, Gen 27:46, “I’m sick of my life because of these Hethite girls. If Jacob marries someone from around here, like these Hethite girls, what good is my life?”
Rebekah didn’t tell Isaac to do anything, but it was pretty clear that Isaac had to do something.
People still do that today, right? You want something, but you don’t directly ask for it.
You say something, hoping that the person you speak to will do something about it.
There’s even a term on TikTok for that kind of behaviour.
It’s called “Dry-begging”.
Dry begging is an indirect way of seeking support without verbalising it directly.
Anyone heard of it?
Instead of saying, ‘Can you help me with this?’, a dry begger will say something like, ‘I don’t know how I am going to finish without any help’, hoping the listener will help out.
Or instead of saying, ‘Are you free? Let’s have a catch-up over coffee”, they’ll say, “I don’t have anything to do and I’m hungry, and I have no one to talk to”, hoping the listener will have a meal with them, and maybe, even pay for their food!
Dry-beggers assume that you can read their minds and know what the’re really asking you, even though they haven’t asked it directly.
And here, Rebekah was dry-begging Isaac.
Speaking to Isaac about Esau’s wives, she said, “I’m sick of my life because of these Hethite girls”.
And, without further prompting, Isaac summoned Jacob, the younger son; he read Rebekah’s mind.
But rather than dry-begging Jacob, Isaac gave a clear command to Jacob.
Look at verse two with me, “Do not marry a Canaanite girl. 2 Go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father. Marry one of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.”
A long time ago, Abraham, Isaac’s father, sent a servant to get a wife for him.
Now, Isaac, himself a father, sent his son Jacob to get a wife for himself.
Isaac did what Rebekah dry-begged him to do.
Rebekah got her wish; but Isaac wasn’t finished.
Look with me at verses 3-4, “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you so that you become an assembly of peoples. May God give you and your offspring the blessing of Abraham so that you may possess the land where you live as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”
Last week, in chapter 27, we read that Isaac wasn’t keen on blessing Jacob at all, even though God had told Rebekah in no uncertain terms that the older (Esau) would serve the younger (Jacob).
Isaac didn’t want to follow through with blessing the person God had said he wanted to bless.
Isaac had doubts whether God was right to make Jacob the recipient of Abraham’s blessings as opposed to Esau.
And so, Isaac tried to bless Esau instead.
However, after Jacob and Rebekah intervened, Isaac did end up blessing Jacob, thinking that Jacob was Esau.
But here in Genesis chapter 28, Isaac had a change of heart.
He willingly, without any further prompting from Rebekah, blessed Jacob with the blessings that he received from his father Abraham.
Isaac recognised that even though Jacob was not his choice, he was God’s choice.
And so, Isaac blessed Jacob with a blessing that sounded a lot like God’s blessings on Abraham.
Isaac prayed that God would give Jacob many descendants and that he would possess the land that God gave to Abraham.
And Jacob did something quite extraordinary.
Verse 7, “And Jacob listened to his father and mother and went to Paddan-aram.” While it sounded fairly ordinary to hear a son listening to his father and mother, here, we’re talking about Jacob, the man who intentionally lied to his father to get his brother’s blessings.
It’s such a pleasant change in the story so far to see a son listening to his father and mother.
In fact, this is the only verse in the whole Bible that I’m aware of where a son listens to his father and mother.
Of course, there are many children in the Bible who listen to their parents, including Jesus!
But as far as I’m aware, this is the only verse where the words, “father”, “mother” and “listen” all describe something that a son did.
Jacob listened to Isaac, his father, and Rebekah, his mother.
Meanwhile, Esau finally came to a realisation too.
He heard Isaac’s command to Jacob not to marry local women but to marry someone from their own tribe.
Esau even heard how Isaac blessed Jacob willingly.
It finally clicked for Esau. His parents didn’t like his Canaanite wives!
So what did he do? He went and got another wife, but this time from a girl within his own tribe.
Maybe his parents would approve of him, and maybe Isaac would even bless him, just like he did with Jacob.
Esau might finally have understood his parents’ dislike for his wives, but he still didn’t get why he wasn’t blessed.
He wasn’t blessed not because he married two Canaanite wives.
He wasn’t blessed because God didn’t choose to bless him.
God made that decision even before he and his brother Isaac were born.
Esau’s father Isaac tried to go against God’s decision but failed.
Isaac recognised it was wrong for him to doubt God’s choice and he repented from it.
Rather than withholding his blessings from Jacob, he willingly blessed Jacob with the blessings of his father Abraham.
Isaac was at last at peace with God’s choice to bless Jacob.
Like Isaac, we can often fall into a mindset of thinking that there’s a certain kind of person God ought to bless, a certain kind of person God ought to be pleased with.
We might think of the kind of background a person’s from, the kind of things the person ought to enjoy, the kind of friends that the person has.
We might even think of the person’s participation in Church, the way they serve, the words they speak and even the way they think.
And when God blesses those who don’t fit in our preconceived idea of someone who ought to be blessed by God, we get uncomfortable.
When Jesus had meals with the tax collectors, the Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” These tax collectors and sinners were blessed by Jesus’ presence, and they were not happy with Jesus about it.
Who are people who seem like tax collectors and sinners to us?
How do we respond when God blesses them?
When Isaac realised his mistake, when he recognised that he shouldn’t have doubted God’s choice, he repented from his doubt and blessed Jacob instead.
May God help us to repent from our doubt about His choice and to trust in Him, accepting those whom He’s blessed and even blessing those whom He’s blessed.
We thank God for His blessings on them, just as He’s had blessings on us.
In response to the Pharisee’s questions, Jesus said, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
It’s only because of God’s mercy that any sinner is saved.
This is what we see as the God of the fathers makes a promise to Jacob, a son of doubt.
2. The God of the fathers’ promise to a son of doubt
Jacob was on his way to Haran, decided to sleep at a certain place, because the sun had set.
Jacob was all alone.
He left his parents behind because he was trying to get away from a brother who was planning to kill him.
He was on his way to relatives that he had almost certainly never met.
He was both physically and relationally alone.
Perhaps it’s with a heavy heart and an exhausted mind that he fell asleep and dreamed.
Look with me at verse 12, “And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it.”
Different people have used the term “Jacob’s ladder” in many different ways. There are at least eight books called Jacob’s ladder.
Even though the band Led Zeppelin didn’t use the words ‘Jacob’s ladder’ explicitly, the song “Stairway to Heaven” sounds very similar to what was being described here.
I was in Brisbane visiting a few people a few months ago.
Not far from where I lived was a set of stairs called Jacob’s ladder.
While not quite heaven, it was still quite a long way up to the top!
So what was this ladder, this stairway to heaven?
It’s what Jacob saw as the connection between heaven and earth.
In his book, “Who Is God?: Key Moments of Biblical Revelation”, the theologian Richard Bauckham argues that the staircase was probably “a broad stone staircase running up the stepped side of one of the artificial mountains—known as ziggurats—that the people of ancient Mesopotamia built”.
Some of the people living in the Ancient East believed that the gods lived in mountains that touched heaven.
The people would then build these ziggurats so that they could climb up the steps to worship the gods.
In Jacob’s dream, he saw angels ascending and descending on the staircase.
The angels were messengers from God, sent by God to do his will, not just in one person’s life, but to help shape the directions and destinies of entire nations.
Like many people, ancient or modern, we would probably have looked for God at the top of the staircase.
We would strain our eyes to see beyond the horizon, to see the One who sits on His throne, ruling over everything that happens to everyone here on earth.
That’s why what happened next was unexpected.
Verse 13-14, “The LORD was standing there beside him, saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying. Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.”
The LORD was standing there beside him.
If your Bible version doesn’t have the words “standing beside him” in the text, see the footnotes; it’s probably there.
The LORD, mighty in power, Lord over everything and everyone, was standing next to Jacob, at the bottom of the stairs!
This is the God whom Jacob had heard so much about!
This is the God of his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac.
In the midst of Jacob’s loneliness, away from people and away from his family, God gave Jacob this promise, in verse 15: “Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
God has promised to be with Jacob, wherever he goes.
Wherever Jacob goes, God will be there.
God will not leave Jacob until he’s done what he promised to Jacob.
What an incredible promise!
God has promised this faithfulness to Jacob; God will be there for Jacob, always.
Jacob was not a nice person; he lied to trick his blind Dad to get his brother’s blessings.
He’s done nothing for God to deserve this promise from God.
Why is God so good to Jacob?
It’s all because of God’s mercy; it’s all because of God’s grace.
God had showered his extravagant love and mercy on Jacob.
Jacob could never earn God’s promises but God chose to give his promises to Jacob.
God promised that from now on, no matter where Jacob goes, he will never be alone, because where Jacob is, God is.
God does rule on top of the stairway of heaven, ruling over all nations and all lives, but he’s also with those of us here on earth, wherever we might be.
The most important reference to the stairway to heaven is not a book, a movie, or a song, but a reference made by the Lord Jesus himself in John 1:51, “Then he said, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Jesus uses the imagery of Jacob’s ladder to describe who He is.
Jesus is the Son of Man, the One who has come to be the King of God’s kingdom.
It’s through Him, and Him alone, that we can come to know God at all.
It’s through Him that God rules over all nations and all people.
Jesus is the true stairway to heaven.
While Jesus does rule from heaven, he is not far from us who are on earth, for he made this promise in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Just as God had promised to be with Jacob wherever he might be, Jesus has promised to be with His disciples, that He will be with us always.
What an incredibly gracious and loving God we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There will be times when we feel alone because we would rather follow Jesus than the world.
There would be times when even your friends and families might leave you, because you love Jesus more.
For all those times, Jesus assures us that he will be there with us; He will be with us, always.
However, there will be times when we feel lonely not because we were following Jesus, but because we were in the wrong.
Like Jacob, there will be times when we feel lonely because we have left our friends and families, not for Jesus’ sake, but for our own sake.
There will be times when we feel like we deserve our loneliness, and not worthy of any kindness from anyone because of something we’ve done.
Even in those times, God is not far; He’s only a prayer away.
Our God is a God of mercy and grace, and he wans to shower his love and grace on undeserving, lonely sinners like us.
Recent studies have shown that at least 2 in 5 of us have experienced loneliness this past week.
If you have experienced loneliness this past week, turn to God in prayer.
He’s the only One who is there for you, 24/7.
He’s the only One who can be there when no one else can.
Though he rules over everything, and I mean everything, he will never be so busy that he won’t have time for you.
You can come to him if the reason for your loneliness is because you would rather follow Jesus than the glitter of this world.
You can also come to him if the reason for your loneliness is that you’ve done the opposite, that you had followed glitter of this world instead of Jesus.
Whatever situation you’re in, you can come to him, you can pray to him.
And though there’s a 3/5 chance that the person that you see wasn’t lonely this past week, talk with them, encourage them by sharing God’s word, whether the person has suffered loneliness or not.
I’m sure God wants you to remind them of his presence, whether the person is lonely or not.
Let’s not take any chances; encourage anyone you can with God’s word this week!
3. A son of doubt makes a vow to take a bow
After Jacob woke up, he realised that God was in this place.
Look at his response in verses 17, “He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.”
Usually when we talk about God’s presence, we think of it as an encouragement or a comfort.
But for Jacob, when he realised God was here, he was afraid.
Last year, there were over 1.5 billion tourists who travelled around the world. While tourism is and can be a good thing, there are times when tourists can behave very badly.
One of the most obviously bad behaviours is when tourists take pictures of the King’s guard and his horse in London.
Rather than respecting the guard and his horse, they would stand too close, and even block the path of the guard and his horse, irritating both the guard and the horse.
They forget that the guard and the horse are there on official business.
Being comforted by God in his presence is one thing, but being too comfortable to the point of being rude in his presence is another.
Jacob understood that though God has been so good and gracious to him, his proper response to God is a godly fear.
In his godly fear, he said that this place was awesome, that it’s the house of God, the gate of heaven.
Can you imagine the scene?
Jacob, scared as he was at being in God’s presence, shouting how awesome God is to essentially an empty wilderness.
Maybe he wanted God to hear him? But even if God was his intended audience, He was telling God something that he already knew.
It might have looked and sounded a little awkward, but that was the beginning of his response to the promises of the God of the fathers.
Early in the morning, he took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker, pouring oil on it.
This stone and the act of him pouring oil on it showed that this would be a reminder of his meeting with God the night before.
This place would be remembered as the place where God had revealed himself to Jacob to show him the staircase to heaven. From now on, this place would be known as Bethel, which literally means The House (Beth) of God (El).
Jacob then made this vow before God, from verse 20-22, “If God will be with me and watch over me during this journey I’m making, if he provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear, 21 and if I return safely to my father’s family, then the LORD will be my God. 22 This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God’s house, and I will give to you a tenth of all that you give me.”
God had made a promise to Jacob, to be with him, wherever he goes.
Jacob made a vow that if God keeps his promise, and provides him with food, clothing and safety, not only on the way there but also on the return journey too, then the LORD would be his God.
He would also build God’s house here and give one tenth of all he had to God.
Wow, he would give one tenth of all that he had to God.
It sounded like a lot, until you realise that Jacob didn’t have much, and he was relying on God to give him his food and clothing.
God would give him everything and Jacob would give one tenth back, if, and only if, God keeps his promises.
Can you hear how one-sided this arrangement is?
God promised to be with Jacob, as part of his promises to Abraham, which included many sons and daughters, land and God’s presence.
Jacob vows to give one tenth to God, and follow God, as if God would miss out if Jacob doesn’t follow him.
But even now, I still hear people make this kind of vows to God.
They’re vows like, “God, if you give me a pass, I’ll believe in Jesus.”
“God, if I make it through this sickness, I will go to Church every Sunday.”
“God, please let me get this promotion, and I’ll give you a raise too.”
Think about it for a second.
God, sits in heaven, sends his angels to move the hearts of the kings of nations according to his will.
Does he really need you to believe him?
Will he really miss out if you don’t give him your money?
Who’s going to be worse off if you don’t go to Church? You or God?
Like Isaac, we make these vows with God, as if we’re giving God a great deal, when in fact, we’re giving him a terrible deal.
But you know what? Long before we made any vows to God, God has already given us far more than we could ever ask of him.
God’s given us his one and only Son, Jesus Christ. What more could he give?
He gave us Jesus so that we can be with Him forever.
To have God with us, wherever we are, and for us to be with Him forever, is far more precious than anything we can give God, and far better than anything else we can ask of God.
And so, instead of making vows with God in order to give us things which we think are good for us, whether it’s safety, or wealth, or status,
let’s make vows because he’s already given us that are what He thinks is good for us.
We make these vows not because we want to be rewarded for our feeble faithfulness.
We want to make these vows because we’re thankful that God’s been faithful.
And most of all, we make vows before God for giving us his Only Son Jesus Christ.
Like Jacob, we want to make vows before God because we want to bow in himble worship before God.
We thank God that Jerry Zhu, our new minister, will be ordained as a deacon (assistant minister) of the Anglican Church.
On that day, Jerry will be making a number of vows before God.
One of them would be this or one very much like this regarding God’s word: Will you diligently read them to the people assembled in the church where you will be appointed to serve?
And Jerry will reply, I will.
Jerry, and other deacons of the day, will make a vow before God on that day.
Every deacon who has been ordained through the Anglican Church ordination process in Sydney, had made the same vow.
I made the same vow almost 19 years ago.
We make vows before God not because we want God to give us anything in return, but because God has already given us everything in Christ.
Our vows show us and everyone around us that we are seriously thankful for what God has done for us in Christ.
What vows have you made before God, to show your thankfulness to him?
Rather than making New Year’s resolutions, would you prayerfully make vows before God this year?
Jerry and I had vowed to diligently read and teach God’s word to God’s people gathered here.
More specifically, Jerry will apply his vow to God by primarily helping Mandarin-speaking brothers and sisters grow, and I will apply my vow to God by helping the English-speaking brothers and sisters to grow.
In the Church this year, we’re looking to have at least 19 regular youths and young adults, mostly in the English speaking ministries of our Church.
We aim to have 500 students in SRE classes around our primary school and high schools by 2035.
We’ve already passed the 200 mark, and we might even reach the 250 mark this year.
We need more teachers and supporters.
We need more integrations between schools and our Church.
Will you commit to helping us reach more youths and young adults?
Will you make a vow before God to see more people won to Christ?
And so, why does the ancient God of the Bible want anything to do with modern day doubters?
Though modern day doubters want God to leave them alone, God, in his mercy deals graciously with them; God has dealt graciously with us.
It’s not just those in the world who doubt what God can do; sadly, we, too here at Church, may doubt that God can do what he says he can do too.
May the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, have mercy on us, sons and daughters of doubt.
We thank God that though despite our doubts, the God of the fathers is faithful even to sons of doubt and promises to be with them as they follow God the Son.
Here are three questions for us to think about this week:
Three Questions
Is there any doubt about how God blesses that you need to repent from?
Is there someone lonely whom you can encourage with God’s word this week?
Do you have a godly fear when you come into God’s presence?
The God of the fathers is faithful even to sons of doubt and promises to be with them as they follow God the Son.
Let’s pray, “Father, we thank you for your faithfulness to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, please forgive us for our doubts, not trusting you as we should, nor loving you as we ought. Father, please help us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Son of Man, the true stairway to heaven. Help us to follow Him, even in times of loneliness, knowing that He has promised to be with us, always. We pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.”