An overview for Sunday School teacher and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Genesis 28:10-22, for Sunday, March 24, 2024, with the title, “A Stairway.”

A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO:  ??? Can anyone share a dream you had that was very vivid, or important to you in some way??? (Or maybe a particular recurring dream?)

(Over the years, many times I have dreamed that I am late to class, or can’t find my way there, or that I suddenly remember that I haven’t been to a particular class I need to graduate, all semester — and now I am trying to find it!)

Or you could start by talking about famous dreams from history:

??? Can your group name some???

— About a century ago, Danish physicist Neils Bohr was trying to figure out the structure of the atom. One night he dreamed that atoms were like solar systems. The nucleus was the sun, with electrons spinning round it. After testing the idea, he found that his dream was right. His discovery won him the Nobel Prize, and he is now known as the father of quantum mechanics.

— American inventor Elias Howe was puzzling over where to place the eye of the needle in the sewing machine he was trying to invent. Then one night he dreamed that he was in a savage country. The king commanded him to invent a sewing machine in 24 hours. If he didn’t, he would be executed. In the dream, he failed to do this, and Soldiers came to take him to be executed. While walking with them in his dream, he noticed that their spears had little holes near the pointed end. That was his eureka moment. He immediately woke up at 4.00 am, and set to work. By 9.00 am the first sewing machine was born.

Another option would be share how a website listed the top dreams of each country around the world, based on Google search data about dreams in each country: 

— the top 5 dreams in the world are about: dogs; being pregnant, snakes, traveling, and cheating!  

— also interesting that in Britain, the most common dream is about being pregnant; in the U.S it is about cheating! 

After you talk about dreams for a minute, then = This morning we’ll look at a dream that Jacob had, that actually led to some significant spiritual commitments in his life.

CONTEXT

As we continue our study in Genesis, we saw last time in Genesis 27 how Rebekah and her son Jacob deceived her husband Isaac into blessing Jacob instead of his older brother Esau. As you can imagine, Esau was furious, and says when his father has died, he will kill Jacob. So Rebekah tells Jacob to flee to Haran, where Abraham’s servant got her, and to her brother Laban and her relatives. Today’s passage opens as Jacob leaves on the journey.

OUTLINE

I.  Jacob’s Dream (:10-15)

II. Jacob’s Response to the Dream (:16-22) (which will have three particular “sub-point” applications under that.)

TEXT

I.  The Dream  (:10-15)

So :10 says that as he was fleeing Esau’s wrath: “Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.”

(You could use the same/similar map from a couple of weeks ago to show just where he was going. Abraham’s servant left from Hebron, and Jacob here from Beersheba, which was a bit further south in the Promised Land, but it was a similar trip, to the same area where their relatives were, where Rebekah had come from.)

Then :11 says “He 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.”

(This is “roughing it,” a stone for a pillow! But that stone will play a significant role in a few verses!)

Verse 12 then says “He 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.” (:13) And 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.

God makes sure here that Jacob knows who He is: “LORD” here in all 4 caps means this “YHWH” in the Hebrew; the God of Abraham, and Isaac. Not just “any” God; this ONE, true God of the Bible. (And it may not be that Jacob had made Him “his” own God yet, as we shall see …)

:14 “Your 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.”

We see here God’s promises to Abraham repeated: of how large the family will multiply, and spread out — and also the PURPOSE of the blessings: “all the families of the earth (shall) be blessed” through them. As we saw in God’s promise to Abraham, God didn’t just bless him to bless HIM; He blessed him in order that he might BE a blessing to the world. 

Psalm 67 shows us that this applies to all of us as God’s people as well: “God be gracious to us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us” — WHY? — the next verse says: “THAT Thy way may be known on the earth, Thy salvation among all nations.” Why does God bless us as His people? He loves us, sure, but He also blesses us SO THAT (the purpose) we may BE a blessing to the world — especially to share the gospel with them.  This was His purpose for Israel: He blessed them to raise up the Messiah through them, who would save the world. And He blesses us today:

— as a nation, America

— as a church

— and as individuals

So that we may be used by Him to share the Messiah He raised up through Isaac’s seed, with the world. Let’s make sure we don’t forget the purpose of His blessings!  

God also promises Jacob in :15, “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.”

So God appeared to Jacob and made sure he knew who He was: “I am YHWH, the God of your father Abraham …”. He promised to give him the land (:13) and to multiply his descendants to bless the world (:14) and to be with him and protect him (:15)

But I want you notice one other thing in this passage that is significant. Sometimes dreams have some important symbolism.

In the Lifeway teacher’s guide there is a good story they use to open the lesson, that I might use at this point in the lesson:

“In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom wrote of a strange vision she experienced as the Germans invaded her homeland. She saw a farm wagon pulled by horses lumbering across the city square of her hometown. Corrie recognized her whole family sitting in that wagon, along with some strangers, moving toward a place they didn’t want to go. As she and her sister, Betsie, discussed the dream, Betsie reminded Corrie that God sometimes gives His people a glimpse of the future to reassure them that He is in control.”

Sometimes God gives us dreams that are symbolic in some way — and that is true here in Genesis 28. In :12, the Bible says that in Jacob’s dream, the angels of God were ascending and descending on the ladder that Jacob saw in his dream.

We might think, ok … whatever … BUT this takes on great significance in the New Testament, in John 1:51, after Philip has brought Nathaniel to Jesus, and Nathaniel is at first skeptical, but then Jesus tells him He saw him under the fig tree — this impresses him and he calls Jesus “the Son of God.” But Jesus tells him he will see greater things: “You will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Do you notice that phrase: “the angels of God ascending and descending”? That’s the same phrase used here in Genesis 28 in Jacob’s dream, that “the angels of God were ascending and descending on (the ladder).” The use of these exact same words is not an accident or coincidence. Jesus MUST be referring to the incident of Jacob’s ladder. WHY would He do that?  

The only difference in these 2 passages is that in Genesis it is a LADDER that takes the angels to heaven, and in in John 1 Jesus says they will ascend and descend on HIM. 

So what Jesus is saying here is: I AM THE LADDER. I am the “ladder” to heaven. What a great picture Jesus is giving us here, of how HE is the “ladder,” the “means” of getting us to heaven. In other places He pictures Himself as:

— the “door” in John 10: “I am the door”

— He said “I am the way” in John 14:6

— He said “I am the bread,” “the living water”, and on and on.

ALL these things are symbols which basically say the same thing: that Jesus is the way to heaven. He’s the “door;” and here, He says He’s the “ladder.” He’s the way we can “climb up to heaven.” 

This very symbolic just reminds us AGAIN of just how important Jesus is. So take this opportunity to re-emphasize this to your class: If we want to go to heaven, JESUS is the “ladder” who will get us there! We must go through Him! 

II. Jacob’s Response to His Dream (:16-22)

:16 says “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the LORD is in the place, and I did not know it.’ (:17) He 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.’”

Verse 18 says “So 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. (:19) He called the name of that place Bethel; however previously the name of the city had been Luz.”

This describes Jacob’s first response to the dream: he was saying, this must be a special place, so he called it “Bethel.”

The name “Bethel” means “house of God.”

“Beth” = “house”

“El” = short for “Elohim”, or God.

So he named it “House of God.” Bethel would be a prominent place in Old Testament Israel — so this lets us know where it came from. 

So that was his first response.

But then we see him make a commitment to the Lord as a result of this dream:

:20 “Then 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 (:21) and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the LORD will be my God. (:22) This 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.’”

Here Jacob makes a vow with some important commitments to the Lord:

First of all, it’s a “conditional” kind of vow; he says, “IF” God will be with him and take care of him on this journey, and bring him back safely — I don’t think it’s necessarily an expression of doubt; I think it’s more like, if You are indeed who You say You are, and You indeed do these things for me, as it appears that You are — then 3 things:

1.  “Then the LORD will be my God”

“LORD” is in all capitals here, which means that in Hebrew this is ‘YHWH” (Yahweh, or Jehovah), the personal name of the God of creation, the God of Abraham. YHWH, not just “any” god, will be HIS God.

This is a personal commitment for YHWH to be HIS God. Maybe before this, YHWH was NOT really his God; maybe it was just something that had passed down from Abraham to Isaac, but not to Jacob yet. But now it is becoming real to HIM, personally.

As we’ve talked about before, it is important for everyone to come to a time in their life when it becomes personal to THEM. 

As we have been studying Isaiah 53 in our Sunday morning services, I shared in our church how when Ruth Graham was growing up, she was uncertain about her salvation. She had grown up as a missionaries’ child, so the faith was all around her, but she had not nailed it down in own life.  So she talked to her sister about it. Her sister told her to take a passage of scripture and make it personal. One of Ruth’s favorite passages was Isaiah 53, so she took that great passage and put HER OWN name in it: “Surely RUTH’s griefs He Himself bore, and RUTH’s sorrows He carried … RUTH like a sheep has gone astray, but the Lord has laid on Him, the iniquity of RUTH.” She made it personal, and found the peace with God she was looking for. 

It is important that each of us comes to a time in our lives when the Lord becomes more than our parents’ God, or our friends’ God, or our society’s God, or our church’s God, but OUR OWN personal Lord & God. 

??? You might ask your group if anyone here has a personal testimony about that, which they could share??? 

(Every Christian has a testimony of how they made it personal, but someone might have one of how it became personal to them in a special way, like Ruth Graham’s testimony. Here’s an example of another one you might share:

Bethan Lloyd-Jones was the wife of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, perhaps the greatest preacher in England in the 20th century. But one night as she was listening to her husband preach, she realized that she had a “religion,” based on going to church and trying to do good deeds — but she didn’t have genuine salvation based on faith in Jesus and what He did on the cross. And that night she put her faith in Jesus ALONE for her salvation, and it became real to HER.)

Each of us must come to a time in our lives when we make our own, real, personal commitment to the Lord like Jacob did here. Encourage your class members to do that today, if they have never done it before.  This would be a great place in the lesson to share the plan of salvation, and encourage your members to make a commitment to Jesus.  

2. “This stone … will be God’s house.”

He says I am going to make this place a house of worship — and it DID become a place of worship in years to come

Later in Genesis 35, after he has come back to the Promised Land, God will call Jacob “back to Bethel,” in a time of recommitment to Him, and God changed his name to “Israel.” It was a pivotal place in his life! 

Then later in Judges and Samuel Bethel became a place where Israel would worship God — and unfortunately it also then became a place where Jeroboam put one of the two false gods that led Israel astray. But all through Israel’s history it had been to them a “holy spot.”

??? You might ask your group if there is a certain physical spot that has meant a lot to them in their walk with the Lord: 

(a place they got saved; or where God has spoken to the repeatedly; maybe a church camp, like Falls Creek in Oklahoma, where a few years ago the IMB said more Southern Baptist missionaries had made their commitment to missions at the altar at Falls Creek, than at any other one spot in the country, etc. 

You might have some interesting testimonies.

Make the point: God is never limited by geography; you don’t have to go to a “certain place” to hear from Him, as He is everywhere. But sometimes a certain place will become special to us in our pilgrimage with the Lord — as Bethel was to Jacob and Israel.

3. “I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Significantly, here Jacob commits to TITHE to the LORD.

“Of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Do not overlook the importance of this commitment, and where we find it here in scripture. I do not often hear it shared from this passage but to me this is one of the best passages on tithing in the whole Bible:

— First, it DEFINES tithing. What does he say: “I will give a TENTH to You.” So a tithe is 1/10. That is what the word “tithe” means. Some people think “tithing” just means “giving.” It does not. It means to give a TENTH. That is just what Jacob says here: “I will surely give a TENTH to You.”

— And what does he tithe? “Of all that You give me.” So he is going to tithe everything God gives him. This applies to our income, our salary; everything God gives us, we are to tithe it to Him.

Notice also a couple of VERY important things about the CONTEXT of Jacob’s commitment to tithe:

— First of all, he makes this commitment BEFORE THE LAW!

When was the Law given? To Moses and the people of Israel in Exodus. But this is some hundreds of years (400 or so) BEFORE the Law came. So this really undercuts the argument of people who say things like, “Tithing is just Old Testament Law.” NO it wasn’t; it was a basic Biblical spiritual principle that existed BEFORE the Law ever came. In fact we’ve seen it twice in recent weeks:

— In Genesis 14 when Abraham tithed to Melchizedek after the Battle of the Kings, that was before the Law ever came.

— And now again here in Genesis 28, Jacob says he will tithe to God, again, before the Law ever came!

So there is strong Biblical evidence that tithing is NOT just “under the Law;” that it was a basic spiritual principle that existed even before God gave the Law to Moses, that you tithe to your God, that of all that He gives you, you give a tenth to Him. So the context here is extremely important, in showing us that the tithe is an important, pre-Law spiritual principle.

—Not only that, the context of Jacob’s particular commitment to tithe is important. He made his commitment to tithe in the context of his basic commitment to YHWH as his own Lord & God, as we have seen. He says, from this point on, YHWH is going to be his God. And what will be the sign that YHWH is his God? He is going to show his commitment in two ways: building a place to worship, and by tithing. So tithing is significant because it is part of the commitment Jacob made to YHWH as his God. Tithing was a mark of God’s Lordship in his life.

And tithing is a mark our God’s Lordship in OUR lives today too. 

Just like it did for Jacob, tithing shows us, God, and the world that the Lord is our God. We tithe everything that He gives us, as a reminder of where we got it from, and as a gift of gratitude back to Him. And just like the people of Israel tithed to support the priests and the Temple, so we tithe to support the work of the church today.

Some people like to say: But we are not under Law, we are under grace! Two things about that: 1) as we have seen, tithing is a spiritual principle that existed before the Law was ever given! And 2) if you want to claim “not under Law but under grace,” fine: don’t worry about it; you are NOT limited by the Law or the tithe; you are free to give as much as you want to the Lord! But I would be very hesitant to give anything less than a tithe, when there is such a strong precedent in scripture to tithe, that has been given to us in passages like this, BEFORE the Law. It is an enduring spiritual principle.  

??? See if anyone in your class has a testimony about how they began to tithe, or how the Lord blessed them as they began to tithe??? (You might want to line up at least one person in advance so they will be ready; maybe a class member — or someone from another class/a senior adult with a good, lifelong testimony of tithing.)

My wife Cheryl & I have tithed our whole adult lives — even in the “dark years,” the testing years of which we’ve had a few, just starting out, and even more recently in my illness. But God has always been faithful, and He has always blessed and provided for us. When we left Louisiana when I got sick, we moved to Norman, OK with an uncertain future, no job, no lasting income — but we were committed to tithe whatever income we received, and we did.  Two years later when I was well, and getting back into the ministry I could look back and see that we never lacked anything during that two-year time “in the wilderness.” God always provided. He IS “Jehovah Jireh,” He IS YHWH the Provider. And the scriptural way we show that we are grateful for His provision, is by tithing all He gives us, back to Him.

Just like in the life of Jacob, one of the most important marks of God’s Lordship in our lives, is the tithe. 

Jacob gives us a great example here:

— He made a personal commitment to the Lord, He made YHWH HIS OWN GOD.

And then he SHOWED his commitment in concrete ways:

— by worshiping God at Bethel

— and by giving Him the tithe of all the blessings He gave him.

These are some great applications for us and our class members as we would serve the Lord today!

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