Missions Paul

Heaven might be closer than you think. I don’t mean today, you may be there. But maybe today, heaven will visit you?

Where is a sacred place for you? Is it your church? Is it a favourite chair or a room in your home? Is it a certain walk you take most days?

Jacob has just had a dream of a stairway to heaven and angels ascending and descending. See what happens next.

 ^“When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” ¹⁷ He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” ¹⁸ Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. ¹⁹ He called that place Bethel,though the city used to be called Luz. ²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear ²¹ so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lordwill be my God ²² andthis stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.” (Genesis 28 v 16-22)

On his journey, in a place called Luz, he falls asleep with a stone for a pillow.

So often, we think we are simply moving around (or sleeping) in a secular place, thinking the sacred places are reserved for church services.

What if everywhere is a sacred place?

The holiness of heaven will find you, even if you are sleeping rough under the skies with a stone as a pillow. As you read this, look around you, glance at your bearings, in this ordinary space, I believe, ‘the Lord is in this place.’ Begin to be more aware of this truth.

The pillow becomes a pillar. Some won’t even visualise how a stone can be a pillow. Are you a person who believes the ordinary can become significant in the presence of the Lord? If so, then wherever you are can become holy ground. You can rename anything as ‘the house of God’ simply because you know without doubt that the Lord is present.

What commitment would you make if you truly believed, as Jacob did, that where you are right now, your home, work, and neighbourhood is where God is? What conversation would you have with the Lord? In the place of His presence, you can be as honest as you want.

If you know heaven is closer to you than you sometimes realise, then how would your vocabulary change?

Jacob is doing two things: fleeing from his brother, who wants to kill him, and pursuing the prospect of a wife for himself. He is heading to the region where his family came from, including his grandfather, Abram, and his great-grandfather, Terah, who had settled there. On the way, he would meet with God in a dramatic way.

“Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. ¹¹ When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. ¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ There above itstood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. ¹⁴ Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. ¹⁵ I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (Genesis 28 v10-15)

He reaches a certain place. We are not told what that place was called, not yet anyway. It was getting dark. We have a picture of vulnerability. Escaping, sleeping outside, a stone for a pillow, this wasn’t a great time for him.

Are you in a vulnerable, uncertain place today and tomorrow?

God came to Jacob, and He can come to you, too.

God calls on the covenant first given to Abraham. “I am … the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.” He then promises Jacob what was in the original Abrahamic covenant: land, descendants, blessing to all nations, and His presence with him.

The ladder he saw in his dream indicates that heaven is never far from any of us. Angels were coming and going. God is involved with Jacob’s situation. That was the message. In this uncertain ‘certain’ place, God was there. We don’t have to have everything in order or attend a spiritual conference to find God. God is here. Not because we are good enough or we have arrived at a certain destination. God is here because He is.

It is this truth that changes everything.

We all desire acceptance. We have been doing so since we were children. We begin looking to parents, teachers and our peers for approval. We need to know we are valued and that we matter. This is fine, but it can turn into something more desperate, and when it does, then it can become the goal and strategy of our lives. We focus on doing rather than being. Performance is more important than presence. We are even prepared to make mistakes to progress toward approval. There are times when these mistakes are seismic.

“Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. 8 Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; 9 so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.” (Genesis 28 v 6-9)

Esau was such a complicated and lost soul. A quick examination of what we have read over the last several days and today reveals some of his thoughts.

• He discovers that Jacob, his brother who stole his birthright and blessing, has now received a further blessing from their father, Isaac.
• He is told that Jacob has been sent with one purpose, and that was not to marry Canaanite women, as Esau had married.
• This was when he discovered that his Canaanite wives were displeasing to his father. (It would seem strange that he didn’t realise that marrying outside his parents’ wishes would not have hurt them).

So what does he do?

He marries again! This time through Abraham’s line via Ishmael. Surely this will fix things. Impulsiveness rarely does!

How many in longing to please rush into things to try and make things better?

Esau lived a life longing for approval, but he never thought that giving things away cheaply (a bowl of stew), making his own decisions that lay contrary to his culture (Canaanite wives) and rushing to then marry again, seeking to be back in the good books of his father, actually were making things worse.

Whether it is religious compliance or a desperate search for approval, these decisions can become simply reckless ones rather than a genuine conviction about the right course of action.

Esau’s story reveals a man caught in painful patterns of seeking what he’d already lost. Something the gospel speaks to perfectly.

Jacob has to escape. His brother is searching to kill him for deceiving him into handing over the blessing, though Esau had been so stupid and self-centred to do so. But for another reason, Jacob was about to embark on a new sojourn. A wife.

We often don’t see the full extent and reason for our next move. Sometimes we leave the last chapter simply because we have to. A marriage breakdown, redundancy, or a costly mistake can all feel like failure. But so many times, God turns those moments into purposeful journeys. An exile can become a pilgrimage with God.

“So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. ² Go at once to Paddan Aram,to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. ³ May God Almightybless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. ⁴ May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” ⁵ Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.” (Genesis 28 v 1-5)

Some days we set out on journeys, and we don’t really know when we will return. Such is the case for Jacob. He sets out in pursuit of a wife. He doesn’t realise at that moment that he will have an experience with God at Bethel. He would be shocked to know he would work for fourteen years to get his wives. He could not know that he would return a completely changed man.

Jacob was not to marry from the Canaanites. Isaac knew the importance of protecting the covenantal lineage. He uses the name El Shaddai (God Almighty), which was part of his father’s blessing as he prayed for fruitfulness, growth in numbers, and possession of the promised land. Jacob is now responsible for carrying these same promises handed down from Abraham.

So Jacob sets out not knowing what will happen but carrying a hope for the future, not only for a wife, but for future generations.

It may feel like you are running away, and maybe that is exactly what is happening. Yet it could be the opening of a new chapter that will not only serve you but also many others.

Rebekah got precisely what she wanted. Jacob received the blessing. God’s promise about “the older serving the younger” was fulfilled. All is good, yeah? No! Rebekah had the blessing for Jacob but ended up losing him. The following verses invite a question: What can I not afford to lose by trying to gain what has already been promised to me?

“Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” ⁴² When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you. ⁴³ Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran. ⁴⁴ Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides. ⁴⁵ When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?” ⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.” (Genesis 27 v 41-46)

There are certain costs that God never intended for us to pay, but we paid them to get what we wanted. The problem for Rebekah that remains to this day is that the costs are never seen in advance. They are hidden by our desire for what we want.

After sending Jacob away to preserve his life, there is no record of her speaking with him again.

Jacob fled, and 20 years passed as he worked for Laban to earn Rachel and then Leah as his wives. There was a wonderful reunion with Esau, and he did meet his father before his death, but there is no mention of his mother. There is no more conversation or recorded meeting with Rebekah. It leads us to wonder if his mother ever saw her son again, especially if she died during those 20 years.

We grasp throughout our whole life instead of waiting to catch the blessings. In the grasping, we fail to catch.

Many win the argument and lose the relationship.

The promises of God over our lives don’t need our deceptions to secure them.

Leaders who fight so hard to be the leader end up losing the community they longed to lead.

I wonder if, given the chance, Rebekah would do things differently? I’m sure we would in our own situations if we could live our lives again.

The greatest call is to trust God to fulfil the blessing without our having to engineer it.

I know many who have won but have lost it all.

Jacob was more concerned about the ends than the means. The destination was more important than the journey. God had chosen him, and that was that, so any lie or deception, manipulation or sin is justified because it takes me to that place of blessing, right? Wrong!

“Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, ‘The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’ He did not recognise him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him. ‘Are you really my son Esau?’ he asked. ‘I am,’ he replied.” Genesis 27: 22-24.

Even when Isaac questioned how he managed to catch the game and then cook the stew so quickly, Jacob didn’t hesitate—he credited his quickness to God’s blessing, deepening his deception.

Genesis 27:26-29 reveals the magnitude of what was stolen:

“His father Isaac said to him, ‘Come here, my son, and kiss me.’ So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, ‘Surely, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you!'”

These blessings were hugely significant in their culture. They granted authority over the whole family that could not be taken back. They became a transfer of God’s promises to the person, including land, descendants, and even influence among nations.

All four members of the family were wrong. This breach of trust within the family had devastating consequences. The deception created such intense hatred that Esau planned to kill Jacob after their father’s death. The rivalry between the brothers was so severe that Jacob had to flee for his life and lived in exile for years.

It seems so unfair, doesn’t it? Maybe people have gotten away with it, and no one is listening or seeing what is blatantly clear to you. And so you trust God because there is nothing else you can do.

As soon as Jacob left the room, having received the birthright blessing, Esau came in from the field.

“Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. He also had made savoury food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, ‘Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.’ And his father Isaac said to him, ‘Who are you?’ So he said, ‘I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.’ Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, ‘Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed.'” Genesis 27:30-33.

Isaac trembled exceedingly, violently; it was a terrible moment. And yet it became a turning point for him.

His final statement was powerful: “And indeed he shall be blessed!” Even upon realising the trick, Isaac didn’t attempt to revoke the blessing. Isaac recognised that despite the deception, God’s purposes were somehow being fulfilled through these events.

Isaac realised he would always lose if he resisted God’s will, even when he didn’t like it. And he came to learn that despite his arrogance against God’s Word, God’s plan was perfect.

He gave Esau a limited blessing, “Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: ‘Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; and it shall come to pass, when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck.'” (v39-40)

Isaac was physically blind, yet his spiritual vision was remarkably clear. He understood that God’s purposes extended far beyond his own lifetime. Despite the family drama unfolding around him, despite Jacob’s deception and Esau’s disappointment, Isaac maintained faith in God’s covenant promises.

Isaac could have reasoned that since the blessing was obtained through deception, it was invalid. He could have appealed to his own intentions, his preference for Esau, or basic fairness. Instead, he recognised that something greater than human intention was at work.

If our filter for life is fairness, we will miss the story of God. But if our filter in life is the roles we play in God’s ever-revealing plan, then our focus is on His glory and pleasure, not ours.

Like Isaac, may we learn to bless concerning things to come, confident that God’s purposes will prevail, even when we cannot see how it will all work out.

“Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made. 18 He went to his father and said, “My father.” “Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?” 19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.” 20 Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” “The Lord your God gave me success,” he replied. 21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.” (Genesis 27 v 17-21)

Jacob, the youngest brother, is pretending to be Esau with careful planning. He knows exactly what he is doing. This isn’t a weak or panicked lie. It’s a planned deception, created with his mother Rebekah’s help. She made Isaac, their father, his favourite meal to make the trick more convincing.

When Jacob talks to his blind father, there are no limits to his deceit. He doesn’t just act like his brother—he even brings God into his lie. He claims that God helped him find the game quickly, using God’s name to make his falsehood more believable. It’s a complete lie. Every part of it. Every word is chosen to manipulate and deceive. Yet, surprisingly, this is the man God chooses to continue His covenant promises.

God blessed Jacob and eventually turned him into Israel, the father of the twelve tribes. However, God also allowed Jacob to face the consequences of his deception. Those consequences were significant and fitting: Jacob would be deceived by others throughout his life. His uncle Laban tricked him into marrying Leah instead of Rachel. Later, his sons deceived him about Joseph’s death by giving him a bloodied coat, making him mourn for years over a lie. We reap what we sow—this biblical rule plays out vividly in Jacob’s story.

Sometimes, lies work in the short term, achieving their goals. These successful deceptions can be the most dangerous, as they show that dishonesty can seem acceptable, creating a false path that appears appealing. Jacob got the blessing, but the cost in broken relationships and personal pain was immense.

Knowing God’s will doesn’t give us permission to use wrong means to accomplish it.

Rebekah has the word from God. It has to be Esau who serves Jacob. She interprets that as Jacob must get the blessing, but that’s not what God said; He said the older will serve the younger. Instead of just trusting God, she used manipulation and deception to accomplish what she thought was what God had said.

“Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, ‘Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau, Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you: Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.” (Genesis 27:5-10)

We can believe God’s promise is true, but still not trust Him to bring it about in His way and timing.

Jacob’s mum overheard that Isaac was going to give Esau the blessing after the BBQ. So after Esau went, she told Jacob to get some of his brother’s clothes and goats, and she would cook the stew, and the plot was ready – he would go in to his father, who was going blind, and pretend to be Esau and receive the blessing.

“Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, ‘But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.’ His mother said to him, ‘My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.'” (Genesis 27:11-13)

When the destination becomes more important than the journey, we justify sin to reach our goals.

Jacob was afraid of getting caught in the deception, not because it was wrong, but became willing in the manipulative plan. The destination more important than the journey.

“So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it. Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.” (Genesis 27:14-17)

Manipulation and deception destroy trust.

When Isaac was old and nearly blind, Rebekah orchestrated an elaborate deception to ensure Jacob received the blessing intended for Esau. She helped Jacob disguise himself with goatskins and Esau’s clothes to trick his father.

No one trusted each other, and not one of them trusted the Lord.

This wasn’t just family fraud, but also interference with what was believed to be God’s chosen method for continuing His covenant promises through the generations.

Yet God’s purposes cannot be thwarted by human manipulation – even our failures and deceptions cannot derail God’s ultimate plan.

Do you need to take your eyes off the present and trust in the Sovereignty of God for your life, rather than trying to make something happen?

Do you know the experience of being part of a story that contains manipulation, deceitfulness, and bare-faced lying? Where human scheming has been so involved, it doesn’t feel like the hand of God has played any part.

We have turned the page over from Esau’s two wives being the source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah, and moved further into what was probably the impact of that pain. This has to be among the most dysfunctional families in Scripture. We will tread carefully.

“When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, ‘My son.’ ‘Here I am,’ he answered. Isaac said, ‘I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death. Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.'” (Genesis 27:1-4)

We need to be reminded of some historical facts about this family.

Parental favouritism had emerged in this marriage. Isaac and Rebekah are married and have twins. Isaac favoured Esau, the older twin and skilled hunter—his father loved the wild game he prepared—while Rebekah favoured Jacob, the younger son. Division emerged in the marriage. They worked behind each other’s backs and had no open communication.

But there was a Word from God. “The Lord said to Rebekah: ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.'” (Genesis 25:23)

It seems inconceivable that Rebekah had not told Isaac of what the Lord had said to her. Further, Isaac knew that Esau himself had despised his birthright for a bowl of stew. Yet Isaac was still determined to give the blessing to Esau—the blessing that would determine which son would carry forward God’s covenant promises, receive the inheritance, and lead the family.

Sadly, in this house, no one trusted anyone else. The breakdown of trust was complete: husband and wife were pursuing opposing agendas, each believing they knew best, neither willing to communicate openly or submit the matter to God together.

Isaac decided to give Esau the blessing secretly, without a public ceremony. He told his son to make one of his favourite meals, then return so he could bless him. The fact that Isaac tried to grant the blessing in secret showed he knew what he wanted to do was wrong.

It seems so unfair, doesn’t it? Maybe people in your life have manipulated situations, gotten away with things that everyone can see but no one addresses. Perhaps favouritism has shaped your story in painful ways. When human scheming seems to triumph, and no one appears to be listening or seeing what is blatantly apparent to you, what do you do?

It may seem oversimplified, but all we have left is to trust God.

The story doesn’t end here, of course, and we know that Rebekah devised her own scheme, Jacob deceived his father, and the family fractured further. Yet even through this tangled mess of human dysfunction, God’s purposes moved forward. The blessing that Isaac tried to manipulate ended up exactly where God had said it would go.

Our dysfunction does not confine God. He works through it, around it, and sometimes despite it. When we find ourselves in situations marked by favouritism, manipulation, or broken trust, we can bring our mess before God and trust that human schemes will not thwart His purposes.

Some people reading this today may well understand the pain in the next two verses.

“When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.” (Genesis 26 v 34-35)

Two verses, and behind it is pain.

Just two verses, but packed with relational pain.

We don’t know why. We can speculate. Cultural differences, faith, personality clashes, we just don’t know. What we do know is this: the parents were heartbroken.

We will read next about how Jacob stole Esau’s blessing. Jacob, we know, was the deceiver. Isaac’s blindness made the deception easier. However, we see here that Esau, the eldest brother, didn’t just sell his birthright for the cost of a meal; he married outside their faith community. His decisions seemed selfish, driven by immediate gratification with no thought for the consequences.

This isn’t a neat story, and it leaves many questions. It doesn’t condemn Esau’s wives. It simply states what happened and mentions the pain Isaac and Rebekah felt.

Sometimes grief isn’t neat and tidy. There are seasons when families just carry the tension, and there doesn’t seem to be a pleasant conclusion. The Bible leaves the stories hanging, and that is still true for many today.

If you or your family look somewhat of a mess, the Bible understands – the Bible’s characters understand – and importantly, God understands.