"Dreaming at Bethel" sermon preview

This week, we consider passages from our Through the Bible in a year readings.  In Genesis 28:10-22 we read of Jacob's dream at Bethel.  He was leaving home to escape Esau's wrath when he stopped for the night.  While there, he had a dream in which he saw angels ascending into and descending from heaven.  In the midst of this dream, God reaffirmed his promise to Abraham and Isaac.  He also extended it to Jacob.  He promised to give Jacob this land and to make his descendants numerous.  In this we see an example of  God's great generosity.

Jacob responded to this experience by making a monument to mark the spot and committing to follow God.  But more than that, we also catch a glimpse of the way in which God's great generosity birthed generosity within Jacob as well.  God promised to provide for Jacob, and Jacob responded to God's great generosity with his own generosity.  Jacob committed to tithing, giving 10%, back to God.  This is a significant commitment and a life shaping practice.

It is a significant model for us in the midst of calls to tithe that are born more out of a sense of duty or obligation.  Our giving to God should not be based on the fulfillment of some legal standard, but rather born out of a response of generosity to the generosity that we have experienced from God.  And as we give willingly and cheerfully, this practice serves to shape us and form us into the image of God rather than the image of man.

Because within Genesis, we also have the contrasting image of Joseph who sells the Pharaoh's grain during the famine in Genesis 47:13-27.  The Pharaoh had a dream and Joseph was able to share God's interpretation with him that warned of a coming famine.  The Pharaoh took Joseph's advice and began storing up grain from the years of plenty so that there would be food in the years of famine to come.  He placed Joseph in charge of this operation.

During the years of plenty, Joseph collected grain beyond measure.  When the famine came, the people of Egypt and the world came to Joseph for food.  The people of Egypt had grown the abundance of grain; yet rather than give it out freely to the people of Egypt, Joseph sold the grain on behalf of Pharaoh.  Once all of their money was gone, Joseph then accepted the people's livestock as payment for grain.  Once all of their livestock were gone, Joseph then accepted their land and their servitude as payment for grain.

This is the way of the world.  Rather than generously offering of the wealth of grain to the people, Joseph, on behalf of the Pharaoh, took all that the people had and reduced them to servitude.  And once they were his servants, he gave then seed to plant; but required that 1/5 (20%) of the yield be returned to the Pharoah.  This was a requirement that was done out of duty.  In fact, Joseph made it into a law.  This is the way of the world, but God invites us to participate in something much different, something that Jacob modeled for us.