Fulfilling Your Destiny

Journey Into The Promised Land

Genesis 28:1–22 (CSB)

JACOB’S DEPARTURE

28 So Isaac summoned Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “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. 3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you so that you become an assembly of peoples. 4 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.” 5 So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 Esau noticed that Isaac blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to get a wife there. When he blessed him, Isaac commanded Jacob, “Do not marry a Canaanite girl.” 7 And Jacob listened to his father and mother and went to Paddan-aram. 8 Esau realized that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women, 9 so Esau went to Ishmael and married, in addition to his other wives, Mahalath daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son. She was the sister of Nebaioth.

JACOB AT BETHEL

10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place. 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. 13 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. 14 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. 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.”

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 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.”

18 Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker. He poured oil on top of it 19 and named the place Bethel, though previously the city was named Luz. 20 Then Jacob made a vow: “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.”

In Christ Jesus

My son, David, majored in business administration at college before assuming a very vital role in the business functions of World Evangelism and the New Inspirational Network. One of the many books on management which he has in his library starts with this observation: “People’s behavior stems from their interpretations of what they think they perceive.”

That was true of Jacob in managing his life. Despite the fact that Jacob had several personal encounters with God since leaving home and God blessed him mightily as far as family and material benefits were concerned, in the forefront of Jacob’s mind was still the threat that his brother had made to kill him.

Jacob was looking at his circumstances in the natural, from the standpoint of what he deserved and what he had heard rather than on the basis of what God had promised him. If we could just learn to see things as God sees them. If we just had His point of view, how different our lives would be. If we could see as God sees, we would never have to ask “Why, God?” But spiritual cataracts often blind our eyes so we cannot perceive our situations as they really are. We get our understanding of the situation from what we think we saw, what we heard, what someone told us, or what we project might happen.

The reality was this: During Jacob’s absence from his homeland, God also blessed his brother. Esau was on his way to meet Jacob to welcome him. He did not plan to kill him and he did not want Jacob’s presents. He had plenty of livestock and goods of his own. God had worked in Esau’s life and heart and eliminated the thing Jacob so greatly feared.

There is a great verse in the Bible in the Book of Proverbs that says, “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1). That means we can fear when there is nothing to fear when our hearts are not right with God. When our hearts are right, we have nothing to fear. It is not our righteousness, for we have none in ourselves: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). If we are in Christ Jesus, we partake of His righteousness.

But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. (1 Corinthians 1:30)

In Christ’s righteousness we can have wisdom to see as He sees, think as He thinks, and react as He reacts.

“Let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

Make this declaration:

The mind of Christ is in me. I have the wisdom to seek as He seeks, think as He thinks, and react as He reacts.

*Adapted from MCWE email – Journey Into The Promised Land by Morris Cerullo

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