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The scripture tells us about the coming of the Messiah hundreds of years before he got here and the way it does it is a bit  like peeling off the layers of an onion. First of all, the references are vague, but they get gradually more and more and more specific until it gets down to such things as the Messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem. That is specific as you can get, and that’s in the book of Micah. 

In the Daniel Chapter 9, it even gives us the time of his arrival, of which point to Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53 describes his crucifixion, i’s unbelievable how accurate it is in describing the crucifixion. Psalm 16 tells us he’s going to be raised from the dead. So, by the time you get through the Old Testament scriptures, you have this picture of the fact that this Messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem, he’s going to die to pay for the sin of the world and he’s going to be raised from the dead. God has already told Abraham that if you just believe it’ll be counted to you for righteousness. All you have to do in order to be forgiven and be given the gift of eternal life is believed that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. That he died, that he paid for your sin, and you trust him for the gift of eternal life and heaven.

The first thing God did here to encourage his child is give him actually, he reviewed and expanded on the promise given to his grandfather. I made some promises to you. I promise to give you the land. I promise that you will have many descendants, and I promise that the whole world is going to be blessed through you. And that promise contained here in verses 14 & 15 is one of the earliest glimpses of a coming Messiah. I’m suggesting this occurred against the backdrop of Jacob being discouraged, and the Lord appearing to him in a dream and encouraging him. Here we have an insight into how God encouraged people. He says, hold on, pay attention and let me remind you of the promises I’ve made to you.

The promise he gave to Jacob is not the promise he gives to us today, but the principle is the same. In that the way God encourages his discouraged children is to remind them of the promises he's given to them. For example, you get discouraged and you're thinking my life is falling apart and you situation is not going to come to any good.  This is when God says to, sometimes in an answer to prayer, sometimes through the support of another believer, and sometimes through the scriptures, and he reminds us of a promise. A promise like that if you know me, if you trusted my son, I’ve made a promise to you, that, 

“All things work together for good to those that love God, to those that are called according to his purpose.”

(Romans 8: 28)

Notice here, he doesn’t say everything is going to be good, he says it’s going to work together for good, and if you read the passage in context within the book, the good for us is revealed as us being conformed to the image of his son. No matter what happens to those who trusted Christ, we can remember that if we respond properly to the situation and trust the Lord, then it is going to work out for our good. We are going to be a little more like Jesus when all this gets done. God promised us that, so we can lean on that promise. That might not always make the circumstances disappear, but I'll tell you what. It'll certainly help because when you’re discouraged. When you discouraged you focus on looking at the loss, but when you understand the promises of God, you are reminded of the gain. God reminds us, its not all bad because we are going to get something out of this situation no matter how bad it looks at the moment, and in the fulness of time things will work out for us. So, the first thing God did here was to give Jacob a threefold promise and he does the same to us.  The second thing he did is described in verse 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: 15)

I don’t want you to miss this. The first thing he does is remind Jacob of his promise. The second thing he does is remind Jacob of his presence.  This is the second time in the Bible somebody has been told this. Isaac, his father, was told that back in Chapter 26. Later, after this, Moses will be told the same thing, as will Joshua, and later again someone called Gideon will hear the same encouragement from God.

This motif repeats again and again, and in the New Testament, Jesus says to his followers that they are to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing those who come to me, teach them and then he says this. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. God promises those who know him and are working for him, that he will be with them down to the end of the age. Part of the way God encourages discouraged believers is he reminds them I am with you, I will never leave you. Isn’t that encouraging when you are felling alone and disheartened? 

Let’s turn to Hebrews Chapter 13 for a moment. It repeats the same incredible promise. Hebrews chapter 13 and look at verse 5.

5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“I will never will I leave you; I will never will I forsake you.”

(Hebrews 13: 5)

You see how that stated twice, I will never leave, I will never forsake you. In Hebrew this repetition is emphatic. This is the most in emphatic statement in all of the New Testament. “I will never leave you. I will never, ever forsake you. That like us today saying, I will never, ever leave you. I will never, ever forsake you.  That’s the idea here, God says I don’t care what you’re going through I will be with you now, and always, forever. That’s promise must have been deeply significant to Jacob at this point, I mean, he’s been kicked out of house and home and he’s out on the road by himself. Lonely, late at night and there is nobody with him. 

Jacob is clearly all alone, and God comes along and says let me encourage you and the encouragement is, “I, am with you, Jacob”.  Would that encourage you, to be reminded by the Lord himself that he is here., with you. 

“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: 15)

The third thing he tells him I will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I’ve done what I have spoken to you. He says is, look, I’m going to provide for you. I’m going to protect you and I’m going to bring you back to where you are right now. I’m going to bring you back to this land, the promised land, but in the meantime, I will stay with you no matter where you go. I will not leave you until I have done what I have said I would do, namely bringing you back here. 

Think about this, he just said I’m going to give you the land, that’s he is currently fleeing from. His fear is his brother will kill him if he ever goes back and God says, look, I made a promise and I am going to fulfil the promise. I’m going to protect you while you’re gone. I’m going to provide for you while you’re gone. And I’m going to bring you back to this place one day. So the way God encouraged him was he reminded him of his promise and reminded him of his presence and reminded him of his provision for protection and to fulfil his promise.

So, if you get discouraged because you look at your circumstances and you think, wow, this is bad, and sometimes it is.  There is no question about it, time can get tough, but God says to us the same thing, what are you so discouraged about, he says. I know the situation is bad, I understand all that, but I promise you this later and I’m going to bring you back from this. In the meantime, I’m going to be with you. I’m going to take care of you until I get you back where you need to be, because I said I would. So, when you’re discouraged, you can go to the scripture and say the Lord is going to do what he said he was going to do in my life.  What a great encouragement is that

You know, I look at this passage script and it occurred to me, everybody needs encouragement from time to time. There are schools of thought psychotherapies that if you just pick at random, a counsellor and go see them, your chances are of getting one of many different approaches to psychological therapy.  But one of the things I discovered is the whole thesis that lies behind many of the talking therapies is that people are disheartened, and they need encouragement. I think that everybody gets discouraged, and everybody needs encouragement. In fact, this may come as a shock to you, but church leaders, Pastors and preachers need encouragement. We need to tell our leaders when they are doing a good job, because most people only speak to Pastors when the have a problem or disagree with something they have said. If Jacobs needed encouragement, then we all need encouragement. 

God here reminds Jacob; I made some promises to you. I told you I’d be with you, just hang in there with you. That’s what’s going on here as simple as that , he has a dream, and the Lord communicates to him. Jacob responds to this encouragement; he responds to what has been revealed in the dream and this response is really interesting and we shall look at that next time.