Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

February 2, 2026 - Genesis 28 & Psalm 24

• Josiah Smith - Compass Bible Church South Valley

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We read Genesis 28 and Psalm 24, trace Jacob’s turn from scheming to trust, and ask what it means to have clean hands and a pure heart before the King of Glory. God’s promise “I am with you” grounds our obedience, reshapes our worship, and steadies our hearts.


For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, lead pastor of Compass South Valley. Today is Monday, February 2nd, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Genesis 28. Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. Arise, go to Padon Aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may become a company of peoples. May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham. Thus Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padon Aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel, the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother. Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padon Aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him, he directed him, You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women, and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Padon Aram. So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives that he had, Mahaloth, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nabiath. Jacob left Bersheba and went toward Haram, and he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 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. Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. And 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. So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I came come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you. Psalm twenty four. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully, he will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of Glory. Now, as we transition, specifically in Genesis, we are now focusing primarily on Jacob. And you'll see that theme and that focus for the next several chapters. But in Genesis 28, we actually begin to see Jacob's transformation from a trickster to someone that trusts in the Lord. Now remember the name Jacob is translated heel grabber. And that was even a part of the two twins kind of wrestling in Rebecca's womb and the prophecy by God, the oracle, as it's called, that God said the older will serve the younger. And we've seen that kind of play out in Jacob and Esau's life. Jacob being a deceiver, someone who has stolen both the birthright and the blessing. And of course, as we talked about last time, the blessing specifically was determined from the beginning by God in that declaration when they were in the womb that the older would serve the younger. And yet we still see culpability by Jacob and his mother Rebecca because they are scheming and they do lie and they do deceive Isaac. And there's just lots of family dynamics. There's favoritism and partiality going on between Rebecca and Isaac. They're choosing uh favorite children, and there's just a kind of a mess of things. And uh Esau is really angry. He's in his heart just determined to murder Jacob. And so Rebecca, out of fear, sends Jacob away. And so here we pick it up in Genesis 28, and we we begin to see the first fruits of Jacob's transformation. Of course, if you're familiar with the story of Jacob or just the story of Genesis in general, Jacob does become someone that is a model of faith, someone that is very pivotal, in fact, to the overall storyline of the Bible. And we begin to see the first fruits of that here, where he goes from a trickster, against someone who is crafty and someone who is kind of taking matters into his own hands, uh, to someone that's ultimately trusting in the Lord. And what a great thing for us even to look at as an example, because so often in our lives, uh, this transformation that we see Jacob undergoing in the beginning here in Genesis 28 is one that we all wrestle with individually. Now, of course, I'm not saying or implying that you are uh deceiving parents and stealing blessings and inheritances or things like that. But I'm just saying the temptation to take matters into our own hands. And that was something that Jacob, of course, along with his mother Rebecca, uh, they were doing. They were trying to force the blessing blessing. They were trying to take matters into their own hands. And what a thing that is so common for us to be tempted to do, where we just we lack trust in the Lord. We can really, really wrestle with God's sovereignty, with his timing, things, of course, that we've already uh talked about and addressed in the book of Genesis. But this is something that we see Jacob uh in through his life, just through the faithfulness of God, God pursuing him. He goes from someone that that sought to take matters into his own hands to ultimately uh he seeks to relinquish control and trust that God is with him and that God would provide. And so he doesn't have to go out there and get his, he doesn't have to go out there and force the issue. He can have just this quiet, humble patience uh and this trust in the Lord. And this really comes from God himself uh pursuing Jacob. We have this scene, this dream uh of this ladder uh from heaven and angels ascending and descending, and really a part of that is God speaking to Jacob, and there's this promise of God's presence. There's this promise that God would be with him. In verse 15, it says, 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. I mean, what a thing to hear from the creator of the universe that I am with you, that I will provide for you, I will not leave you. And these promises that God makes to Jacob really are the difference maker in seeing this transformation take place. And of course, it's God pursuing Jacob, it's God making these promises, it's God's grace and his mercy on display. But these promises of God's presence are the thing ultimately that moved Jacob from a trickster, trying to force the issue, take matters into his own hands, to someone that's trying to relinquish control and trust in God. And even as he wakes up, verse 16, he says, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place? And he even calls back to, he calls the place Bethel, the house of God. And he says, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And it's these promises by God that God initiated, right? It wasn't Jacob pursuing, it was, he just literally laid his head on a rock to sleep, and God gives him this dream, gives him these promises. And as a result, there's some wind in Jacob's sails, and he goes, you know what? If this is the kind of God uh that I serve, I want to trust him and I want to follow him. And the same is true for us today. We ought to be, we're just reminding ourselves of these precious promises here, that God is with us, that he will keep us wherever we go, he will provide for us. And even in the Great Commission, uh, Jesus says something similar where he gives the command to the apostles, the disciples, and by extension, us today to go into all the world and to make disciples. And what does he say? I will be with you always, even until the end of the age. And so, just like Jacob, he receives this promise from the Lord and his life is transformed, and he begins to have a deeper trust in God. I believe for us today, as we think about the promise that God has made to us, to be with us, to provide for us, to protect us, that should lead us to a deeper trust in the Lord and really just a deeper obedience to his word. As we transition to uh Psalm 24, this is one of my favorite psalms. Uh, there's so many rich psalms, but Psalm 24 uh is one of my favorites. Uh it really starting in verse three asks a very pivotal question. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? And that's just a question for us to ask. Who's gonna make it? Right? I mean, who who's gonna who's gonna stand in the presence of the Lord? If we want to put it perhaps in more New Testament terms, who is going to enter into heaven? Who is going to be in eternity with Christ? Who's gonna ascend the hill? Who shall stand in his holy place? There is no more important question than this. Who's gonna make it? Who's going to be there in heaven, in eternity with Christ? Well, the answer comes in verse four. He who has clean hands in a pure heart. And both of those things, clean hands, that's kind of implying actions, the things that we do from an external perspective. But it's also the other category there is a pure heart. So we have the external and the internal, because God not only cares about our heart, he primarily cares about our heart out of the heart, out of the abundance of the heart, Jesus says the mouth speaks, but he also cares about the way that we live, our actions, our lives. And it says he who has clean hands and a pure heart. And in a sense, if we wanted to summarize that, it's someone that has been transformed by the righteousness of God inside and out. It's that person that's going to ascend the hill of the Lord, that's going to stand in his holy place. And what I love here is the second part of verse four. Uh, you could overlay, I think appropriately so, the great commandment that Jesus talks about as he's being questioned by the Pharisees in the Gospels. You could overlay the great commandment with what is said here in Psalm 24, 4. So let's read it. It says, uh, he who has clean hands and a pure heart, external, internal, those things are both in alignment with God and his word. But it also says, who does not lift up his soul to what is false? And that really is talking about worship, who does not lift up his soul to that which is false, people who are not worshiping or loving idols, things that are not God, things that, as Psalm 115 says, are worthless. They are just the works of human hands. And so that part of the great commandment, the first part is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And we see that here in verse 4 who does not lift up his soul to what is false, false idols, uh, false uh gods, all of these things that we see throughout the the Bible. Uh, this is really a summary of your someone who's going to stand before the Lord and ascend the hail of the Lord is someone who loves God, someone who loves the Lord their God with all of our heart, soul, mind, uh, and strength. And then I love there the second part. It says, and does not swear deceitfully. And those things, from our modern perspective, they feel sort of like they don't really belong in a list, or they don't belong side by side. Who does not lift up his soul to what is false? We get that. False idols, false worship. That that makes sense. But then it goes and says, and does not swear deceitfully. Why does David say that? I think that's the other component. You could you could call it the horizontal component of the great commandment to love your neighbor as yourself does not swear deceitfully. And typically in the scriptures, swearing deceitfully is in the context of the promises that you make to your neighbors, those who are your friends, those who are your coworkers, those who uh know you, and those who uh could potentially be harmed by your deception, by your swearing deceitfully. And so we again we see the parallels of the great commandment that Jesus talks about to summarize the law here in verse 4 who does not lift up his soul to what is false because they love the Lord of their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and who does not swear deceitfully, and they love their neighbor as themselves. They're not trying to be a trickster like Jacob, they're not trying to be deceitful, they're not trying to lie for sordid gain. They are loving their neighbor as themselves. And so we see those two commands again overlaid here in Psalm 4. And it goes on in verse 5: that person, the person who loves God, loves his neighbor, who is has been transformed inside and out. It says he will receive blessing, favor from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. And there again, we have the idea of imputed righteousness, or sometimes it's said uh it's referred to as alien righteousness. It's something that's outside of ourselves, it's not within us. We are given something by someone else. And Psalm 24, 5 says it's the righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Now, there we can even see the connection because we're still in Genesis reading about the life of Jacob. We're seeing him turn this corner, we're seeing him begin to trust in the Lord, and David's on the other side of that. And now uh we have phrases like the God of Jacob, the God of Jacob who was faithful to him, the God of Jacob who Jacob believed in and trusted his promises. So Psalm 24, the King of Glory. What a great, great passage. What a thing for us to look at in terms of just the imputed righteousness of Christ, the alien righteousness that we receive upon believing in the gospel. Uh Jesus is who he says he is, he's the Son of God, he burnt born of a virgin, lived a sinless life. He did what he said he did, right? He fulfilled all righteousness, he died on the cross, he rose from the dead, and he and it means what he says it means, that you can have eternal life with the Father. And so we see that in hints of the gospel here in Psalm 24 and the great commandment overlaid as we looked at that in verse 4 as well. So in Psalm 24, the end really it's just sort of this, it feels like this declaration of praise. Lift up your heads, O gates. Who is this king of glory? Lift up your heads. He is the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. And there's a lot of Exodus imagery here. A lot of the Psalms uh connected back to the Exodus event where the Israelites are rescued out of slavery to the Egyptians. And you can see this sense of mighty in battle that is connected back to God rescuing in a very dramatic way the nation of Israel from their captors. And all throughout the Bible, we we see themes connected back to that. The way that Israel views God is often through or connected at least to that event. And so he's mighty in battle. He conquers their enemies. He is someone who is the king of glory. Lift up your heads that the king of glory may come in. It's this grand procession welcoming uh the royal king of glory who provides, who protects, uh, and in this context, who gives righteousness, who blesses those who have clean hands at the exterior and a pure heart, the interior, who do not lift up their soul to what is false, they worship the one true God and does not swear deceitfully, they love their neighbor as themselves. And so there's just a lot of great truth here in Psalm 24 and Genesis 28. And I really have just been enjoying the pace that we've been taking Genesis at. And I want you to really kind of just soak and savor uh the fact that we're just kind of one chapter a day in these two books, a wisdom reading and then the Old Testament and Genesis, and just look for just the different ways that you are directed to believe in God, to trust in him, to know his character throughout Genesis specifically, because that's what we're seeing, these characters that are kind of fumbling around at times, but that are learning lessons about the God that they serve and how they can trust him with their lives. So I hope that Genesis has been an encouragement to you. I hope that psalms have been an encouragement to you. And I hope that you can kind of see just the faithfulness of God on just a beautiful display through these stories and through these individuals, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that we've been reading about and will continue to read about as we go. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV dot org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.