Jacob's Ladder
Genesis 28v10-22
9th September 2022
before reading this, you might want to read last week's column, about Jacob and Esau's childhood, and the need for Jacob to flee for his life to his uncle Laban in Paddan Aram.
Jacob had travelled about 55 miles north when he stopped for the night in a remote place. The only comfort he had was a stone that he found there and used as a pillow. He must have feared for his life. He had no protection, no companion, no comfort. Jacob, the mummy's boy who'd hardly ever left home before, the twister, must have gazed up at the stars and felt his guilt, the birthright and the blessing that he'd stolen from his brother. All he had was the hope of making it to Paddan Aram, in northern Mesopotamia, hundreds of miles further away, in one piece. He must have felt utterly alone. He probably felt worthless. Through his sin, and his mother's sin, he'd lost everything. Why would God bother with such a bad person, such a failure, as him?
While he slept God appeared to him in a dream.
Genesis 28v12b-13a
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.
There above it stood the Lord.
In this dream, God showed Jacob that God sends his messengers, the angels, between heaven and earth. God will accomplish His purposes. And Jacob understood that the angels were descending to help him, even in the middle of the night, even in the pitch dark, even in that deserted spot, even in his sin and failure.
God is there for us wherever we are, whatever state we're in, no matter what awful things we've done. God had chosen Jacob, as He's chosen each one of us, and God was determined to protect and bless him, and is determined to protect and bless us. God's purposes for Jacob, and for you and me, will be accomplished. He is God. God will send His angels to ensure that they will. Jacob must have taken much comfort and courage from this.
Then God spoke to Him in the dream. He'd been blessed twice by his father Isaac, once illegitimately and then once legitimately. Now God, his heavenly Father, blessed Him, saying:
Genesis 28v13b-15
"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.
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.
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."
Wow!
This frightened man, alone and defenceless, would survive. He had God's promise. God promised this sinner, this failure, this deceiver, the man who robbed his own brother, that his descendants would occupy the land of Canaan. If we read on, we learn that God will rename him "Israel" in Chapter 32 verse 28. Jacob's descendants would be called the children of Israel, or simply "Israel", named after this lonely, sinful man. God promised that they would grow until there were more Israelites than you can count, and that "all people on earth will be blessed through you [Jacob] and your offspring". That prediction came true when Jesus Christ was born an Israelite.
God promised him protection, "I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go" and He promises us the same. And God promised him "I will bring you back to this land". Twenty years later, He did. Just because we sometimes have to wait for God to fulfil His promises, doesn't mean God's forgotten, or changed his mind.
One thing this story teaches us is that we don't need to earn God's favour. God loves us. God has chosen us. We don't know why. Perhaps sometimes we think He would have done better to choose somebody else, but He chose you, and He chose me, and He will always love us.
When everything seems to have gone wrong, when you feel absolutely isolated and absolutely hopeless, when you're frightened and full of guilt, God is still for you, He still loves you, and His plans for you have not changed. If you're in a dark place right now, I pray that God will speak words of comfort and hope to you. God promised Jacob "I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." And He promises us, "I will never leave you or forsake you" (Deuteronomy 31:6, quoted by Hebrews 15:5).
And God says:
Jeremiah 29v11-13
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Continuing our story, When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it." Everywhere you go, every circumstance you find yourself in, every problem that besets you, the Lord is there. May our faithful and all-wise God speak to you in whatever darkness you experience.
He [Jacob] was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." Jacob was both right and wrong. That particular patch of wasteland in the hill country of Ephraim is not the definitive house of God, but it was the house of God for Jacob that night. From the time of Moses, God's house would be the Tabernacle. From the time of Solomon, God's house would be the Temple. From the time of Jesus Christ, the house of God is wherever God's people are, as it was for Jacob. The church is now the house of God. In particular the gathered church is the house of God. Your church, whenever it meets, is the house of God. Jesus said:
John 4:21
"Believe me… a time us coming when you will worship the Father neither on
this mountain [Samaria] nor in Jerusalem.
and:
Matthew 18:20
"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."
Paul said:
1 Corinthians 3:16
Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit
dwells in your midst?
Peter said:
1 Peter 2:4-5
As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by humans but chosen by God
and precious to him —
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.
And Jesus said:
Matthew 28:20
… surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Whenever you attend your local church, you are in the house of God. Think about that. Our attitude as we gather in Jesus's name should be one of awe and reference. With Jacob, we should be aware of "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." And we should act accordingly. As my friend John Griffith likes to say, we shouldn't be all matey with the Almighty. How awesome is this place! How awesome is God!
Your church, and my church, and every church, is the house of God, and it's the gate of heaven. The angels ascend from here to the throne of God, and they descend from God to God's people, especially God's gathered people. Sunday morning church is extremely important. I urge you to come faithfully, week by week. If you can possibly be in church, be there. How awesome is this place!
Jacob wanted to commemorate his encounter with the living God who still loved him despite all his faults, and still loves us, despite ours. The next morning, he took the stone he'd used as a pillow and made it into a pillar. He poured oil over it as an act of worship and sacrifice. When God speaks to you, or touches you, or does something for you, always take time to worship and give thanks.
The Canaanites would one day build a city in the place where Jacob slept that night. They would call it Luz, but the Israelites would conquer it and rename it Bethel, in memory of Jacob, who first gave it that name. Bethel means "house of God".
Standing before the pillar that Jacob had erected and anointed, he made a vow:
Genesis 28:20b-22
"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
so that I return safely to my father's household, then the Lord will be my
God
and this 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."
There comes a time when it's not enough for us to know that God is the God of our parents, or the nominal God of our country, or even the God of our church. Jacob promised, "the Lord will be my God". We all need a personal relationship with God. We all need to make a personal commitment to God. We all need to say, "The Lord will be my God" individually. Jacob accepted the Lord as His God, promised God a regular financial offering, and promised to return to Bethel to worship.
Having worshipped God, and committed himself to God, Jacob moved on. He continued his journey and he found his destiny. We must look forwards, not back.
He didn't know then that he'd be detained in Paddan Aram for twenty years and wouldn't be able to fulfil his vow until he returned. But the day came when he returned, a much older and somewhat wiser man, and then he built an altar and worshipped God, and fulfilled his vow.
Maybe you've been away from God for a period of time. Maybe you met God a long time ago but you've been wandering spiritually. Maybe you've been in and around the house of God, but you've been taking it all a bit lightly. It's not too late to come to Bethel, to the house of God and build a new altar, to worship God wholeheartedly in His house, to begin to give God the worship and obedience He deserves. He will receive you back.
I hope this ancient story. that we've studied over the last two weeks, has reminded us of the damage done by careless words, and the good done by words of blessing. I hope it's spoken to us about the faithfulness and mercy of God. And I hope we've seen something of the power of blessing. Dear reader, I bless you now:
Numbers 6v24-26
"The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."
In Jesus's name, amen.