Jacob’s Ladder

Genesis 28:12-15

By Pastor J.W.T. Spies

The story of Jacob and his brother Esau is a tangled one, filled with deceit, dishonesty, conspiracy and animosity. Esau despised his birthright, and sold it to brother Jacob for a pot of stew. Jacob then deceived their father and got him to bless him as the ruler and chief heir of the family.

There was so much anxiety that ran high between these two men. The problems continued so much that Jacob eventually had to leave home, because Jacob feared for his life, so he began packing his belongings, and moved to live with his relatives who lived in the east.??Now if you don’t know let me tell you who Jacob is. Jacob is the grandson of Abraham and Sarah and the son of Isaac and Rebecca. When we look into the scripture, it looks like Jacob did not seem to have much time for God.

We don’t read of any conversations between him and God before he leaves home. We never read about him worshiping, nor having any encounters with God in all of his life up until now. Jacob has had little time for God, because he has been too busy scheming, lying and conniving, and planning on how to get ahead.

Too much of his time had been wasted on thinking only of himself. There was no time for God, and there was no time for anyone else but himself.

But God is about to dramatically interrupt his self-centered life. God is about to shake his world. God is about to disrupt his lifestyle. God is about to intervene, interfere, intercede and get involved in his life. ??As Jacob is dealing with his problems, Jacob has been dwelling on this all day. And now He is running from his problems, and finally, the night comes and he falls asleep.

As he fall asleep he has a rock for a pillow under his head, and above his head are the open heavens. As he is asleep, God reveals himself to Jacob in his dream, where there appears to be a large ladder, or staircase of light, to which at the top of this ladder it reaches to heaven and the very throne of God.

On the ladder there are the messengers of God who were traveling up and down, between heaven and earth. They were delivering the people petitions to God in heaven, and they were bringing God’s answers back down to help the people of the earth.

Now Jacob was one of the few privileged ones who saw with his own eyes the workings of the kingdom of God, he seen the spiritual activity of heaven itself. Even though he didn’t have a great relationship with God yet God revealed himself to Jacob.

Here God reveals himself Jacob and gives Jacob his promise that Jacob will be the heir to the promises, which God had made to his father, and his father fathers before him. The Lord repeats those promises to him personally saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. And this tells me just because we don’t have a relationship with God, doesn’t meant that God don’t have a relationship with us.

He says I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying in. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

He says, I am with you, and I 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 28:13-15). This was so amazing to Jacob that Jacob calls the place Bethel, which in Hebrew means ‘House of God.’ This special place seems to be the very dwelling place of the Lord.

Jacob has met God. He wasn’t expecting to meet him. He wasn’t even thinking of God. It was purely grace. It was probably the last thing on his mind. He did not even want to meet God. He was only thinking about getting away from his brother. His mind was full of thoughts about where he was going, and what was ahead of him.

But, God broke into Jacob’s self-absorbed world in an amazing way. God came to Jacob even when Jacob was not seeking God. God opened his world to Jacob, even when Jacob had closed his world to God.

And that’s a word for somebody this morning and that is God will come to us even when we won’t come to him. God will visit us even when we won’t visit us. In other words, God will talk to us even when we won’t talk to him.