Pillows Into Pillars
Genesis 28
Our SS lesson today is found in Genesis chapter 28, which tells us of a transformative moment in Jacob’s life where he is on a journey back to his distant family in Padanaram, and when he stopped for the night along the way he dreamed of a stairway to heaven. But before we get into that, it would do us good to understand the context. In other words, what led up to this journey.
You see, in the 25th chapter of Genesis, we’re told about Isaac and Rebekah having two children, probably fraternal twins because they did not look alike or act alike, named Esau and Jacob. Esau was born first, but Jacob was right behind him, hanging onto his heel which portends the struggle between these two brothers in the years to come. Esau grew up reddish in color, hairy, and very much an outdoorsman, while Jacob was smooth, peaceful, and mostly a homebody. Another indication that there would be problems in the future is the fact that we’re told that their father, Isaac, loved Esau, but their mother, Rebekah, loved Jacob. Now, if that isn’t a recipe for trouble, I don’t know what is.
At the end of chapter 25, we find Esau, returning home from a day out in the field. He was hungry and asked his brother Jacob for some of the stew he had been cooking, which he ended up buying a bowl from his brother in exchange for his birthright. He literally sold his right as the firstborn for a meal. He was more concerned about his stomach than his heritage. Then in the 27th chapter we have the story behind the “stolen blessing” which I don’t believe was really stolen because I would think the blessing would go hand in hand with the birthright. But there are behind the scenes maneuvering and machinations of the mother, Rebekah, in favor Jacob over Esau. Now, we might fault Rebekah for her part in this deceit, but remember, she had the prophetic utterance from God that stated, Gen 25:23 …"Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger."
The older shall serve the younger. She knew that one way or another, that the roles of Esau and Jacob would be reversed and that Jacob would be the child of promise, just like Isaac was the child of promise over Ishmael even though Ishmael was firstborn. So, Isaac gave the blessing to Jacob, and when Esau discovered what had happened, he ran to his father and said, Gen 27:38 …"Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father." So, Esau lifted his voice and wept.
In the book of Hebrews, we see another perspective on this situation. It says that Esau was Heb 12:16 …immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. The word translated as *“immoral” is “pornos” which speaks of a “fornicator” or “sexual immorality”. And *“godless” is “bebelos” which speaks of a person who is “godless”, “profane”, or “not religious.” You see, Esau was a man of the world, not a man of God. He wasn’t ungodly in the sense that he was vile or wicked, or particularly unrighteous, he just didn’t have room for God in his life. He was profane in that regard. He was not religious. He was not a man of faith.
And you know, we see these same people everywhere. They live right next door to you. You’ll find them wherever you go. They have plenty of room in their lives for business, for golf, for football, fishing, money, and many other things, but they have no time, no room for God. Religion is in the church and the Lord is out of their lives. That was Esau. He thought no more about his birthright than a bowl of stew, and so God let him have exactly what he wanted. He wanted to be left alone, and so God let him go his own way.
And guess what? God doesn’t do anything different today. He does not and has not changed. If you love this world, then the world is yours. You will live in it, die in it, and be buried in it. When the world dies, you will die in it. When the world is destroyed, you will be destroyed right along with it. God hasn’t changed. If you love this world, you will have this world. You’ll have death, judgment, fire, and destruction. You will have it because you’re a part of it. You’ll have it all, but you won’t have the resurrection, because you don’t believe in the resurrection. You won’t have Christ because you refuse to have any part of Christ. You won’t have the kingdom of God because you don’t have any time for the kingdom of God and kingdom things. You will be rejected because you have rejected what God offers to you with each breath you take. If you don’t have any time for God, God will give you exactly what you want, which is no time with Him!
Esau sold his birthright, and then God gave him exactly what he wanted. Heb 12:17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. Now, repentance here isn’t speaking of sorrow for sin but seeking a change after the deed, though he sought it with tears. We see this throughout the Bible. People apologize and seek favor after it’s too late. The people near Noah after the rain came and the door was shut. Probably outside the ark, beating their fists against the wall and crying for help. Adam and Eve, outside the garden, prevented from coming back into it by an angel with a flaming sword. The 5 foolish virgins who beat on the door to be let in, only to hear Mat 25:12 …Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
When Esau saw that he had no hope for redress, he became furious. Jacob had stolen his blessing, and now he hated Jacob. Gen 27:41 …and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob. And isn’t this exactly what you might expect from an impetuous and headstrong person? Gen 27:42 And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah… When Rebekah heard of Esau’s intentions, she was fearful that he would really kill his brother, so she sent Jacob to the Mesopotamian valley Gen 27:43b-44 …to Laban my brother to Haran; [44] And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away;
Of course, she didn’t anticipate Jacob being gone as long as he would be gone, but the excuse, the reasoning she used to justify to Isaac the need to send Jacob to her brother was the fact that she didn’t want Jacob marrying any of the Canaanite women like Esau had. Gen 27:46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?
Which brings us now to the 28th chapter. Isaac and Rebekah have sent Jacob to Haran on the pretense of getting a wife from relatives. Abraham and Sarah came from Haran. Isaac’s wife Rebekah came from Haran. Now Jacob would go to Haran to find a wife. He would be the last of the family to go back to Haran for any reason. According to our SS lesson, the trip there would be around 550 miles. We have no indication in the Scripture that anyone went with Jacob, or that he went with any animals. No donkeys, camels, or horses are mentioned. It would appear that he went hurriedly, alone, and walking. The trip might take him a month to accomplish. So, a few days later, about 60 miles from where he left his family,
Gen 28:11-13 He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. [12] He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. [13] And behold, the LORD stood above it…
Jacob is afraid. He is running from Esau. He’s fleeing for his life. And you know, he’s not only afraid of Esau, he’s also afraid of being alone. He’s afraid robbers and wild animals. He’s a homebody. We don’t have any record of him ever going anywhere by himself until this point. Esau would have felt right at home out in the wild, but Jacob wasn’t Esau. I’m sure that during these last few days after leaving home he had thought a lot about what went before. He was worried about his future. So, there he was, alone, worried, anxious about the future. The sun was setting, so he gathered up some rocks and made probably the most uncomfortable pillow anyone has ever had, and he laid down for the night.
I’ve read that this place around Luz or Bethel where he stopped is an especially rocky place. Rocks everywhere, and as he went to sleep, those rocks seemed to draw themselves together and formed a great staircase from earth to heaven, and he saw the angels of God ascending and descending that staircase. And God’s throne, the Lord Himself, was at the top, the head of the staircase in heaven. This is one of the richest and most meaningful visions in the Word of God—the stairway to heaven.
What does it mean? Well, one thing it means is that is that we don’t live on a forgotten, wandering, insignificant little planet. The great mystery of God’s infinite universe is that this planet we call earth is tied to heaven. Earth is joined to heaven and the throne of God by a great staircase. A staircase connecting heaven and earth, and that staircase folks, is Jesus Himself. He told Nathaniel, Jhn 1:51 …"Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Jesus is our stairway to heaven. He came down. He was made flesh. He tabernacled among us. He ascended and returned to the glory which He had before and now He sits on the right hand of the Father. The steps, the rungs of the ladder are the deeds and the events of his life, from Bethlehem to Olivet
It also means that the angels “ascending and descending” are carrying our prayers upward to the throne room of God, and then they descend with Gods replies. It means that you are not alone. You are not by yourself. Jacob probably felt as if he had lost everything, but God let him know that wherever he was, the Lord was with him. He was with him on that pile of rocks, and He is with you as you fly through the air in the airplane, as you lie on your bed of pain, as you are in the room by yourself, as you are dealing with bad news from the doctor. Wherever you are, there He is. Psalms 139 asks Psa 139:7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? And the answer is—Nowhere! Wherever you are, there He is!
Gen 28:13-15 And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. [14] "Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. [15] "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."
God was letting Jacob know that he wasn’t alone. He was with him and that the promises He had made to Abraham, and then his father, Isaac, were now his promises. The land where he was would belong to him and his descendants. His descendants would be so numerous they’d be like the dust of the earth, spread out and blowing all over the place like our panhandle winds. They would be everywhere and in everything. And all the earth would be blessed in and through them!
To Jacob alone and afraid on this journey to Haran, the Lord said, *“I am with you.” Possibly worried about wild animals or the attacks of wicked men while on his way, God promised, *“I will keep you wherever you go.” Wondering if he would ever see his father, mother, and family members again, God assured him, *“I will bring you back to this land.” And in the face of every circumstance and providence of his life so far that would seem to contradict the promises of God, he promised, *“I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” And friends, our God speaks the same to you. The valleys you’re walking through you will soon find yourself on the other side. The clouds that darken your thoughts and dim your joy will soon give way to the noonday sun, because our God is ever with you. His love never faileth and His strong hand keeps you safe.
Gen 28:16-17 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." [17] 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."
Have you ever had a similar experience? Maybe days, weeks, months, or years down the road and when you look back you see something that you failed to see during those days, way back then. You saw that God was there? That God had worked, changed things, moved things around and you didn’t realize it? That His hands were all over that situation? *“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
I tell you friends, there is no greater consciousness, no greater awakening that can occur in a man’s life, in a woman’s life, than to realize that the Lord is here—that the Lord was there! That He was with you, and you didn’t know it. You know, the truest response, the most correct result of a person’s revelation of the presence of God is to be filled with awe and reverence that He is and has been with you.
Friends, I think that a great danger we face in our world today is the danger of being too familiar with God. He ain’t your best buddy. He’s not your sidekick. When you come before Him, you’re not going to kick back a brew or two like you would with a friend at a football game. He is the Lord. He is God Almighty. El Shaddai, our Creator and we are His creatures, the sheep of His pasture. He made us from dust, and one day, to dust we will return.
God did love us so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sins on the cross. His condescension, His lowering Himself for us like that is so indescribable and wonderful that it should invoke our awe, our reverence, and our great wonder at the enormity of His grace and mercy toward us, just as it did with Jacob after he awoke from his dream.
Gen 28:18-22 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. [19] He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. [20] Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, [21] and I return to my father's house in safety, then the LORD will be my God. [22] "This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You."
Filled with awe and wonder when he awoke, Jacob took the rock pillow and turned it into a pillar, a monument to the Lord God who met with him in this place. This pillar symbolized God’s house, God’s presence. He then consecrated that pillar by pouring oil on it and vowing of all he had, when he returned, he would give the Lord a tenth. At the moment, he had nothing but the clothes on his back, and apparently some oil. He couldn’t build an altar like his father and grandfather had done because he had nothing to offer upon it as yet.
This pillow to pillar transformation marked a pivotal moment in Jacob’s life. He had an encounter with the Holy One which would change his life from then on. All his fears and doubts were removed with the knowledge that God was with him and the blessings and promises of his father were now his own. The change from pillow to pillar was symbolic of his own change. He moved from being a wandering fugitive to a man who was chosen and guided by God. The pillow to pillar was a symbol of his own awakening, not just physically, but spiritually.
Friends, have you had such a moment? A time in your life where God was no longer a religious concept but a real, living Being who is intimately concerned with your spiritual well-being? Have you had that moment where your pillow of soft, vague, sleepy and shadowy concepts became the pillar of hard, secure, and unchanging assurance that you are His and He is yours?
Beloved, have you believed in Jesus Christ from the heart and unto salvation? Have you given your life to Him and vowed that of all you have or ever will have is His?
In a moment, after I pray, we’ll sing a closing song and if you wish to make that commitment to Jesus, you can come down and do that today. Or maybe you need to recommit your life to Christ, and you’d like a fresh, new start. You can do that today as well.
Would you stand with me as I pray?
Heavenly Father, thank you for the light of Your word and the truths that are revealed to us in Jacob’s encounter with you at Bethel. Help us to recognize You presence and learn to trust in Your promises. May Your covenant love guide us as we seek to fulfill the divine purpose You have for our lives. Strengthen our faith and draw us ever closer to You each day. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
