Jacob and His Tall Ladder
Dr. Larry Thorson
July 1, 2007
Genesis 28:10-19
10 Jacob left
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely
the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17
He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other
than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."
18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed
under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place
Today’s New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
Jacob’s Ladder. This is one of the most popular stories in
the whole Bible. The Navy even has a
ladder they call “Jacob’s Ladder” and it’s designed to throw over the side of a
ship. There’s a flower called “Jacob’s
Ladder”. There’s a body climbing
treadmill called “Jacob’s Ladder”. Freemasons call their seven virtues rungs on
Jacob’s Ladder. There was a Civil War
era Negro spiritual called “We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder” that you may have
sung as a child. Bruce Springsteen
recorded a version of that song last year as did Arlo
Guthrie, Pete Seeger and a host of other singers over the years.
We are
climbing Jacob’s ladder
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder
Soldier of the Cross
Ev’ry round
goes higher ‘n’ higher
Ev’ry round goes higher ‘n’ higher
Ev’ry round goes higher ‘n’ higher
Soldier of the Cross
Brother do you
love my Jesus
Brother do you love my Jesus
Brother do you love my Jesus
Soldier of the Cross
If you love
him why not serve him
If you love him why not serve him
If you love him why not serve him
Soldier of the Cross
Slaves
related to Jacob’s dream, because it ended with a covenant that promised freedom:
"I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee
of." But in the real dream there
was neither a ladder nor Jacob climbing anything.
If
you read the King James Version of the Bible it says that he had a ladder. When I think of a ladder I think of one of
those aluminum models like the one I borrowed from the church last year to wash
a window on the second floor of my house.
I didn’t feel too good at the top of that ladder.
The
word “ladder” in Hebrew could also be translated staircase which the modern
translations use. In Babylonian mythologies
gods lived in temples called ziggurats and they had steep staircases on the
outside which they would go up and down.
This was probably more the
picture of what Jacob saw in his dream but even though it was a dream he never went
up a step.
I don’t know how he could remember
anything he saw in a dream. God has
chosen not to speak to me in dreams because I never can remember what I dream
about. It takes five seconds for my
dreams to disappear. I can even feel
them disappearing and there’s nothing I can do about it. “Wait, wait, it was a good dream, what was
it?” And it’s gone.
Not the case with this man named Jacob in
our Bible story this morning. But it
says he was pretty tired that night. Of
course he was tired. He had just tricked
his dad Isaac into giving him the full family inheritance instead of to his
brother Esau. He feared his brother was
out to get him. Then his dad sent him on
a 465 mile trip to see some family members who would help him get a Hebrew wife
instead of having him marry one of the unbelieving women where he was living. In v. 10 we read that he left
Jacob
stopped the first night in a place called Luz which was about 56 miles away
from where he started. That’s about as
far away as
This reminds me of a joke
I came across recently: A man on a camel rode through miles of the
sun-drenched desert
searching for some sign of
life. His supplies were running low
when his camel died. Now on
foot, he desperately sought refuge
from the heat, and, most importantly,
a source for water.
Suddenly, he came across a vendor in
the middle of the desert.
"Thank
God I found you!" the man cried. "Please help me. I'm
in dire need of some water."
"Well,"
said the vendor, "I don't have any water. But would
you like to buy one of these fine
ties."
"What
am I going to do with a tie?" the man asked.
"That's
what I'm selling sir. If you don't like it, I can't
help you." The man left the
vendor and walked on for many more miles, praying each minute that he
would find refuge from the scorching sun. His eyes squinted a bunch of
times when he came across a restaurant in the distance. Unable to
comprehend a restaurant located
in the middle of the desert, he assumed the place was a mirage, but decided to check it out
anyway. As he approached the door, his mouth opened in amazement,
seeing that the place actually existed. The doorman stopped him
before he entered. "Excuse me sir," the doorman said, "but you can't come in
here without a tie!" Never underestimate the opportunities God
sends your way.
It says Jacob took a stone and laid it
under his head to sleep on. I want to
see how many people here use a stone for a pillow. I can’t imagine how bad my neck would feel if
I used a stone to lie on all night. That
just goes to show what my dad always told me, if you’re tired you can sleep
anywhere no matter how uncomfortable it is.
Jacob was tired.
While he was asleep he had this dream involving
a stairway. The only ones on the
stairway were angels going up and down. Jacob
himself never got on the steps. On top
of this stairway stood the Lord. The
Lord gave Jacob six promises. These were
six promises that God had originally made to his grandfather Abraham and was
personalizing them for Jacob now.
Promise #1 You will receive the land you
are sleeping on – he had no land at that point in his life
Promise #2 You will one day marry, have children and
they will be numerous – he had no wife at the time
Promise #3 Your children will bless all peoples on earth – he
hadn’t been a blessing to anyone at that point in his life
Promise #4 You will be looked after and taken care of –
he had a mad brother after him at the time
Promise #5 You will be brought back to
this place safely
Promise #6 You will have the Lord with you
until these promises are fulfilled
Jacob’s Ladder is really a story about
promises. Some people don’t like
promises because they’ve always been broken in their life. Lance Armstrong, the great Tour de France
cyclist in his book It’s Not About the
Bike wrote how he despised the promises of the men his mother dated and
married, some of whom were active in church, because they never kept them. Some people don’t believe that God keeps his
promises.
A
week ago Saturday, a van carrying youth from the First Presbyterian Church of
Upland returning from a week long mission trip to Bishop were involved in an
accident. Three of the youth and their
youth pastor’s wife were killed and their youth director was so badly hurt that
he may not make it. I went through a
season like that church is going through when one of our most active youth was
killed in a car accident on his way to college.
All week long and for the weeks to come that church will question
“why?”, “why following a mission trip?” “Why
when they were doing something good?” “Where
was God in that accident?” “Didn’t he
promise to take care of us?” “Didn’t
they pray that morning for safety on the road when they left?” “Why?”
“Why?” “Why?” It’s really ok to question God as part of our
healing process. God can handle our
frustrations.
God
never promised a safe passage for our bodies.
Never. God never said to us as he
did to Jacob in verse 15 “I
will bring you back to this land.” That was a specific promise to Jacob that he
fulfilled. Instead what Jesus said to
his followers of which we are: “And surely I am with you always, to the very
end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)
In
my last church we sent out so many mission teams, youth groups, and choirs to
minister in other places. I prayed countless
prayers for travel mercies in our church parking lot. One day I prayed travel mercies for one of my
teams headed to
Everyone
of them was miraculously rescued in a way that only God could have done
it. I often think about that day and
how it could have gone so differently.
Had they not been rescued I would have had to withdraw from coming here
to remain there to minister to their families during their grieving period. Our lives would have been so different and
I’m so grateful to God how that all turned out.
But
God never promised me a safe journey for that team, just that he will always be
with them to the very end of this age.
God never promised me that I will be cancer free. God never promised me that I’d be a
successful pastor or a successful father or a successful husband but he
promised to be with me and to give me the power that I needed when I needed
it. What’s my response to such a
generous promise?
Genesis 28:20-22
20
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "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
21 so that I return safely to my father's house, then
the LORD will be my God 22 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."
That
was Jacob’s response. He first off set
up a memorial to remember what God promised him at that place and called it
“Beth-El” or House of God so that he would never forget the promise. Whenever the memory faded of what God had
done and what God had promised he could always go back to the rock at Beth-El
and be reminded.
Then
secondly Jacob made a promise to God that of all God gave him he would give a
tenth back to God.
When
God promised to forgive us all our sins by sacrificing his son Jesus Christ on
the cross in our place we needed a reminder of that promise. Instead of a rock, Jesus gave us the bread
and juice of communion. That’s why the
table is decorated today.
Should
our response to God’s promise to us be any less than Jacob’s? Let us now give our tenth back to God.