Stairway to Heaven

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
Genesis 28 (click the link)


REFLECTIONS:
The younger of twins born to Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob had been competitive from birth. Genesis 25 records that Rebekah’s boys “jostled” in the womb, and when they were born Jacob had a firm grip on brother Esau’s heel, as though he were trying to trip him up at the finish line. This was the beginning of a life marked by deceit and manipulation. As a young man he secured the spot as “mama’s favorite,” tricked his brother out of his inheritance and, with Rebekah’s help, deceived Isaac and took the blessing of the firstborn son.

Genesis 28 finds Jacob in a bind; he was smarter than Esau, but Esau was a beast of a man, and he’d had enough of Jacob being the favorite. So dear old dad decided it was time for Jacob to marry and gave him these instructions: “Go away to find a wife. Don’t marry Canaanite women like your brother did. His wives are awful!” Jacob began the journey to his uncle’s land and when it was near dark he picked a spot to sleep. His life to this point had been one of striving and winning, but now he was in the desert picking a rock to use for a pillow. Sleep came, and with it, a dream: 

He had a dream in which 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, and he said: “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.” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” verses 12-16 

Close your eyes for a minute and try to picture it. 

 

Many artists have tried to capture how breathtaking it must’ve been, the pure white of the angels’ garments, the blazing intensity of the actual presence of God, the intermingling of heaven and earth, Jacob’s body perhaps heaving at the scene playing out before him and his own unworthiness in the face of this beautiful visitation… I tried to find a picture for you but there wasn’t one that leapt off the screen for me. Perhaps the best description is a lyrical one. Maybe you know it: 

So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest

I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way…

He loves us, oh how He loves us, oh how He loves us, oh how He loves.

(How He Loves, W&M by John Mark McMillan)

 

PERSONAL APPLICATION:

• This wasn’t the first time Jacob had heard the words in the dream. Certainly he knew the stories handed down about God speaking similar words to his father Isaac (Genesis 26) and his grandfather Abraham (Genesis 17). Isaac had spoken almost the same blessing to Jacob in verses 3-4, yet when God spoke to Jacob it changed his life. Has God spoken to you specifically? Notice that when God spoke it wasn’t with directions; it was with a promise to be with him. 
• Jacob had his own way of doing things. He had a messed up family and he knew how to work the system to come out on top. It was only when he had suspended his own striving that God showed up. Have you ever experienced this? Take the risk of laying down your normal way of doing things to make room for God to show up.
• Often I hear charismatic friends talking about an “open heaven” and this is what I think of… those places where our feeble reason collides with God’s mysterious presence and something wondrous happens… where lines between heaven and earth are blurred and God seems very near. Do you look for those places? They’re usually ushered in with prayer and worship and they’re more readily available than you think. One of my favorite ones was in a theater waiting for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to begin! Be willing to be surprised at the places God makes Himself known.
• Hidden in verse 14 is the prophetic point of the entire story: “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.” Jacob’s dream was about unhindered access to God, and little did he know that from his family would come Jesus, The Way to God. Do you take advantage of your unhindered access to God? You’ll never forget it when you experience intimacy like that.

WHO AM I?
I’m Leigh Anne Bland and I love museums. Between Christmas and New Year my tiny superhero and I drove to Dallas to meet up with the cousins and surprise Grandma with all the grandkids. Boy was she surprised! My favorite part was going to the Perot Museum and seeing the dinosaurs.