Ladder

Genesis 28:10-22

Last time we covered how Isaac and Rebekah met. After that, Abraham dies at the age of 175 years. Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah. They were childless for twenty years, so Isaac prayed to the Lord, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins.

The two fought each other while still in the womb, and Rebekah asked the LORD what this was all about. The LORD tells her that there are two ancestors of nations inside her, but the older would end up serving the younger.

When it was time to give birth, Esau came out first, and Jacob second. Esau was hairy and a skilled hunter – a real outdoors type of a man. Jacob was a quiet man who liked to stay at home. Isaac favored Esau, since Isaac liked to eat game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

In ways we don’t understand, Esau had the birthright, and the blessing was also supposed to be given to Esau by his father, Isaac. But Jacob ends up buying the birthright from Esau with bread and stew, since Esau was hungry.

When Isaac was old and his eyesight was failing, Isaac decided it was time to bless Esau. He tells Esau to go hunt game and prepare a meal with it so that he could bless Esau. Rebekah overhears this and schemes for Jacob to get blessed by Isaac using trickery. She prepares a meal and has Jacob pretend to be Esau, by wearing Esau’s clothes and covering his hands and neck with goat skin so that his father would think it is Esau. Jacob obeys his mother, gets Isaac drunk, and steals the blessing.

The trickery is discovered when Esau comes back with game, prepares a meal, and brings it to Isaac. When they realize that they have been tricked, they are angry, but there is nothing they can do to reverse it. Through being blessed and owning the birthright, Jacob now is the leader over Esau.

Esau swears that he will kill Jacob, and Rebekah tells Jacob to run away to his uncle Laban’s house. Fearing for his life, Jacob starts his journey to Rebekah’s family. We pick up Jacob’s story with this morning’s passage.

The LORD speaks to Jacob in a dream. The vision he sees is a ladder, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. God did not create the world and then just step back and watch it go its own way – He is intimately connected and concerned with the world, sending His messengers to earth.

The LORD informs Jacob that He is the God of Abraham and Isaac. Jacob must have heard about the LORD from his parents and was familiar with the promise that was given to Abraham. Further, the LORD tells Jacob that he will be carrying on the promise and that Jacob’s descendants will become a great nation who will bless all the families of the earth. The LORD assures Jacob that wherever he goes, He will protect him and will bring him back to the land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob.

Jacob senses that this is a special place – the place where heaven and earth meet. He calls it “Bethel”, the house of God.

It is interesting that even though he is in awe, Jacob is still trying to make a deal with God. His promises to make the LORD his God, as well as give a tenth of his possessions, only if God will keep him safe and give him food to eat and clothes to wear.

If a church was looking for someone to be a pastor, one would not choose someone like Jacob. Someone who will lie and cheat to get what he wants and tries to negotiate with God. But we must be reminded that God is not looking for a someone to fill a position – He is looking to build a nation. So, the lesson here is certainly not that we can act like Jacob and God will bless us for it. Jacob was chosen not because of what he did, but in spite of it.

It is interesting that Jesus refers to Jacob’s ladder in John 1:51 – “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Through Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection, He becomes the one who connects earth to heaven. By accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are assured of forgiveness of sins and eternal life. And unlike Jacob’s ladder, Jesus is not restricted to just to one place. We do not have to travel to Bethel – We can meet Jesus anywhere and whenever.

Let us be like Jacob in feeling the awe of our connection to heaven through Jesus Christ. But let us not be like Jacob in lying, cheating, scheming and trying to negotiate with God. Let us simply declare that the LORD is our God and that all we have is His.

(The above is a summary of the message shared by Shun Takano with us during our worship on July 23, 2023.)