The Ladder
Read Genesis 28:10-22.
Jacob went out from Beersheba towards Haran. Why did he leave home? He had cheated his brother of his birthright (Chapter 25). It all stems from family affairs. Isaac the father loved dashing, adventurous Esau. Rebekah, a tender woman so you’d think, loved the home bound lad Jacob, always there to help her.
Esau had qualities seen afterwards, he was frank, impulsive, generous but not godly. He despised his birthright for a good blow out. Jacob was a plain man and steady going. Esau is the picture of the man who lives for his physical senses only, choosing the dish of the moment rather than the future glory of the birthright. He did eat and drink and despised his birthright. Men still fling away glory for gratification here and now. Beware of flinging away a great future for a small present, millions do it! “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?”
The trick that Rebekah and Jacob played on Esau provoked him to anger. So, Jacob came to Bethel, his life in danger, all alone (at least he thought he was) and the sun had set. So he tarried and slept, and with a stone for a pillow he dreamed. What he saw was a stairway peopled with messengers, reaching from his side where he lay to the far off heaven. Oh the paradox of providence! The Lord stood above it, angels ascending and descending. Oh peopled with angels, yes they are everywhere! Oh God is here! Beloved ever remember this - God is here!
The secret is that Jesus is the ladder between God and man. Through Him all gifts descend, by Him all the prayers and aspirations of His own people go up to God. Jesus and He only is the communication between God and man. Oh wonderful fact, glorious truth - He is the way the truth and the life!
God was there with Jacob - not left behind in Isaac’s tent. This story proclaims that God is everywhere. God is nearer than you suppose. Wherever God is, becomes a Bethel, thronged with angels. The ever present God made a promise “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Wherever you are now, the ladder is beside you. The face of God looks down upon you, nothing can alter this, ever.
If we are aware of this it will keep us from sin and it will mean peace. Jacob was at first alarmed that God was near and that he had stumbled on the house of God, the gate of heaven. Heaven is close! Jacob lifted the stone upright and anointed it with oil, but God wanted Jacob, not the ten percent he had promised. And God promises that He will accomplish what He intends to do with us!
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