Text: Genesis 27:46-28:4,10-22 (see below)
It was my Sunday School teacher, Alice Heider, at the Middle Collegiate Church in New York City that taught me the song, We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder. I was the ripe old age of five and I have never forgotten the words, the hand gestures or the love that Miss Heider had for her students each and every Sunday. She was an older woman who lived on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. But she knew the Lord and was always open to sharing her story of faith with us from week to week.
The lesson today continues the journey of Jacob as he begins his twenty year odyssey to Mesopotamia in search of a bride and in search of himself. After stealing his father’s blessing, Jacob skips town before he has a run in with his brother Esau. On his first night away from home with no tent or shelter, he finds a stone and lays his head upon it. And there, in the serene beauty of a Middle Eastern night, Jacob begins to dream.
Madeline L’Engle, the award winning author, wrote a marvelous book entitled Ladder of Angels. It was a collection of her reflections on the stories found in the Bible and illustrated by the children of the world. One of her selections was based on the biblical text below. I would like to share it with you on this the weekend of the fiftieth anniversary of her wonderful work A Winkle in Time. L’Engle died in 2007 at the age of 89.
Jacob’s Dream
Perhaps in those days, when one’s pillow was a stone, it was easier to attend to dreams.
A ladder ascended into heaven and descended to earth, and in his dream Jacob was it, and on the ladder was a host of angels, ascending and descending.
What were they doing?
Forever after, Jacob had a sense of the glory that is on the other side of living.
And perhaps the angels were looking Jacob over and deciding which one was to wrestle with him all the night long, and towards dawn wound him in the thigh so that he limped forever after.
An angel is a messenger of God, is God, and whoever touches God bears the wound and can be recognized by it, forever.
How many of God’s people bear the wound?
(Madeline L’Engle, Ladder of Angels, page 35)
Love One Another - Brian
One Step At A Time
Donny Osmond
If you're climbing the ladder of life, you go rung by rung, one step at a time. Don't look too far up, set your goals high but take one step at a time. Sometimes you don't think you're progressing until you step back and see how high you've really gone.
Source: brainyquote.com
Genesis 27:46-28:4,10-22
Then Rebekah said to Isaac, ‘I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?’ Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, ‘You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women. Go at once to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father; and take as wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and numerous, that you may become a company of peoples. May he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien—land that God gave to Abraham.’
Jacob left Beer-sheba and went towards Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that 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.’ Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ And 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.’
So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.’
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