Jacob’s Ladder

Genesis 28:10-19 - Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.

At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!”  But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”

The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although it was previously called Luz.

“Surely the Lord is in this place and I wasn’t even aware of it!” 

 

Every time we are not aware of the Lord’s presence, Jacob’s statement is true of us.  The Lord is present everywhere we are and everywhere that we’re not.  There is nowhere you can go and truthfully say, “the Lord is not here.”  The times when we think that is true, our awareness is absent, not God.

I don’t like to admit that.  I’d much prefer to think that somehow, God decided to leave me alone for a while than concede that I am just not paying attention.  I have to admit it though, because every time refocus my attention, I discover that, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I wasn’t even aware of it!” 

Take some time to do that today.  Pay attention to the details of your surroundings and your situation.  Talk to God about them in prayer.  I’m betting that if you can slow down enough to notice the condition of your life, you will find some clues that God is there in the details. 

 

Prayer:  Thank you for your constant and abiding presence, especially we aren’t aware of it. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the most vulnerable people in the nationwide heat wave we are experiencing right now.

 

Song:  We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW6z-ftfJeg

Family Feuds

Genesis 25:24-34 - And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins!  The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat. So they named him Esau.  Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. So they named him Jacob.  Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter. He was an outdoorsman, but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home.  Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”)

“All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”

“Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?”

But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn.

 

I have a brother who is three years younger than I am and like many brothers we had our rumbles.  But Jacob and Esau take it to another level.  It is a rivalry that the Lord told their mother would develop and it was probably not helped by the fact that Esau was Isaac’s favorite and Jacob was Rebekah’s favorite.  This feud would last most of their lives.  Even more than that, the two brothers’ feud would metastasize into a feud between two nations.  Many lives would be lost would result from this sibling rivalry. 

This is what unresolved conflict tends to do – spiral out and expand and eventually create casualties.  Many historians trace the current tensions in the middle east all the way back to Isaac and Ishamael, the sons of Abraham.  American historical legends recall the bloody feud between the Hatfields and McCoys.  And too many of our families could recall tales of how a family feud created a lasting toxicity that is passed down from generation to generation.  My family name, McCrea, was spelled differently four generations ago.  Two brothers’ feud got to the point that one of them legally changed the spelling of the last name so as to “disown” his brother. 

You can probably guess where I’m going with this.  It’s not good to let brokenness in our relationships continue to grow.  At the very least, a decision to not continue pouring gasoline on such fires can literally save truckloads of pain and might even save a life.  If it is within you power to de-escalate a conflict or even begin to heal the wounds from the past, we’re called by our reconciling God to work for peace.

Jacob and Esau eventually reach a truce of sorts and I can only imagine how much pain and suffering was avoided because they did (If you want to read about it, the story is in Genesis 33).  Try to imagine what pain and suffering might be avoided if we did the same.

 

Prayer:  God give us hearts predisposed towards making peace with our brothers and sisters.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those who lives have turned upside down by family conflict. 

 

Song: Cochren & Co. - One Day (Official Lyric Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So94m-Lp6Pw