Jacob's Ladder

Originally published in this weblog on April 3, 2008.

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Journal Entry: March 15, 2008

Jacob's Ladder; Engraving, 1720

And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you,

hereafter you shall see heaven open,

and the angels of God ascending and descending

upon the Son of Man.” John 1:51

- - -

“Early the next morning,

Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head

and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.

He called that place Bethel…” Genesis 28:18-19

I have many favorites in the Bible. Abraham is one, Isaac is another. But Jacob is my “most favorite” of them all. I never get tired of reading the story of his life.

One evening many years ago, Ernie came into our living room and found me in tears. “What’s wrong,” he asked me. “Jacob died,” I told him. “Jacob who?” he asked. “Is it anyone I know?” “Yes, it’s Jacob the patriarch, he died…”

At that, my husband just quietly left me. He understood that I was again being moved by the dealings of God in this man’s life.

Even now as I write these lines, I am misty-eyed. How difficult Jacob’s life journey had been. And what he went through to be transformed into the noble patriarch that he was at the end of his life!

Jacob’s name literally means, “heel-grabber.” In our modern-day language, it means, “Cheat, Trickster, Swindler.” Instinct tells us to stay away from people like him.

But God thought differently. Jacob is the third in line where God’s covenant relationship is concerned, and it is after him that God chooses to name the nation of Israel.

It’s a long story. And while many may have an idea about the story of his life, I have gone through the chapters of Jacob’s life over and over again, that I feel like I know him as a close friend. This is the reason that I sometimes find myself crying when I reach the part in Genesis 49 where Jacob, after blessing his sons and giving them specific instructions about his burial, draws up his feet up into the bed, breathes his last, and is gathered to his people.

Even the way his death is described is so beautiful. What a meaningful way to die!

But let me not be carried away and get ahead of myself in what I really want to say.

The story of Jacob actually begins long before he is born. God reveals to Rebekah at the time of her pregnancy that two nations were in her womb, but that one people will be stronger than the other, and that the older will serve the younger (Genesis 25:23).

Jacob is the younger one. And for sure his mother must have told him all about these things. He was impulsive, and impatient. He didn’t know how to wait for God’s appointed time. He literally lives up to his name. Surely he would have received the said blessings at the right time. But he manipulates his brother Esau into selling him the first-born birthright for a measly bowl of soup. And several years later, he tricks his father Isaac into giving him the blessing reserved for the first born son.

Esau, realizing that he has been cheated twice, vows to kill him. It is in this context that we read Genesis 28. Under the pretext of finding a wife for himself, Jacob leaves Beersheba and embarks on a journey to his uncle Laban’s house. He is actually fleeing from the wrath of his elder twin brother.

Before Jacob leaves home, however, in addition to the blessing that he had already received through trickery, he is given a going-away blessing by his father. Isaac probably realizes that this son of his will need all the blessing he can have. In Genesis 28:3-4, we read:

“May God almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing of Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham.”

The “blessing of Abraham” is the aspect of the birthright that Esau gave up, but in his place, Jacob will benefit. We all think that Jacob is just as unworthy to receive this generational blessing, but well, we are not in the place of God. In God’s sovereign plan, Jacob is somehow the one chosen to carry on His promise to Abraham.

On the way to Paddan Aram, Jacob decides to spend the night in a place called Luz. He lies down to sleep, using one of the stones there as a pillow for his head. Jacob, weary, confused, and running for his life, dreams.

He sees a ladder on earth, “with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God…ascending and descending on it.” Above the ladder stood the Lord. In this dream, Jacob is given the terms of the covenant that God had previously given to Abraham and Isaac. Now it was his turn to personally receive the promises of God.

God introduces himself by his covenant name, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. And God reiterates the terms of His covenant with Abraham. Jacob, in essence, is promised a land, a nation, and a blessing.

But there is more.

God speaks to Jacob what he needs to hear at that very moment. “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 promised you.”

And this is what amazes me about God. Is Jacob worthy of these covenant promises? At this point in time, definitely not. But a covenant is a covenant, and God is no covenant breaker. He is the ultimate Promise Keeper. God enters into a covenant with a Trickster and a Cheapskate to honor His covenant with Abraham.

Jacob’s audacity is appalling. Instead of humbly receiving the covenant terms, he bargains with God, adopting a wait and see attitude. In effect he tells God, “Be with me, protect me, provide for my needs, and bring me back safely to my father’s house. Then, and only then, will I honor you as my covenant God.”

Notice that God doesn’t even lay down any conditions. His “terms” were not actually terms in the real sense of the word, they were one-sided unconditional promises. “I will do this for you.” Period.

With such a response from Jacob, you’d think that God would change his mind and call the whole deal off. Yet, God is not ashamed to call himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Exodus 3:6).

Jacob nevertheless realizes that he was standing on holy ground. He gets the stone that he used for a pillow, pours oil on it, sets it up as a pillar, and renames the place Bethel, meaning “house of God.” Even in his worldly condition he had sense enough to recognize that there was indeed a ladder, a heavenly connection in that place where God had somehow reached him, and revealed Himself to him.

Jacob’s story is actually a story about the making of a man after whom the promised land will eventually be named. Therefore, it was necessary for Jacob to go through the crucible, and traverse the painful road from being Heel-grabber to becoming Israel, Prince With God.

- - -

In my college years, a close friend once told me: “Lidj, how I envy you. You have such a “well-oiled existence.” She had a drunkard for a father, and her mother was a schoolteacher who had to take in washing on weekends to make ends meet and earn enough to put her and her siblings through school. There were times when she would come to school with puffy eyes, for her father had again beaten her mother up the night before. I would cry with her, but I never could relate. I came from a good home, had loving responsible parents, and was well-provided for.

Secretly, I considered her remark a compliment.

But a few years after I got married, I realized that there is really no such thing as a well-oiled existence without going through the process.

Indeed, there was a process required of me before precious oil could even begin to flow in my life.

I have awakened nights asking God if He is for real, pleading with Him to show me a connection to heaven from where I was.

I can’t say that I’m a literal Jacob… but we all are like him in many ways. My story is also the story of a woman in the making, going through the crucible of joy and sorrow.

But I have no regrets. God has graciously shown me heaven-to-earth connections in the Bethels of my life.

When I reach heaven’s shores, I will kneel at the feet of my God, my King… then, I will put my arms around Jacob and thank him for having been such an instrument for the shaping of my character.