17...JACOB'S LADDER

Based on GN Chs. 28-31...Read more there.

Jacob has so far made an inauspicious start to being a great figure in the story of the Hebrews. Remember the bowl of stew incident, & later, his stealing their father Isaac's blessing by dressing up as Esau & pretending to be him? Now things begin to take a turn for the better. He experiences two visionary appearances of YHWH. The first occurs when on his way to Haran, fleeing from Esau, he camps for the night at a place where he has an awesome, mystical experience of God as his grandfather & grandmother AB & Sarah have had long before [GN18]. Jacob dreams of a ladder or more likely a ramp from earth to heaven, with angels going up & down. YHWH is standing over him, introducing Himself, making similar promises of lands & descendants as He has earlier made to Jacob's grandfather AB. Jacob pledges that if YHWH keeps His promises then He will be Jacob's God! Jacob re-names the place where this happens, 'Bethel', the 'House of God'.

Jacob travels on to Haran where he falls in love with his uncle, Laban’s, daughter Rachel. But after making Jacob work for him for seven years to ‘earn’ Rachel, Laban tricks him into first marrying her older sister Leah. This is a shifty family! Laban then allows Jacob to marry Rachel, but he has to work another seven years for her! After manipulating Laban’s flocks so his share of them becomes better bred & bigger, Jacob takes his wives & children & flees from Laban & his family to escape conflict with his uncle & his brothers-in-law who are jealous of his success. Laban pursues Jacob & catches up with him. The two end up making a treaty with each other. Though Jacob & Laban now have a treaty that defines their relationship & property boundaries, bear in mind Jacob’s still on the run from his brother, Esau! 

It's all getting a bit complicated, isn’t it? At this point Jacob takes the initiative & invites Esau to a meeting to sort things out between them. On the way to this rendezvous with Esau, Jacob experiences another momentous ‘meeting’ with God. He undergoes a further mysterious, mystical experience in a vision or dream in which he has to wrestle with an unknown challenger he eventually realises is YHWH Himself! One could say Jacob is wrestling with the schemer who is one side of himself, & his admitting he is completely dependent upon God, especially as he goes to meet Esau! Put another way, it is a struggle between the kind of person Jacob has been & now, the kind of person God needs him to be! YHWH acknowledges the strength, the persuasiveness, of Jacob’s spiritual wrestling, which appears to end in a draw, by renaming Jacob ‘Israel’, which means, 'God prevails', 'Let God rule', or similar.

What happens next is another story…18: New Man, New Name.

Question: Have we ever experienced a 'Jacob's Ladder' of any kind?