Lesson 7 – Jacob’s Ladder
My help comes from the HOLY ONE, who made heaven and earth.
Closing Prayer
We are climbing Jacob's ladder, We are climbing Jacob's ladder, We are climbing Jacob's ladder, reaching out to God.
Bethel is an old Canaanite city, taken over by the Israelites. Just to the east is the large Canaanite city of Ai, which is reported to have been captured by Joshua and his forces at the time of the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 7-8), though archaeological evidence shows that the city fell about a thousand years before Joshua's time. Not much of the remains of old Bethel have been excavated, because the modern town of Beitin is located on the spot.
The holy place where Jacob had his dream (theophany) may have lain between these two towns. It would have been atop one of the high hills, probably with a rock surface that resembled a stairway. Similar natural staircases are seen all over the land of Israel. We know that Bethel became the site for one of the major houses of worship for the kingdom of North Israel in the days of King Jeroboam (1 Kings 12), probably because it had been revered as a holy place for centuries before. Already Abraham had encamped and worshipped God there (Genesis 12).
But when Jacob set out for Mesopotamia, he seems not to have known that this was a holy place. He rested for the night, selecting a stone for a pillow, probably wrapping it in a sheepskin or some garment. That night he dreamed of a ladder connecting earth and heaven, with angels going up and coming down. This was a meeting place, a connecting point, between earth and heaven, and Jacob, by chance it seems, had chosen just that spot to lie down for the night. Jacob is that kind of person: he works hard to see that blessings come his way, as we saw, but Jacob is also a lucky fellow. Things work out well for him, even when he seems not to be trying.
In Jacob's dream, the chief promise he receives is that this very land will belong to him and to his descendants. We know that the story had placed Jacob and Esau much farther south in the land of Canaan, around Hebron and Beersheba and farther south. But now Jacob is learning that this land too is to be his. As we know, it does become the location of ten tribes descended from ten of Jacob's sons. Only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin will be located much below the site of Bethel (after the tribe of Dan moves to the far north-Judges 17-18).
But the great theme of Jacob's dream is still to be stated. Jacob is on a perilous journey, leaving the land of the promise to seek his fortune in Mesopotamia. Will God go with him on this journey, make his affairs prosper, and bring him back to his family, back to the land of God's promise? The answer comes that God will surely do so, and Jacob need have no fear. God will see to the divine promise, will make Jacob's descendants as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and will bring blessing to all of earth's families through Jacob and those descended from him.
Jacob commemorates this dream and its great promises when he awakens. The stone set up as a memorial is also an altar stone. Jacob pours out valuable oil upon it as a gift to God and as a witness to the promise Jacob is about to make. Near the tops of many ancient Canaanite cities were rows of stones or pillars standing in memorial. It seems likely that Jacob's pillar was like that-not a representative of a god or a regular stone altar, but a memorial of the dream with its promise of God's protection and great blessing. In later times, the temple built by Jeroboam would surely be thought of as located right on the spot where Jacob had his dream.
This is clear from the vow, the solemn promise that Jacob makes to God. Jacob commits himself to give God one-tenth of everything that he may come to own. In exchange, he asks God to protect him on his journey, giving him the necessities of life and also bringing him back to this land of promise. If God will do that, Jacob will do his part.
Is this a mere business deal between Jacob and God? Is it right to bargain with God in this way? All religious practice aims at securing God's favor and blessing, does it not? We should not be too quick to condemn Jacob for making his vow in this way. Let's start with the opening response Jacob made when he awoke. He said, "Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it!" God has come to him with a promise, a promise freely made by God before Jacob tries to make a bargain with God. He is well aware that the dream was more than a dream. God was giving him a message about the promise God had made to Abraham and to Isaac. As Jacob departs, he is leaving the very land to which it is his destiny to return. It is here, in Canaan, that he and his descendants are going to have a part in realizing God's purpose for the whole world.
Viewed in this light, Jacob's bargain with God may not be so crass and self-serving as it seems. Jacob makes a commitment, and he counts on God to be committed to him as well. As the story unfolds, we see that God proves to be faithful to the divine promise. Jacob will thrive and prosper, and will find not one wife but two. But Jacob will have to work for the fulfillment of God's promise. See Genesis 31:38-42, where Jacob describes how hard he worked, night and day, suffering all kinds of danger. Only God's presence with him saved him.
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?"
(Genesis 28)
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."
Thus Isaac sent Jacob away; and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he charged him,
"You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women,"
and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram.
So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please his father Isaac, Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael, and sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.
Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward 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."
Theophany
(from Greek theophaneia, "appearance of God"), manifestation of deity in sensible form. The term has been applied generally to the appearance of the gods in the ancient Greek and Near Eastern religions but has in addition acquired a special technical usage in regard to biblical materials. In the Old Testament, God is depicted as appearing in human form, in natural cataclysms, in a burning bush, a cloud, or a gentle breeze--forms often associated with the divine "name" or "glory" (originally a visible halo accompanying the divine appearance). Old Testament theophanies are presented as actual historical events or as prophetic visions with symbolic overtones. The mark of biblical theophanies is the temporariness and suddenness of the appearance of God, which is here not an enduring presence in a certain place or object. The extension of the term theophany to such New Testament events as the Baptism and transfiguration of Jesus (also called epiphanies) has been questioned as inappropriate because in Orthodox Christian doctrine Christ himself in his whole life and work and death is the manifestation of God. The incarnation of Christ, however, may be seen as the ultimate and fullest form of divine manifestation in a whole spectrum of theophanies.
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ancient Canaanite town destroyed by the Israelites under their leader
Joshua (Joshua 7-8). Biblical references agree in locating Ai (Hebrew: ha-'Ay, "The Ruin") just east of Bethel (modern Baytin in the West Bank). This would make it identical with the large early Bronze Age site now called At-Tall. Excavations there in 1933-35 by a French expedition uncovered a large temple and other remains of the 3rd millennium BC. That occupation ended about 2500 BC, and there was no later reoccupation except briefly in the 12th-11th century BC. The biblical events, however, are usually assigned to a period between about 1400 and 1200 BC. A widely accepted explanation is that early Israelite tradition identified the Canaanite town that was buried under the Israelite Bethel with the imposing ruins of the still earlier At-Tall, only 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the east.© 1999-2000 Britannica.com Inc.
ancient city of Palestine, located just north of Jerusalem. Originally called Luz and in modern times Baytin, Bethel was important in Old Testament times and was frequently associated with Abraham and Jacob. Excavations, carried out by the American School of Oriental Research and the Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary, suggest that Bethel may have been the actual scene of the events described in the Old Testament as having taken place at
Ai during the Israelite conquest of Canaan.After the division of Israel,
Jeroboam I (10th century BC) made Bethel the chief sanctuary of the northern kingdom (Israel), and the city was later the centre for the prophetic ministry of Amos. The city apparently escaped destruction by the Assyrians at the time of the fall of Samaria (721 BC), but it was occupied by Josiah of Judah (reigned c. 640-c. 609 BC).© 1999-2000 Britannica.com Inc.
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