Jacob’s Ladder To God

SUN., AUG. 8, 1993, 5:31 AM
FARM, STUDY

The story you shall tell this morning to a few children is not a big responsibility, but it is an opportunity to tell about Me in a unique way. Jacob, of course, was one of your spiritual fathers. You are not a Jew, so it is not that direct lineage, but I still insist that it is important for you to acknowledge and appreciate this heritage from which I, as Jesus, came. I did not just plop down into the earth with no background. (I could have, but I didn’t). I was part of a heritage that linked with Jacob and hence back to Isaac and Abraham.

I called Abraham to be faithful. I tested this faith by a strange request that he sacrifice his son Isaac. He was willing, so I worked it so that Isaac lived, and I selected him over his brother Ishmael. Then of Isaac’s two sons I selected Jacob as the “way to Me.” Jacob had some strange and wonderful experiences, and this one of which I speak this morning is one of the rather famous ones.

Jacob was on his way to Haran to find a wife when night came on him, and he needed to sleep. He selected a rock for his pillow, and the one you have picked is a good replica. He lay down with his head on the rock, and went to sleep… and he had a dream. In this dream he saw a ladder extending up to heaven, and he saw angels going both up and down the ladder. Let this mean that these helping spirits are taking your troubles and challenges up to Me, and are coming down with the help you need.

Then Jacob saw God at the top of the ladder, welcoming the angels coming up and blessing those coming down. As God I spoke directly to Jacob. I told him that the land on which he slept was to be his, that he would have countless descendants (including you, for he is a spiritual ancestor), and that I would provide for him, whatever he would need.

This was a powerful dream. When Jacob awoke he remembered it fully and was quite willing to tell others of it. He took the stone that he had used for a pillow and set it up as a special marker, and he named it Bethel, a special place of visitation by Me. He poured olive oil over it, which has no significance for you… except to make it messy with an expensive oil.

Then he said that he chose this Jehovah God who came to him so vividly in such an odd and powerful dream, and that he would serve him. Included in this service was a promise to give back to Me one tenth of all that I gave to him. Thus, by Jacob’s standard you can have all of what you provide for yourself, but of that which I give you 1/10 should be given back to Me.

This, the origin of the tithe, is difficult to interpret in your culture when the emphasis is much more on what you earn, rather on what I give, even if most of this is indirect and can be recognized only with faith. Jacob was attesting to his faith in a God that met him in a dream. In response to God’s promise, in the dream, to provide for him, Jacob promised to give back one dollar out of every ten… and the equivalent of this ratio.