The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 28:10-13a,
“Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.’”
On his way to Haran to get himself a wife in obedience to his father Isaac, Jacob has his dream, “Jacob’s Ladder” or the stairway to heaven. Angels are seen by Jacob ascending and descending on it. I find it quite fascinating! Jacob’s dream is a literal depiction of actual events. In Jacob’s dream the Lord uses the same formula to express who he is to Jacob as he will to Moses from the fiery bush in the wilderness years later. In Exodus 3:5-6 we read, “’Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ Then he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.”
It is this formula that Jesus quotes from Exodus 3 to settle the issue of the resurrection with the Sadducees in Matthew 22:29-32, “Jesus replied, ‘You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.’”
God does not say he “was the God of Abraham…” but that he is, after Abraham’s death; that is, Abraham is alive after his death! Jesus argues a major point of theology on the tense of a verb. Those who would argue with a literal, grammatical and historical interpretation of the Scriptures face the unenviable position of being in disagreement with the Son of God over how we should interpret and use the Scriptures.
This sure adds tremendous value to our understanding of the Scriptures, doesn’t it? And these angels ascending and descending this stairway to heaven… where are they going? What kinds of assignments are they on? Is it all business or are some headed to the Cayman Islands for vacation, etc.?
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
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