Aren’t dreams strange and wonderful things? A lady with whom I used to work was talking to a co-worker about a dream that she had the previous night. She and the other woman were both bowlers. The dreamer said that she was at a bowling establishment where the lanes were really weird. There was only room for a two step approach, and the pins were very, very far away. She said, “I don’t know what it meant, but it was really strange.” I knew the ladies well enough that I could butt – “I know exactly what that dream meant.” Skeptical, they demanded that I explain. So like either Joseph or Daniel, I said, “The short approach is God’s way of telling you that life is brief. The long lane tells you that eternity never ends. And the possibility of getting a strike at such a distance is very slim. The point is: You’d better get ready for eternity, because you’ve only got 70 years on this earth.” Both ladies laughed, and I have no idea if either of them seriously considered what I had said. “What is your life? It is even as a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.”
That lady’s dream was probably caused by the pizza and beer she had before she went to bed. However, the dream that our friend Jacob had was not caused by pizza – it was produced by the Lord. It was sent to teach him something. And through Jacob, it is there to teach us something as well. I think that it was amazing that Jacob was able to sleep at all, so that he could have had that dream. It might be more accurate to speak of Jacob’s dream as a miraculous vision – or a revelation. Let’s briefly consider three simple points this evening.
The Dreamer was a man of like-passions with ourselves.
This is Jacob we’re talking about, not some super-human, nearly-perfect, one-foot-in-heaven kind of guy. I can more readily identify with Jacob than I can with David, Daniel or either of the Brothers John. This man was selfish, just a bit greedy, spoiled by his mother, and living by his own rules. By the time we meet him here, he’s going off to make his fortune, like a hundred million other young men.
And when we find him, he had just started a five-hundred mile journey to meet his cousins in Padan-aram. After that day’s walk, he was bedding down at the edge of a meadow, not far from the Canaanite city of Luz. Actually, it had not been a very good day for the young man. Perhaps he impertinently pretended to be glad to leave his doting mother, indifferent father and irate brother. Probably he let family the servants think that he’d been planning to leave home for a long time. But despite the brave facade, he was facing the great unknown, and he had a day to think about things. I’ve been in that situation a few times, and so have most of you. There is an empty feeling inside that usually we don’t want to admit or talk about.
So why didn’t Jacob book a room at the Holiday Inn in Luz? Wasn’t Jacob just a little bit afraid of those strange Canaanites? As he put those stones around the place where he was going to lay his head… As he propped up some of gear that he had been carrying, to make his sleep a bit more comfortable… He was struck with his loneliness and perhaps some homesickness. He had been a mama’s boy all his life, and now she isn’t there. Was there a tear in the corner of one eye as he thought about never seeing her again? Was he afraid that perhaps his angry brother might come looking for him tonight?
Jacob was fearful and lonely. Not only that, but deep down in the depths of his heart, he knew that he was not a good person. He would not admit it, but he lacked the character, morality and nobility of his grandfather Abraham. He was not overly bothered about it, but he knew that he cheated his brother and lied to his father. As is true of all men, there was a tiny voice inside that sometimes gets a chance to speak. And on this occasion it was saying: “You are a wretched sinner.” “There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” Oh sure, we all muzzle a voice like that, but it does get a little peep out once in a while.
So what was Jacob doing? He was taking his mother’s advice and obeying his father, only because it fits into his own plans. And he was off to Padan-aram to really begin his life. “A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father give me my inheritance. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country. And there wasted his substance with riotous living.” Have you ever seen yourself in Jacob?
And then Jacob dreamed a dream; he saw a vision from God.
What was the purpose of that vision? Wasn’t it to convey God’s promise to the young man? “Jacob, I am Jehovah, the God of your grandfather Abraham and your father Isaac. To you and your descendants I am going to give all this land of Canaan. Furthermore, I’m going give you a great-grandson who will be the Saviour of sinners throughout world. Towards that end, you can be sure that I will bless and protect you until you return to this promised land.” Wasn’t this the reason for this visitation at Bethel?
Was the image of the ladder or stair-case to Heaven necessary to the revelation itself? Those golden stairs, with seraphim and cherubim going up and down were additional to the primary purpose. Therefore there must be special reasons for their inclusion. Doesn’t this ladder make for a reasonable illustration of Lord Jesus Christ. We might call this a “type” of Christ — a “representation” or “symbol” of Christ. Here are some points of comparison: Jesus once said to disciple Thomas: “I Am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh….” He said in another place: “I am the door, by me if any man enter in he shall be saved.” Paul said, “By Christ we have access by faith into his grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope glory of God.” “In Christ we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.”
Men may think that they can come to God anyway they choose. They may think that Mary will open the door for them. They may think that a night in the forest with the stars in their eyes, they come near to the Creator. They may think that their good deeds or their moral life may give them access to the throne of grace. But the Bible says that no man can approach God except through the merits of the Lord Jesus. The bridge between heaven and earth is the God-man, Christ Jesus. And we notice that this ladder is both earthly and heavenly. It is just like the earthly and body of Christ, containing the eternal deity of the Saviour.
Jacob saw angels traveling up and down this special staircase. In this we are reminded that God has His heavenly servants constantly doing His earthly will. But what were those angels carrying; what were their orders? Were they sent to precede Jacob to his uncle’s house to make things ready for him? Were sent to protect him from thieves and robbers who might have been out on the king’s highway? Were they in fact sent to teach Jacob some lessons about humility and faith? The angels of God might have positive ministries toward us. Or they might have orders to chastize us and to coax us into line. Whichever, we are reminded that Christ is our mediator and intercessor. Those angels were traveling up and down the ladder, were for the sake illustration, Christ Jesus. I don’t believe that a single angel of God ever acts outside of the will of the Saviour.
Perhaps you can see some other ways in which the ladder typifies Christ.
But more important than these things is the meaning of the ladder to Jacob and to us.
When Jacob awoke the next morning, he said, “Wow, surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” Jacob wasn’t looking for the Lord. He had been raised with some religion, but he hadn’t been impressed with it. His parents professed religion, but he knew that they were hypocrites to some degree. Children can spot hypocrisy faster than they can find a new package of Doritos. Jacob’s knowledge of God was all second hand, like an old suit of clothes. But God was looking for Jacob, despite the man’s pranks, tricks and deception. If God never went looking for sinners, no one would ever see the Lord, except in judgment. There is no one with eyesight holy enough to prepare them for the Lord. The gracious Lord was watching over Jacob.
Observe that no matter how dismal the place, no matter how dark the night, every place is a Bethel. This church building can be a Bethel – an “house of God” to us. I’m sure that to some it is, but to others it isn’t. Hospital beds and rooms can be Bethel – “God is in this place and I knew it not.” Jails and prisons can be Bethels, and so can funeral chapels. Marriage counseling offices and financial counseling rooms can be Bethels. Bethel can be lit-up and beautiful or it can be dismal and dark.
Jacob was not aware of the presence of the Lord until he fell asleep. We get so busy about this and that, that we can’t see the Lord until we close our eyes. He might put us in the hospital and blacken our eyes to make us see His face or hear voice. He may strip us of all our earthly belongings, just like Jacob, before we stop, look and listen. I wonder if the Lord is planning any visits like that for us in the near future. In Jacob’s case it might have been avoided, if he’d paid attention just a bit earlier.
May there be a Bethel – in one form or other – in all of our lives. In some ways, it might said that if there isn’t, then we are not true descendants of Abraham.