Genesis 28

“And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down on it. Yahweh was standing there beside him, saying, ‘I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land that you are now sleeping on.’”  Genesis 28:12-13 (HCSB)

Anyone who has been in a music store over the past 30 years is familiar with the opening melody of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” They have, no doubt, been privy to countless bad renditions of it as well! If they lived in the days of Jacob, perhaps the band would have written: “Ladder to Heaven.”

Interestingly, traditionally, the rabbis have taught the “certain place” Jacob stopped to rest was Mount Moriah. If so, it would most likely have been the location where Abraham intended to offer Isaac and where Solomon’s Temple stood.

The description of Jacob’s dream is one of the most vivid Biblical images of the Lord and His angels working on the face of the earth. It’s like being privy to the whereabouts of that door where Disney characters enter and exit the theme park! It should be noted that the angels are first mentioned as “ascending” the ladder. That observation has caused some scholars to speculate that the angels had been accompanying Jacob on his journey the whole time and only now were returning to the Lord. Maybe it was a shift change at Heaven & Co.  Who knows? The Bible does not say.

It is safe to assume that Jacob was without any human friends, but unseen, angels had been by his side to protect and encourage him. Isn’t it comforting to know that the Lord has commanded His angels to watch over His children?

Abraham is mentioned as Jacob’s father because both Isaac’s blessing and Esau’s birthright now rested with Jacob. Jacob was the direct recipient and “conduit” of God’s promises to Abraham.

There is an excellent lesson concerning God’s faithfulness here. God’s guarantee of fulfilled promises depended on God’s character, not the patriarchs’. Jacob was a deceiver, and God would soon test Jacob’s mettle, but the Lord knew what kind of man Jacob would become once His work in Jacob’s life was completed.

I hope you are encouraged by this truth: God’s love for His children is great enough to lead them through hardships just to mold them into “inheritors” who would live up to the character of His name. If you are suffering through a time of molding and stretching, be encouraged! Asleep or awake, God Himself (and His angels) is ever-present and personally “there” for us, His children.

“…for God has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.”  Hebrews 13:5b (NIV)