Daily Word of Grace # 247 (May 24, 2021)
When Jacob, the younger of Isaac and Rebecca’s twins, was journeying alone through the wilderness he learned he was actually not alone at all. As he slept with a rock for a pillow he had a dream: “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…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’” (Genesis 28:10-13 and 15-17). That image of angels ascending and descending a ladder reaching all the way to heaven always moves me. The Lord kept his promise to Jacob and indeed gave that land, the Promised Land, to his descendants. As the Lord was with Jacob, the Lord is with you. Moreover, that ladder prefigures a different ladder, the cross, where Jesus gave his life for you in order to open for you the gate to heaven. In other words, Jacob’s ladder is your ladder.
Love and Prayers,
Dave