Genesis 28:10-19 NKJV
Jacob’s Vow at Bethel
10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep[a] 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 spoken to you.”
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 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!”
18 Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place [b]Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.
I’ve been on a new health kick because of the pandemic, I have been walking, running at a local track and even purchased a new bike that I ride for exercise. But I keep reading that one of the best things I can do for my health along with the exercise, and dieting, is sleep. Without enough regular sleep, you run the risk of gaining weight, becoming depressed, and increasing your chances of heart disease and stroke. Journalist Maddie Stone wrote that, you need sleep “in order not to feel like garbage the next day.” Sometimes the healthiest activity is no activity. Just stop working and go to bed!
Recently, a whole industry has grown up around the importance of getting a good night’s sleep. Popular sleep-trackers such as Fitbit and the Oura Ring can give you insight into how well you sleep at night. I have a CPAP machine that helps me when I sleep and I can check my phone the next day and see how many hours I slept, how my breathing was that night and if I got some quality sleep. One stage of quality sleep is what is called Rapid Eye Movement or REM sleep. In this sleep stage, your brain activity becomes similar to what is seen in wakefulness. This is the stage in which you are most likely to dream. According to Maddie Stone, “Research suggests that REM and deep sleep together play an important role in memory consolidation and stabilization.”
If you don’t get enough sleep you are not going to feel good the next day. But even worse, you are going to miss some valuable dream time, in which your brain does very important work. Dreaming bring the ancient times is how God spoke to people sometimes so I would think people would want to dream. In the text we encounter Jacob while he is having a dream during a stressful time. Jacob was one of the sons of Isaac and Rebekah, and he had reason to be stressed. We find Jacob in Genesis chapter 28 after he has tricked his twin brother Essau out of his birthright. Jacob then learns that his brother plans to kill him so he has has to “get out of dodge” and quickly. If anyone would be having a sleepless night, it was Jacob. Jacob is leaving Beersheeba a place rooted in tradition and headed toward Haran a more metropolitan city and Jacob may not know it yet but he is hitting a turning point in his life.
Jacob is in a rough place in his life, no longer surrounded by friends and family, nor familiar places he is out on his own. Jacob feels the need to rest. Jacob stuck between a rock and a hard place, some of his own doing, some not his fault. You have to be careful who you listen to in situations because they may mean well but end up telling you to so something that will hurt you in the long run. Secondly you have no idea how someone is going to react to what you do to them, I don’t think Jacob and Rebekah thought that Essau would want to kill Jacob for his actions. Be careful who you listen to, and be careful how you treat people. My heart hurts for how some people are talking to others during this time, and it hurts for those who don’t want to talk at all.
Jacob stops where he is to rest and used a rock as a pillow, an ordinary item for an ordinary task. Jacob uses that pillow to try and get some rest. An ordinary place, or so he thought, but Jacob comes in contact with the divine. God shows up to talk with little old Jacob, show him something great, and tell him something even greater. There is where Jacob has a dream, he sees angelic beings going up and down this ladder. Literally means casted up. Jacob saw the angels going up and down the ladder, they were connecting with God. This connection to God is better than the one they tried in Genesis 11, because this connection is God made not man made. We can try to do things on our own but when God gets involved, it is way better than if we try to do it ourselves. Here, Jacob sees something being done by God that man couldn’t do, and even better, God speaks to Jacob. Jacob the trickster, he who grabs by the heel, Jacob on the run for his life, Jacob who doesn’t have any family or friends right now, God still speaks to this same Jacob, no matter how messed up Jacob was, God still wanted to talk to him. God wants a relationship with us, and God is a loving God full of grace, God came to Jacob in grace, not beating him over the head for what he did. Just like God came to Jacob in grace, he comes to us in grace. God wants to talk to us just like Jacob.
Not only does God talk to Jacob, God tells him that the very place you are standing will be yours, it will be yours and your decedents. Jacob doesn’t have anyone yet, he stopped by here by chance, or so he thought but the promise came before the provision. He is running for his life right now, hiding, resting, but God is telling him he is going to get through this hard time and own the very place he is standing later. Not only that, but God lets Jacob know that God will be with him until the promise has been kept. God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should seek cause to repent. God’s word does not return to him void, so if God said it, God will do it. A word from the Lord takes us from lonely, to surrounded by people, a word from the Lord takes us from hiding on some land to owning the Land, a word from the Lord will make it alright. The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of the Lord stands forever.
Jacob’s response was praise, Jacob realized he had experienced God at this place and built an altar. Jacob found his place of worship, sometimes you have to find your place of worship. With God, the ordinary can become extraordinary and the secular can become sacred. A pillow became the altar. Jacob although encouraged, is still in a place of pain and turns it into a place of worship. Jacob found his place of worship.
I am reminded of a song by Marvin Sapp called Place of Worship, track 9 on his album Thirsty if you are scoring at home. In that song he talks about finding you place of worship.
Go find your place of worship
Look into your pain and find your praise
Every low place in your life
Prepared you for your hard place
Every tear you cried is water for
The garden of your victory
And even though you're in the valley,
Victory comes through your adversity
Go find your place of worship
Go to God in the middle of your problems, he won’t turn you away, God loves you. God wants a relationship with you, God comes in grace, God promises you he will not leave you. Take your rest in the Lord and know that it will be alright.
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