With this paragraph we begin the account of the next twenty years of Jacob's life. At the beginning and the end of this period -- when he is at the point of leaving the promised land and when he is at the point of returning to it twenty years later -- the Lord appeared to him.

v. 12 "Stairway" is preferred by most experts to the old "ladder."

v. 16 The omnipresent God is often said to be uniquely present in a certain place. This is the basis of the biblical emphasis on the fact that when God's people gather for worship, for the Word and the Sacrament, they may expect the Lord's presence to a special degree. "I will be with you always," the Lord Jesus said to his church before his ascension; but, also, "where two or three are gathered in my name, there will I be in the midst of them."

v. 17 "Awesome" unfortunately has become a weak word in our day. We would do better to stay with the older words that were used in the older English Bibles: dreadful, or awful. That captures the point. Not awful in the sense of bad, but in the sense of a mixture of fear or dread and wonder and amazement.

v. 18 Jacob worships in forms of the age. We often see God accommodating himself to the customs of that time, as when he meets Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre where Abraham built an altar to the Lord.

v. 20 This is the longest vow recorded in the Scripture.

v. 22 This is not the first instance of the tithe in the Bible; we have it before in Genesis 14 where Abraham gave a tithe to God's priest Melchizedek.

Jacob, the homebody, was given a warm send-off by his parents, but we can well imagine his loneliness and fear as he walked away from home, turned and waved for the last time as he was about to lose sight of his parents at a turn in the road. I would be surprised to learn he did not have tears in his eyes. It wasn't his idea; he didn't want to leave home and family and, perhaps further, we can assume that he felt the weight of the fact that he had been forced to leave as a consequence of his own behavior. With help from his mother, he had messed things up to an impossible degree and this was his punishment. On he walked through the day, alone with his thoughts. That night, for some reason, he found himself in the open field near a town called Luz. Perhaps he had been too shy to ask for lodging. Perhaps he had been turned away. In any case, he was to spend the night in the open and so, finding a rock for a pillow, he lay down to sleep.

And when he slept he had a dream -- a dream so vivid and so powerful that he knew exactly what he was seeing and could remember it all -- a dream that was, in fact, unmistakably a revelation from God. He saw a stairway connecting earth and heaven; on the stairway angels were ascending and descending, and above it stood the Lord himself. And the Lord spoke to Jacob and repeated to him the great promises that he had made before to Abraham and Isaac. Then the Lord added new promises just for Jacob and for the immediate moment in Jacob's life. He promised Jacob that, as he left the promised land, he would be with him, that he would preserve him where he was going, and that he would eventually bring him safely back to the promised land.

Don't underestimate the force and the weight of such promises that God made to Jacob. Those ancient promises, that had first been made to Abraham and to Isaac, were life-transforming words. Those same promises had made a mother out of an old, barren woman. They had made a homeless refugee, Jacob's father, a man of power and wealth. They had delivered a man, Lot, who was only on the periphery of the family that received those promises, from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. By these promises the Lord linked Jacob to the salvation history behind him. Just as the promises of the gospel, when we embrace them, link us to the salvation history behind us -- all that Christ did for us when he was in the world, the descent of the Spirit, the apostolic foundation of the new church, and so on. They define our lives in terms of that history and of the promises that God made to his people, for all time.

God promised to be with Jacob. The pagan deities were attached to specific peoples and places. They didn't move. But the living God is everywhere and goes everywhere. He will be with Jacob wherever he goes to keep and preserve him, to give him a seed, and preserve that seed, and to bring him and eventually his descendants back into the land that he promised to Abraham.

This is one of the truly magnificent pictures of God's revealing himself to one of his children in the Bible. Think of Jacob's state of mind as he lay down to sleep. Esau is behind him; he cannot go home. What is before him is all unknown. He is not the adventurous type. But, then, God gave him this vision in a dream. The stairway connects earth to heaven, it illustrates the linking of earth and heaven. Jacob himself will call the place "the gate of heaven" as well has the "house of God" in v. 17.

And what did all of that mean? It meant, as Jacob fully understood and will say in v. 16, it meant that in the darkness of that night and, still more, in the darkness of his own life circumstances, the Lord was with him, the Lord God, with his angels, was present to help and preserve him. The vision means largely the same thing as the promises that God spoke to Jacob. It illustrated the nature and the significance of those promises. At this place -- a certain place it is called in v. 11, a nothing place, a place of no consequence, he found the nexus between heaven and earth and was given to see the traffic between heaven and earth that is always there, though otherwise unseen. Now he knew that he could not judge his circumstances any longer by their appearance to the human eye. Now, he realized that, while cut off from home and loved ones, he was not cut off from the living God or the influence and help and support of the angels of God.

In his defeat and failure, his fear and his loneliness, suddenly his eyes were opened to see a present God, the connection between this earth -- even a no account, empty, inconsequential place on this earth, and heaven itself. Wherever he goes, from now on, he understands, wherever he is, no matter what his circumstances, his faith in God, and, still more, God's faithfulness to and presence with him, makes that place the meeting point of heaven and earth. His life, therefore, is not the catastrophe that he thought it was when he went to sleep. It is now full of possibilities of every kind. And in this moment Jacob's journey was profoundly changed. What was a flight becomes now a pilgrimage.

And what did Jacob do, when he awoke from that dream? He embraced it in all of its glorious meaning; he embraced it for himself and vowed to build his life upon the truth that had been revealed to him, to make the presence and the glory and the faithfulness of the living God the foundation of his existence. As the old gospel song had it, Jacob awoke, determined to live his life "standing on the promises."

It is interesting to see how his vow, in vv. 20-22, simply mimics the promises that God made to him in the verses above. It is an important point; take note of the parallels.

In v. 15 God says "I am with you" and in v. 20 Jacob says, "If God will be with me." In v. 15 God says to Jacob, "I will watch over you wherever you go" and in v. 20 Jacob says, "if God will watch over me on this journey I am taking." In v. 15 God says, "I will bring you back to this land," and in v. 21 Jacob says, "if I return safely to my father's house." In v. 15 God says, "I will not leave you" which becomes, in a kind of climax in v. 21 "the Lord will be my God." Jacob is not expressing uncertainty when he says "if the Lord should do such a thing." He means only that if such is what God promises and does, then his response must be to honor, worship, and serve God alone. And, to make the commitment tangible, to give it an outward form, to embody it in that physical form so necessary for human beings, psycho-physical beings that they are, Jacob sets up a pillar as a witness and a place of his worship -- a place he will return to and build an altar years later -- and makes a promise to give God his tithe. Someone has said that the most sensitive nerve in the body is the pocket nerve. But Jacob, having seen the Lord, knows that his commitment cannot be half-hearted, but must extend to those very things human beings cling to the most, trust in the most, take pleasure in the most. God will have that from him as well.

There it is, the promise of God's presence and blessing with his people and their embrace of that presence and promise, that salvation, that forgiveness, that support and help in life on the one hand, and on the other their return or response -- the offering of themselves to God. The Christian religion, the Christian life, in a nutshell.

And how many times this has happened, in how many ways, to the spiritual descendants of Jacob. He found the house of God at night in the countryside near Luz. Others have found that stairway and the traffic on it in deathcamps, or on sick beds, or walking along a road, or, perhaps more than anywhere else, sitting in a church service, singing a hymn or listening to the preaching of the Word of God.

In 1527 Martin Luther went through one of the darkest periods of his life. He was inclined to depression and this depression was the worst. "For more than a week I was close to the gates of death and hell... Christ was wholly lost. I was convulsed with despair and blasphemy against God." This was his dark night of the soul. But it was out of those days and those experiences and fears and agonies of conscience that was come Luther's greatest hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is our God." If you asked Luther the name of that place where he was during that dark night, like Jacob before him, he would say, it was "the house of God"; I call it, he would say, "the mighty Fortress." You remember the line of that hymn, "The Spirit and the gifts are ours through him who stands beside us." Luther couldn't see it at first, any more than Jacob could. See what Jacob says in v. 16: "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it." But he became aware of it. The eyes of his faith were opened.

Did the Lord send angels to help Martin Luther in that dark hour. Was there the very same traffic on the stairway connecting heaven and earth? In Hebrews 1:14 we read that the Lord Christ sends his angels as ministering spirits to serve those who will inherit salvation. We cannot tell precisely by what means God lifted up the soul of Martin Luther. He doesn't tell Jacob here exactly what the angels do. What is most important is that He will be with Jacob. That is what makes the difference. God is with us! Christ is with us by his Holy Spirit, to bless, to save, to preserve, to keep us from all harm.

Some of you are familiar with the famous poem of Francis Thompson, an English poet who lived from 1859-1907. "The Hound of Heaven,"

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

And on goes that wonderful poem describing how Francis Thompson fled from God and how God pursued him, found him, and saved him. Thompson was describing with his genius his own experience. The son of Roman Catholic parents he had thought to become a priest but was rejected as an unsuitable candidate. He turned his attention to medicine, but failed his examinations three times. He ran away in disgrace and confusion to London, where he fell into drug addiction, opium in his case. He was reduced to living on the street, a tramp. He sold newspapers and matches to survive.

Still with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following Feet,
And a voice above their beat --
"Nought shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me."

In his despair, he contemplated suicide, but the Lord sent a friend to him, who helped him to recover and to find his peace in God and Christ. And do you know how he described the turning point -- not in the Hound of Heaven, but in another poem? When God met him in his despair in London.

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)
Cry -- and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob's ladder
Pitched between Heaven and Charing Cross.
Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
Cry -- clinging Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water,
Not of Genesareth, but Thames.

Is that not what happened to Jacob? It was not Charing Cross, it was a spot in the country near Luz. That is the point. The bottom of that stairway is everywhere a man or woman, boy or girl is found who has faith in God. Sometimes, God be praised, we can almost see the stairway ourselves and the angels ascending and descending upon it. I remember a time when its foot lay right where I was lying in front of a record player. And many of you can remember seeing it yourselves. And in your hearts and minds and memories, if not at the place itself, there is a pillar and the memory of a vow. That place for you will always be the house of God and the gate of heaven.

But, my brothers and sisters, the Lord's point is not that once Jacob was privileged to be at Bethel, but that everywhere he went would be for him a Bethel. And Jacob understood that. That what was being promised him was the constant presence, care, loving attention of the Lord his God. It was his to remember this and to act upon that certainty. To live, as it were, always remembering that he stood at the foot of that stairway to heaven. By faith, he could stick out his feet and feel the bottom step. Think of Jacob the night before and then on the following day and consider what a difference it has made to him, the sense of purpose for his life, the promise the future holds, the spring in his step. All because he knows that God is with him. What could be more important to know and then to remember? What could possibly more profoundly change our lives? Wherever you go, I will be with you! Life now not a flight, not a stroll, not even a trip, but a pilgrimage.

You remember the conversation that Jesus had with Nathaniel. We have it in John 1. Philip had found his friend Nathaniel and had told him that he had found the Messiah. When Nathaniel came to Jesus, the Lord said, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." Nathaniel wanted to know, "How do you know me?" And the Lord replied that he had seen Nathaniel when he was still sitting under the fig tree, before Philip called him. Nathaniel had heard enough. He said to Jesus, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." To which Jesus replied, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that. I tell you the truth, you -- and the 'You' is plural; you and all those who believe like you -- shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

That is the Lord's way of saying that Nathaniel and other believers would have confirmed for them, as Jacob had confirmed God's presence with and promise to him, that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. In a way, the Lord's words are a reminder that the Lord Jesus is the stairway to heaven, the connection between earth and heaven. By faith in him we experience the blessings of heaven -- indeed, as Paul says, in Him we are already seated in the heavenly places.

Christ makes the same promise to us that he made to Jacob. He will be with us, he will preserve and protect and care for us. He will be our God and Savior. And the Lord's Supper is both a memorial, a pillar as it were, to that promise and that reality, and a means of bringing it to pass. If the Lord is everywhere, he is uniquely present here, at his table, when his people come here to be nourished and strengthened by him.

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