Pentecost 8A

Genesis 28:10-19a

¹⁰ Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹ He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.

¹² And Jacob 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. ¹³ 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; ¹⁴ and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. ¹⁵ 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."

¹⁶ Then Jacob woke 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 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. ¹⁹ He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz.

Jacob and Place

Today's Jacob episode comes midway in his story:

• after he deceived his father Isaac in order to steal his brother's birthright;
• a while before he reached his uncle's place in Haran and married Leah and Rachel;
• a few chapters earlier than the wrestling match that dislocated his hip and caused God to change Jacob's name to Israel.

You may remember Jacob as father of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Geography and climate are central to God's earthbound activity. Two weeks ago I observed how some churches, communities, and organizations receive their names from their location, whether a city, town, neighborhood or street. Jacob first arrived at "a certain [as yet unnamed] place." [28:11]

Named locations in this passage include Beersheba that means well of the oath because legend says Abraham dug the well after making a pact or agreement with Abimelech (Genesis 21:31). Isaac also called the well Beersheba (Genesis 26:31-33). Jacob is on the way to Haran that means "parched." The place name Luz that probably refers to an almond tree also is familiar to us as the Spanish word for light. When he arrived at the "certain place" it either didn't have a name or Jacob didn't know what it was.

In his dream, Jacob heard God's promise of land, descendants, blessings, and nearness. After experiencing God as he slept, Jacob called it Beth-El, "house of God."


Jacob's Dream

Jacob's is one of several dreams so life-transforming they got into the annals of scripture.

• What other biblical dreams and dreamers do you remember? Do you have a favorite?

Jacob "…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." [28:12] When he recruited Nathaniel, jesus said, "You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man/Human One." [John 1:51] In Jesus of Nazareth, God lets down a ladder and comes to us, stays with us at the bottom of the ladder, walks among us and with us.

• Do you expect to meet God in your dreams? Have you met God in your dreams? We know sleeping and dreaming are different overall conditions than our waking hours.


Where We Live

Place, geography, and climate are essential to God's original creation and to the completion of God's new creation. God's Holy Spirit of life fills the world, but there is no purely spiritual, disembodied creation. No discarnate redemption exists, either. Early on in the witness of scripture, Israel and Judah recognized Yahweh as a fertility god, but it took God's people quite a while to realize Yahweh was not a place god confined to and connected only with a single particular location, but a God at home everywhere.

Every October the blogosphere offers several Write 21 Days challenges to web-log every day of the month on a given prompt or on a topic of the blogger's choosing. For October 2017 I wrote 31 Days of Celebrating Place because "What other could it [my topic] be than landed place that's so central in the Hebrew Bible, so essential for human wellness, that continues to be a high incentive for immigration to the USA?"

Last week I asked where you especially sense God in nature.

• For this week, where can you know you are in a holy place, in a place God inhabits?

• Where do you most expect God to show up?

Although it wasn't sleeping dream-related, I wrote about my original Bethel, House of God.