If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.
9 January. Genesis chapters 28-29
Jacob’s Ladder is one of those well known Bible stories, perhaps because it is so easily illustrated. Or perhaps (for Sunday school teachers) because unlike most of the rest of Genesis it does not involve sex or violence. But note – Jacob is sleeping out in the open with a hard rock for a pillow. I had always pictured this as in some remote desert. But he is actually staying in the “city” of Luz (the word is perhaps used in a relative sense, but a town at least). So he has chosen to spend the night outdoors, maybe because it was a hot summer night, or maybe because he knew that solitude and contemplation of the vastness of the night sky are helpful to prayer. And God meets him in a special way. It reminds me to look for more opportunities to be truly alone with God.
I will write more about Jacob and his wives as the story unfolds tomorrow.