Jacob's Dream 

And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!  And behold, the Lord stood above it 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.  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 in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.  Behold, 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 awoke 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.”  So early in the morning Jacob 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.  He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. (Genesis 28: 12 to 19) 

When Rebekah learned that Esau held a grudge against Jacob, she tried to persuade Isaac to send Jacob away to find a wife. (Genesis 27: 46) 

So, Isaac sent Jacob away for a wife.  Isaac had a servant who took ten camels and traveled weeks to get him a wife.  Jacob had to take the same journey by himself.  He even had to use a rock as a pillow to sleep in the wilderness.  To show Jacob the great plan, God revealed himself in his dream.  In the dream, God blessed Jacob the same as Isaac and Abraham.  God also showed him a ladder reaching to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it.  Later, Jesus revealed that he is the ladder as below. 

Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”  Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”  And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (Matthew 1: 49 to 51) 

Jacob named the place Bethel - house of God.  Bethel used to be called Luz.  Abraham built an altar there when he entered Cannan after being called out by God (Genesis 12: 8).  After being renamed by Jacob, Bethel became a holy ground for Israel until King Jeroboam as described below. 

Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel.  And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David.  If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”  So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”  And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. (First Kings 12: 25 to 29) 

Both Penuel and Bethel were places where Jocob met God.  They became Jacob's legacy for Israelites.  However, to attract Israelites, Jeroboam turned them into religious centers for Israelites to worship.  Even worse, Bethel had become an idolatry center.  Jesus says as below. 

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11: 12) 

Paul also wrote as below. 

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,  from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4: 11 to 16) 

So, religious legacies or rituals won't bring us blessings or assurance.  On the contrary, they could trap us into injustice.  Instead, we need to strive to attain the knowledge of the Son of God to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.  Only then, we could prevail. Emmanuel. 

(To return, select <- on the toolbar)