The Old Testament reading for this Sunday, Genesis
28:10-19a, continues the story of Jacob.
Last Sunday, we read the beginning of the Jacob
story. Jacob is born gripping onto his twin brother Esau’s heel. Esau goes on
to make a reputation for himself, but when he comes to the end of his resources
he must surrender the life that is his by right, to receive life back from his
brother as gift. I suggested that Esau is a type, or representative, for us and
our desire to make a name for ourselves in the world; and that Jacob is a type
for Jesus, the brother who will not let us go and who holds out his life in us
as gift to all who will surrender the life they cannot keep.
This Sunday, we find Jacob in the wilderness,
having left his family home. When night falls, he sleeps, and dreams, and in
his dream he sees a ziggurat reaching to the heavens. This is the same
structure known as the tower of Babel, the first concerted human effort to
build a lasting renown. In his dream, the Lord comes and stands next to him and
promises never to leave him, wherever he goes, and to bring him home, and to
give him many descendants.
I want to suggest that this points us to the
temptations of Jesus, where immediately after he is baptised in the river
Jordan, Jesus goes into the wilderness and is tested by the satan, or counsel
for the prosecution in the heavenly court. Jesus is offered the rule over all
earthly kingdoms, but turns this down, choosing instead to trust the Lord God
to be with him wherever he goes (even descending into hell) and give him hope
of many descendants in the land of the living.
Jacob awakes from his dream and declares that the
Lord was present in this place, and he had not known it. God is present in
every place—and perhaps especially the places of our failure, our
vulnerability, and our wrestling with our motives—but God is only known to us
by divine self-revelation.
Where have you been surprised to encounter the
living God?
Where do you need to encounter God today?
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