To: en & more
Hi,
My dearly beloved, today we look at Gen 28: 10-20, and recall Jacob's ladder.
Jacob has been dispatched by Isaac to Padam Aram (Gen 28:2), fleeing from the wrath of Esau who is bent on killing him (Gen 27:41), and to find for himself a wife from the kinsfolk of his mother Rebekah, Aramean from Padam Aram.
Picture for yourself the image generated in Gen 10: 1-2. Isaac is running for his life, He journeys for a day, and by nightfall has to stop. He has no shelter, no bed. Exhausted he finds a stone for a pillow and falls asleep, and has this vision of heaven: God speaks to him and blesses him (Gen 27: 12-15).
It may be for some of us a similar situation. Frightened, we run for our lives. After a long journey, exhausted, we find no shelter, but fall asleep: and behold, we are not alone, we are not abandoned, but ushered into the very presence of God with a vision. Are we close enough to God to recognise his visions? or have we strayed away so far that even the sight of angels does not move us. I pray that it is not so.
God appears to Jacob and declares that he is The Lord, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. (vs 13)
In vs 15 God promises "I am with you and will watch over you where ever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
What a wonderful promise. And I believe God says to us today "I am with you and will watch over you where ever you go, to England, to Singapore, to America, to Thailand, and I will bring you back to this land, I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
In response to this revelation, Jacob acknowledges the presence of God. "Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place." I believe it is with joy that we can echo this declaration, whenever we are privileged to feel God's presence. Declare it, for God to hear, for the angels to hear, for other men to hear us declare "Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place."
And Jacob builds an altar (vs 18). Remember we have talked about markerpoints in our lives. We may not take an actual stone and pour oil on it, but we can create a monument at the markerpoints in our lives by testimony to our relatives and friends, telling them about how we met God at this particular point in our lives. Markerpoints, tales to tell, forming altars to praise and worship God..
Finally Jacob accepts the Lord as his Lord, dedicates the altar as a house of the Lord and pledges to tithe his income.
Do we need to wait till we are in deathly peril before we can do this? Or has God already blessed us so abundantly that today we can say, Yes, I am in the presence of the Lord? Are we ready to accept the Lord as our Lord. Are we ready to worship him with our tithes and offerings and with ourselves, our body as living sacrifices?
Let us close in prayer
From: Su Min
Subject: Jacob's Ladder
Father,
Love dad
thank you for the lesson we learn from Jacob's ladder.
May it speak to each one of us at our very point of need.
Thank you for the promise of always being with us to watch over us, never leaving us until you have achieved your purpose..
In Jesus name
Amen.
For any comments or enquiries please write to Dr. Lim Su Min
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