“And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”                                                                                       Genesis 28:17-18, KJV

“MONDAY MORNING MANNA”

Do you find it as interesting as do I that most celebrity vocalists do not write their own songs? Often overlooked is the songwriter who in essence really is the one to whom the greatest degree of glory should belong.  Afterall, it’s the songwriter whose lived the experience through which his or her song has sought to capture.  It’s the songwriter who has craftily penned each lyric and in most cases even the musical chords through which their message will be sang.  By and large, the hardest part has already happened far in advance of you and me ever hearing the work.  Though the singer is indeed a genius in his own right he is merely an instrument through which the great work of another is being played.  In fact, one can argue that vocalists have it easy to some degree in that they were born with great singing skills which inculcates that they are doing something rather easy for them to do.  On the other hand, the writer has toiled, sweated, lacked sleep, experienced either loss, tragedy or pains and perhaps even spent well over a year making the work just right before its passed along to the selected vocalist. 

One of the most beautiful songs ever written in my opinion is entitled, “Wake Up Everybody.” This song first aired in 1975, through the melodious voice of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes lead singer, Teddy Pendergrass.  Some of the song’s lyrics which ring true even today are: Wake up everybody, no more sleeping in bed, No more backward thinking, time for thinking ahead; The world has changed so very much from what it used to be there is so much hatred, war, and poverty.  The frame is as follows; the world won’t get no better If we just let it be; The world won’t get no better; We gotta change it, yeah, just you and me.  As you read these lyrics I’m willing to bet that you can already hear Teddy Pendergrass humming this tune as he is most famous for the work he did in bringing the song to life while sadly, none of us have ever thought about John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen who were actually the writers of this beautiful work.  All three of these legendary artists have been deceased for several years, having all died young; yet, today the hard work they did can be felt in the hearts of all who hear them. 

Along this line of discussion, I’d like to inject that there is an unseen songwriter in His own right who did the hardest work ever done in securing salvation for a lost world.  The man, Jesus Christ experienced the hard labor of torture, humiliation and mocking all of which ended in His Crucifixion on a Rugged Cross followed by His subsequent Resurrection three days later.  That finished work of Jesus is the means through which by simply believing in the hard work He did, you and me can rest in the ease of knowing that our sins are forgiven, our souls are Saved and a beautiful structure somewhere beyond the stratosphere awaits us after we have achieved sainthood. 

In light of all that’s been said its encouraging to read about Jacob who learns something of Jesus in the passage we’ve selected to exegete in this writing.  The background of this passage is that Abraham’s second son Issac has found himself in a dilemma of sorts.  The dilemma is that God is doing something different than He has done before and that difference has caused a dangerous division in Issac’s family.  Since Issac is advancing in age the future he inherited from his father Abraham is now ready to be passed on to his son Esau but God decides to do something different. This time the blessing will skip the older son and be given to the younger son Jacob.  The knowledge that the blessing will go to Jacob causes stark division in this family and Esau has let it be known that as soon as his Father Issac dies that he will kill his brother Jacob.  

Armed with this information Jacobs mother decides that to protect her son the best decision was to send him to live with her brother Laban in a far away land.  At the time of this text Jacob has been walking three days and worn out from his journeying he spends the night in a desert place called Bethel. Today’s passage picks up when Jacob lies down to sleep and at some point during the night God meets the young man in his dreams. As part of this dream Jacob notices a long ladder with Angels going up and down it and he begins to hear God speak to him during the night.  There is great conjecture surrounding why Jacob was shown this dream and particularly a long ladder but John 1:51, KJV offers us the answer we need in Jesus’ quote, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” This is Jesus’ reference to the ladder.  Particulary, there are three ways that Jesus is the ladder being referenced in the text.  First, like a good ladder Jesus is strong enough to stabilize even the weakest among us.  Perhaps you’ve found moments of weakness in your life and if so, let me ensure you that it’s in our weakness that Gods strength through Jesus can be realized.  Secondly, Jesus like a good ladder is long enough to reach us no matter how far we may think we are away from Him.  In verse thirteen of this passage Moses informs us that Jacob saw God at the very top of this ladder.  This is to indicate that if God held the ladder and the ladder reached all the way to Jacob in the middle of a hot and dry desert then there’s no place that God cannot reach down to us and lift us from where we are to where He wants us to be.  Finally, like a good ladder Jesus is sure enough to hold the heaviest weight.  The Scriptures remind us that life is complete with heavy burdens that weigh us down making it difficult to climb due to increasing heaviness.  My appeal to you today is to take that heaviness you may have at this moment and give it to the one who is sure to handle it.

Simply stated, Jacob was dreaming of a ladder that was strong enough, long enough and sure enough to offer him protection, provision and prosperity.  The Good News for you and me today is that the same ladder symbolic of Jesus Christ offers us the same promise which is that, God is with Us!  Because Jesus has done the hardest part by dying on the Cross in our stead we, much like modern day vocalists only have an easy work left to do, which is to believe in the finished work at Mt. Calvary.  We must believe that even though we may be weak our God is strong, even though we may be far away at times, our God is near and even though we may be overburdened, Our God is a burden bearer. 

I challenge you today to grab hold of the ladder that has been placed before us so that we too, can be Saved.  When Jacob awoke isn’t it interesting that what he exclaimed was, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, how dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”  The word Jacob used for dreadful in Hebrew is the word nowra which is translated to mean Awesome! Beloved, it’s nothing short of Awesome that God is with you just as He was with Jacob and that He has already done the hardest part through His Son Jesus.  Accept the Awesome power of Jesus into your life today and begin your climb from where you are to where God wants you to be because even the hottest, driest desert can become a place akin to the gate of Heaven once you truly recognize the presence of this Awesome God who happens to be surrounding you right now!                                                  

In Jesus’ Name,