Hard Headed
Read Genesis 28:10-22.
Dreaming is in his blood. It seems to be seriously genetic in this family. Or maybe it's because that's the only time any of them slowed down enough to listen to God. I'm that way, I think. Sometimes it seems God can only get through the noise in my head is when I am sleeping. It's then that I often "hear" reassuring messages, warning messages, calming messages. Sometimes I even get sermon ideas in my sleep.
And sometimes the dreams I have are just remnants of last night's pepperoni pizza.
We're about to embark on a study of the life of Joseph, the quintessential dreamer in the Old Testament. At least that's what he's often most known for, though oddly, his dreams (as reported) only happened early in his life. (He interprets other people's dreams later, but that's another story. We'll get to that.) But Joseph, we learn in Genesis 28, isn't the first dreamer in his family. Jacob, his father, had a dream experience early on in his life, when he was on the run from his brother, when his life was being threatened.
At a place that Jacob renames Bethel ("house of God"), Jacob slept with his head on a stone. Michael Card poetically describes it this way: "A stone for a pillow as hard as his head." I think I'd rather sleep on the ground than with a rock! But anyway, Jacob dreams about a stairway to heaven (long before Led Zeppelin got ahold of the idea) with angels going up and down. And in the midst of that incredible vision, he hears a promise: the land he is laying on will be given to him and his descendants. When he wakes up he says, "Wow! God is here, and I didn't know it!" How could he not know that?
Well, the ancients often believed that the gods and goddesses were linked to particular places, certain nations. If you left the area, you left that god behind. Jacob, though, is beginning to realize that the God his family has worshipped is everywhere—and that God has the power to give or take, to grant or rescind. In Jacob's story, it applies to land, but the same principle can apply elsewhere.
What's interesting to me is the difference between the promise God makes and the promise Jacob makes. God says, "Here, Jacob, this is all yours. This land will be yours and I will be with you. Period." Jacob says, "Well, God, that's all well and good, and I'll accept your promise, this relationship you're offering, IF you take care of me. Here's what I want: food, clothes, protection, and safe return. Got it? If you do all that, then I'll follow you."
Unconditional. Conditional. Two different sorts of relationships. God offers unconditional. Jacob offers condition in return. How do you approach God? With conditions? Or do you accept his offer of a relationship with reckless abandon? Maybe it has to do with how hard headed you are.
Dreaming is in his blood. It seems to be seriously genetic in this family. Or maybe it's because that's the only time any of them slowed down enough to listen to God. I'm that way, I think. Sometimes it seems God can only get through the noise in my head is when I am sleeping. It's then that I often "hear" reassuring messages, warning messages, calming messages. Sometimes I even get sermon ideas in my sleep.
And sometimes the dreams I have are just remnants of last night's pepperoni pizza.
We're about to embark on a study of the life of Joseph, the quintessential dreamer in the Old Testament. At least that's what he's often most known for, though oddly, his dreams (as reported) only happened early in his life. (He interprets other people's dreams later, but that's another story. We'll get to that.) But Joseph, we learn in Genesis 28, isn't the first dreamer in his family. Jacob, his father, had a dream experience early on in his life, when he was on the run from his brother, when his life was being threatened.
At a place that Jacob renames Bethel ("house of God"), Jacob slept with his head on a stone. Michael Card poetically describes it this way: "A stone for a pillow as hard as his head." I think I'd rather sleep on the ground than with a rock! But anyway, Jacob dreams about a stairway to heaven (long before Led Zeppelin got ahold of the idea) with angels going up and down. And in the midst of that incredible vision, he hears a promise: the land he is laying on will be given to him and his descendants. When he wakes up he says, "Wow! God is here, and I didn't know it!" How could he not know that?
Well, the ancients often believed that the gods and goddesses were linked to particular places, certain nations. If you left the area, you left that god behind. Jacob, though, is beginning to realize that the God his family has worshipped is everywhere—and that God has the power to give or take, to grant or rescind. In Jacob's story, it applies to land, but the same principle can apply elsewhere.
What's interesting to me is the difference between the promise God makes and the promise Jacob makes. God says, "Here, Jacob, this is all yours. This land will be yours and I will be with you. Period." Jacob says, "Well, God, that's all well and good, and I'll accept your promise, this relationship you're offering, IF you take care of me. Here's what I want: food, clothes, protection, and safe return. Got it? If you do all that, then I'll follow you."
Unconditional. Conditional. Two different sorts of relationships. God offers unconditional. Jacob offers condition in return. How do you approach God? With conditions? Or do you accept his offer of a relationship with reckless abandon? Maybe it has to do with how hard headed you are.
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