000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

64 Proper 11 [16]/Year A
10/Year A). From that moment on, the events of Jacob’s life were consistent
with the meaning of his name: he repeatedly deceived and supplanted.
In today’s text, he is fleeing Esau. With no safe place to spend the night,
he placed a stone near his head and lay down (Gen. 28:11). While Christians
often think that Jacob used the stone for a pillow (not very comfortable!),
more likely he placed it beside his head so as to provide protection
in case a thief should try to whack Jacob’s head with a stick in the night.
While asleep, Jacob dreamed. Although the NRSV describes the content
of his dream as a “ladder,” it was actually a ramp that extended from
earth to heaven. Angels, a part of the retinue of heaven, were ascending
and descending (Gen. 28:12). God came down the ramp and repeated to
Jacob the same promise that God had made to Sarah and Abraham and to
Rebekah and Isaac—they would have many descendants. God emphasized
that the divine presence will not leave Jacob (Gen. 28:13–15; cf. Second
Sunday in Lent/Years A, B, and C, and Proper 6/Year A).
Jacob awoke and interpreted the significance of what had happened:
God had been with Jacob on the journey, yet Jacob “did not know it” (Gen.
28:16). Overcome, Jacob declared that spot to be “the house of God” and
“the gate of heaven,” that is, points at which the community could come
into contact with the divine (Gen. 28:17). By creating a pillar and placing
oil on it, and naming it Bethel (beth = house; el = God; “house of God”),
Jacob marked the place as one where people could encounter God. The
pillar helped Jacob and others remember the divine promise and presence.
The story of Jacob foreshadows aspects of the postexilic community
that gave this story the form it has now. They understood themselves as
somewhat like Jacob: having violated the covenant, they left their homeland
and, so to speak, paid the price of exile for the injustice and idolatry
that brought about national collapse. Jacob did not seek this dream, nor
did his conduct merit it. Rather, at the very moment that Jacob was fleeing
his home to pay the price for deception and supplanting, God gave
him the dream as an assurance. The promise that God made to Jacob was
still in force for the exiles, and, indeed, for all of Jacob’s descendants.
A preacher might explore ways that, figuratively, God opens a ramp
from earth to heaven in order to reassure the congregation when, like
Jacob, their world is disrupted, especially when it is disrupted by Jacoblike
deception and supplanting. What stones have previous generations
set up that have become Bethels for us?
The unvarnished way in which the Bible presents so many of its main
characters is one reason for taking it seriously. Characters like Jacob are
not placed on a pedestal and held up as impossible ideals but are presented