Personal Note on Posting Timeline
It’s hard to believe but we’re nearing the end of our 2nd year of reading Genesis, completing today chapter 28. Keep in mind that there are 50 chapters in Genesis.
Background: Gen. 28: 10 – 22: Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
Jacob is on the run from Esau who wants to kill him and heading to Haran, the homeland of his ancestors, in search of a wife. As night approaches he finds rests in place unknown to him.
The encounter with God in a dream has a clear structure to it.
- Vv. 10 – 11: set the dream in the context of his journey
- Vv. 12 – 15: the encounter with the Lord [Yahweh]
- V. 12: the visual experience
- V. 13 – 15: the narrative section
- Vv. 17 – 22: the response of Jacob
- V. 17 – 19, 22: the cultic response
- V. 20 – 21: the covenantal commitment
The Reading: Gen. 28: 10 – 22. http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/28.
I had mentioned that the journey merely sets the context of this dramatic encounter with the God of his ancestors, the God of Abraham and Isaac. It is the dream and its impact on Jacob that is paramount.
I asked the group to review just the visual aspect of the dream identifying the elements of that one aspect. The first element identified by Ken was the stairway to heaven. Heber wanted to point out that for him the image of a stairway seemed to justify the notion that “heaven” is up. His remark began our first half hour of discussion in a series of questions and comments.
I asked the group first is the “stairway” going up. Jody recognized that the “stairway” has messengers going up and down. The symbol actually is connecting heave and earth; bridging the chasm. So often, however, what we hear or read is understood in the context of our own worldview. Many, if not most, Christians imagine heaven being up which is fine as long as they know that it is their imagination at work. In the dream the “stairway” is a symbol but so too is “heaven.” To take either literally is to flatten out the meaning of the symbol and rob the symbol of its power to communicate multiple meanings.
As Christians the greatest news is that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ. God has entered into human history. Mark wondered if God came down, where did he come from? Much later in our group discussion Mark mentioned that for a good part of his life, heaven was up, and hearing me saying something different raises questions for him. In his and many other’s worldview are fundamental assumptions. One that seemed obvious to me was the assumption that God is somewhere, in a place. Inherent in this assumption is thinking that God is a body. But God is not a body. God is not in a place.
God is not anywhere. Everywhere is in God. I suggested that the word that might more adequately reveal God to us is the notion of presence. We are always present to God even though God may not always be present to us.
When adults hear something that conflicts with their existing worldview, the implications can be quite significant; especially if the conflict is about what is central to, meaningful in that worldview. And often God, life’s meaning, purpose, end are central and meaningful. For many Heber’s and/or Mark’s observations, questions are not theirs at all and for many others, they identify with Heber’s and Mark’s worldview. In a radically true sense we live in different worlds. These different worlds matter and bridging them seems quite significant, important to me.
To move the discussion forward, I asked the group to focus on the narrative portion of the dream. What is the first thing that is communicated? Tim assumed that God would have been pictured at the top of the stairway. Such was not the case; the Lord stood beside Jacob. What is value in that simply observation? What does it mean, if anything?
Tim went on to say that the first thing that God did was identify himself. Since God is one and we are many, again it seemed obvious to point out that we have many different names for God, in many different traditions and languages. God nonetheless is one. The names mediate different meanings but God being mediated by the different meanings is One.
To probe that observation a bit, I asked to whom do we pray in our Liturgy, a question I have asked hundreds of times. Typically, and our group was not exception, we answer God. Although certainly we pray to God but that isn’t the common name that is used in the Liturgy; nor is it the name that Jesus taught us to use when we pray. Hopefully by now you might guess that in the Liturgy we pray to God the Father. Again a simple distinction but what difference does it make? Ask yourself do you have a different relationship with God than with Father? I do. Since we pray to the Father, well what about Jesus? Well nearly every prayer in the Liturgy ends with through Christ, with Christ, in Christ but not to Christ. Now that is not an all or nothing comment. We tend to blur these differences but they are what set us apart and what we have to offer to the global conversation.
I made many other observations about assumptions that either are consistent with one God or are not. God loves all human beings because God is love; it’s sort of what God does. Now we human beings are a very motley crowd. We differ in our religions. The vast majority don’t believe in Jesus. We differ racially. We are not all Europeans. We have developed different cultures, etc. etc. etc.
Although you might wonder how all this fits into the story of Jacob’s dream, well that is where our discussion took us. We talked about political differences; conservatives and liberals. We talked about world issues, terrorists. I pointed out that there are good and evil in our world; human beings do awful things. However, only God is all good and only sin is all evil. Everything else and everyone else, at least as long as they are alive, are not all good nor all evil.
In conclusion to this part of our conversation I offered a personal observation. I want to respect Tim. I want to be upset with myself every time I fail to respect Tim. And I often want Tim to think like I think, especially when I think I’m correct. That’s life, isn’t it? Not on a global scale but on our own individual scale.
I would like to wrap our discussion by going to v. 15. In this verse God says to Jacob, [to the Israelites, to Christians, to …]
- Know that I am with you – take a few minutes to wonder what is God saying? What is the meaning of these words spoken by God.
- Or … I will protect you wherever you go
Place these two phrases in the context of your life as you actually experience it; in the context of the life of your family, your community, your country, your church, the world as it actually is. Struggle with these words from God.
Your comments, observations, questions are welcomed. See “comment” link below