Darrell Davis wrote in to Reader's Digest with a funny story about his son Stephen. Stephen was a firm believer in a non-violent ethic of living, so it took the Davis' by surprise when their son chose to fulfill his college physical education credits with a course in tae kwon do.
Stephen's partner in the class was a gentle young Japanese woman named Maki. Maki also believed in the non-violent ethic, so she and Stephen worked well together. They learned as little martial arts as was necessary to pass the class.
On the day of their final exam, Stephen and Maki faced each other for a demonstration of tae kwon do moves. Suddenly, Maki threw Stephen to the floor and pummeled him with some perfectly executed kicks and punches.
Stephen demanded to know what Maki was doing. In her gentle manner, Maki replied, "I make A." (1)
This is a competitive world.
It reminds me of a story they tell on David Merrick--one of the least admired men in Hollywood. His receptionist got a call one day from the police asking for Mr. Merrick. The next thing she knew, he was running out of the office. A few minutes later, a bomb squad arrived. He had neglected to tell his secretary that there was a bomb threat. (2)
And why should he tell her? This is a-dog-eat-dog world. You've got to look out for number one.
We've already noted that Jacob was a competitor--and that he did not always fight fairly. That's how you become a supplanter. Pure and unadulterated selfishness. Jacob stole his brother's birthright--and then he had to flee from his brother's wrath.
Before Jacob left, Isaac passed on to him the familial and covenantal blessings. Then he sent his son away, warning him not to marry the local Canaanite women. The Canaanites were unbelievers, idolaters. The man who received God's covenant blessings was required to keep himself pure. Therefore, Jacob had to travel to Paddan Aram to find a devout wife among God's chosen people, the Hebrews.
It was while he was on the run from his brother Esau that Jacob had an encounter with God. On his way to Paddan Aram, Jacob stopped for the night to sleep.
Verse 12 reads: "He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it."
The Lord stood above the ladder and declared to Jacob, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave until I have done what I have promised you."
"When Jacob awoke, he thought, "˜Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.' He was afraid and said, "˜How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.'" (NIV)
Jacob took the stone he was using as a pillow and used it as the cornerstone of a pillar, or memorial altar to the Lord. On this pillar, he poured oil, which was a sign of anointing and blessing and sacrifice.
And Jacob named this place Bethel, or house of God.
"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it," said Jacob. God meets us in some of the strangest places. Soldiers tell of meeting God in a foxhole. Parents tell of meeting God by the bedside of a sick child.
Bruce Larson tells a fascinating story about an encounter his son Peter had with God. Peter was thirty-two years old at the time and he was in a jeep between Dallas and Tyler, Texas. Peter picked up a young hitchhiker who, as it turned out, had just been released from prison. His passenger began to talk about Jesus Christ and an earlier experience as a believer. According to Peter, they both had an uncanny sense of God's presence. The jeep seemed to be filled with the fire and light of God's Spirit.
Back in Tyler, and still in the glow of this mystical experience, Peter sought out his best friend, a down-to-earth lawyer and businessman, and related the amazing story to him. A year and a half later, Peter was questioning God's call and debating whether or not to go to seminary. He discussed his dilemma with this same friend, Ted.
"Peter," said Ted, "I don't know much about God. I only know how you looked after that experience in your jeep. You looked like the little girl Stephen King described in his novel Firestarter, whose hair sometimes seemed to be on fire. Ever since you shared that story with me, I've been praying to the God you met in your jeep. That was surely God, and you'd better be true to that experience." Much to his father's surprise, Peter went on to seminary with plans to enter the ministry. (3)
"Surely the Lord is in this place." Sometimes we encounter God when we least expect it. When it happens, something within us changes. We become new people.
Often, in the Bible, God speaks through dreams. This is not unusual. Throughout history, peoples of various cultures have looked to their dreams for guidance.
In some Native American cultures, men search for their life vision through their dreams. When a Cheyenne man enters adulthood, he seeks a personal vision in his dreams. If he feels that he has not received his vision, a Cheyenne man will go away to fast and wound himself in the hopes of inspiring a vision for his life.
The Plains Indians expect their young men to go out into the wilderness to search out their vision. Some young men expect to be given a dream of a song that will serve as their protective song throughout their lives. They must return to their community and sing their song in order to prove that they have entered adulthood. (4)
Here, in a dream, Jacob received the vision for his life, and it was grander than he could have ever imagined. He was scared and grateful and awe-struck all at once, and he did the only thing he knew to do for such a momentous occasion: he built a pillar to mark the spot.
This dream marked a turning point for Jacob the striver, the supplanter. Though he still is a deal-maker--even with God--this vision marked a new understanding for Jacob of who he was and what was expected of him. Until now, he had used aggression and deception to steal away his brother's blessings. But God was showing Jacob that if he were to be truly blessed, it would not be through his own striving. Instead, Jacob's blessings would come through honoring and following the God of his fathers. He would still be ambitious--but he would be ambitious for pleasing God.
Normally you and I do not put as much stock in our dreams as biblical people did. But every once in a while you hear someone tell about a dream that radically affected them.
One night, Pastor Richard Exley dreamed that he was twins. Exley dreamed that one twin was the normal Richard Exley, and the other twin was a tall, muscle-bound, giant version of Richard Exley. In the dream, the giant Richard was attempting to kill the normal Richard. Exley awoke from the dream in a panic. He discerned that the muscle-bound Richard in his dream represented his ego and his ambitions. They were threatening to overtake his personality, and possibly destroy his ministry. He immediately knelt in prayer and asked God to teach him humility and servanthood. He prayed that God's Spirit in him would increase, while his own nature would decrease.
That night, Richard Exley felt a burden roll off his shoulders as he relinquished his own ambitions and gave himself wholeheartedly to the Lord. (5)
Like Richard Exley, Jacob awoke from his dream a changed man. He gave up his own ambitions in order to take on God's vision for his life. He responded to this vision with a total commitment to God. Suddenly, his ambitions had changed.
The great singer Pearl Bailey once said, "A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive. Having been alive, it won't be so hard in the end to lie down and rest." (6)
Jacob was now a man who was "ever so alive," and he would serve God faithfully the rest of his days.
Have you ever stopped to examine what your ambitions are? What is it that you are striving after? Do you have a God-inspired vision for your life? Many Christians fight a daily battle between following God's will and being in control of their own lives. The inner conflict steals our peace and leaves us feeling distant from God.
Psalm 37: 4 instructs us, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."
What do you need to do to seek God's vision for your life? Hebrews 11, verse six, says that when we come to God we must believe "that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
Jacob saw many of those rewards in his own lifetime. But there was one blessing that Jacob got wrong.
After he had his dream, Jacob got up and built a pillar and poured oil over it. And he re-named that place Bethel, or the house of God. Jacob believed that this very place must be the point at which heaven and earth meet.
But look ahead with me to the book of John, chapter 1, verse fifty-one. A few thousand years after Jacob's dream, Jesus is gathering his disciples together, in anticipation of starting his ministry. He promises them that they will see great things if they stay with him. And then Jesus says these words: "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." (John 1: 51)
Jacob got it wrong all those years ago. The stairway to heaven was not in a place. It was in a person--the Person of Jesus Christ, who would be born through Jacob's family line. Jesus would be the bridge between heaven and earth, the Mediator between God and humanity. He was the greatest blessing God could bestow on humankind. And because of Jacob's obedience, he was allowed to be a part of the lineage through which the Messiah would come to redeem Israel and all the world.
Many years later, when Jacob was old and feeble and facing his own death, he would leave a blessing for his own grandsons, the children of Jacob's favorite son, Joseph. And this was the blessing that he gave: "May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the Angel who has delivered me from all harm--may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and may they greatly increase upon the earth." (Gen. 48: 16)
Have you had an encounter with God that has given you a vision for your life? If not, I hope you will. Pray that it will happen this day.
1. Contributed by Darrell E. Davis, Reader's Digest, April 1994, p. 205.
2. E. Bendann, Death Customs, (London: Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1969), p. 145.
3. The Presence (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1988), p. 24.
4. Dreamtime and Dreamwork, edited by Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1990), p. 197.
5. Richard Exley. Deliver Me (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998), pp. 18-19.
6. Pearl Bailey, "Great Motivators," edited by Juanita Ruiz, Personal Selling Power, March 1995, p. 69.