Genesis 28

A Shining Staircase

Behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.... And, behold, the Lord stood above it (RVm ‘ beside him '). Genesis 28:12-13.

You know how it is when something you have seen during the day comes into your dreams at night. Only it comes into your dreams in the oddest way, and the most extraordinary things happen in connection with it. Well, the ladder of this morning's text was like that.

Jacob had been running away from home all day. He and his brother Esau had had a quarrel. Jacob had played a mean trick on Esau, and Esau was so furious that he had vowed to take Jacob's life. But Jacob's mother determined that she would prevent any such awful tragedy, so she sent off Jacob post haste to visit his uncle Laban. She sent him off in such a hurry that he had nothing but his staff for company.

Jacob walked very fast all day, and when evening came and the stars shone out in the Eastern sky he found himself tired and footsore. His heart was aching as well as his feet, and he was miserably homesick. He found himself in a bare rocky valley, at the foot of a hill which rose in steps or terraces till it seemed to touch the stars. It was a desert spot, but Jacob was too weary to go farther. So he took one of the stones which were lying about, put it under his head for a pillow, and lay down on the bare ground. I've no doubt, grown man though he was, that he wet that pillow with a few tears before he fell asleep.

When he did sleep he had a strange dream. He saw the terraced hillside above him, but instead of being a hillside it was now a shining flight of steps. The Bible uses the word “ladder,” but what Jacob saw was more like a long staircase. Step after step it rose till it reached to heaven itself, and lo! his stone pillow was the lowest step of the flight. Up and down this wonderful staircase angels were constantly hurrying, as if they were busy carrying messages from earth to heaven, and back again from heaven to earth. Then Jacob discovered a greater marvel still. Somebody was bending over him, and speaking to him Somebody who had evidently come down that shining staircase and suddenly Jacob knew that the Somebody was God Himself.

God spoke to the lonely traveler and made him promises glorious promises both for himself and for his children. And Jacob awoke a different man from him who had fallen asleep, for he had seen God and spoken with Him. The staircase of his dreams had brought him into touch with God.

When Sir John Franklin, the famous Arctic explorer, was a little chap, some of his companions were discussing what they should do when they grew up to be men. Each was going to do something grander than the other. At last they came to John. They had all chosen so many fine actions that there seemed nothing left for him. But John was ready with his plan. “When I'm big,” said he, “I'm going to build a ladder so high that I shall be able to climb up to heaven.” His friends all laughed at him, but we know that though he did not build that ladder he climbed the ladder of fame. He climbed it to its topmost rung when he laid down his life in a frozen land, trying to discover the North West Passage.

We cannot all climb Sir John Franklin's ladder of fame, but we can all climb Jacob's staircase, for it was a staircase of “intercourse between God and man,” which is just a grown-up way of saying it was a staircase of prayer.

Yes, prayer is the staircase by which we can reach God, and by which He also can come down to us. By it we can send our thoughts and wishes up to Him like the angels ascending, and by it He can speak to us. For prayer is not merely our speaking to God; it is also God speaking to us. You will find that out some day when you are specially vexed or worried, and have sent your worries up the shining steps. You will feel, while you pray, as if God had descended by the staircase of your prayer and were bending over you to help and comfort you.