Departure

There is a point in our lives when we make a departure. We leave our parents' house, and begin a life on our own. We leave the familiar and begin a path that is unknown. Spiritually speaking, when God calls us, He leads us from what we have known, and we begin a journey into newness with Him. When the moment comes that God separates us out, He does it in a way that we remember all of our lives. In the most challenging circumstances, we look back at that moment, and we are reminded that God has His hand on our lives in a special way. This moment happened in Jacob's life also. He was forced from his parents' home because of his brother's threats against him. He also began a journey to his mother's family in Syria to find a wife from among her people. This past Sabbath's assigned reading comes from Gen. 28, and is titled "Va'yeitzi", meaning "And he went out". Jacob left from Beersheba (meaning "well of seven-fold oath)" towards a place called Haran (mountainous, to loom up). He went from a place of being well watered, and a place of sabbath (seven) promises, to an arduous, and looming destination. Shortly after his journey began. Jacob fell asleep one night taking one of the stones of the place under his head for his pillow. He had a dream in which he saw the angels of heaven: "...a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and to the south; and in you and in your seed all the famiies of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." (Gen. 28:12-15). Jacob awoke and thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." The use of the word, ladder, here in the dream is the only time it is used in scripture. Notice that the ladder goes from earth up to heaven, rather thn the other way around. The Hebrew word for ladder is cullum. It means "ladder, raise up, exalt, extol, esteem highly, to cast up in a heap like a pile of rocks that are piled on the side as a road is leveled". Worship, thanksgiving and praise raise up that ladder from earth. Relationship with God through Christ (the stone under Jacob's head: Ps. 118:22-24, Isa. 28:16, Mt. 21:42, 1 Pet. 2:4-8) raises up that ladder from earth to heaven. As Jacob began his exile from his home, he now had seen the activity between earth and heaven, he had heard the LORD's voice himself, and he had received a covenant promise from the LORD. In that promise, the LORD also told Jacob that he would someday return to the land he had left. Jacob now knew the LORD for himself, rather than from what his grandfather and father had relayed to him. He had a personal experience. In the days and years ahead, including twenty long years of servitude in his conniving uncle's house, Jacob must have recalled that experience with the LORD, and encouraged himself by it. His uncle's name was Laban. The root meaning is "to make white, to purify, to cleanse, to purge oneself, to make bricks". Although his uncle tricked and took advantage of Jacob at every turn, it would be for a cleansing and building experience for Jacob. A spiritual structure was being built within Jacob from the bricks of cleansing in his trying experience. He must have thought again and again about seeing the angels of God ascending and descending that ladder from earth into heaven. As God has promised to those who love Him and are "the called" by Him, He will make all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28). After Jacob woke from this powerful dream, he took the stone upon which he had laid his head, and poured out oil upon it, and called it a pillar (monument, image, to fix, establish, be determined) in the place "Bethel", meaning "the house of God". As Jacob set apart Bethel as the house of God, he also made a promise to God that ended, "And this stone, which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to you." (v. 22). Paul in Ephesians wrote about a structure that is built from that same type of stone to become the house of God: "Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." (Eph. 2:19-22). This is a very special stone indeed, that begins the building of the house of God in Spirit. Peter described this beginning stone as a living stone. In this living stone, Jesus, we also are made living stones that complete this special dwelling of God. As God promised, in Jacob, all the families of the earth will be blessed. As Jacob established a pillar of the house of God with that anointed stone, he also promised God a tenth, or tithe, of all that Jacob would possess in the future. Some today have a problem with tithing. They believe that it is legalistic, something done under the Law. However, with both Abraham and Jacob, tithing is practiced before the Law of Moses was given to the people. However, Abraham and Jacob were not being legalistic in the giving of their tithe. They both had experienced the miracle and revelation of God directly, and they expressed their worship and thanksgiving through the tithe they gave. They gave as part of their covenant with God. God didn't need their tenth, but He accepted it as their thanks, awe, and worship. Remember, the ladder in Jacob's dream represented the exalting and extoling of God, according to the meaning of the word. He received it as their recognition that nothing they had came from their own efforts, but by the unmerited favor and covenant promises of God. Surely a tenth is not too much to give as "Bethels" are built from our lives, as ladders to heaven are extended through our worship and thanks. All things done by the Spirit bring forth fruit in the Spirit, including tithing. The haftarah portion of this past Sabbath reading is from Hosea 11 and 12. The LORD points out how Jacob sought God's favor for his provision in the unknown, yet God mourns for Jacob's descendants who have walked away from God in their hearts, and have sought wealth through man, and the ways of man, rather than through God's favor: "I taught Ephraim (a grandchild of Jacob and a tribe of Israel and used to refer to the Northern Kingdom) to walk, taking them by their arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them...My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt Him." (Hos. 11:3-7). Though God touched Ephraim from the time they began, they did not know Him personally nor recognize Him. Though they knew His name, they never exalted Him. In a similar manner, Jesus talked about the fact that not everyone who claims to know Him will enter the kingdom of heaven, even if they did works in His name. Only those who do the will of His Father in heaven will enter. Jesus will say to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me..." (Mt. 7:21-23). In our spiritual walk, each of us must know God personally, having an experience with Him, as Jaoob did. We cannot know God because our father or mother knew Him. Though Ephraim had the evidence of God's hand upon them, according to these verses, they never established a personal, living relationship with Him, never sought to do His will, and therefore drifted away from God. May we each understand our place as a living stone, in the likeness of our chief cornerstone, Jesus, building up the house of God. Our Father has called us to establish His house. If you would like to experience Jesus, our living chief cornerstone, for yourself, and be established by Him in the House of God, you can do that with the belief in your heart that Jesus died on the cross for your sin, and the confession that God raised Him from the dead: "Lord Jesus, I believe that You died for my sins, and that You rose again from the dead, so that I may have eternal life in You. I believe that You will shepherd all of my days in You, turning all things, even tryng times, for my good. I believe that by You, I enter into the household of faith, the House and family of God. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as I become part of, and build, the House of God, in Your name, AMEN."