On the Threshold
Thanks to Rebekah a whole new world has opened up and Jacob finds himself the beneficiary. But does he want it and can he handle it?
The world in which Jacob grew up was a very restricted one with a very localised and limited view of God. Certainties are hard to come by but from what we know of this region God seems to have been associated very much with places, such as a rock, river or tree, where he had once chosen to manifest himself. Such spots were to be treated with respect. Having grown up there Jacob knew where to find God and where to avoid him.
Now, on his first night away from home, Jacob is about to enter unfamiliar territory, negotiate unknown tracks and pathways, encounter unfamiliar if not hostile and suspicious races and faces, warning signs he could not read, never sure what to respect and what to avoid. No wonder when he put his head down that night he had a dream.
Recall a similar experience. Foreign travel perhaps, alone — no guide, no map and no courier — in a spot where you saw people the like of which you had never seen before, knew nothing of their modes of transport and not a word of their language, faith, mores or social customs. Or simply a new job, a move to a different part of the country, or a new relationship. You make a beeline for the local church for some kind of security only to discover that it is not your kind of church at all. Like Mary on the resurrection morning you feel as if they have taken away your Lord and you have no idea where to find him, or (even more scary) you have been told that now he is likely to turn up anywhere.
Jacob finds reassurance, hope and security in his dream. A ladder tells him that this new world is not beyond the reaches of God’s care. He finds it hard to believe. God, his God, is still there and he can go forward in hope. All he had to do was to learn to recognise the same God — his God —in a different place and in a different way.
