Jacob is in the middle of nowhere when night comes. It is only known as a certain place, it has
no name. In this place, however, God
revealed Himself to Jacob and this became the first place of worship for the
people when they came to the land, prior to the establishment of Jerusalem
under David’s reign. In the dream the Lord
spoke and affirmed that it was with Jacob that the covenant with Abraham would
continue, using identical language to that which his grandfather heard. Not only would he have descendants and land,
he had the promise of presence, God would not leave him during his sojourn and
he certainly had no idea how long that would be. Jacob set up a pillar here as a standing
stone to mark the place and made a vow to return here, build a house to God and
give the Lord a tenth of all that he had.
How would he have done that?
How could anyone say that they were offspring of Abraham and
had never been enslaved? It was their
story that they were delivered from slavery.
Is Jesus drawing a distinction between offspring and children here? He affirms that they are offspring of Abraham
but denies they are his children. One is
simply biological, Ishmael, for instance, is an offspring of Abraham but the
word child connotes likeness, having Abraham’s spirit and faith. Jesus is the only-begotten Son of the Father
and belief in Him gives us the right to become children of God even though we
are created in His likeness. As these do
not recognize Jesus’ supremacy and desire to destroy God’s perfect likeness,
they are like their father the devil who desired to destroy humanity, made in
God’s likeness. These words here are the
most difficult things Jesus ever says to anyone. They are left with one choice only, believe
in Him or reject Him, there is no room for wavering and it matters eternally.
How can Paul say that the authorities are divinely
constituted stewards and if you do good then you have nothing to fear? There certainly were already martyrs for the
faith who did good but were killed for having done so. There were and are horrible rulers whom we
cannot obey as Christians for they require us to do things that are not fit for
us as Christians. We are expected to be
good citizens but our primary citizenship is in heaven and our highest
obligation is to do the will of our heavenly father. Jacob realized that when he saw God in a place
he had no idea God would be. We have the
same promise Jacob had, the presence of God with us and in fact, within
us. Our lives, therefore, should reveal
our true citizenship as the kingdom of God.
Like father, like sons and daughters.
O LORD, God of my salvation;
I cry out day and night before you.
Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!
I cry out day and night before you.
Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!
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