Powerpoint Pictures: Snoring; Sleepwalking; Sleep Talking; Sleep Eating; Head asleep on books; Dream

What do some people do when they sleep? [Snore, walk, talk, eat, learn, dream].  In the next part of the story of the Bible something happens while someone is asleep.

After tricking Isaac into giving him his blessing, Jacob was now in danger from an upset and angry Esau who wanted to kill him.   Rebekah again needed to come up with a plan, this time to keep Jacob safe.

The plan was to send Jacob out of town to find a wife.  She didn’t want Jacob to marry a Canaanite woman, so with Isaac’s permission, sent him to his uncle Laban.

On the way to his uncle’s home, Jacob set up camp for the night.  Using a stone for a pillow he went to sleep and began to dream.

In his dream he saw a kind of ladder or stairway reaching up to heaven.  Angels were going up and down the ladder, and at the top stood the Lord.

The Lord spoke: “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.” (Genesis 28:13-14)

God had come to Jacob in his dream to pass on the same promise He had first given to Jacob’s grandfather Abraham.  It was the promise of a land, and a people, of which one would be a Saviour who would bring blessing to the whole world.  [In John’s gospel, Jesus said that he was the stairway that leads to heaven.  He is the offspring that God promised Jacob].

But again we’re left to wonder how God is going to keep this promise.  After all for Jacob’s descendants to be given a land, Jacob first of all needs to have some children; and for Jacob to have children, he’s going to need a wife, which is what Jacob was on his way to find.  But is he going to find one?