STAIRWAY* TO HEAVEN..? (Not just a popular song of the ‘70s)
(Genesis 28:10-19a)
Jacob fled Esau
and on the way dreamt of God
standing next to him.
As God had promised
to Abraham and Isaac;
now to Jacob, more:
to stick with, protect
and, in time, to bring Jacob
to that land again.
It’s the promise heard
in Jesus’ word that he would
“be with you always.” **
Jeff Shrowder, 2023
* In the narrative the Hebrew is sometimes rendered “ladder”, but it is more likely “stairway” or “ramp”, associated with the Mesopotamian ziggurat, at the top of which the deity was said to communicate to the people. The scenario is appropriate, given Jacob’s intended destination. Significantly, in Jacob’s dream, God is next to Jacob, that is, at the base of the stairway. So, perhaps in a way it was a ‘stairway from heaven’.
** Mt 28:20
More for Sunday 16A…