Jacob’s dream, a bedtime story

Jacob was walking a long, long way. He had left his home in Beersheba, and he was going to Haran, where his mother’s family lived. He walked all day along dusty roads, with the sun warm on his back.

Then the sun went down. The sky turned orange, then grey, then dark. So Jacob stopped right where he was, in an open place, to spend the night.

He had no bed and no pillow. So he picked up one of the stones that lay there, and he put it under his head. Then he lay down to sleep.

Think how big the sky must have looked, and how quiet it was. Jacob was a long way from home, all by himself.

Jacob closed his eyes, and he fell asleep, and he dreamed.

In his dream he saw a stairway. Its bottom stood on the earth, and it went up and up, so high that the top of it reached heaven. And on the stairway were the angels of God, going up and coming down, up and down.

And above the stairway stood the LORD. And the LORD spoke to Jacob.

God told Jacob who he was: the God of Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather, and the God of Isaac, his father. He promised that the land Jacob was lying on would belong to his family one day. He said Jacob’s family would grow as many as the dust of the earth, spreading out to the west and the east, the north and the south. And through Jacob’s family, God said, all the families of the earth would be blessed.

Then God said something just for Jacob, lying there alone with his head on a stone: Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you.

I will not leave you. Jacob had thought he was all alone out there in the dark. He was not alone at all.

Jacob woke up from his sleep. It was still very quiet. And he said, Surely the LORD is in this place, and I didn’t know it.

Early in the morning Jacob got up. He took the stone he had used for a pillow, and he stood it up on its end, and he poured oil on the top of it to mark the place. He gave the place a new name, Bethel, which means house of God.

Then Jacob went on his way. He still had a long road ahead of him. But now he knew something he had not known the night before. Wherever he went, God would go with him.

You are in your own bed tonight, or maybe somewhere new. Your pillow is softer than Jacob’s stone. And the same God who stood above the stairway is here, in this place, in your room. He is with you, and he will keep you, all night long. So close your eyes, like Jacob, and sleep.