Trail of Jacob's Ladder and the Vision!!!

We find in the book of Genesis, chapter 28, a narration very significant to the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

The story of the escape of the patriarch Jacob, the city Beersheba to Padan Aram, brings to light details of the designs present in the heart of God, since the ancient time.

From there the grace of God was already among men.

This story, which takes place 3800 years ago faraway or 1800 years before Christ, is a beautiful symbolism of inner reflection that has the gospel in the heart of man.

JACOB AND ESAU

The simplicity of this short statement in the text of the book of Romans 9:13, embodies a historical context, rich cultural and spiritual, which helps to understand the decision symptomatic of Jacob to leave his father and mother and go on a journey approximately 800 km from Beersheba, which stood at the southern end of Canaan, to the city of Haran which was situated where now would be the south of Turkey.

"As it is written, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated." Romans 9:13

To understand this affirmation, love and preference for a annoyance and another, we need to analyze the whole context in which both were involved. We know that God is no respecter of persons, and the hassle of God is only a human reaction to misconduct.

Thus, in this context, Jacob and Esau lived with Isaac and Rebekah, his parents, in Beersheba, a city that was inserted into a small desert called by the same name, the desert of Beersheba in the Negev desert region. This is the same desert where Abraham dug a well and where he and Abimelech king of Gerar made a pact. Hence the meaning of his name, "well of the oath".

This desert was a guy named midbar or Arabah, where there was a small amount of rain a year, which enabled plant and animal life and at one time could be planted. However, most of the year it was necessary to hunt and habildades have much physical strength.

The Way of Beersheba to Haran

He came to rely on the strength of his arm, his product knowledge. Not that God creates in you could not see. And that unbelief is confirmed by his marriage to a Hittite woman, worshiping Ashtaroth and it was for Isaac and Rebekah as a "spirit of bitterness." And so by depositing their confidence in himself, he was rejected by God.ESAU skilled HUNTER

Esau, in his physical strength in his natural force, became skilled hunter. Hunting in a desert region required a lot of physical and mental strength. Withstand the heat of day and cold at night. Winning the immense loneliness of empty areas in search of food. There were no supermarkets as in our present day. Go out and hunt, bring home a living was essential for the survival of the family.

Thus Esau feel powerful in their culture. Did not depend on anyone. Accustomed to hunt and get what he needed. In its strength, the stronger, more incredulous became. The more skilled, more despised spirituality of a God invisible, intangible, untouchable.

"Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD!" Jeremiah 17:5

But Jacob was slight. Jacob was more delicate. Dedicated to his mother and the household chores. He had the strength and stamina of his older brother. Much less their hunting ability. He was considered weaker, more dependent. The figure of the warrior, the hunter voracious conqueror for their skills and physical connotations was dominant in that society.

If this view human perspective, Esau married a daughter of the peoples of that region, is also preparing to inherit the property of his father Isaac and become lord of all. Jacob but in its weakness, its inability, believe in the stories of the God of Abraham who are starting to make sense, allying with a God who helps those less fortunate.

But he resorts to deception and trickery to promote. Stealing the blessing so that his brother had despised. Your name thus takes on a connotation of "misleading" and he has to flee from the wrath of Esau

Looking at the story of Jacob, to this point, nothing beautiful, nothing extraordinary, nothing special find to justify the assertion that God "loved Jacob and hated Esau." In Abraham at least, we see God coming from a man of faith is why it was called the father of faith. In Jacob however, we see weakness, addiction, deception and trickery. What is the reason then for God's perfect approach a man with many flaws?

Here we see that Jacob is no reason for God-it approach while the very reason this approach. Because if God deigns to Abraham the covenant with a man of faith and character, Jacob God deigns to seek his grace and become a man yet sinner, full of weaknesses and imperfections.

In Jacob Grace of God begins to be manifested.

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:8

JACOB IN BETEL

In Jacob God begins to reveal its plans for grace and mercy. So having Jacob walked about 100 km, the height of the Betel way the house of his uncle Laban, his mother's brother, sleeps on a stone and has a dream vision of a ladder, where angels ascended and descended, the sky earth.

This vision is futuristic and prophetic. The ladder he saw, that was the connection between the earth and the sky was a symbol of Jesus Christ:

"And he said to him: Actually, I say to you that from now on you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." John 1:51

Jesus is the ladder that connects heaven aa land. He is the only mediator between God and men.

Then on her flight, originated by their weakness and their errors, ie, in the confession of the inability of Jacob, God renews his covenant he had made with Abraham and Isaac.

Jacob in Betel, the Vision of the Ladder

THE KINGDOM OF GOD LIVES IN YOU

But Jacob did not understand the peculiarities of the invisible God. He sees the figuration of matter as something concrete and tangible. However, all those visions were symbols or shadows, figures of future things to happen or were on the spiritual plane.

Then anoint the rock where Jacob slept, and called the place of dreadful house of God. But he still did not understand that fearful place is the very human heart.

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands." Acts 17:24

The house of God is the human being himself. Jacob looked and could not discern that the kingdom of God was himself. He was the very temple of God. We are temples of God, because God does not dwell in temples of stone or brick.

"And the Pharisees, when the kingdom would come from God, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with outward appearance. Neither shall they say, Lo here, or, Lo there; behold that the kingdom of God is within you. " Luke 17:20-21

Ye are the temple of God where the Holy Spirit dwells. Since ancient times the father has demonstrated his compassion for lost humanity. Even with its weaknesses, confess to God your disability. Do not think good, perfect.

Do not expect you to improve, do not expect yourself is justified. Accept the grace of the father. remember that God's grace was poured out in love to all men. This love is so big and deep that give himself being crushed on the cross, making simple sinners, heirs of God.

Author: God's Holy Spirit who enables all men to take his word throughout the land.

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Mark 16:15