Title Stone Pillow / Genesis 28:10-15
Content 0?br />
These days, the country is chaotic inside and outside, so I don't speak, but I have very disturbing thoughts. Looking at the daily life around us, everything is peaceful as if nothing happened. This phenomenon is also fortunate. It seems that the consciousness of the people is stable and mature. However, if this phenomenon is a phenomenon of ignorance caused by not knowing the situation right away, it is also a big problem.
History can sometimes be seen repeating itself in the same shape. At the end of the Joseon Dynasty, at a time when the world was wriggling, the people of this country were suffering from poverty without knowing the changes in the world, and politicians were also spending their days in a confrontation between the Enlightenment and Sugu factions. In some ways, enlightenment and water polo at that time were quite the opposite of today's progressives and conservatives. The Enlightenment sect insisted on establishing national sovereignty by opening the door to foreign countries, while the Sugu sect insisted on protecting us in our own way. It is the opposite of the reformists and conservatives in our country today. In any case, it is the same as fighting over the issue of whether it is frequent or open.
One thing is clear: the weapons the North has are still a threat, but in the end, when problems arise, they will endanger South Korea. Will North Korea's weapons fly towards the US? If you fly to Japan, the Korean Peninsula will eventually fall into the midst of war, and it is clear that this country and this people will eventually fall into trouble.
Therefore, we must all pray for our country and people. While worrying about the future of the country, we should earnestly pray that God will guide the future of this country. This is the time for Christians to pray. That will soon be a blessing for your children.
Return to main text. In today's reading, we see a scene in which Jacob deceives his father and his brother and takes away the blessings he deserves. The first night of his escape came for Jacob, with fear of retaliation from his brother and anxieties about an uncertain future. In an empty field, where he has nowhere to turn, he curls up and falls asleep with a cold stone as a pillow and fallen leaves.
Jacob was brought up in the skirts of his mother Rebekah. Now, for the first time in his life, he has left the warm family and has become lonely on his own. He left the family that had been his fence, his mother who was his supporter, and the village he was always familiar with, and he felt lonely in an unfamiliar place, cold bare ground, covered with fallen leaves, and picking up stones to make pillows. The misery was indescribable. He took the birthright and received his father's unspeakable blessings, but the results of that blessing turned out to be disastrous. However, we must realize that all blessings do not just come, but come through the time we cut these stone pillows.
After all of them endured the time to cut these hard and cold stone pillows with faith, they received God's blessing and accomplished a new work. Do not be discouraged if you are experiencing the experience of cutting a stone pillow in your life today. Please do not forget that the stone pillow can be a place of blessing to meet God, and give us strength and courage.
2. ladder
Jacob lay on a stone pillow, and now I am alone! There is no one by my side! There was no family that protected me, no family I depended on. I'm all alone! It must have been such a desperate thought. In that desolate field, he probably fell asleep with tears in his eyes, with no promises ahead of him.
But then God came to him. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that God did not come at that time, but only then that he discovered God. You depend on your family, your background, your own knowledge, your own body, etc... As long as you are surrounded by a thick outer wall, no matter how close you are to God, you cannot feel, realize, or yearn for Him. is going to be For you cannot see the invisible while relying on the visible. In this lonely moment right now, when everything he depended on by his side left him, his eyes finally began to open.
Some time after Jacob fell asleep, he could see the sky dimly, and he could see a long ladder coming down from the far end of the sky to the place where he was lying. On the ladder were angels of God ascending and descending. And he heard the voice of God speaking to him.
I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of Isaac...
I am with you and protect you wherever you go...
I will not leave you until I have done all that I have promised you. Genesis 28:13-15
In his most desperate moment, a ladder was placed in the sky for Jacob. Is it because God is indifferent and is still and only comes to you at such a weak moment? no. As I said before, when you think you are strong, you do not feel that God is with you. When you think you have enough time, you don't even know that God is with you. As long as you think you can do it yourself, you do not realize that God is taking care of you. They even think that God is unnecessary. However, when all the things we depended on and held on to fall away, in times of loneliness, and in times of despair, everyone begins to look to God. It makes you think of God. It is praying for God's help.
The ladder that appeared to Jacob was a ladder connecting the lowly Jacob of the earth and the holy God of heaven. This is the ladder of prayer. What is the connection between God and man other than prayer? Prayer is a passage from earth to heaven. That is why the person who prays is not alone. I am not a lonely person. Not a weak person. Because it is connected to the throne of God.
Believe that God is with you even in the most difficult moments. Please do not forget that the ladder of grace is connected to me from heaven even in the hard times of cutting stone pillows. I hope you will have the eyes of faith to see the ladder of blessing even in lonely times as if you were lying on the cold ground alone. The angels of God ascending and descending are speaking of angels bringing human supplications to God and bringing God's grace to humans. Prayer moves the throne of God.
When interpreted spiritually, it also symbolizes Jesus Christ. This is because Jesus Christ, who connected the life of despair and despair with hope and salvation, is the ladder of salvation.
3. Bethel
When Jacob saw this amazing scene, he got up, built an altar, and put the cold stone pillow he had cut in despair on it. And they named it 'Bethel'. 'Bethel' means 'house of God'. Jacob made this Bethel the home of his heart and faith. After wandering elsewhere, he returned here to renew his faith. Whenever I faced difficulties in my life, I remembered the grace of Bethel and gave me courage and strength.
We find a truth here. You see the history of turning the stone pillow of despair and discouragement into a monument of promise and blessing. When Jacob slept last night, the stone pillow was a symbol of despair. It was a symbol of pain. It was a symbol of loneliness. But now it has become a symbol of blessing. It became a sign of promise. It became the evidence that I met God.
Mount Moriah, which Abraham climbed in his suffering, became a mountain of blessing to Jehovah Jireh. Joseph's Egyptian crypt became the ladder that lifted him the most. Moses' forsaken reeds became a basket of grace to become the leader of the nation. Paul's weakness and the thorn in his body became an instrument of grace that made God's grace more lasting.
Today, even when sometimes my pain, my difficulties, and my pain are on me like a stone pillow, please see the ladder of blessings behind it. The empty, empty, lonely, frightening, and heartbreaking place was the place of God and the place of God's blessing. Jacob confessed:
Surely the LORD is here, and I did not know...
...This is the temple of God, the gate of heaven. 28:16-17
If we truly open the door of our hearts, we can change anywhere and become Bethel. When we realize the Word through faith, that place is the temple of God and the gate of heaven. Even when I am in pain, if I look to God in prayer, a ladder of grace is laid there. Even when I am lonely and struggling, if I open my eyes of grace in prayer, I can see the ladder of blessings lying there. Even when no one knows me and no one understands my heart, if I call on the name of the Lord in prayer, the door to heaven will open there. When I open my mouth to cry out in pain because I do not know where I am going, that place becomes Bethel--the temple of God.
Please pray. I hope that you will become believers who experience Bethel. I hope that you will become the saints who receive the grace of opening the door to heaven and descending the ladder. A place where I met God, a place where I receive grace, a place where I change. The place where I painfully resolve my faith--that place is Bethel. I pray that you will become believers who experience this Bethel wherever you are.
But those who wait in the Lord will find new strength.
It will be like an eagle soaring on its wings.
I will run and I will not get weary, I will walk and not get weary. Isaiah 40:31
Fear not, for I am with you.
Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you. I will really help you.
yea, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10