Jacob at Bethel, or heaven opened.
I. THE LONELY SLEEPER.
1. His desolate condition. Exiled from home, fleeing from the murderous resentment of a brother, o'er-canopied by the star-lit firmament, remote from human habitation, and encompassed by a heathen population, on the bleak summit of the Bethel plateau, upwards of sixty miles from Beersheba, the wandering son of Isaac makes his evening couch with a stone slab for his pillow, an emblem of many another footsore and dejected traveler upon life's journey.
2. His inward cogitations. The current of his thoughts needs not be difficult to imagine. Mingling with the sadness of leaving home, and the apprehension with which he regarded the uncertain future, there could not fail to be a sense of security, if not a gleam of hope, arising from the consciousness that he carried with him his father's blessing; in this again affording a reflex of most men's lives, in which joy and sorrow, hope and fear, continually meet and strangely blend.
3. His heavenly visitation. If the dream by which Jacob's slumber was disturbed was occasioned by unusual cerebral excitement, if its psychological framework was supplied by the peculiar color of his meditations, it is still true that it was made the medium of a Divine theophany and revelation. So God, who is "never far from any one of us," is specially near to his children in solitude and sorrow, "in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed, opening the ears of men, and sealing their instruction" (Job 33:15, Job 33:16).
II. THE MIDNIGHT DREAM.
1. The celestial vision.
2. The accompanying voice.
III. THE AWE-STRUCK AWAKENING.
1. Devout impression. The night having passed in contemplation of the unseen world, the morning found the startled sleeper with a strong sense of the supernatural upon his soul, which filled him with alarm. Even to God's reconciled children awe-inspiring (cf. Job 42:6; Isaiah 6:5; Luke 5:8; Revelation 1:17), a vivid realization of the Divine presence is to the sinful heart overwhelmingly terrible.
2. Reverent adoration. "This is none other but the house of God"—implying ideas of Divine residence,—"Surely the Lord is in this place!" Divine provision,—the thoughts of "bread to eat and raiment to put on" appear to have been suggested to Jacob's mind,—and Divine communion—Jacob realizes as never before the conception of personal intercourse between Jehovah and his people;—"and the gate of heaven"—in which lie embedded the fundamental notions of nearness, vision, entrance.
3. Grateful commemoration.
IV. THE SOLEMN VOW.
1. Faith's expectation. In a spirit not of mercenary stipulation, but of believing anticipation, Jacob expresses confidence in henceforth enjoying
2. Faith's resolution. Confidently anticipating the fulfillment of God's promises, Jacob resolves—