“And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.
And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in …show more content…
He does not know if God has forsaken him. He must certainly be afraid for his life. Yet he becomes truly “afraid” after he has awoken from his dream. After he is assured that God will protect him, he is terrified. He is certainly cowed by God’s magnificence and omnipresence. This place where he has slept suddenly becomes “dreadful”; perhaps he is filled with dread by the fact that he has slept in a holy place because he “knew it not.” In other words, he is afraid because he has not maintained propriety in the presence of God. Jacob is afraid of the great responsibility and scrutiny from God that comes from close contact with the divine. This fear seems to foreshadow other relations with the divine. In particular, Moses is hesitant to respond to God’s call to action, partly because of the responsibility that it entails. The omniscience and omnipresence of God causes his relationships with mortals to be fear inducing; prophets are particularly fearful of not only being in the state of God’s continuous judgment (as all people are) but also of being completely cognizant of the judgment as it is happening. In other words, our well-being and happiness often come out of a sort of ignorance; were we to have constant knowledge of God’s judgment, we might not be so blissfully
And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in …show more content…
He does not know if God has forsaken him. He must certainly be afraid for his life. Yet he becomes truly “afraid” after he has awoken from his dream. After he is assured that God will protect him, he is terrified. He is certainly cowed by God’s magnificence and omnipresence. This place where he has slept suddenly becomes “dreadful”; perhaps he is filled with dread by the fact that he has slept in a holy place because he “knew it not.” In other words, he is afraid because he has not maintained propriety in the presence of God. Jacob is afraid of the great responsibility and scrutiny from God that comes from close contact with the divine. This fear seems to foreshadow other relations with the divine. In particular, Moses is hesitant to respond to God’s call to action, partly because of the responsibility that it entails. The omniscience and omnipresence of God causes his relationships with mortals to be fear inducing; prophets are particularly fearful of not only being in the state of God’s continuous judgment (as all people are) but also of being completely cognizant of the judgment as it is happening. In other words, our well-being and happiness often come out of a sort of ignorance; were we to have constant knowledge of God’s judgment, we might not be so blissfully