Most of us are familiar with the story of “Jacob’s Ladder.” A misnomer, for surely it was not his ladder – the vision came from God. However, the point of reference I want to pursue comes after the vision is over and Jacob awakes. The sun is rising and it’s time for him to get on the move. Jacob, the simple man who enjoyed living in the tents of his mother and tending to his father’s flocks and herds, is on the run from his murderous brother, Esau. Esau, a man of the plains and hills of the vast wilderness of Canaan, was not a man to be trifled with. He was a bold and cunning hunter, used to roving about and living off the land. Yet Jacob had more than trifled with Esau – he had stolen the birthright of his twin brother right out from under him. Yep, Jacob needed to get moving and get out of Canaan.

But the awe of his night vision held his feet in that place. This was something he could not forget: God had spoken to him; made him a promise, no less. A promise that He would be with Jacob, prosper him, and actually bring him back to this place. Jacob couldn’t shake the awe and fear that seemed to hold his feet down. “How awesome is this place!” he exclaimed. “This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.”

Then he took the stone on which he had pillowed his head during the night, stood it upright and poured oil over it. Why did he do that? The stone, set up as a pillar, was meant to be a marker, a signpost, a memorial to both him and God. He set it up as a reminder of God’s promise to Jacob.

This signpost is the focus of my thoughts. This is not the only time in the Bible that a stone or a pile of stones was used as a memorial. Fast forward about 20 years. Jacob is coming back into Canaan. He is now a husband with two wives, a father with 12 children and a wealthy man with many flocks and herds and servants. Laban, his father-in-law, is pursuing him and we are not told his actual intent, but we may surmise that it is not good because of the warning God gives Laban that he is not to harm Jacob. When Laban catches up to Jacob, they make a covenant that neither would pass beyond this point to harm the other. Jacob stood up a stone as a pillar and the witnesses piled up stones around it as a witness to that covenant. These standing stones were to serve as a reminder to both parties that they were not to pass this “line in the sand” with the intent to harm the other.

Now, skip forward a few hundred years. When the children of Israel had crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Last at Jericho, Joshua, at the Lord’s command, chose 12 representatives from the tribes to dig a stone from the river bed and place them in the camp.

So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; and Joshua said to them, “Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.” Joshua 4:4-7

Again, another memorial to God’s grace and power and faithfulness.

Another 500 years go by and David, King of Israel, wants to build a temple to the glory of God. Out of a heart of worship and reverence and thankfulness, come the plans for the great temple of God at Jerusalem. It is to be built of stones, cut and shaped at the quarry so no sound of hammering and chiseling may be heard at the temple site. David’s plans are carried out by his son, Solomon.

Solomon built a temple without equal. The stones were laid quietly upon the cornerstone. Then, when the building was finished, he beautified it with cedar and gold. It was a marvelous tribute to the glory of God, who had remained faithful to His covenant. As time went by, however, the people forgot the original purpose of the temple. As a matter of fact, it became a center for the worship of hideous, demonic idols. It seemed the people even worshiped the building itself. They seemed to think that the temple held God to His promise, kind of twisted His all-powerful arm and prevented Him from scattering them.

God destroyed that building. And He razed the second one to the ground as well. For the people rebuilt it hoping to recapture the splendor of days gone by. Why would He knock down a tribute to His great glory?

Does anything mankind builds or makes or designs – does it last forever? It cannot. God had plans to build a lasting, permanent temple, not of stones quarried from the earth, but of living stones. He laid His cornerstone, the foundation of His eternal temple, a foundation which would never fail – Christ, the Beloved Son. And we, generations later are part of this great building. Quarried and shaped out of the world by unseen hands, we are being fitted together, growing, building up into a temple in the Lord. We, the church, are His dwelling place. Here is the true existence of Immanuel on earth. Here is why Christ prayed for unity among His people, for stones who have a falling out with each other could shake the walls! We are called out, quarried out, of this world by one Spirit with one Hope, into one body. We are being built up together as a marker, a signpost, a memorial to God’s grace and faithfulness. He will build His church – He is building his church. Stone by stone. We are each living stones, trophies of His grace, being built up together into a masterpiece of construction, held together by the mortar of Truth activated by the Holy Spirit. Our foundation is Christ the Solid Rock and God dwells within our walls. For this reason we should pray and work along with Paul in Ephesians 3:14-21:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.