Bible verse wall art
Genesis 28: Jacob's ladder and “Surely the LORD is in this place”
Jacob is running away when he lies down on a hillside with a stone for a pillow. He expects nothing. What he sees that night changes the name of the place and the direction of his life.
Genesis 28 print
Genesis 28 · King James Version
16 Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not
A fugitive on the road to Haran
In chapter 27 Jacob, with his mother Rebekah's help, deceived his blind father Isaac and took the blessing meant for his brother Esau. Esau vowed to kill him. Chapter 28 opens with Isaac sending Jacob away to Padan-aram to find a wife among the daughters of his uncle Laban, and blessing him again with the blessing of Abraham.
On the way, at sunset, Jacob stops in the open. He takes stones of the place for his pillow and falls asleep, alone and far from home.
The dream of the ladder
He dreams of a ladder, or stairway, set up on the earth with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Above it stands the LORD, who repeats the promises made to Abraham and Isaac: the land, descendants as many as the dust of the earth, and a blessing for all the families of the earth. Then comes a personal promise: I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest.
Jacob wakes and says the words on our print: “Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.” Then he is afraid and calls the spot the house of God and the gate of heaven.
What Genesis 28:16 means
The surprise in the verse is its ordinariness. The place was not a temple or a sacred mountain, just a stopping point on a journey, and Jacob was not a model of faith. God met him anyway, before he had done anything to deserve it. Jacob sets up his stone pillow as a pillar, pours oil on it and renames the town, formerly Luz, Bethel, meaning house of God. He vows that if God keeps him, the LORD will be his God, and he will give a tenth of all he receives.
Our Jacob's Ladder painting shows the sleeper under a tree while a stair of light climbs into the sky. It is Christian wall art for a bedroom, a guest room or a hallway, a reminder that God may be present in places we take for ordinary.
The ladder in the Gospel of John
Jesus refers to this dream in John 1:51. He tells Nathanael that he will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. The ladder that joined earth and heaven at Bethel, Jesus says, is fulfilled in himself.