A Hard Pillow

By Jerry D. Ousley

            Genesis 28:10-19 gives us a very interesting account.  Jacob had fled his father’s house because he had robbed his brother, Esau, first of his birthright (the generous inheritance given to the eldest son) and then, with the help of good ole’ mom, he had stolen the blessing reserved for the eldest son.  Needless to say, Esau was furious with his brother, Jacob, and had threated to kill him after their father died.  Fearing the loss of their son, Isaac and Rebeccah sent him to live with her brother, Laben for a while.  Remember, he had been a deceiver, a supplanter, one who hides back part of the truth to get his way.  His very name, “Jacob” means “supplanter” or “deceiver.”

            The incident that is subject for today’s message happened on the way to his uncle’s house.  He stopped for the night, camping just outside a city called Luz.  He had left in such a haste that apparently, he had forgotten a few things and one of those that would have been very important to me, was a pillow.  With no pillow to sleep on, that night he set up a big rock on which to lay his head.  UNCOMFORTABLE!  Can you even imagine spending the night with your head resting on a rock?    There are nights that my own pillow, as comfortable as it is to me, sometimes feels hard, causing me to toss and turn but can you imagine a rock?!  Not for me, not hardly.  No wonder he dreamed!

            But his dream was an appointment from God.  While sleeping on that hard pillow he dreamed of a stairway that stretched between Heaven and Earth.  On that stairway, angels descended and ascended.  At the top stood God Himself and he spoke to Jacob in the dream, telling him that He was with Jacob and would greatly bless him.  The very ground on which he lay was going to be part of his inheritance and his descendants would be as numerous as the dust particles on the Earth.  Wherever he went, God told him that He would keep him (meaning that He would protect and watch over him) and that he would one day return to this very spot.

            Jacob woke up saying, “’Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.’  And he was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place!  This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!’”  (Genesis 28:16-17). 

            The next morning Jacob took that pillow-rock, that old hard stone on which he had rested his head, and set up an altar to God.  He poured oil on it and changed the name of the place from Luz to Bethel (which means “House of God.”)  He made a commitment to God, which, when he returned many years later, he kept.

            The point I want to make today is that all of us have either spiritually rested on a rock or are right now resting on a rock.  I use the word “resting” very loosely because you can’t rest well on a rock!  The rock represents all the hardships you have endured and are enduring right now.  We all go through them.  And some of you are going through them right now.  What we need to realize is that, if we will put our trust in God through the Lord, Jesus Christ, He can bring us through them safely and at the end help us turn those pillow-rocks into altar-rocks.

            God has given you a promise just like He did to Jacob.  He has promised you that if you will turn your life over to Him, put your trust in Him, in the good times and in the bad times, He will see you through and you will come full circle back to Bethel – the house of God.  I’m not talking about a building that we have come to call “the church” but I’m speaking of the true House of God – the one that is eternal, not made with brick and lumber, not one that will someday perish, but the Church that belongs to God and is made up of every true born-again believer, past, present and future!  That House of God resides in each of us because according to Paul, we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6:19).

            Only God can take that old, hard pillow that is ruining your rest, that is robbing you of victory in your life, and is making you so uncomfortable that you don’t know if you can take it one more minute, and lift you up, taking that hardship and making an altar to the Living God.  He can help you turn your failure into victory.  He can aid you in turning your impossible situation into one that lifts you up and brings glory and honor to the God of Heaven.

            You may be trying to rest on an old hard rock.  It sure feels that way, doesn’t it?  But know right now, right where you are, right in the middle of your sleepless night, tossing and worrying about the situation, God can help you make it an altar on which you can offer that thing up to Him.  He will consume it and bring you again into victory. It may not happen overnight.  It may, at times, feel like God is a million miles away.  It could even feel like God isn’t listening to you.  But I assure you, He is.  He won’t let you down.  If you will put your trust in Jesus Christ, believe, pick yourself up from that old hard rock, then, event though it may be days, weeks, months or even years, suddenly the victory will come.  You will look back and realize how God has carried you through it all.  You will return to that place, to that altar you made, and God will meet you there.  Do you doubt it?  Just try it, I dare you, I double dare you.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.