Jesse Tree - Day 7: Jacob

I last published these Jesse Tree posts in 2019. I want to revisit them this Advent so you're coming along for the ride!

The Jesse Tree helps us prepare for Christ's coming by studying His roots and Salvation History. 

Day 7: Jacob

Symbols: kettle, ladder

Jacob's Dream, Jusepe de Ribera
via Artbl

Gen. 25:1-34; 28:10-15

Look closely at the painting and right above Jacob's head you can see the wispy dream of the angelic ladder taking place. What I didn't remember until I reread this was that God actually speaks to Jacob in his dream. The ladder has been considered a symbol of reuniting earth to the divine, of the Christian life, and, of course, of Christ who is the true bridge between heaven and earth. I myself like to think about how God communicates in dreams in the Bible. It's a reminder that there is more to life than just the material world, that we often encounter God in ways others don't understand, and that he knows how to reach us when we don't expect it.

Below is a painting of one of my favorite scenes from Jacob's long and complex story. It's a bit that people often forget. When Jacob returns home with his wives and property, he's nervous to meet Esau again after having tricked him out of his birthright so long ago. Unexpectedly Esau comes forward happily to meet his brother. Esau doesn't get enough credit for this, I always think. And he is a type, perhaps, of the loving father in the Prodigal Son parable and, therefore, an example of God's loving kindness and mercy to us no matter how deliberately we've sinned.

Peter Paul Rubens, The Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau, 1624.
via Wikimedia Commons