Lena Wms Supporter Student @Christ Gospel Church, S.S.Teacher, Observer

I believe that Jacob was sitting this up as an altar to the LORD God. He later returned to this same place and sacrificed again with his wives Rachel and Leah, his two concubines, his daughter, and his twelve sons. Gen 35:6-15. 

He returned to Bethel (the House of God) to make a new sacrifice and God again met him there.

God is always willing to meet and sup with us when we are willing to make the sacrifice to come back to His House and pour out our praise and worship to Him. 

Be Blessed, 
Lena

October 31 2014 • 2 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht Supporter Arizona Bible College & Dallas Seminary graduate, Pentair

Very good question, Veronica! When Jacob fled his home, alone and vulnerable, he slept with a stone for a pillow. 

You gotta believe that was uncomfortable! But that night, God met him in a dream and gave him an unconditional promise of land, descendants, and blessing. The next morning, Jacob took that same uncomfortable stone, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. This was not an altar for sacrifice, but a memorial, a visible marker to remember what God had done for him, undeserved as he was. The anointing oil symbolized consecration, setting the stone apart as holy and, as Warren Wiersbe notes, foreshadowed the later biblical practice of pouring out drink offerings (Ex. 29:38–41), an act that came to represent pouring out one's very life in devotion to the Lord (see also Phil. 2:17; 2 Cor. 12:15).

I love the hymn, "Mansion Over the Hilltop!" (emphasis mine). Some sources omit the very important second stanza, but I won't:

Tho' often tempted
Tormented and tested
And like the prophet
My pillow's a stone
And tho' I find here
No permanent dwelling
I know He'll give me
A mansion my own (chorus)

The stanza echoes this scene directly: "And like the prophet my pillow's a stone" is a clear callback to Jacob's literal rock pillow. The lines about being "tempted, tormented, and tested" capture Jacob's own hard journey as a fugitive, while "no permanent dwelling" reflects his homelessness in that moment. Yet the hymn writer does not stop with Jacob's hardship. Instead, they use that stone pillow as a contrast: the earthly rock represents present suffering and impermanence, but the future promise, "He'll give me a mansion my own," points to the ultimate hope of a heavenly home; remind you of Jesus' words in John 14:2?

In essence, Jacob took the very object of his discomfort and turned it into an act of worship, consecrating himself to God right there in the wilderness. The hymn writer does the same spiritually, acknowledging present trials, yet pouring out devotion to God and trusting fully in the promise to come. This is the very essence of Paul's call to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is our spiritual worship (Romans 12:1). The stone pillow becomes not just a symbol of hardship, but of surrendered faith, worshipping in the middle of the rocky place with eyes fixed on the mansion ahead. As Paul also reminds us, our present afflictions, however hard, are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Corinthians 4:16-17).

1 day ago • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report