We pray that each Husband and Wife that has been going through these lessons have been blessed! Lesson 8 is the final study of this series. Have you had an opportunity to share them with other families that you know? If these principles of truth have brought happiness to your home, please forward the blessings to others that will be benefited.
–Climbing Jacob’s Ladder–
I love the book of Genesis, don’t you? It means beginning; and how many wonderful things there are in it, written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Here’s a story that I remember from the time when I was just a boy. Maybe some of you remember it from your childhood days – Jacob’s ladder. Do you remember it? Here is Jacob, a fugitive, fleeing from his brother’s wrath because of his own mischief. Jacob is weary. He lies down. And all he has for a pillow is what? A stone. But he’s so weary he goes to sleep anyway.
As he sleeps, he dreams. And what does he see? A ladder. Where does the top reach? To Heaven. Who’s up there? God is there. But oh, where does the bottom reach? Right where he is. And this, oh, this, my dear friends, is what I want you to see in this last class. The ladder reaches where you are.
You know, in this class we have glimpsed some high ideals. We have viewed some lofty peaks of success in the married life, haven’t we? We’ve looked at some wonderful attainments. But sometimes, perhaps, some of us, as we have viewed these things, we have almost despaired of ever reaching them. Ah, dear ones, there’s not a one of us who has reached yet all that God has for us.
Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God’s ideal for His children. – Education, pg. 18
We may stand and view the heights, but thank God, the ladder reaches where we are – right where you are now with your problems, if you have any; right where you are with the sense of failures, if you’ve made any. Right where you are, the ladder reaches and you can get on.
You see, Jacob was far from being a perfect man when he had this dream. He was in a mess and it was his own doing, wasn’t it? Yes. He had made trouble for himself. But, oh, my dear friends, thank God, Jesus met him where he was. And He will meet you where you are. Never forget it and don’t doubt it in the least. And think of this, not merely today, but in the days to come. Because I know this: the enemy is going to seek to discourage you as you continue to study these wonderful principles, these high ideals. There’s many a time that your heart is going to faint, and you’re going to say, “Can we ever reach it?”
Take courage: the ladder reaches where you are, and the angels are coming from the Sanctuary, those blessed angels that were represented in the Cherubim embroidered in the veils of Moses tabernacle. Those real, living angels in Heaven are ascending and descending. They’re descending with blessing, ascending with our prayers. This is the message of Genesis 28. And notice:
And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest…I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. – Genesis 28:15
Don’t you like that promise? Take it, every one of you. It’s yours. You have the assurance that God is with you right where you are. Right where you are… Now, notice. Will you read together with me Genesis 28:16-17?
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. – Genesis 28:16-17
What did Jacob discover there? He discovered that right where he was, God was meeting him, and he called it the house of God and the gate of Heaven. Now notice the 19th verse. What did he call the name of that place as the result of this encounter with God? Beth-el. And notice what the margin says on that. What does it say? Beth-el then means the house of God. Beth means house. El is God. Beth-El, the house of God.
Turn, please, in your Adventist Home to page 19, and read something wonderful that will thrill your heart, I know:
“Our homes must be made a Bethel…” – Adventist Home, pg. 19
Oh, can we have in our homes what Jacob had that night out under the Syrian stars? Can we meet with God? Will the same angels that came from the Sanctuary to Jacob out there, will they come to our home? We have studied about it, haven’t we?
Thank God it’s true. Your home can be a Bethel, a place where the ladder touches the earth, and the angels bring the blessings from above. You know, dear friends, in the ancient sanctuary, as you look at it, what do you see out here on the horns of that altar, by faith I mean, in your imagination, as you remember what went on there? What do you see on the horns of that brazen altar? Blood. Look at the golden altar in the Holy Place. What do you see on the horns of that golden altar? Blood. And then go within the inner veil, the Most Holy Place, and there on the mercy seat, what do you see on the mercy seat? Blood, sprinkled blood. It’s a blood-stained path. That’s what our salvation costs. Is that right?
You remember that in Leviticus 17:11 the blood represents, or stands for, what? The life. The blood of Jesus is His life, His life poured out. But what is the life of God? It’s love. “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:8). It was love that led Him to Calvary, is that right?
We know in our study of the sanctuary service that that blood sprinkled in the Holy Place represents the covering of our sins by the life of Christ, is that right? But, oh, what is it that makes it possible? It’s love. The reason Jesus covers our sins is because He loves us. That’s why. If He didn’t love us, He wouldn’t do it.
Turn to 1 Peter 4:8 and I want you to see something wonderful here. Notice what love does. I’ve shown you what it does in the heavenly Sanctuary, but this is what it does in the Beth-el, the house of God, your home here on earth, if Jesus is there:
And above all things have fervent [love] among yourselves: for [love] shall cover the multitude of sins. – 1 Peter 4:8
Now, we’ve studied in this class that each Christian home is to be a symbol of Heaven, a representation of the house of God above. Your home is to be a house of God on earth. Tell me, is the covering blood there? You’ll need it. And not only the thought (don’t miss this!) that Jesus covers your sins, but, ah, dear husband, you must cover your wife’s mistakes. Dear wife, you must cover the faults and failures of your husband. This is the message I want you to get from the blood-stained altar in the sanctuary.
Now, let’s read it in plain English, Adventist Home, page 177. But keep in mind the symbolism of the sanctuary and remember that your home is a little sanctuary, a bit of heaven on earth. We’ve read this page, parts of it, several times, but oh, I hope you will read it many, many times in the days to come.
There is a sacred circle around every family which should be preserved. No other one has any right in that sacred circle. The husband and wife should be all to each other. – Adventist Home, pg. 177
Then dropping down three lines:
The heart of his wife should be the grave for the faults of the husband, and the heart of the husband the grave for his wife’s faults. – Ibid
Tell me, when a body is put in the grave, what do you do with it then? You cover it, don’t you? And tell me, do you just sprinkle a few grains of dust on it? In some places they bury them six feet deep, right? Ah, my dear friends, have you learned to do that in your home? Do you have a graveyard, a cemetery?
The heart of his wife should be the grave for the faults of the husband, and the heart of the husband the grave for his wife’s faults. – Ibid
Why, friends, there’s such wonderful security in that. If I may bear my personal testimony, friends, I’m so glad that the human being that knows the most about me, I’m perfectly safe with. I’m so thankful to God that I have a wife that I know is not going to tell people about my faults and mistakes and failures. I’m just as secure of that as can be. How much is that worth to me? Well, you don’t know, because you don’t know how big a grave she’s got in her heart, but I do.
And believe me, friends, I’m a rich man. Oh, I thank God for love that covers. And the longer I live and the more I experience this, and the more I watch it in the lives of other people, I’m sure, friends, that this is all it takes. It’s just love, that’s all. If you love somebody enough, the last thing on earth you’d want to do would be to expose any fault or failing. Do you see what I mean? Why, sure. And we read it here in Peter:
“And above all things have fervent [love] among yourselves: for [love] shall cover the multitude of sins.” – 1 Peter 4:8
Love shall cover what? The multitude of sins. I wonder why Peter said the multitude of sins? Because, I tell you, there are a lot of them. The one you married, my dear friend, husband or wife, the one you married wasn’t perfect. Probably isn’t perfect yet. And you will have opportunity to sprinkle the blood in the Holy Place of your home to cover, to cover, to cover.
That blood of covering stands for forgiveness. You remember that in the sanctuary service, don’t you?
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. – Psalm 32:1
There’s that Hebrew parallelism again. If our sins are forgiven, they’re covered. If they’re covered, they’re forgiven. Can you forgive your companion? Can you? Well, you can if you love him or her. And if you can’t, God pity you, friend. You’re in for a lot of misery, I can tell you that. Oh, I’m so thankful that God makes it possible for people to forgive, forgive, forgive. And if there’s any place where that’s needed, it is in the home. And love shall do what? Cover. Cover what? The multitude of sins. And Peter says above all things, have this.
Ah, dear ones, if your home is to be a heaven on earth, then the sprinkled blood in the sanctuary that covers the record of your sins there must find its counterpart in the love in your heart that covers the faults and failings of your companion…
Don’t forget to forward this series to at least 4 married couples, that they too may be blessed! Maranatha!
-Continue on to the next study-
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* This study has been adapted from classes taken by Elder W.D. Frazee.