Heartthoughts: From Pillow to Pillar

I couldn't wait to go to bed last night.  We got new pillows!  What a difference!  Instead of two semi-collapsed pillows under my head, with my new pillow I slept on a cloud all night!  There is nothing worse than a hard pillow.

I wonder how Jacob stood it in the Bible?  The story is in Genesis 28:11-18.  The scriptures say he put stones under his head for pillows!  Apparently he was so tired from running from his brother, Esau, that he slept, but not a dreamless sleep. 

Verse 12 says, "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."  Through the dream, God gave Jacob the wonderful message of blessings that would be upon him: The promise of His presence, the land, innumerable descendants, even extending the blessings to us and the whole earth, through Jesus who would come!

In his astonishment, Jacob proclaimed the place the house of God and the gate of Heaven.  When he arose early in the morning, he took the stone he had slept on and  set it up as a pillar, consecrating it to God and calling the place Bethel (House of God).  "And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee."

These days, when most people do not do the hard physical work of our forefathers, sleep can be hard to come by.  Ecclesiastes 5:12 says, "The sleep of a  labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer  (allow) him to sleep." 

Mattresses have come a long way from the simple sleeping mat or pallet of times gone by (and still used in some cultures).  There is so much competition between mattress companies today that we are bombarded with ads on how to get the perfect night's sleep.  Everything from mattress toppers to sleep numbers are touted as the solution to achieving that elusive goal of restful slumber.

Perhaps a better solution would be to use a pillow to kneel on for bedside prayers, (even committing to a tithe of 10%!).  That would be the perfect sleep number!