Black Spirituality Religion : Negros and Jacob's Ladder:

Willie345

Member
REGISTERED MEMBER
Jul 12, 2020
19
2
Negros and Jacob's Ladder:

Some of us are old enough to remember the words of the famous Negro Spiritual, WE ARE CLIMING JCOB'S LADDER. We sang this song when I was in college back in the 1960's. It's words are as follows:

We are climbing Jacob's ladder,
We are climbing Jacob's ladder,
We are climbing Jacob's ladder,
Soldiers of the cross.

Every round goes higher, higher
Every round goes higher, higher
Every round goes higher, higher

Soldiers of the cross.

Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Sinner, do you love my Jesus?
Soldiers of the cross.

If you love Him, why not serve Him?
If you love Him, why not serve Him?
If you love Him, why not serve Him?

Soldiers of the cross.

These words were an inspiration to me as I struggled to understand how the concept of Jesus as God tied in to the struggles we were going through as Black People. What I mean is, I didn't quite know how Jesus was God, nor did we as a people. We just had the inspiration in our minds that he was (Romans 1:18-20). But as we began to attain more and more of our freedoms in the 60's and the decades after, we began to cast off our need for Jesus as God, and, instead, fell in love with Father God who we thought would make us healthy, wealthy, wise and prosperous. (Genesis 3) And this erroneous thought has persisted until this day.

But Jacob knew Jesus as God. Jacob's sojourn is recorder for us in Genesis 28: "Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone for a pillow and lay down to sleep. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from earth to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down on it.

"At the top of the stairway stood the Lord Jesus, and he said, 'I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I will give it to you and your descendants. … What's more, I will protect you wherever you go. I will someday bring you safely back to this land. I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you everything I have promised."


Now we know that Jesus is the God who spoke to Jacob by what Jesus said of himself to Nathaniel in John 1: "Do you believe all this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this. The truth is, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down upon me as God." "... and I will save you just as I saved Jacob on his journey to Haran." (My thoughts added)

As for Jesus being the God
Jacob's grandfather Abraham worshiped, Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews in John 8:56-58. "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see me. He saw me and he was glad."

"Then the Jews responded, 'You aren't even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?

"Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM THE LIVING GOD.'"

Paul echoes this in Romans 9:5 when he says this about Jesus: "... and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen."

This same Paul met Jesus as God as he was on his way to persecute the Christians in Damascus (Acts 9). "As he was nearing Damascus on this mission, a bright light from heaven suddenly shown down upon him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?

"Who are you, God?' Saul said.


"And God said, 'I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and I will tell you what to do.'"

Genesis 28 continues: "Then Jacob woke up and said, 'Surely the Lord Jesus is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it.'"

See, where we went wrong is not believing what Jesus says about himself in John 1:1: "... and he was God." This led us to believe that Father God was our God because as I said, he promised to make us rich in this life. But he never promised to forgive our sins and take us to heaven. Meaning, Father God is the false God Esau, the brother of Jacob, was so fund of. And the God who led Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to make the Jews slaves in Egypt.

Put another way, the mistake we are making is not understanding how Jesus speaks to us in the four Gospels, especially in John 5 and Matthew 11. Most scholars refer to this style of speaking as ILLEISM, or speaking in the third person. This is when a speaker refers to himself by another name to give himself command authority, or to better get his message across to to the ones he is speaking to. For instance, a woman may stand over her baby's crib and say, "Your mother don't want you to do that." Or a man on the phone may say to his son, "Your Father wants to see you very much." In both cases the one referred to by the speaker and the speaker herself/himself are the same person.

What I am saying is, in all cases in both the New Testament and the Old Testament when Jesus speaks of "the Father" or "God" or the "Holy Spirit," he is speaking of himself by his other name. Otherwise said: he is speaking of himself in the third person. We know this is true because the Bible speaks of all three names as God, meaning Jesus himself. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Romans 8:14)

Jesus speaks to us this way in John 14 when he says: "Don't be troubled. You trust God, now trust me. There are many rooms in my Father's house, and I am going there to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know where I am going and how to get there."

But to make sure that we, his disciples, understand that he is speaking of himself in the third person when he mentions "God" and "the Father," he says to us, "If you had known who I am, then you would have known who my Father is. From now on you know him and have seen him!" Translated: "From now on you know him and have seen him because because he is me!"

But if we are like Phillip and still do not understand what Jesus means, he says to us as he said to Phillip, "... don't you even yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking to see him?"

So as we sang the song again lets remember that only Jesus as the one true God is the stairway or ladder we climb to heaven!


God bless you,


Rev. Autrey
 

Donate

Support destee.com, the oldest, most respectful, online black community in the world - PayPal or CashApp

Latest profile posts

HODEE wrote on Etophil's profile.
Welcome to Destee
@Etophil
Destee wrote on SleezyBigSlim's profile.
Hi @SleezyBigSlim ... Welcome Welcome Welcome ... :flowers: ... please make yourself at home ... :swings:
Back
Top