Nightmare
Sermon
Anyone who has suffered any sort of trauma in life will know what it is to have bad dreams. Nightmares often start early in life so that quite small children can be deeply disturbed by them. Sometimes they seem to occur for no reason, but at other times they follow a traumatic experience, or are the result of some worry or anxiety.
Sometimes nightmares are no more than bad dreams; the sort of dream where you are lost and unable to find your way home, or you're at some important event but have forgotten the most basic essential, like suddenly realizing you're naked because you've forgotten to dress. Although disturbing, this sort of dream usually quickly fades when you awaken. It may be enough to then keep you awake for hours, or you may be able to settle down again into restful slumber.
But real nightmares are terrifying and the effect of them even when awake, is profound. For some people this sort of horror can be so appalling that they are afraid to go to sleep, and their lives are ruled by the nightmares.
Sometimes there is a deep-seated cause for such nightmares, such as witnessing some horrific event or living in fear of something horrendous. Those children growing up during the troubles in Ireland who witnessed a parent's murder when gunmen burst through the door, often had nightmares for years afterwards. But other children, who hadn't witnessed such a murder but feared it, suffered from nightmares too.
If the underlying cause can be sorted out the nightmares generally subside, but this isn't always possible, so some people suffer from nightmares for most of their lives.
Jacob had a nightmare back in the days when the early Hebrew people were still nomads. They'd moved on from basic hunter-gathering to domesticate sheep and goats so were in the process of becoming settlers, but full settlement didn't occur for another few hundred years, when Moses eventually led the people to settle in the Promise Land.
For Jacob, life was precarious. He not only had to provide for his household of wives and servants and children, but he also had to defend them from attack by wild animals and marauding bands of hostile tribesmen. Perhaps life was full of worry for him. Much earlier when they had been but lads, he had cheated his brother out of the inheritance and had perhaps been terrified of retribution from that day onwards.
On this occasion, Jacob had sent his household and all his possessions across the river by night, presumably because he was afraid of discovery by local tribesmen. But he himself remained on this side of the river until morning. Perhaps he wanted to make sure in daylight that he had moved everything and everybody. He lay down in the danger zone to sleep for the remaining hours of nightfall while his household rested in safety on the far side of the river. He must have been anxious.
Whatever the cause, Jacob had a nightmare in which he wrestled and thrashed about so severely throughout the rest of the night that he dislocated his hip. Nightmares always have some pictorial representation of deep-seated worry and for Jacob, his worry was focused in the man with whom he wrestled. But interestingly, Jacob recognized good rather than evil in the nightmare.
Just before the nightmare ended, the man praised Jacob. "You have struggled with God and with men," he said, "and have overcome." So it was a kind of closure for Jacob, as though God was telling him that all was now well and he had no need to worry any more. As a sign of these words, God gave Jacob a new name, the name which was eventually to become the name of the whole race of people fathered by Jacob. God called him "Israel".
The first part of the name, "isra" comes from the Hebrew verb, sarita, meaning "you struggled" and the second part, "el" was an early name for God. So the meaning of the name Israel was "you struggled with God". It soon becomes clear after this that the man was an angel, and angels were interchangeable with God in the early history of the people, so Jacob did indeed struggle with God.
Next day Jacob gave the place of his nightmare a name. We're told: So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."
Nightmares are very unpleasant, very uncomfortable and quite terrifying. But perhaps even today they have a purpose. Perhaps God is somewhere within our nightmares, trying to convey a message to us, a message which will help us if we are able to discern it and heed it.
God works in mysterious and hidden ways to reach us. Perhaps this is because when we are fully conscious and in control of all our faculties, we keep God out. We may do this inadvertently, but there may be something of which our conscious selves are unaware, which blocks God. Perhaps then God comes to us while we are asleep, when we have let go of some of the control.
If you suffer from nightmares, perhaps a prayer will help before you sleep, not asking God to prevent or stop the nightmare, but asking him to make his presence known to you through it.
Then perhaps you too will be able to name the place, Peniel - I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.
Sometimes nightmares are no more than bad dreams; the sort of dream where you are lost and unable to find your way home, or you're at some important event but have forgotten the most basic essential, like suddenly realizing you're naked because you've forgotten to dress. Although disturbing, this sort of dream usually quickly fades when you awaken. It may be enough to then keep you awake for hours, or you may be able to settle down again into restful slumber.
But real nightmares are terrifying and the effect of them even when awake, is profound. For some people this sort of horror can be so appalling that they are afraid to go to sleep, and their lives are ruled by the nightmares.
Sometimes there is a deep-seated cause for such nightmares, such as witnessing some horrific event or living in fear of something horrendous. Those children growing up during the troubles in Ireland who witnessed a parent's murder when gunmen burst through the door, often had nightmares for years afterwards. But other children, who hadn't witnessed such a murder but feared it, suffered from nightmares too.
If the underlying cause can be sorted out the nightmares generally subside, but this isn't always possible, so some people suffer from nightmares for most of their lives.
Jacob had a nightmare back in the days when the early Hebrew people were still nomads. They'd moved on from basic hunter-gathering to domesticate sheep and goats so were in the process of becoming settlers, but full settlement didn't occur for another few hundred years, when Moses eventually led the people to settle in the Promise Land.
For Jacob, life was precarious. He not only had to provide for his household of wives and servants and children, but he also had to defend them from attack by wild animals and marauding bands of hostile tribesmen. Perhaps life was full of worry for him. Much earlier when they had been but lads, he had cheated his brother out of the inheritance and had perhaps been terrified of retribution from that day onwards.
On this occasion, Jacob had sent his household and all his possessions across the river by night, presumably because he was afraid of discovery by local tribesmen. But he himself remained on this side of the river until morning. Perhaps he wanted to make sure in daylight that he had moved everything and everybody. He lay down in the danger zone to sleep for the remaining hours of nightfall while his household rested in safety on the far side of the river. He must have been anxious.
Whatever the cause, Jacob had a nightmare in which he wrestled and thrashed about so severely throughout the rest of the night that he dislocated his hip. Nightmares always have some pictorial representation of deep-seated worry and for Jacob, his worry was focused in the man with whom he wrestled. But interestingly, Jacob recognized good rather than evil in the nightmare.
Just before the nightmare ended, the man praised Jacob. "You have struggled with God and with men," he said, "and have overcome." So it was a kind of closure for Jacob, as though God was telling him that all was now well and he had no need to worry any more. As a sign of these words, God gave Jacob a new name, the name which was eventually to become the name of the whole race of people fathered by Jacob. God called him "Israel".
The first part of the name, "isra" comes from the Hebrew verb, sarita, meaning "you struggled" and the second part, "el" was an early name for God. So the meaning of the name Israel was "you struggled with God". It soon becomes clear after this that the man was an angel, and angels were interchangeable with God in the early history of the people, so Jacob did indeed struggle with God.
Next day Jacob gave the place of his nightmare a name. We're told: So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."
Nightmares are very unpleasant, very uncomfortable and quite terrifying. But perhaps even today they have a purpose. Perhaps God is somewhere within our nightmares, trying to convey a message to us, a message which will help us if we are able to discern it and heed it.
God works in mysterious and hidden ways to reach us. Perhaps this is because when we are fully conscious and in control of all our faculties, we keep God out. We may do this inadvertently, but there may be something of which our conscious selves are unaware, which blocks God. Perhaps then God comes to us while we are asleep, when we have let go of some of the control.
If you suffer from nightmares, perhaps a prayer will help before you sleep, not asking God to prevent or stop the nightmare, but asking him to make his presence known to you through it.
Then perhaps you too will be able to name the place, Peniel - I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.
