One Shining Moment

A Series on Spiritual Turning Points
Moments in Time: Defining
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 32:22-32 

[God is always at work in our life – drawing us to him, helping us to become the person he created us to be and leading us to opportunities to serve him. In this series we will look at spiritual turning points in the lives of real people and the moments in time that it happened. Applying this to our own life, sometimes this happens suddenly, sometimes gradually, but always with purpose.]

 

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament, better known as March Madness, recently finished. Since 1987, after the clock of the championship game has hit 0:00, CBS has played the song titled “One Shining Moment”.

 

As the song plays, video clips are shown from throughout the three-week tournament highlighting game-changing plays. For many, this song is the climactic finish where you can see the raw emotion of the players, coaches and fans.

 

But, out of the 68 teams that start the single elimination tournament, only one team wins. For that team and for those players, it is a defining moment. Because for the rest of their lives… they will be national champions!

 

Jacob was constantly struggling with others to get what he wanted. Even at birth he grabbed the heal of his older twin brother Esau – a sign of things to come. Later, as a young man, Jacob made a “deal” with Esau for his birthright. Finally, he stole Esau’s blessing by deceiving their father, Isaac.

 

Because of this, Esau planned to kill Jacob once their father died. When Jacob learned about this, he fled to go live with his uncle Laban. After a month Jacob arranged with Laban to work for him for seven years. In return, Laban was to give Jacob his younger daughter Rachel in marriage.

 

However, when the time came, Laban tricked Jacob and gave him his older daughter, Leah. As a result, Jacob worked for another seven years – this time to marry Rachel. But Jacob’s struggles continued when Leah, whom Jacob didn’t want, gave birth to many sons while Rachel, whom Jacob loved, had none.

 

After twenty years, the Lord told Jacob to return to his family in Canaan to fulfill the covenant that he had made with Abraham. Therefore, Jacob gathered his wives, sons, servants and all of his livestock and possessions and left.

 

However, he was worried about how Esau would receive him. And when he learned that Esau was coming to meet him with an army of 400 men, Jacob proceeded to send gifts of livestock to precede their meeting. He also sent his wives and sons to a safe place while he stayed for the night by himself.

 

All that night Jacob wrestled with a man. But Jacob wouldn’t let him go until the man blessed him. So, the man blessed him and then changed his name from Jacob, which means “deceiver”, to Israel, which means “struggles with God”.

 

Jacob had struggled his entire life, but he finally realized that his real struggle was with God. The result was that Jacob was a changed man for “I saw God face to face”. It was his “one shining moment” that defined the rest of his life.

 

If we’re honest, we struggle with God just like Jacob. Paul wrote about this struggle in his letter to the Romans.

 

²¹ So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ^25a Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  NIV            Romans 7

 

Jacob struggled. Paul struggled. We struggle. How are you seeking Jesus? How has he redefined you?

 

Copyright 2026 Joseph B Williams

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www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

Stairway to Heaven

A series on the story of redemption
The story of Jacob.
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 28:10-22 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.]

  

“Stairway to Heaven” is an iconic rock song released in 1971 by the English band Led Zeppelin. Even though it was never released as a single, many believe it is the greatest rock song of all time.

 

The song is about a woman who accumulates money, only to find out the hard way that her life has no meaning and will not get her into heaven. For the most part though, the lyrics are vague. But the music is memorable and classic.

 

In the memorable and classic story of Jacob, he confronts his own “stairway to heaven”. However, it’s the result of a circuitous journey that began with a sibling rivalry with his twin brother Esau. Even at birth, the rivalry had already begun as Jacob grasped the heel of his older brother Esau.

 

It was made worse by the fact that their father Isaac loved Esau more, and their mother Rebekah loved Jacob more. The rivalry escalated when Esau impulsively sold his birthright for a bowl of stew to the shrewd Jacob. Later, Jacob schemed with his mother to steal the older son’s blessing.

 

Finally, the sibling rivalry came to a boil when Esau made plans to murder Jacob once their father had passed away. Learning of his plans, their mother schemed with Jacob, sending him away to live with her brother Laban.

 

During this trip, Jacob had a dream one night where the Lord confirmed his covenant.

 

¹² He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. ¹³ There above the stairs stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. ^14b …All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.           NIV

 

The stairs in Jacob’s dream, would bring to mind those found in a Mesopotamian religious structure called a Ziggurat. It was a tower constructed for the purpose of worshipping a local god making it possible for worshippers to reach their god.

 

However, Jacob’s Ziggurat could be a metaphor with dual meanings highlighting God’s story of redemption. First, it could be God’s covenant with the nation of Israel. Second, it could be his one and only son Jesus who truly is the “stairway to heaven”.

 

⁵¹ Then Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.”                John 1            NLT

 

The Lord worked through an intense sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau to bring his plan of redemption into the world. It was his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that continued through his one and only son, Jesus.

 

Jacob’s story was God’s story. It’s our story too. It’s the ancient story of redemption that continues today. It’s as new as your story and mine.

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com