Jacob's Ladder

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From: Jeff Harrison
To: heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: Jacob's Ladder

JACOB'S LADDER

When Jacob left the flat desert of Beersheba and climbed up into the hill country of Canaan, he had a lot on his mind (Gen. 28:10). He had never been an adventurer, preferring to stay by the tents of his father Isaac rather than risk going out in the open field (Gen. 25:27). But now, all alone, he was making a long and dangerous journey to a distant place he had never been before.

Jacob was in this difficult position because he had stolen his father's blessing, pretending to be Esau, his brother--complete with goat skin on his arms to fool the touch of his father (Gen. 27:16). But when Esau found out what had happened, he was furious and threatened to kill him. So Jacob's parents sent him away to the city of Haran, where the family of his mother Rebecca was living, the same city from which Abraham left when he first came to Canaan in obedience to the Lord (Gen. 12:4).

For Jacob to journey to Haran was quite an adventure. He was a country-boy, a shepherd. Haran was a major city, a center of trade in Mesopotamia to the north. Aram-Naharaim ("Aram between the rivers"), where Haran was located, refers to the huge Tigris and Euphrates rivers. They flowed past the great centers of ancient civilization, including Babylon and Ur from which Abraham had started his journeys. Though these cities were small by modern standards--only a few tens of thousands lived in them--they were the largest on earth at the time. Each had its pagan temples and one huge zigguraut, a stepped pyramid, in the middle of the city, like that mentioned in the story of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11). This was a huge, artificial mountain with a large stairway up the front. It served, according to the belief of the people, as a "stairway to heaven" for the pagan gods. Babel, the Hebrew name of the city of Babylon, means the "gate of God." They thought of their ziggurauts as literally a gateway to heaven.

Some of Abraham's family left behind in Haran shared these beliefs (Jos. 24:2). Abraham's father, who died in Haran, was named Terah, a name that comes from the word for "moon." He may have been a worshipper of the moon-god Sin, who was popular both in Ur and in Haran. Laban, the brother of Rebecca, was also a worshipper of idols. Later in Genesis, his daughter Rachel stole his household idols from him, and he chased Jacob hundreds of miles to try and get them back (Gen. 31:30,34).

Jacob was about to be plunged into this completely different and pagan world, a world with many temptations for a young man. But God did not want him to be completely unprepared. So he arranged a meeting with Jacob while he was on his way to Haran.

After making his way 56 miles (90 km) through the hill country of Canaan, probably at the end of his second day of travel, Jacob stopped for the night near Bethel (Gen. 28:11).* Here he slept under the open sky, using one of the stones nearby for a pillow. This may not have been very comfortable, but it was adequate lodging. Israel is a dry country, so here, at the peak of the hill country, there is little chance of rain through most of the year and little grass on the ground. There are also few insects. The scorpions are not much of a problem, if you avoid turning over too many rocks!

* 30 miles (48 km) is a generally reliable average for the distance traveled in a day's time on foot in ancient times. Jacob would have taken the "Patriarchal Highway," a route still used today for travel north and south through the center of the hill country. This took him through Hebron, then past Jerusalem, and on to Bethel on his way north.

But this was not just any place. In Hebrew it is called "the place" (ha-maqom), a word that often has a religious connotation. This may have been the very spot where Jacob's grandfather Abraham had worshipped God, near Bethel, soon after he first arrived in the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:8; 13:3,4).*

* If not, it was very near the place. These events near Bethel in the lives of the patriarchs explain why the city later became a center of religious worship (Judg. 20:18,26; 1 Sam. 10:3; 1 Kings 12:32, Amos 3:14).

During the night, Jacob had a dream in which he saw a ladder reaching up to heaven, "and look!, messengers (angels) of Elohim (God) ascending and descending on it" (Gen. 28:12). Standing on the ladder, together with the angels, was someone the Bible calls LORD (YHWH), who identifies himself as the God of his fathers: "I am YHWH, Elohim of Abraham your father and Elohim of Isaac" (28:13).*

This one called LORD then repeats to Jacob the same promise that had been given to his father and grandfather: the promise of the land of Israel. "The land that you are lying on, I give it to you and to your seed" (28:13).

* The Hebrew preposition "al" can be translated either "on" the ladder or "above" the ladder as in many English translations. However the Old Greek (Septuagint) in favoring "on" (epi) likely indicates the correct reading.

But who is this that he sees on the ladder? The Bible teaches that no man has ever seen God (John 1:18, Ex. 33:20). Yet Jacob clearly saw someone that the Bible identifies as God, and who spoke as God ("I give it to you..."). Who i s this? Later, when this same being appears again to Jacob, and reminds him of his previous appearance at Bethel, he is called the messenger (or angel) of God (Gen. 31:11,13). This messenger of God who is God we know today as the Son or Word of God, and after his birth at Bethlehem, as Jesus.

Some dismiss this evidence for a distinct personal manifestation of God by claiming that this and other appearances of the "angel of the Lord" are simply ordinary angels speaking for God. The later rabbis invented the angel Metatron, to whom they gave divine names, to explain passages like this. But in recording Jacob's visit to this same spot years later, the Bible eliminates any such
alternative explanations with its carefully selected words (translated literally from the Hebrew): "...there Elohim had revealed themselves to him" (Gen. 35:6,7). What is the meaning of this strange expression?

Elohim is one of the most frequently used names of God in the Bible. Strangely, it is not a singular but a plural noun: the "im" at the end is a plural ending. When speaking of the pagan gods, the same word (elohim) is translated "gods."

This plural name of God is one of the proofs that Christians have used through the years to show that God is a multi-personality--that he is a three-in-one.

Usually, when Elohim refers to the true God, it is matched with a singular verb. This alerts us to the fact that God is the subject of the sentence. But in this particular verse (Gen. 35:7), not only is "God" in the plural, but so is the verb, "had revealed themselves" (which is all one word in Hebrew, niglu[ plural] instead of niglah [singular]). Here there is no question that the true God is being referred to, because of the context. But the writer was not satisfied with the ordinary construction. He wanted to emphasize that God revealed himself to Jacob as a plurality. (As Jesus said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father"; John 14:9.) And so he chose a plural verb together with a plural name of God. In other words, he wanted to make it perfectly clear that this "angel of God" was not an ordinary angel, but God (the Son) himself, distinct from and yet one with God. Because of the clear implication of this remarkable choice of words, the early Jewish Christians used this verse as proof that Jesus is God in debate with the rabbis (Sanh. 38b)!

Jesus himself alluded to this verse in John 1:51, when he met Nathanael for the first time. Jesus said to Nathanael and to the others standing there: " You [plural] will see heaven open and the messengers (angels) of God ascending and descending for the Son of Man" (1:51). Jesus is telling them, in effect, that they will also see what Jacob saw! They, too, will see heaven open, and the angels ascending and descending to do the will of the Son of Man. Here Jesus interprets Jacob's vision, associating the divine angel of God on the ladder with the Son of Man, that is, with himself.

But what future event is Jesus connecting this with, when they all will see these things? He appears to be talking about the coming of the Son of Man, his own second coming in power, of which Revelation says, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True" (Rev. 19:11). At that time, "he will send out his messengers (angels) by means of a loud trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones...from one end of the heavens to the other" (Matt. 24:31). Only this explains how all those listening to him will see the angels ascending and descending.

According to Jesus, then, Jacob's dream is a prophesy of his own return from heaven!

Is there any additional evidence to confirm this interpretation? Yes, the promise given to Jacob itself, the promise of the land of Israel. Did Jacob ever receive the land in his lifetime? No. He wandered the land as a stranger all his life.*

So when will he receive it? In the resurrection! This was the teaching of the early Church: that the promises given to the patriarchs will be fulfilled in the earthly reign of Messiah, a reign that begins with the resurrection (Irenaus, 2nd cent. AD, Against Heresies 5.33.3; see Matt. 8:11, 22:32). Here again, Jacob's dream points to the resurrection and the coming of the Son of Man.

* With the exception of the small plot of land and cave near Hebron bought by Abraham to bury Sarah, in which Abraham, Isaac, and later Jacob himself were also buried (Gen. 23; 25:9,10; 35:27-29; Gen. 50:13).

These universal implications of Jacob's dream are confirmed in vs. 14 (Gen.2 8:14) where he is promised, "...and all the families of the earth will be blessed by you and by your seed [singular]." This, too, is a repetition of the promises God gave to his father and grandfather. The singular "seed" by which all the families of the earth will be blessed refers prophetically to Jesus, the Messiah (Gal. 3:16)!

The next verse reveals the immediate reason why Jacob was given this vision at this time: because he's going to a distant land which is not the Promised Land--and God wants him back again! "And look!, I am with you and I will protect you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you" (28:15). God wanted Jacob to know that even though he won't be in the Promised Land for a while, the God of the Promised Land will not abandon him, but will be with him wherever he goes. This, too, is a promise with incredible implications: If God will not leave him until he has fulfilled his promise, then God has not left Jacob from that day until today, because the entire promise has not yet been fulfilled!

That's the same promise we have as believers in Messiah Jesus: that he will never leave us or forsake us, not in this life or the next (Heb. 13:5).

What is Jacob's reaction to these awesome events? He experiences the fear of God: "And he was afraid and he said, 'How fearful is this place! Is it not surely a house of Elohim, and this a gate of the heavens?'" (Gen. 28:16,17).

Jacob had understood the immediate point of God's visitation: that the gate of heaven is right there where he is, and not in the ziggurauts of Mesopotamia where he was going!

The next morning, Jacob took the stone he was resting on and stood it upright, pouring oil on its top (28:18). This is the ancient desert custom of usings tanding stones (masseboth in Hebrew, sometimes translated "pillars") for worship.*

Why is Jacob doing this? His father and grandfather had never set up standing stones. When Abraham and Isaac had a visitation from God, they set up an altar and worshipped him. But Jacob was not yet ready for that. So instead, he imitated the pagan religious customs of those living around him. He had had a remarkable religious experience, so, like them, he marked the place with a stone--with a memorial. But memorials are for things that are dead and gone, not for things that are alive (Matt. 23:29-31). Jacob did not yet have a living relationship with God.

* These standing stones have been found at dozens of ancient open-air worship sites throughout the deserts of Israel and neighboring countries (as at Timnah, though here originally covered with a tent). Moses himself set up masseboth at Mt. Sinai (Ex. 24:4). They were also used in cities in association with pagan worship, as at Gezer, Hazor, and Petra; and even at Israelite high places dedicated to YHWH, as at Arad in the time of the later kings of Judah. Butt he use of standing stones was forbidden in the Law of Moses (Lev. 26:1, Deut. 16:22).

But he was willing to make a deal: "If Elohim will be with me and will protect me on this journey that I am taking, and he gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I return to the house of my father in peace, then YHWH will be my Elohim (God). And this stone that I have set up as a standing stone will be a house of Elohim" (28:20-22). The stone will be God's house? Jacob had a genuine experience with God, but he still doesn't understand God very well.

The whole earth is only God's footstool (Isa. 66:1): how can a stone be his house?

Over the years, God was faithful and did all these things in Jacob's life. So when he returned to the Land after his adventures in Haran, God reminded him of his promise: "Get up! Go up to Bethel and stay there, and make there an altar to God who appeared to you when you fled from the presence of Esau your brother" (35:1) God doesn't say anything about a standing stone. He wants an altar--an ongoing relationship of worship.

Jacob kept his promise. First he took all the foreign gods of those that were with him and buried them in the ground (35:2,4). Then he went to Bethel, and built an altar (Gen. 35:7). When he did, God appeared to him again and repeated his promises (35:9,10). But how did Jacob respond? He set up a standing stone again (35:14)! Jacob is now a believer. But he is still trying to expressh is belief in pagan ways: he has not yet fully understood the ways of God.

This is not just a problem of ancient times. We all come to God with strange ideas in our minds; ideas that must be purified, refined, and tested to bring them in line with God's word and his will. Many pagan ideas and practices have settled into the heart of Christianity over the years, where they sometimes risk blocking the life-giving flow of the blood of Messiah. It's easier to continue old traditions than to think about whether or not they are pleasing to God. But maybe we should think about it. Why should we do things that God doesn't like--or that he may even have directly forbidden?

The place where Jacob set up his stone, at Bethel, later became a center of idolatrous worship for Israel. Here they set up one of the golden calves in the time of Jeroboam that led many to sin (2 Kings 10:29). Why did they do this? They, like Jacob, were worshipping the right God (YHWH), but doing it the wrong way.* They were using pagan forms of worship that God had forbidden.

This eventually led to horrible death and destruction. Many in the northern tribes of Israel permanently fell away, and were taken into exile where they became completely paganized--far removed from the worship of the one true God.

* As at Sinai, when Aaron dedicated a feast to YHWH after making the golden calf (Ex. 32:5). Inscriptional evidence (such as that mentioning the "YHWH of Samaria") confirms that the god being worshipped by the northern tribes was the true God (at least in name), though they had abandoned the Bible's instructions for worship.

Fortunately, Jacob himself did finally get the point. In his old age, before leaving the Promised Land to go down to Egypt with his son Joseph, he stopped at Beersheba, the place where this whole adventure began. Here, he offered sacrifices in worship of the God of his father Isaac (Gen. 46:1). Again, God spoke to him (Gen. 46:2). But this time, Jacob didn't set up a standing stone. There was no need to. For he now knew that God would be with him every day and every hour. There was no need for a memorial: his relationship with God was alive.

In Egypt, just before he died, God used Jacob to deliver some beautiful words of prophecy, including a prophecy of the coming Messiah: he to whom "will be the obedience of all the peoples" (Gen. 49:10-12). In blessing Joseph's children, he spoke a three-fold blessing that reflects the depth of his experience with God, and a testimony to the God that had revealed himself to him: "The Elohim (God) in whose presence my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, walked [the Father God]; the Elohim who is my shepherd from when I (first existed) until this day [the Holy Spirit]; the Messenger (or Angel) who redeems me from all evil [the Son of God] bless the boys..." (Gen. 48:15,16). Here, too, the Angel of God is prophetically associated with the end-time ministry of Jesus, who not only marks us for redemption by his death on the cross, but will personally deliver us from the final judgment and destruction at his return.

What about you? Are you setting up memorials for one-time religious experiences that are dead and gone? Or are you walking in a living relationship of worship with God? May God help us remove the paganism and every unclean thing out of our lives, that we might worship him with clean hearts in Spirit and in truth.

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