Jacob's Ladder

How would you react to a portal to heaven? What if it was located in a particular room of your house or out in a certain field. Would you visit it often? Would you feel worthy of it? Would you be scared of it? I don’t ask these questions to be coy or hypothetical. Even though this is probably the first time you’ve had that kind of question posed to you, you already have the answer to all these questions. Believe it or not, you have encountered such a reality. No, it doesn’t look like a literal window into paradise, but when it, or I guess I should say “He,” is encountered, you will find the answer to all those questions I’ve just posed. It’ll be clearer what I mean as we go on. 
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In this passage we get a small glimpse into this portal that Jacob seems to stumble into, and what it does to a man like Jacob. There is some mystery surrounding this passage, but what is shown here is beautiful and ties in with our taking of the Lord’s Supper here today. 

Our two points here are: God condescends to His people, and our only response is worship. 

God condescends to His People

Let us remind ourselves of where we are. Jacob is fleeing from the wrath of Esau, having seemingly stolen the his blessing. Of course, this blessing was always meant for Jacob, but the circumstances in obtaining it are suspect at best. He has been sent 400 miles away to Padan-aram in order to marry within the covenant and steward the Abrahamic blessing of seed as God intended. 
We join Jacob about 60 miles into his journey when we begin in verse 10. Note the circumstances. He isn’t traveling with a great caravan of people or seemingly even has a tent. He is sleeping out in a field on a rock! He is on his way out of the land that has been promised him leaving behind a brother who wants to see him dead. At this point, as one scholar points out, “Although Jacob had received the blessing, he straightway abandoned the land and inheritance to his brother Esau. It was Esau, not Jacob, who appeared to have gained the possessions of their father despite the stolen blessing.” (Matthews) 

He comes to a place that we will later come to know as Bethel, when he has this amazing dream. Notice the number of times we see the word “behold.” (Ross, 488). The text wants us to be aware of how startling this would be to witness and draw a reaction out of us. It is like a real estate agent who points out the good features of a house because they want you to love it. Here, the text wants us to be amazed along with Jacob, so let’s look at this together. 
The dream opens with a staircase leading up into heaven with angels running up and down it, with the Lord Himself looking down from the top step. What an image! What are we supposed to think about it? The word translated “ladder” here is the only time this word shows up in the Old Testament (Ross, 488), so it is a little difficult to know precisely what it means. “Ladder” is definitely one way to translate it, but Ancient thought probably would see it as a stone staircase, perhaps even “reminiscent of [the Tower of] Babel” (Matthews). Back in Genesis 11, the people of the earth thought it would be a great idea to build a tower to reach into the heavens where God was, in an act of disobedience and pride. He “came down” to see the tower they were building, and in an act of judgement, confused all their languages. Now, we have a staircase from God to Earth, and it is right at Jacob’s head! 

Can you imagine being Jacob in this moment? Before you can barely wrap your mind around what you are even seeing, God Himself begins talking to you. He reiterates all the promises that were given to Abraham and now applies them to Jacob. This passage is a combination of sorts of every promise that had ever been given to Abraham (Bible Talk Podcast). 

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Well, I can’t imagine anything like this because this hasn’t happened to me.” Or maybe something odd has happened to you, but you are unsure if it is real or what it means. To the Presbyterian and Pentecostal, the New Testament has something to tell you. Jesus references this moment in John 1. Jesus is choosing His disciples, and he picks Nathaniel to join the ranks. Nathaniel is a little skeptical of this Messiah, because, after all, He is from Nazareth, the wrong end of town, and can someone so grand as the Messiah come from a backwater, nothing town like Nazareth? Jesus is quick to show that kind of thinking is wrong, and Nathaniel is probably the fastest to come to an understanding of who Jesus is. Jesus responds with a “you ain’t seen nothing yet” response and includes that one of the greater things that Nathaniel will see is the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. 

This reference to this passage in Genesis gives us clarity in how we are supposed to think about it. What Jesus is saying there is that He is the stairway to heaven. The path to God is found in Jesus. He is the Way. He is the narrow gate. He is the stairway to heaven, and unlike Led Zeppelin’s lady, you can’t buy Him with gold. He’s already bought you with His blood. This reality is greater than what Jacob experienced. Jacob knows about this staircase, but now the staircase, as it were, knows us! We have a relationship with the way to God, a saving, glorious relationship with the Only Way to God. What a condescension on God’s part. God came down the stairs to become the stairs. He didn’t just provide steps, He is the steps. He didn’t give you a philosophy to follow but forgiveness to embrace. 

So when I opened a few minutes ago with those questions about what would you do if you were to encounter a portal to heaven, the answer to those questions is found in your relationship with Jesus. Do you shy away from prayer with Him and Bible reading because you are ashamed of your sin? Are you afraid of Him because you fear that, perhaps, in the end, you’ll find you weren’t on the staircase at all? Or maybe you have gotten so used to hearing His name and handling holy things you barely feel a thing. Maybe you remember a time in which you were awed and worshipfully fearful, but now that is gone. “How can that be possible,” you may wonder, “to encounter a portal to heaven and then lose your excitement?” 

There can be a number of reasons. They can be as heartbreaking and self-inflicted as hidden sin. Hidden sin is cherished sin. And a heart in love with sin, doesn’t see Jesus for Who He is. If that’s you, let that sin go. It doesn’t keep its promises to you (Phillips). Get it out in the open, let it shrivel, so that you might see Jesus. It can be as simple and ordinary as a season of physical pain or sleeplessness. You aren’t just a soul, and your body has a big impact on how your soul feels. It can also be just as subtle as where you are directing your thoughts. Have you so numbed yourself with scrolling you can barely see how your spouse sitting next to you is doing much less the glories of our God? 
So how do we get out of that mire? 

Our Only Response is Worship. 

Jacob, having seen all this, gets up and sets up a rock as a physical marker of where he had this happen. He pours oil on it, as an act of worship, and makes a vow to God that He will come back to this place, and worship with tithe in hand. Contrary to what I said last time, I have been convinced from my studies that Jacob isn’t actually making a bargain with God here. His actions show that he believes in God now, and he is acting in accordance to what He has just seen. 

We must do the same. Jesus has condescended to us sinners, dying on the cross, and rising again to open the way to heaven if we will repent of our sins and turn to Him for mercy. We need to be reminded of that. And for us, that doesn’t come from a stone that we found and make our own sign of God’s faithfulness. We have that sign right here in the Lord’s Supper. This visual picture is a reminder that the staircase to heaven, once came to Earth. He lived as one of us, died as one of us, and rose again, as we shall one day in Him. But in this moment, we have more than a memorial. Here we have fellowship. We aren’t taking this supper just to remind us to get back in fellowship with God. We don’t go on a date to remind ourselves to connect with our spouse. The act of dinner with them is part of that process. This isn’t a reminder meal, a memorial feast to a fallen hero long since gone. This is a family dinner where we are simultaneously reminded of our fellowship and actually fellowship. It is, in a true sense, a glimpse into heaven.