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| Bethel: site of Jacob's Vision |
Do you know the song “We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder” (new tab: audio)? It’s a famous Negro spiritual that understands Jacob’s ladder as a symbol of the believer’s spiritual ascent
into heaven. The ascent is slow and agonizing, but
the result is glory.
The most famous expression of this idea was the book, The Ladder of Divine Ascent (new tab: pdf), written
by John Climacus (7th cent. AD), a monk living at Mt. Sinai in
Egypt. He wrote of thirty steps on the
ladder of spiritual ascent to God that the believer must accomplish. Here again, the ladder
is understood to be something that we travel on to reach God in heaven.
How does all of this match up with Jacob’s original vision of the ladder?
The journey that brought Jacob to Bethel where he had the vision started at
Beersheba in Israel’s southern Negev Desert.
This is where his father, Isaac, was living at the time, and where Jacob
had convinced his brother, Esau, to trade his inheritance for a bowl of lentils
(Gen. 25:29-34). Here, too, he had
stolen his father’s blessing, pretending to be Esau complete with goat skin on
his arms to fool the touch of his father (Gen. 27:16). This meant that now his brother was so angry
with him, he threatened to kill him (Gen. 27:41-42). So Rebekah, his mother, thought it would be
better for him to go away for a while.
She sent Jacob back to the area where she herself had been brought
up, to the city of Haran, which Abraham had left to come to Canaan so many
years earlier (Gen. 12:4).
For Jacob to journey to Haran was quite an adventure. He was a country boy, a shepherd. But Haran was a big city, far to the north,
where many more people were living. It
lay near the huge Tigris and Euphrates rivers that flowed past the great
centers of ancient civilization, including Babylon and Ur from which Abraham
had started his journeys (Gen. 11:31).
Though these cities were small by modern standards—only a few tens of
thousands of people lived in them—they were the largest on earth at the
time.
Each had its pagan temples and a huge ziggurat, a stepped
pyramid, in the middle of the city, like that mentioned in the story of the
Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9). 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. Bab-el, the Hebrew name of the city of
Babylon, means the “gate of God.” They
thought of their ziggurats as literally gateways to heaven.
Some of Abraham’s family left behind in Haran shared these
beliefs, as it says in Jos. 24:2: “Since long ago, your fathers lived beyond
the river [the Euphrates]—Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor—and
they worshiped other gods.” Terah,
in fact, is a name that comes from the word for “moon.” This may indicate that he was a worshipper of
the moon god Sin (also known as Nannar), who was popular both in Ur and in
Haran. Laban, the brother of Rebekah,
was also a worshipper of idols. Later in
Genesis, his daughter Rachel stole his household idols, 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 filled with 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.
To get to Bethel, Jacob had to leave Beersheba in the south
and climb up into the hill country of Canaan.
He would have had a lot on his mind (Gen. 28:10). He had never been an outdoors adventurer like
his brother, Esau. Instead, he preferred
to stay by the tents of his father Isaac.
The Bible says he was a blameless or peaceful man (Gen. 25:27). But now, all alone, he was making the long
and dangerous journey to a place he had never been before.
Back in those days, people were a bit stronger than we are
today, and it would be quite normal for someone to walk 30 miles (48 km) a day
when they were traveling. This would put
Jacob in the area of Hebron after his first day of travel. The second day would take him past Bethlehem
and Jerusalem, both small villages at the time.
The end of the day would have brought him to Bethel, a little village
known as Luz at the time.
Here he slept under the open sky, using one of the stones
lying everywhere on the ground there for a pillow (Gen. 28:11). This may not have been as comfortable as
being at home, but it was good enough. Israel
is a dry country, so there is little chance of rain through most of the year
and little grass on the ground. It can
actually be very pleasant to sleep out in the fresh air after the heat of the
day. There are also few insects.
But this was not just any place. In Hebrew it is called “the place” (ha-maqom), a word that sometimes has a
religious connotation. It’s just
possible that this was the very spot where Jacob’s grandfather Abraham had
worshiped God, between Bethel and Ai, soon after he first arrived in the land
of Canaan (Gen. 12:8). After all, these
desert herdsmen had incredibly accurate memories of the lay of the land, and
Jacob surely knew the story of his grandfather’s wanderings. But even if he wasn’t in the exact spot, it
was nearby, and he would certainly have thought of his grandfather as he
approached the place.
During the night, Jacob had a dream in which he saw a ladder
reaching up to heaven: “And he dreamed
and look, a ladder was set down toward the earth and its top was reaching
toward the heavens. And look, messengers
of Elohim [God] were ascending and descending on it” (Gen. 28:12). But that’s not all he saw. Standing on the ladder, together with the
angels, was someone who called himself LORD (YHWH), and who identified himself
as the God of his fathers: “And look, the LORD was standing on it and
he said, ‘I am the LORD, Elohim of Abraham your father and Elohim of Isaac”
(28:13a). This one called LORD then
repeated 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”
(28:13b).
But who is this that he sees standing on the ladder? The Hebrew preposition “al” used here can be translated either “on” the ladder or “above”
the ladder. But the point is that this
one who identifies himself as the God of Abraham is “standing,” which implies he’s standing on legs. So who is this? The Bible teaches that no man has ever seen
God (John 1:18, Ex. 33:20). Yet Jacob
clearly saw someone that identified himself as God, and who spoke as God (“I give it to you...”). Who was this?
Later, in Haran, when this same being appears again to Jacob
and reminds him of his previous appearance at Bethel, Jacob calls him “the messenger [or angel] of God” (Gen.
31:11,13). Who is this messenger who is
also God? This is the one we know today
as the Son or Word of God, and after his birth at Bethlehem, as Jesus.
Some dismiss this connection with Jesus 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 one. But in recording
Jacob’s visit to this same spot many years later, the Bible eliminates these
other explanations with its carefully selected words (literally in
Hebrew): “...and he called the place El-Bethel [God of Bethel], for there Elohim
revealed themselves [niglu] to him when he was fleeing from the presence of his
brother” (Gen. 35:6,7). What is the
meaning of this strange expression, “Elohim
[God] revealed themselves”?
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, a Trinity.
Usually, when Elohim refers to the true God, it’s matched
with a singular verb. This alerts us to
the fact that God is the subject of the sentence, and not the gods. But in this particular verse (Gen. 35:7), not
only is “God” in the plural, but so is the verb, “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 (El in El-Bethel, for example, is
singular). But the writer was not
satisfied with an ordinary singular. He
wanted to emphasize that God had revealed himself to Jacob as a plurality. 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 the “angel of God” he had seen was not
an ordinary angel, but was God, through whom the great God (that we would call
God the Father) was revealing himself.
As Jesus said in John 14:9: “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” Because of the clear implication of this
remarkable choice of words, the early Jewish Christians used this verse as a
proof that Jesus is God in debates with the rabbis (Sanh. 38b).
Jesus himself mentioned this event in John 1:51, when he met
Nathanael for the first time. Jesus said
to Nathanael and to the others standing there:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you
will see heaven open and the messengers [angels] of God ascending and
descending for the Son of Man” (John 1:51).
What does this mean? 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 for us,
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 would see this? Nothing like this
is recorded in the lifetime of the apostles.
So when will they see it? It must
be talking about the coming of the Son of Man, his own second coming in power,
of which Matthew says, “he will send out
his messengers 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). The angels of God will be ascending and
descending to catch up the believers to Jesus in the clouds (see 1 Thess.
4:17). This explains how those who were
listening to Jesus at that time will see the angels ascending and
descending: because they'll be coming
for us! That's when we, too, will ascend
Jacob's ladder!
Is there any additional evidence to confirm this
interpretation? Yes, the promise given
to Jacob, 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.
The only land that his family owned in Canaan was the small field and
cave where Abraham and Sarah were buried near Hebron (Gen. 23; 25:9,10;
35:27-29; Gen. 50:13). There was also a
small piece of land that Jacob bought near Shechem (Gen. 33:19). But this was far from owning the entire
land!
So when will Jacob receive this promise of the land of
Israel? 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 of the righteous.
As the early church father Irenaus put it: “The predicted blessing (of Jacob),
therefore, belongs unquestionably to the times of the kingdom, when the
righteous will reign upon their rising from the dead,” Irenaus, 2nd cent. AD, Against
Heresies 5.33.3; see Matt. 8:11, 22:32).
Here again, we see that the promises to Jacob point to the resurrection
and the coming of the Son of Man.
The future implications of Jacob’s dream are also confirmed
in Gen. 28:14, where the one appearing on the ladder promised him, “...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 very next verse reveals the
immediate reason why Jacob was given this vision at this time: because he was going to a distant land which
was not the Promised Land—and God wanted 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” (Gen. 28:15). God
wanted Jacob to know that even though he was leaving the Promised Land for a
while, the God of the Promised Land would not abandon him, but would be with
him wherever he went. But this, too, is
a promise with incredible implications:
because if God would not leave him until he fulfilled his promises, then
God has not left Jacob from that day until today. Why not?
Because the promises have not yet been completely fulfilled! This is the kind of verse that Jesus and the
rabbis used to prove the resurrection.
And it’s the same promise that 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 Jacob awoke from his sleep and he said, ‘Surely the LORD is in
this place, and I didn’t know it.’ And
he was afraid and he said, ‘How fearful is this place! Is it not surely a house of Elohim, and this
a gateway to the heavens?’” (Gen. 28:16,17). Jacob had understood exactly the point of
God’s visitation: that the gate or door
of heaven was right there where he was, and not in the ziggurats of Mesopotamia
where he was going!
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| Standing Stones in the Desert |
The next morning, Jacob took the
stone he had used as a pillow and stood it upright, pouring oil on its top
(Gen. 28:18). This was the ancient
desert custom of using standing stones (masseboth
in Hebrew, sometimes translated “pillars”) for worship. These standing stones have been found at
dozens of ancient open-air worship sites throughout the deserts of Israel and
neighboring countries. Moses himself set
up twelve masseboth at Mt. Sinai (Ex.
24:4; though later God forbid them to continue using standing stones, Lev.
26:1, Deut. 16:22). They were also used in cities for 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.
So why is Jacob setting up a
standing stone? His father and
grandfather had never set up standing stones:
this is the first time they're mentioned in the Bible. When Abraham and Isaac had an encounter with
God, they set up instead an altar and worshiped him with whole burnt
offerings. But it seems that Jacob was
not yet ready for that.
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.
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 the LORD will be my
Elohim. 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 had a genuine experience with God,
but he still didn’t understand God very well.
The whole earth is only God’s footstool (Isa. 66:1): how can a stone be his house? Jacob still had a paganistic understanding of
God. He’s still making deals with
him. Have you ever heard of someone
doing that; or maybe done it yourself?
If you do this for me, Lord, then I will follow you...
But over the years, God was
faithful. He was with Jacob through all
his adventures, and brought him back safely.
So when Jacob returned to the Promised Land, he built an altar to God
near Shechem, the same place where Abraham had first arrived in the Land (Gen.
33:20). But even though he did this act
of worship, nothing happened. God didn’t
show up. Have you ever experienced that? Have you ever prepared something spiritual
for God, but heaven remained silent? And
then Jacob had that terrible experience at Shechem where his daughter, Dinah,
was raped, and his sons killed everyone in town to take vengeance. Things were
not going the way Jacob had hoped!
But right then, at that low
moment in his life, God appeared to him again:
“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 hadn’t forgotten him. Nor had he forgotten the promise that Jacob
had made.
Gen. 35:2: “And
Jacob said to his house and to all that were with him, 'Put aside the foreign
gods that are among you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.'” Now we see what the problem had been. Jacob had not yet made a clean break with the
other gods. The true God is a jealous
God. He doesn’t want to be one of
our gods; he wants to be our only God.
Jacob had not yet fully committed himself to the God of his
fathers. But now he was finally willing
to take that step.
Gen. 35:4: “And they gave to Jacob all the foreign
gods that they had and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob hid them
under the oak that was near Shechem.” The earrings probably had a
connection with the false gods, too, as they were often looked at as good luck
charms, popular both with men and women.
But now Jacob is making good on his promise, and cutting off these
foreign gods. This spot, too, was
connected with his family history. God
had once appeared to Abraham at “the oak” near Shechem (Gen. 12:6).
So Jacob went to Bethel and built
an altar (Gen. 35:7). And when he did,
God appeared to him and repeated the same promises he had made to his
grandfather Abraham: that he would be
the father of nations, and would be given the land of Israel (35:9-12).
How did Jacob respond? He set up a standing stone again
(35:14)! Jacob is now a believer. But he’s still trying to express his belief
in pagan ways: he has not yet fully
understood the ways of God.
Have you ever done anything like
that? 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.
I still remember some of my strange early attempts to understand the
word of God after I became a believer: I
was trying to reconcile my previous worldview with what the Bible said, trying
to compromise the two. It didn’t work,
of course. But it took me a while to
understand that.
Even today I still discover old
holdovers from time to time that need to be cleaned out. This happens not only to individuals but to
Christian societies as a whole. In
Europe, many pagan ideas and practices remained among Christians for many years—some
until today. It’s often easier for
people to continue old traditions than to think about whether or not they are
pleasing to God. The problem is that
these things risk blocking out the true spiritual presence of God in our
lives. Thank God he’s a merciful God.
But maybe we should think more carefully about the things we do for God. Tradition is not always good. Why should we do things that God may not
like—or even things that he has directly forbidden? Eating blood is a good example. Many Christians are convinced it’s just fine,
even though the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, directly forbids
it. And there are many other practices
that either directly violate God's word, or are in a dangerous gray zone. We’ve talked before about misunderstandings
in areas of doctrine like the resurrection and the Millennium,
misunderstandings that were caused by pagan thinking sneaking into the
Church. And there are many more.
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 into sin (2 Kings 10:29). Why did they do this? They, like Jacob, were worshiping the right
God, but doing it the wrong way. They
were using pagan forms of worship that God had forbidden. This can be quite dangerous. In the northern kingdom of Israel, it
eventually led to death and destruction, as did similar times of false belief
and action among Christians in Europe.
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.
Fortunately, Jacob himself did
finally get the point. In his old age,
before going down to Egypt to be with his son Joseph, he stopped at Beersheba,
the place where his whole adventure had begun.
Here, he offered sacrifices in worship to the God of his father Isaac
(Gen. 46:1). Again, God spoke to
him. He told him not to be worried about
going to Egypt, that God would be with them and bring them back (Gen.
46:2). But this time, Jacob didn’t set
up a standing stone. There was no need
to. Now he understood that God was with
him every day and every hour. There was
no need for a memorial: his relationship
with God was alive.
What about you? Have you set up memorials in your life for
past religious experiences? Or are you
living in a relationship of worship with God every day? Are you relying on memories, or are you
fanning the flames of worship on a daily basis?
May God help us to have an informed understanding of his will, so we can
remove the traces of paganism and every unclean thing out of our lives. But even more importantly, may he fill our
hearts with the desire to worship him every day in Spirit and in truth.
(For more on this topic, see the index category Jacob.)
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(For more on this topic, see the index category Jacob.)
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