The Bible Binge - (Genesis 28:10-22)

Heaven’s Gates

One of the most fascinating museum exhibits I’ve ever seen was an exhibit of ancient Egyptian artifacts at the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio. The display included a meticulous replica of the inside of one of the pyramids. Among the artifacts was a huge stone gate that had been removed from one of the pyramids. The archway’s hieroglyphics gave the name of the deceased, some details of his life, and a dedication to various Egyptian gods and goddesses. This “gate”, for the deceased, was entry not only into the afterlife, but also into the present. The gate represented the philosophy and theology of the entire pyramid… it was a portal between this world and the next, with the peak of the pyramid the culmination of stairs leading to heaven.

The idea of building a gate into heaven isn’t unique to the Egyptians. Mesopotamians had their ziggurats. The Mayans had their own pyramids. And while there were different purposes for each of the cultures, the one thing they all had in common was that their structures were designed to get to the gods and the afterlife. Pyramids, ziggurats, even the Indian mounds here in North America… all built up and high to reach to the heavens where the gods are. The ancient Mesopotamians, Mayans, and Egyptians dotted the landscape with mammoth temples lined with stairs leading to or leading down from the heavens; the ziggurats, temples and pyramids functioned as gates or bridges between heaven and earth.

These gates to heaven are testimony to humanity’s fascination with finding that elusive gate between what is seen and unseen, between what is bound by time and space and what is not. It is the stuff of science fiction, many times involving a so-called parallel universe, or multi-verses. For Michael J. Fox, it was a nuclear powered Delorean that functioned as the gate. For Stephen Strange, it’s a Sling Ring. For Lucy, Edmond, Peter, and Susan it was a wardrobe. For Alice, it was a rabbit hole. For Colonel Jack O’Neil, it was a Stargate. For Ebenezer Scrooge it was 3 ghosts. For Neo in the Matrix, it was an elaborate machine. For Led Zeppelin, it was a “Stairway”. We just have to know what we can’t see. And we are on a quest to climb to heaven to see it, and even claim heaven as our own. And so we dream and talk and even build gates and portals in order to be closer to the gods, if not just walk right into their realm.

Our Bible Binge Bible talk for today addresses this need or quest of humanity to reach up to the heavens where the gods reside. We’re making our way through the Bible in 14 months. And tomorrow’s designated reading includes a fascinating story about Jacob and a dream. If you have been following along in the Bible readings, we’re to Genesis chapter 28 and by this time, we’ve begun to suspect that this guy Jacob isn’t to be trusted. Jacob is the grandson of Abraham. He’s a twin. He swindled his brother out of his birthright and tricked his almost blind father into giving him the family blessing. Jacob seems to be part con man, part genius. Now he’s on the run from his brother who has sworn to kill him.

Jacob’s Dream: A Heaven’s Gate

As he is on the run, Jacob finds a spot to spend the night… he’s most likely 2 or 3 days into his journey… and he gets a stone for a pillow, lays down, and has a dream that beats all dreams; in fact, this dream is so real, that the stuff that happens in the dream is very, very real.

Genesis 28:12 Joseph dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it. The LORD was standing there beside him...

Wow. Some kind of dream. No mushrooms involved. A stairway reaching the sky. Angels. And by the way, the LORD stands beside Joseph. The scene is unbelievable.

Tower of Babel: A “Heaven’s Gate”

And it’s even more remarkable considering this isn’t the first time in Genesis in which there is a stairway to heaven. Humanity tried it once in Genesis. The most notorious of the occultic construction marvels like the pyramids and ziggurats was the Tower of Babel, the purpose of which was to build a city and a tower “with its top *in the heavens*.” Rebellious humanity built a massive structure in out rebellion against the creator. Here’s what Moses tells us in Genesis 11:

Genesis 11:4 The people of Babel said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let’s make a name for ourselves;

They want a tower to reach into the heavens where God resides so that they can do the same thing that the serpent promised Eve: let’s make a name for ourselves. (Genesis 11:4) Babel itself (along with its derivative, Babylon) means “gate of God”. Babeland similar temple-towers[1] were the means by which the gods would descend and have a presence among the people. By placing a tower that gated the earth with the heavens, Babelwas a vain attempt to force God to descend to man as a dictated presence on earth.

All of these gateways to heaven have one thing in common, a commonality highlighted by Babel’s futility: the initiative is man’s, it is attempted in rebellion, and it is all about man becoming his own God. The ziggurats, the temples, the black magic, the stone gates, the séances, and the pyramids, are ALL rebellious, shake-your-fist-at-God perversions of the reality revealed to us in the Bible. But just like God did with Adam and Eve and the world of Noah, at Babel, God stops it all… Moses says instead of the people going up to heaven, God comes down and confuses their language. God comes down.

The Stairway FROM heaven

Now here’s Jacob, on the run from his brother out to kill him, and there’s this ladder, a stairway not to heaven, but from heaven. Here’s how Moses describes it:

Genesis 28:13–15 “The Lord was standing there beside him, saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying. Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

This “portal” descending from heaven is not man-made. The heavens open, a stairway is set up, angels ascend and descend the stairway between heaven and earth, and at the bottom of the ladder, next to Jacob is God, himself, or most likely, God the Son. Against the backdrop of the black night, God has created his own stairway, his own house, over against the very human and profane “gate of God” designed by the Babel-builders. The heavens have opened, and God again has come down. But God has not come down the ladder in judgment. No, God comes with a promise, the same promise He made to Jacob’s grandad, Abraham.

And he begins with his own name: God self-identifies as I AM. God is the One who makes a name for himself. A name that is his alone. I AM. And he is here with Jacob with the great and grand promises: your offspring will be the dust of the earth and the whole earth will be filled with your offspring. All peoples of the entire earth will be blessed through you because I’m going to fill the earth with your offspring. And I promise to be with you. Always. This is the God of Promise who has come to save Jacob and give him life… and a posterity beyond belief. This dream is God’s doing. This really is heaven’s gate. And this ladder is God come down from heaven for Jacob to do what Jacob cannot do.

Jacob, the ladder builder

Heaven meets earth and it is God’s doing. But even as grand and stupendous as it is that God descends the ladder to be with Jacob and give him the Promises given to his own father and his grandfather, Jacob is still Jacob. Jacob still wants control.

Jacob wakes up.. he’s stunned that he’s been sleeping in God’s house, where God comes to dwell with humanity. The significance is not lost on Jacob, or Moses the one telling us about it. “How awesome is this place”. This is where God dwells with man. This is where he heard God’s promise: “I am *with you*. I will keep you. I will not leave you.” Jacob recognized that Beth-el is where man experienced the very presence of God himself. And he calls it the house, or dwelling place, of God. Jacob says “this is the gate of heaven”.

This event, for Jacob, is grace against the blackness of the night. God promises His presence as a comfort to and support for Jacob. Wherever Jacob was to go, Beth-el, the bridging of heaven and earth by God himself, would also be a reality.

But here’s Jacob’s response.

Genesis 28:20–21 Then Jacob made a vow: “If God will be with me and watch over me during this journey I’m making, if he provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safely to my father’s family, then the Lord will be my God.”

You see what Jacob does? “If… then”. This is the inversion of God’s promise. God has said, “I AM the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and of Isaac.” And Jacob says, if you do all this for me, then you can be my God. Are you kidding me? God gives an unconditional promise of life and salvation and missional purpose all over the earth and Jacob is saying, yeah, about that… this is going to be on my terms. It’s all conditional for Jacob. Jacob’s response has strings attached. He’s still trying to control God.

Jacob is the kind of man who, in the wake of heaven -- and Coram deo – before the face of God no less, dared bargain with God with his own benefit in mind. At Bethel, with angels ascending and descending the ladder from heaven, Jacob dares to quibble with with God over who is going to control the terms of his covenantal blessing, and even his material wealth. Jacob is ready to go toe to toe with anyone, anytime, anywhere, over anything. Jacob hijacks the covenant because Jacob wants to control his own destiny. Jacob is perpetually climbing the stairway to heaven. I’m going to do it my way. “You can be my God if you live up to my expectations.” This is Jacob in all of his self-reliance, taking God’s gracious covenant and turning it on its head. Jacob trusts himself to get the job done. in his own self-determination and self-realization.

We are Jacob

That’s us. Rather than a stairway FROM heaven, we’d prefer our own stairway TO heaven. This world is for the taking. God, if you bless me with what I think I deserve, then you can be my God. If you don’t measure up to my standards, if you disappoint me, well then, I’ll find another god. I will be in control of my own salvation, I will control how it all works, I will set up my own stairway with my own rules and my own values based on what I do. I get to determine what salvation looks like, what faith looks like, what repentance looks like… this is our stairway, our Tower of Babel.

The LORD of the Ladder Descends

Hundreds of years later, on another night, angels showed up and again lit up the night sky. And this time it was not a dream. This time, God descended the stairway from heaven and took his place in a manger. The Great I AM of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, descends in spite of us, descends in spite of our self-importance to give us himself. No conditions on his grace. No conditions on his Promises. Just grace. Yes, I know you’re building your stairway, I’m here to relieve you of it. I’m here to erase your conditions, I’m here to undermine and subvert your rules about who gets on your stairway. Jesus comes in a manger to take away our stairways. He is heaven’s gate. He is heaven come to earth to dwell with us forever. The heaven’s gate of Jacob’s Bethel is laying in that manger ready to die for all of our stairway building. No need to try and reach the heavens and connect with God in some higher plane. God is to be found here, among us, connecting us to himself.

Let’s pray.

The Table

The Table is heaven’s gate. This is where God meets us in real time and real space. This is where the heavens are opened and Jesus himself descends to us. In his broken body and his shed blood.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26

May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.