Connecting Heaven and Earth

Last week, we talked about the blessing of Jacob. Isaac wanted to bless Esau, but Rebekah concocted a plot to deceive her husband so he would bless Jacob instead. There is an extraordinary amount of dysfunction in these relationships, and we talked about how God brings healing to dysfunction if we will allow him to have his way. The fallout of this plot is that Esau hates his brother. He hates him to the point that he’s ready to kill him. The solution was to send Jacob away to protect him from his brother.

In Genesis 28, we find Jacob on the path to a new beginning, but it is not the kind of new beginning we all would hope for. His new beginning isn’t coming from a dream God has put in his mind. It’s coming from the fallout of decisions he made. He arrives at a place by himself with an unknown future. There’s a goal: get to Haran and find a wife. But right now he’s by himself, it’s late, and he’s going to sleep.

We’ve all had those "rock-for-a-pillow" nights. You’re facing a consequence you earned, or a crisis you didn’t see coming, and you feel like you’re a thousand miles from God’s presence. You’re questioning what’s next. You’re wondering about how you got here.

The question boils down to this: When you’ve messed up or sense that your crisis has moved you far from God, how do you get back to him? In this story, God meets Jacob where he is at and does something amazing. Let’s look at the story.

Genesis 28:10–22 NASB95

Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. He called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. “This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

God does something amazing here. He reconfirms the covenant that he made with Abraham, but now with his grandson. He’s saying to Jacob, “It’s your turn.” To understand what is happening in this passage, I want you to understand the elements of covenant. We are going to discuss them for a moment, and I want you to see how that affects how we relate to God today.

We can break these down in a few different ways, but I landed on four elements to a covenant. We are in a covenant relationship with God. Understanding the elements of that is crucial to understanding the nature of salvation, the nature of our fellowship with God, and our eternal security.

God initiates the connection.

In every instance, God initiates the connection. Not one human being on earth has sought a relationship with God without God having first revealed himself to them. Now, everyone has some sense that there is more to this world than us. World religions exist because we have a natural tendency to think that there is something else out there. But because we are rebellious creatures, our spiritual senses have been deadened. So we don’t naturally go looking for spiritual solutions.

Jacob didn’t leave his home and his family in pursuit of God. God came to Jacob while he was asleep. Jacob didn’t lay down expecting this dream. God made it happen. You and I did not seek God before God sought us. He used church, people in your life as witnesses, and other devices to get your attention. In this case, it was a dream while Jacob was asleep.

If you find yourself seeking God, remember that he sought you first.

In the New Covenant, Jesus is the ladder. He is the connection between the physical realm and the spiritual. God did not wait for people to get their acts together. He came down to where we were sleeping in our mess. God initiated the connection. He called your name.

In the New Testament, Philip meets Jesus, then he goes and finds his friend Nathaniel and tells him about Jesus. Nathaniel then meets Jesus himself, and believes. Then Jesus says something interesting.

John 1:50–51 NASB95

Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Why did he say that? where did he get that from? He’s referring to Genesis 28. He is saying that he is the ladder connecting heaven and earth. He says it a different way in John 14:6,

John 14:6 NASB95

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Jesus is the connection between us and God, the fulfillment of the ladder in the dream Jacob had thousands of years prior. God initiates the connection.

God determines the terms.

In the next few verses, God reminds Jacob of the past through a declaration. He is the God of Abraham and Isaac. This is not merely a declaration of identity and past relationships. It is bringing to the front of Jacob’s mind what was accomplished in the lives of Abraham and Isaac through their relationship with God. It is a history lesson. God follows this declaration with promises the future. Throughout God’s entire declaration, I want you to notice that God doesn’t ask Jacob for his opinion on the terms. He simply says, “I’m going to do this.” There is no negotiation. In human covenants (covenants between two people) there might be an agreement made on the terms, but when God creates a covenant with human beings, he never negotiates the details. He determines the terms.

Under the New Covenant, the terms aren't "Do this and live." Keep in mind that at this point the Mosaic law has not been given yet. So all of the commands we think of governing Israel’s relationship with God haven’t been handed down yet. When they do, we find out no human being can possibly keep them all perfectly, but that was the point. It was a massive object lesson to teach human beings they cannot measure up to God’s standards. The New Covenant is not a new list of commands to measure up to, or an amendment to the old covenant. The New Covenant says "It is finished". God has already determined that through Christ, you are righteous, not because you’re perfect, but because He is.

We don’t get to dictate any terms. He chose all of this himself.

God confirms covenants unilaterally.

God says the words “I will” several times in this passage combined with the affects of his actions in Jacob’s life. Because of what God does, it results in generational multiplication and blessing. Again, Jacob doesn’t get to choose the outcome. God chooses this unilaterally.

In today’s world, you might sign contracts for various things. When you buy a house, a new phone, finance a car, take out a loan, rent a property, or any number of things, there is a contract signed. That contract stipulates responsibilities for each party. But they also have provisions for dissolution. That is, there is an “out” for either party and the contract can be terminated. God doesn't have an "out" clause in His covenant. Nothing releases him from his responsibility to Jacob, and nothing releases Jacob as a recipient of God’s blessings.

The New Covenant works the exact same way. Our security in Christ isn't based on our ability to hold onto Him, but His refusal to let go of us. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Everyone is invited to respond.

Remember God initiates connection. He makes the first move. Because God makes the first move, we are invited to respond to the moves God makes. When Jacob wakes up, "God was here and I didn't even know it." Recognition of God’s activity comes before responding to God’s activity.

Jacob follows his recognition of God’s activity with a response. He sets up a pillar and makes a vow. He is committing himself to God, believing in the promises God has made. I want you to see the pattern here. When you came to faith in Christ, you were not seeking him. You were seeking a solution to a crisis you might have been facing, but God made the first move. That move might have been putting you in a family that brought you to church every Sunday. It might be that God brought someone into your life when you most needed it and they invited you to church. It might have been that God used a dream or vision to reveal himself to you. Whatever the case, God made the first move.

When God shows up in your life, you stop and recognize his presence and then respond to what he has revealed to you. My prayer is that in the invitation of every service you have a God moment. It may not be an overwhelming “fall on your face” kind of moment, but perhaps a sense of clarity on how to move forward. If the invitation today was an invitation to to stop and recognize God's presence in your everyday rhythms, would that be worth the hour you spent here today? Would it be enough that God showed up and spoke to you?

For someone in this room, it may be that you have never placed your trust in Jesus before. As I quoted Jesus earlier, there is no way to God but through Christ. He is the ladder connecting heaven and earth. If you want heaven, you have to go through Jesus. Remember that God has set all the terms. He calls us to recognize our own sinfulness, our inability to measure up to his standard. The old covenant revealed the standard, and the new covenant completes the standard. You and I cannot be good enough to earn a spot in heaven. Only Jesus can do that. But if you will turn away from your own lifestyle of destructive behavior, place your trust in Jesus, believing he is the Son of God, believing in his death, burial, and resurrection as covering for your sin, you can have eternal life. God will move into your life and begin the process of taking the broken pieces and making them whole.

How are we stopping and recognizing the presence of God in our daily rhythms? What is your "pillar"? The pillar was a response to God, a demonstration of faith. What would it look like to put up a new pillar in your life today?

We often think of the New Covenant as something we have to maintain through sheer willpower, but I want you to see that just as Jacob was not given a responsibility to maintain this covenant, neither were we. God said, “I’ve done all the work. I’m inviting you in. Are you coming?” As I have said before, just because there is nothing we can do to earn our way to heaven, doesn’t mean there are no responsibilities. Our fellowship with God, the ability to experience him, hear his voice, and develop a strong connection with him comes with a responsibility to obey his commands. Jacob went to sleep a liar and a cheat, and he woke up as the man God was going to use to change the world. Jacob didn’t wake up perfect, but he woke up on the path to transformation.

If you’re sitting there today feeling like you’re a long way from home and the ground is pretty hard, just remember: The ladder has already been lowered. The question isn't whether you can climb high enough to reach God. The question is, will you rest in the fact that He’s already reached you? What is he saying to you right now?