Stairway to Heaven

Jacob’s Ladder and the Tower of Babel

We are (we are)

Climbing (climbing)

Jacob’s ladder

We are (we are)

Climbing (climbing)

Jacob’s ladder

Soldier (Soldier)

Of the cross

This African American slave spiritual served as a song of hope for many enslaved men and women. It is a song about gradually getting to know and to experience more and more of God. For slaves, it was a song of hope that one day they would climb out of the bonds of slavery to freedom. And not alone, but with the help of God.

Jacob was no slave, but he was a fugitive, on the run for his life. He had swindled the eldest son’s blessing out of his father Isaac, and his brother Esau hated him for it. So now Jacob fled from home, with no place to call home anymore. On the road, he lays down to rest, with only a rock to lay his head against. And it was there, to the runaway fugitive laying in the dirt and rocks, that the God of all creation revealed himself.

Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.  And the LORD stood beside him and blessed him. God not only repeated the blessing of Abraham over Jacob, but he went further. He gave this exile, this refugee, this fugitive, a blessing that Abraham and Isaac had never received: “Know that 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.”

Jacob, of course, is overwhelmed by God’s appearance before him. What is most shocking of all isn’t that God appeared, but that God appeared to Jacob! Jacob, the exile, the refugee, the fugitive! This is a notion that challenges our own conceptions of Heaven and earth, for sure. Many in modern, western Christianity have a concept of Heaven as a far off place, somewhere unreachable, somewhere that has very little to do with earth. Jacob’s vision, however, shows a highway flowing with Angels descending and ascending to Heaven, so that the heavenly realms are deeply connected and intimately tied to earth! Jacob’s eyes have been opened to the reality that Gods’ will is indeed done here on earth as it is in Heaven precisely because Heaven is tied to earth in some mysterious way.

Jacob’s ladder is visual proof that Heaven is not some far off place that has little to do with us. No, Heaven has drawn near to us, and those in Heaven, the LORD and his angels, have everything to do with us! Now, not to ruin the beautiful spiritual we began with, which I’m sure many grew up singing in Sunday School, but the “ladder” Jacob sees is most likely a stairway, yes, a stairway to heaven. The word, in Hebrew, comes from another word which most likely refers to ancient mesopotamian ziggurats. Ziggurats were these massive brick towers that reached up to heaven, and that formed a stairway between heaven and earth.

In fact, we’ve actually seen one of these towers being built before in Genesis: the tower of Babel. You see, humanity took it upon themselves to build this tower, this stairway to heaven, in order to gain influence and control over God. They wanted to reach heaven on their terms, but as Jacob sees, God is already here, he already has a “stairway” that connects heaven and earth, and he is already both connected and concerned with earthly affairs.

And, as Jacob sees, Heaven is surprisingly present even in the places we would least expect. God and his angels make contact with earth, not only at temples and tabernacles, but also with the least of these: the fugitives, the refugees, and the rapscallions like Jacob.

A- Jacob’s Ladder and Babel

The God who is Present

This God who is present, however, is not present in the way we might think. No, this is a God who is truly present: who not only exists in the midst of Jacob’s strife, but is active and at work in the strife. God did not descend down the ladder simply to let Jacob know he was there. He descended to deliver good news: “I am with you” and “I will keep you” and “I will bring you back home”. These are not three individual promises that can be separated one from the other, because for God to be with Jacob is for God to to keep and protect Jacob. God’s presence implies God’s hand at work.

I hope you see, as Jacob saw, that this is not a God with cold, dead eyes, watching from a distance as people go about life for better or worse. No, this is a God who has cast his lot with man and woman, this is a God who has descended the ladder to be with humanity, even to walk among the least of these: the fugitives, the exiles, the scorned of humanity. “I am with you”, then, is truly good news. As Jacob lies in the dirt, a stone as his pillow, he receives the good news of the gospel: “God is with us”. This is the same good news that, years later, God would deliver to Isaiah as he addressed a people in exile:

The New Revised Standard Version Restoration and Protection Promised

But now thus says the LORD,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

3 For I am the LORD your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

And years after that, this is the good news delivered to Mary as she conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit:

The New Revised Standard Version The Birth of Jesus the Messiah

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.”

In each of these places, “I am with you” is truly good news. A God who observes from afar, or even one who stands next to us but does nothing, would not be good news. This gospel is good news, however, because “God with us” means the same as “God for us”. This is a God who is truly present, a God who has cast his lot with mankind, a God who has entered into the messiness of human life not just to sit and watch, but to keep and protect, and to return us home from exile.

For the first time, here in Jacob’s story, we begin to truly see the plans and promises of God take shape. Though Jacob had sunk lower than either Abraham or Jacob, it was in that messiness that we hear the gospel clearest. We hear a blessing pronounced over Jacob that he will be fruitful and multiply, because this God stands with him, right beside him, and will keep him, and will take him back home from exile.

This is the same good news we hear in Jesus Christ. God is here, with us. He became a human and entered into all the messiness of human life, because our God is one who stands with and for his creatures. And he did not enter into creation simply to stand by and observe, but to protect and keep us, and to return us home from exile, to walk with us on the long journey back east of Eden and to the Garden.

C- Jacob’s Response

Opening Our Eyes to Heaven

Jacob saw all of this lying in the dirt. And as he awoke from his dreams, Jacob made an oath:

The New Revised Standard Version Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.”

Jacob was right in thinking that such a revelation of God demands a response. “If all of this is true, then the LORD shall be my God and no other. And if you will give me all of this, then I will give a tenth of all I own to you.”

D- Our Response

Jacob too, it seems, is climbing the ladder. Getting closer to Heaven, coming to understand this amazing God more and more. But he’s not there yet. While Jacob’s response is surely a faithful one, it’s not the kind of radical, all-in faith God is drawing us toward. Jacob is on his way to that, but he has not yet arrived.

You see, if God does all of this, then it calls us to more than a one-tenth kind of faith. One-tenth is the general rule for tithes and offerings. It’s what we think of as we pass the offering plate each morning. But the reality scripture points us to in Jacob’s vision is that we owe all to God. If God protects us and keeps us and brings us back home, then all we have we owe to him, not just one tenth.

The New Revised Standard Version Encouragement to Be Generous

We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; 2 for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, 4 begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints

2 Corinthians 8

2 Cor. 8