An Angel Laden Ladder
Notes
Transcript
An Angel Laden Ladder
Genesis 27:41—28:22
As Isaac lifted his hands from Esau’s head and Esau understood that the blessing that his father had just bestowed on him was, in effect, an anti-blessing because Jacob had stolen his blessing, a murderous hatred gripped Esau’s soul. And he began to bide his time until his father’s death when he would have the pleasure of killing his thieving brother with his own hands.
Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
His hatred was so deep that the thought of killing Jacob brought him comfort. “How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways.”
Esau wasn’t a man who cared to keep his thoughts private, and his mother Rebekah wasn’t one to miss much of anything. She didn’t doubt for a moment Esau’s homicidal intent. So, Rebekah took charge, commanding Jacob to flee to her brother Laban until Esau’s fury cooled down and he forgot what Jacob had done to him.
How would she ever get Isaac to agree to this? Easy, if you are as subtle as Rebekah. It was a bitter fact that Esau’s two Hittite wives had made life miserable for Isaac and her.
So, she suggested the possibility of new miseries for her and Isaac if Jacob followed Esau’s example.
Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”
Her suggestion so unnerved Isaac that he immediately grasped the logical alternative, imagining that it was his own idea, just as she knew he would.
Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women.
Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.
Jacob was summoned and was commanded not to marry a Canaanite (a Hittite) wife. He was instead told to take the long journey to Paddan-aram and there marry a cousin from among the daughters of Rebekah’s brother Laban. Isaac attached this command with an extraordinary blessing—extraordinary because it represented a willing reversal of his pro-Esau attitude, now recognizing Jacob as the true heir of the Abrahamic covenant.
In fact, the opening of the blessing, “God Almighty (El Shaddai) bless you” bears the divine name first introduced when the covenant of circumcision was given to Abraham. And the language of the blessing here is covenantal in style and scope:
God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.
May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!”
Isaac’s blessing recognized Jacob as the third patriarch.
All hopes of Esau’s elevation were now out of the picture. Parenthetically, the account tells us that Esau saw all of this (maybe he’d been watching from a distance) and that when it finally clicked with Esau that his Hittite wives were unpleasing to his father, he decided to marry a cousin, a daughter of Isaac’s half-brother Ishmael.
Unspiritual, immoral Esau was slow to connect the dots. Esau was so clueless that he thought imitating Jacob’s marriage might bring about his father’s blessing. Instead it demonstrated that he had no idea at all as to what God was about. An Ishmaelite wife (the daughter of Abraham’s cast-out son) was not the way back to being blessed!
Kidner comments, “Like most religious efforts of the natural man, [this was] superficial and ill-judged.”
Here we must remember that while it is true that neither Jacob nor Esau had acted well anywhere in the narrative, there was a vast difference between the two. Esau had only a surface interest in the promise and was faithless.
But Jacob believed in God’s word and treasured the promise. Yet his faith was incomplete, because he didn’t believe that the promise would be his apart from his own self-directed actions. As a result, the next twenty years were going to be necessarily hard on him.
Jacob’s Flight
Jacob’s Flight
In fearful obedience with his mother’s command to “flee” to Haran, Jacob’s journey was a flight.
Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.
And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.
The mental force of Esau’s rage at Jacob’s stealing both the birthright and the blessing ate at his heart. It’s a terrible weight and burden to be hated that much. How bitter it must have been for Jacob to know that his misery had been unnecessary, that it was the creation of his own unbelieving deceit and stupidity, that all of his problems were because of him and no one else.
The mouth of God had promised Jacob the firstborn position, but Jacob had stolen it with his own lies.
Such pain he must have experienced. Jacob was now profoundly alone. He had no one to talk to. And he was in a dark foreign land full of clear and present danger. His loneliness must have cut to the core of his being. Exhausted and hopeless, Jacob settled for the night with a stone pillow and fell fast asleep.
Jacob’s Dream
Jacob’s Dream
As he drifted off, he wondered if he’d make it. He remembered every word of Isaac’s blessing about the land and a people. But here he was, running away from the land, childless and wifeless.
What a mess he had made of his life.
And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached 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 Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.
Jacob’s dreaming eyes saw a ladder extending from the earth, on which he lay, far up to Heaven. Was it a staired ramp as on a ziggurat or a runged ladder that we immediately think of? We don’t know. But it really makes no difference because it was a surreal dream ladder.
And there was more. It was filled with angels. Some were going up, and others were coming down. Majestic messengers of God were conducting business between Heaven and earth. The arrangement of the descriptions—from the ladder to the angels to the Lord—narrows the focus to the central point of the vision, which was God himself.
The Hebrew suggests exclaiming with uplifted arm and open mouth in astonishment, “There, a ladder! Oh, angels! And look, the Lord himself!” God Himself stood in controlled over the course of Jacob’s life. God was directing everything. There was heavenly activity in this desolate place on Jacob’s behalf. Jacob’s sleepy eyes were upturned to the Lord in his splendor. Divine reality assaulted his sleeping soul.
Then from above the ladder, from Heaven, God himself spoke in covenantal terms:
And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.
Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
The intent was to hearten the sleeping Jacob. The unconditional personal and national promises first made to Abraham were now made to Jacob by the Lord himself.
Indeed, he was the third patriarch. God had become the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and now the God of Jacob. This was the divine title that God would now bear throughout the Scriptures.
With the covenant promises affirmed, the Lord then explained the significance of the ladder:
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.”
The dynamic presence of God, who directs commerce between Heaven and earth for his own people, would never leave Jacob. Jacob could never go beyond God’s keeping. The angel-freighted ladder rising to God above would go with him on the thousand-mile trek to northern Mesopotamia, where it would accompany him for twenty years and return to the land with him. Always the ladder! Always the angels! Always God!
Fellow believers, this is all grace. Jacob, the conniving believer who was outcast and alone due to his own sin, who merited nothing from God, was met by God in his misery with an unparalleled revelation of God’s care and assurance for the future.
Jacob was not seeking God—he was fleeing the consequences of his deception. He was not expecting grace. But grace was unleashed upon his soul—and with not even a hint of crticism. The vision and the voice of God only bore assurances.
As John Newton wrote in 1779:
Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace that brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
It was grace that had brought Jacob safe thus far, and grace would lead him home.
Jacob’s Response
Jacob’s Response
Jacob rose from his stone pillow astonished.
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
He was astounded because he was like the rest of us who naturally forget that God is present when we are in trouble, especially when it is our own fault. Surprise, fleeing sinner, God is there! Surprise, sinful sufferer, God is there! Surprise, evil schemer, God is there! Surprise, faithless one, God is faithful!
Jacob’s response induced a very proper fear but it was mixed with stunned awe and produced a joyous declaration.
And 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.”
The expression “the gate of heaven” was prompted by the vision of the ladder, and “the house of God” by the bracing reality that God was living in this desolate place. The spiritual truth is that “the house of God” and “the gate of heaven” are co-extensive with and encompass creation. The house (God’s presence) and the gate (access to God) are everywhere!
Jacob’s astonished declarations were followed by worship.
So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.
He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
When Jacob poured oil on his stone pillow-turned-pillar, it was a kind of gift-sacrifice. It demonstrated his love and devotion to God and consecrated the spot as holy to God. And by calling the desolation “Bethel” (“house of God”), he gave it a name that superseded the city’s ancient name, Luz.
Jacob’s amazement, fear, declarations, and worship were all so exemplary and make good models for us to imitate. But not so with his vow, because “if” and “then” are not the language of faith.
Faith doesn’t bargain with God, saying that “If God will do this and so, then I will make him my God.” Listen carefully to Jacob:
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “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,
so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God,
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 give a full tenth to you.”
Jacob is a piece of work, a work in progress who has a long way to go. Jacob’s amazed declaration remains immortal. His designations “house of God” and “gate of heaven” are admirable. His anointing of the stone pillow was a true act of worship. But his vow is vintage, conniving Jacob. “Jacob is still more scoundrel than saint” (Walton).
Grace is truly amazing. It was Jacob’s only hope. And it’s our only hope. Our ifs and thens may be much more subtle, and we have been careful not to articulate them. But they are there, nevertheless.
And if we’re honest, we’re far more guilty. The reason for this is: Jesus was and is the focus of the divine ladder. The New Testament revelation of this is truly stupendous. John’s Gospel tells us that in response to Nathanael’s faith:
Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘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 heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
The telltale “Truly, truly” (“Amen, amen”) calls us to pay close attention to a word of great importance. And what we learn is that here the focus of the ladder is not on Jacob but on Jesus, who designated himself as “the Son of Man.” The title is important because it speaks at the same time of Jesus’ incarnate human life and also his awesome preexistence.
It was an unparalleled messianic designation, used eighty-two times in the Gospels, and eighty-one of those times were by Jesus about himself. As the incarnate “Son of Man,” Jesus is the true Jacob (Israel), the one upon whom the angels ascended and descended as seen in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.
And that was exactly Jesus’ human experience.
But He also made it very clear in John 1:51 that the angelic traffic would also be on him as the awesome “Son of Man” of Daniel’s vision. In fact, it is from that vision that Jesus took his designation “Son of Man.” Here is ultimate sovereignty!
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
The glory is that today the ascended “Son of Man” mediates the commerce between Heaven and earth.
As Paul writes:
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
Christ, our “Son of Man,” is everywhere at all times, hearing our prayers and mediating the commerce of Heaven in our behalf. Think of this! He is at both ends of the ladder—as Jehovah at the top and Jesus (“Jehovah is salvation”) at the bottom. The incarnate “Son of Man” is the ascended “Son of Man” whose dominion knows no end.
Even the old Bethel (“the house of God”) has been outdated. It is no longer in Bethel where God reveals himself, but in Jesus. The temple is also obsolete, because Jesus is the temple. And there is nowhere we can go where he does not mediate between Heaven and earth for us.
His promises to us stand. He keeps his word. Everywhere we go is “the house of God” and “the gate of heaven.” On top of that, he is at work to conform us to himself, and as Paul reminds us:
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Now, you may be insulted when I suggest that we’re all Jacobs. But if you are, you simply don’t know yourself or your Bible. We’re all people who often find ourselves running away because of our sins. We’re people who imagine that God is not with us because of our sins. But the reality is that there is a ladder between Heaven and earth for us, and the one who controls that ladder from top to bottom is Christ. Astonishingly, he sends his angels to us as ministering spirits (Hebrews 1:14).
He directs our lives. He finds us in our solitary despairs and ministers to us.
Why?
Because he is the God of grace. And he isn’t done with us. Truly, he won’t be done with us in this life. We need to take these truths to heart.