Join Taylor (Redemption2Die4) for a devotional based off of the Jacob’s Ladder passage in the Bible.
Jacob’s Ladder
God chooses to give the blessing of His promise to Abraham, to Abraham’s grandson: Jacob. Abraham would be the father of a great nation that would be blessed by God and would be a blessing to all nations of the entire world. This nation would provide the Messiah promised to Adam and Eve after the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden. God chooses Jacob despite Jacob being deceptive. This also continues the theme throughout the Bible of God choosing the “second born” over the “firstborn.” God chooses humans over the angels to rule the earth, God chooses Abel’s sacrifice over Cain’s sacrifice, and even Jesus said that the “first shall be last and the last shall be first” in the kingdom of God.
In ancient culture, it was customary for the blessing of the family to go to the firstborn son. He would replace the father. He would be the image of the father. God often used the second born, the weaker, to accomplish His work and receive His blessing. Even though God chose Jacob before his birth, Jacob embodies the distrust of God’s promise to him even at birth by grabbing the heel of Esau as they were being born. Yes, even Jacob’s name means “the heel grabber” which had the connotation of tripping someone with deception. He is “the deceiver.” He is more like the serpent from Genesis 3 than like a righteous messiah figure that was promised to the woman, Eve. And, just like with Cain and Abel and Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob continue the biblical theme of conflict between two brothers. So, why would God choose Jacob to continue the promise given to Abraham? He certainly didn’t deserve it.
After Jacob flees from his brother for stealing Esau’s blessing from Isaac, their father, Jacob finds himself moving through the wilderness (another theme throughout the Bible). It is there that God reveals Himself and His promise to Jacob.
“10 Then Jacob went out from Beersheba and went to Haran. 11 And he arrived at 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 slept at that place. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, a stairway was set on the earth, and its top touched the heavens. And behold, angels of God were going up and going down on it. 13 And behold, Yahweh was standing beside him, and he said, “I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The ground on which you were sleeping I will give to you and to your descendants. 14 Your descendants shall 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 all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and through your descendants. 15 Now behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go. And I will bring you to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised to you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely Yahweh is indeed in this place and I did not know!” 17 Then he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is nothing else than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”
Genesis 28:10-17 LEB
So, what was Jacob’s Ladder? What was this stairway to heaven? According to the Faithlife Study Bible, scholars believe that it was most likely a ziggurat.
a stairway This word, which occurs only here in the ot, derives from either the Hebrew verb salal (meaning “to heap up”) or the Akkadian word simmiltu, which is used for a stairway of steps. The description that its top reached to heaven echoes the description of the Tower of Babel, which was a ziggurat (see note on Gen 11:4).
John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Ge 28:12.
Verse 17 describes, a “gate of heaven.” It was a sacred space where the physical and the spiritual realms overlapped.
In ancient Mesopotamia, mountains were often thought of as the space where gods lived. Ziggurats were essentially man made mountains. It was a touchpoint between the physical realm and the spiritual realm. It was, as verse 17 tells us, a “gate of heaven.” It was sacred space where the physical and the spiritual realms overlapped.
This is exactly what Genesis 28:10-17 describes Jacob’s Ladder as. The angels are going up and down, back and forth between earth and heaven. And Yahweh is there. This is a sacred space without a doubt. This is significant. Jacob, the deceiver is in the presence of God and is at the gate of heaven. Heaven and earth overlapped in that place. Just like the Garden of Eden!
Yes, God was promising a blessing on Jacob, that he would become a great nation. He was promised the land, descendants, and blessing. And not just to him but to all the nations of the entire world!
The phrase in verse 14, “And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and through your descendants.” really is a prophecy of Jesus Christ. He is the stairway to heaven. Through faith in Jesus we are made sacred space for God to dwell within us! And just as God promised Jacob, this is offered to all people of the world, not just to Jacob’s descendants! This is the Gospel of Christ! He brings us into His family! He brought Eden back to earth!
Just like Jacob, we don’t deserve it. But God’s faithfulness is greater than ours. His grace and mercy surpasses our imagination. His love for us was carried out through the cross so that we could truly live. We are a new creation! As we study this story, we can see a shadow of the glory of God and His plan for each one of us to share in a life with Him now and for eternity!
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