Genesis 28:10-22
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it[c]stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.[d] 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel,[e] though the city used to be called Luz.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord[f] will be my God 22 and[g] this stone that I have set up as a pillarwill be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
In the ancient world, they built temples with stairs going up to the top (imagine an Aztec pyramid). They believed that these were connecting points between heaven and earth, where God can descend and humanity can meet in the middle. This is what Jacob saw in his dream, a connecting place between heaven and earth with angles ascending and descending.
Jacob realised that he was in a connecting place between heaven and earth and immediately declared it to be holy. The dream revealed that the blessing of Abraham, the same blessing from Genesis, was now upon him and that he would be the heir of the promise.
Around 1700 years later Jesus makes his entrance into the public scene and people start talking about him. Some are excited by his potential and others are cynical. One of the cynics is a man called Nathaneal, who doesn’t believe that the messiah could come from Nazareth. Jesus tells him that he saw him under the fig tree (no one know what that really means) but then he says this strange and fascinating thing:
He then added, “Very truly I tell you,[i] you[j] will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’[k] the Son of Man.”
Jesus points to this story of Jacob discovering a place where heaven and earth are connected and says, this is me. I am Bethel, the home of God. I am carrying the original blessing of Genesis and the promises of Abraham. Wherever I am, there is connection to the full throne room and majesty of God, the almighty.
This is incredible because it means that we do not need to get to a specific place to know God, we do not need to chase revivals in America or go on pilgrimages to Rome. Those can be fun and fruitful but they are not necessary - Jesus is the gateway to Heaven. He is the connection point and discover all that we need through him.
Whatever you face today, whatever struggles that you have, you have all that you need through Jesus.
