Genesis 28:12 – 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 descending on it!
In the opening chapters of Genesis, we saw that Heaven and earth were together. The Garden of Eden, meaning Garden of Delight, was the connecting point between the unseen spiritual realm of Heaven, and the seen physical realm of earth. There, God met with Adam and Eve and angels joined them.
When Adam and Eve sinned, human beings were kicked out of Eden and no longer had access to the connection point between Heaven and earth. On occasion, God did bring Heaven to earth. Examples include the Tabernacle, Temple, and of course the body of Jesus Christ. In Genesis 28, Jacob’s ladder is reported as how God sent angels down to bring Heaven to earth in the very place that the Temple would later be built as the place is named Bethel meaning “house of God”.
At this point in Genesis, the covenant promises have been applied from the less-than-perfect-yet-faithful Abraham to his less-than-perfect-but-likewise-faithful son Isaac to Isaac’s sinfully deceptive son Jacob, who stole both the birthright and blessing from his older brother Esau. Jacob, who loved staying home, was driven from his home out of fear that his brother would murder him. Alone for the first time, he possesses the covenant blessing but lacks the relationship with and faith in God that his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham possessed. Tomorrow, we will take a deeper look into the events of Genesis 28.
In Jacob’s dream, Heaven comes down to earth. How does Heaven come down according to Matthew 1:23, John 1:51, and Revelation 21:2?
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