The Book of Genesis
Part 54
The Open Heavens
Chapter 28:10 - 22
It is our privilege to examine one of the best known details of Jacob’s long life. This particular incident has provided encouragement and strength to saints in all ages, and it has provided a basis for a ministry of instruction and comfort.
This portion of the Book of Genesis describes how Jacob carried out the plan devised by his mother. In spite of what had transpired in the home and the grievances which had developed, there must have been considerable sorrow in the hour of parting.
His Departure
The pen of another has well pictured the hour of farewell. “He crossed, after looking back to that gleaming little spot, so well marked by the clustering trees, the wide and rolling tableland of Beer Sheba, all ablaze with red anemone, and saw before him at last the dreary hills that form part of the ridge which is the backbone of Palestine” (Brooks).
Frequently such changes occur in life, some made by ourselves, some caused by the sins of others, and all, without doubt, permitted of the Lord as means of child-training within His household.
In accepting these changes in life, as in this paragraph, what lies behind looks best and pulls at the heart strings with an almost irresistible force. Furthermore, what lies ahead seems dreary and unattractive. Notwithstanding, let it be remembered that David’s abrupt severance from the pleasure and the prestige of the palace home of Saul and the dreary days of wandering in the wilderness of Judah provided the discipline that prepared him to be king over all Israel.
Jacob, at the end of his eventful life, testified saying, “The God which fed (shepherded) me all my life long unto this day, The Angel which redeemed me from all evil” (Gen. 48:15-16). He acknowledged at the close of his days divine guidance and divine preservation. Divine operation was constantly working in his favour even when he was not conscious of its influence.
His Dream
Travellers inform us that the terrain surrounding Bethel resembles a stairway. It may have been that Jacob lay down on one of those natural steps on the hillside to sleep while towering above him was the great elevation, as of hill piled upon hill. What more suitable surroundings for Jacob’s remarkable dream! This dream, of course, was a vision of God never to be forgotten by the Patriarch. As he lay down in an attempt to rest, his thoughts were troubled and his heart cried out. Years later he refers to this experience, saying, “I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went” (Gen. 35:3). Furthermore, many centuries later, the minor prophet Hosea in making reference to this experience at Bethel says, “God found him at Bethel” (Hos. 12:4). What an encounter Jacob must have had with God on that occasion! The influence of this meeting with God remains with him throughout his entire life. Whatever previous contacts he may have enjoyed with God, Bethel was the beginning of days to Jacob, from that time onward he was, a different man, living a different life, with different energy, and with different assurance in his heart.
The details of this remarkable dream, an open heaven, a stairway set up on earth to reach it, angels ascending and descending upon it, all assert that access to heaven from earth was available. Could it be that angelic messengers carried the cries from, and the answers to, this burdened heart?
These very details were used by our Lord to intimate the access to heaven from earth in the glorious future day (John 1:50-51), when heaven will be seen “open”, not opened occasionally. The circumstances of Jacob at Bethel seemed to pervade the thoughts of Stephen at the time of his martyrdom.
It should be added here that the word “ladder” in our King James Version is rather unfortunate for the Hebrew word definitely means a stairway.
His Discovery
When Jacob arrived at Bethel that night, he possessed no particular consciousness of God’s nearness to him, but when he awoke in the morning he exclaimed, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not!” He sensed in a very real way, the presence of God in his own life and experiences. The circumstance was a divine revelation to his heart and that revelation made all the difference between ignorance and knowledge. As Jacob reviewed the past, he summed it up in the words, “I knew it not,” but his new state is described in different language, “Surely the Lord is in this place.”
Not only did God make His presence real to Jacob, but upon the weary exile He pronounced His blessing. This blessing was similar to the one bestowed upon Jacob’s forefathers, Abraham and Isaac. Furthermore, it was quite different to the blessing of his father upon him as recorded in chapter 27:28-29. Through his father’s patriarchal blessing he was to become great. Said Isaac, “Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren.” Through this blessing bestowed by God at Bethel greatness and blessing were to flow through Jacob to others, “In thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed.”