†. Gen 28:12b . . a ladder was set on the ground and its top reached
to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it.
The word for "ladder" is from cullam (sool-lawm') which is actually a
staircase. This is the one and only place in the entire Old Testament where
that specific word is used. One of the problems with Old Testament Hebrew
is that scholars are not quite sure what some of the ancient words really
mean. Cullam could just as easily mean an elevator or an escalator. In
Jacob's era, even ziggurats were a common staircase to heaven. (cf. Gen
11:4)
There's something very conspicuous about the staircase in Jacob's dream:
there were no people on it— only the angels of God. So what does that
mean? Well . . the staircase was, after all, merely a figment, not a reality.
But it has to signify something real or it would be just a big fat waste of a
perfectly good vision. I would say the staircase clearly represents, at the
very least, an avenue to God.
But why show Jacob a stairway to heaven if human beings weren't using it in
his day? I think that the very existence of a pathway to God meant that one
day not only angels, but human beings too would be using it— because, in
reality, that stairway represents Christ; Jacob's great, great, great grandson.
(cf. John 1:45-51)
†. Gen 28:13a . . And behold, Yhvh stood above it and said: I am Yhvh
God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac;
On the page of Scripture, this is Jacob's very first close encounter with his
father's god. Till now, Yhvh had been merely data in Jacob's head;
something he picked up in home-school yeshiva.
I started out in life baptized an infant into Roman Catholicism; subsequently
attending catechism and completing First Holy Communion and
Confirmation. But with all that training; God remained remote, distant, and
alien. I experienced the very same disconnection that Mother Teresa
experienced during her whole five decades as a missionary in India. (see
Mother Teresa / Come and Be My Light. by Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC. ISBN
978-0-385-52037-9)
But then in 1968 at the age of 24; events led me to a Conservative Baptist
church in Portland Oregon where I kneeled down front at the rail with the
pastor and some elders, and prayed a really brief, stupid prayer that went
something like this:
"Lord, I'm a sinner. I would like to take advantage of your son's death."
While saying my brief, unrehearsed prayer, I became strangely aware of a
heavy, overstuffed chair just in front of the rail, suspended maybe about
four feet up in the air, and a bit off to my left, with a lone figure sitting on it
looking in my direction. I couldn't really make out the face, but the person
intently observed me speak every single syllable of my stupid, naïve prayer.
The apparition didn't speak a single word and vanished as quickly as it
appeared. I was thoroughly unraveled by the image, and could hardly wait
to get up and get out of there. Needless to say; I told no one what I saw.
Man is a very psychological creature. It's entirely possible I was just
experiencing a strong mental aberration brought on by emotion or some
kind of anxiety attack; who really knows for sure. But I know what I
experienced; and I have always believed at that instant the Bible's God
made Himself real to me in a very special way. It was the very first time in
my life that God was ever so nearby, and it really shook me up; I kid you
not.
Exactly why God chose to become personal with Jacob at just that moment
in his life is a mystery. But the moment came not around the dinner table at
home with family; but actually when Jacob stepped away from his family. It
was as if Jacob's own family— the holiest family on earth at the time— the
keepers of the knowledge of the one true god —was actually hindering
Jacob's spiritual progress; and if anything is to be learned at all from his
experience, it's that his own father, the spiritual head of the house, was the
one to blame for it. It certainly wasn't Rebecca; no, not when it was to her
that God revealed the eldest of the two lads would serve the younger: and I
really have to question why God didn't repeat His edict to Isaac.
†. Gen 28:13b-14 . . the ground on which you are lying I will assign
to you and to your offspring. Your descendants shall be as the dust
of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the
north and to the south. All the families of the earth shall bless
themselves by you and your descendants.
Those are essentially the very same promises that God originally made to
Abraham. The most important one, that of blessing to all nations, has been
passed on down, not to all the descendants of Abraham, but only to special
ones. Beginning with Isaac, then Jacob, then to Judah, and eventually to
David, and then to Messiah. Not all Hebrews are a blessing to all the families
of the earth. Only those Hebrews who inherited the patriarchy are a blessing
because it is through them that Messiah's line has existed. The other
Hebrews really don't count for much in that respect except that the nation,
as a whole, is credited with safe-keeping the Bible. (Rom 3:1-2)
†. Gen 28:15 . . Remember, I am with you: I will protect you
wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave
you until I have done what I have promised you.
Actually, hardly any of those promises were fulfilled in Jacob's lifetime— his
offspring didn't become as populous as the dust of the earth, nor did they
spread out to the east and the west and to the north and to the south. Nor
did all the nations of the earth bless themselves by Jacob and his
descendants. So what gives? How could God say: "I will not leave you until I
have done what I have promised you"
I believe God has continually associated with Jacob to this very day, ever
since the day of their first close encounter at Bethel. That didn't stop with
Jacob's demise. No, their association goes on.
†. Luke 20:37-38 . . Now even Moses showed in the burning bush passage
that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord "the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." For He is not the God of the dead but
of the living, for all live to Him.
In order to live "to" God (viz: live unto God) it is necessary to be in
existence. God has always been with Jacob, and never left him even once—
all these many years; better than three-thousand of them by now. And all
this whole time Jacob has lived under God's protection because God
promised He would protect Jacob wherever he went; and in order for that
promise to be meaningful, it has to include the afterlife. (cf. Ps 139:7-10,
Mtt 16:18)
Cont.
/
to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it.
The word for "ladder" is from cullam (sool-lawm') which is actually a
staircase. This is the one and only place in the entire Old Testament where
that specific word is used. One of the problems with Old Testament Hebrew
is that scholars are not quite sure what some of the ancient words really
mean. Cullam could just as easily mean an elevator or an escalator. In
Jacob's era, even ziggurats were a common staircase to heaven. (cf. Gen
11:4)
There's something very conspicuous about the staircase in Jacob's dream:
there were no people on it— only the angels of God. So what does that
mean? Well . . the staircase was, after all, merely a figment, not a reality.
But it has to signify something real or it would be just a big fat waste of a
perfectly good vision. I would say the staircase clearly represents, at the
very least, an avenue to God.
But why show Jacob a stairway to heaven if human beings weren't using it in
his day? I think that the very existence of a pathway to God meant that one
day not only angels, but human beings too would be using it— because, in
reality, that stairway represents Christ; Jacob's great, great, great grandson.
(cf. John 1:45-51)
†. Gen 28:13a . . And behold, Yhvh stood above it and said: I am Yhvh
God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac;
On the page of Scripture, this is Jacob's very first close encounter with his
father's god. Till now, Yhvh had been merely data in Jacob's head;
something he picked up in home-school yeshiva.
I started out in life baptized an infant into Roman Catholicism; subsequently
attending catechism and completing First Holy Communion and
Confirmation. But with all that training; God remained remote, distant, and
alien. I experienced the very same disconnection that Mother Teresa
experienced during her whole five decades as a missionary in India. (see
Mother Teresa / Come and Be My Light. by Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC. ISBN
978-0-385-52037-9)
But then in 1968 at the age of 24; events led me to a Conservative Baptist
church in Portland Oregon where I kneeled down front at the rail with the
pastor and some elders, and prayed a really brief, stupid prayer that went
something like this:
"Lord, I'm a sinner. I would like to take advantage of your son's death."
While saying my brief, unrehearsed prayer, I became strangely aware of a
heavy, overstuffed chair just in front of the rail, suspended maybe about
four feet up in the air, and a bit off to my left, with a lone figure sitting on it
looking in my direction. I couldn't really make out the face, but the person
intently observed me speak every single syllable of my stupid, naïve prayer.
The apparition didn't speak a single word and vanished as quickly as it
appeared. I was thoroughly unraveled by the image, and could hardly wait
to get up and get out of there. Needless to say; I told no one what I saw.
Man is a very psychological creature. It's entirely possible I was just
experiencing a strong mental aberration brought on by emotion or some
kind of anxiety attack; who really knows for sure. But I know what I
experienced; and I have always believed at that instant the Bible's God
made Himself real to me in a very special way. It was the very first time in
my life that God was ever so nearby, and it really shook me up; I kid you
not.
Exactly why God chose to become personal with Jacob at just that moment
in his life is a mystery. But the moment came not around the dinner table at
home with family; but actually when Jacob stepped away from his family. It
was as if Jacob's own family— the holiest family on earth at the time— the
keepers of the knowledge of the one true god —was actually hindering
Jacob's spiritual progress; and if anything is to be learned at all from his
experience, it's that his own father, the spiritual head of the house, was the
one to blame for it. It certainly wasn't Rebecca; no, not when it was to her
that God revealed the eldest of the two lads would serve the younger: and I
really have to question why God didn't repeat His edict to Isaac.
†. Gen 28:13b-14 . . the ground on which you are lying I will assign
to you and to your offspring. Your descendants shall be as the dust
of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the
north and to the south. All the families of the earth shall bless
themselves by you and your descendants.
Those are essentially the very same promises that God originally made to
Abraham. The most important one, that of blessing to all nations, has been
passed on down, not to all the descendants of Abraham, but only to special
ones. Beginning with Isaac, then Jacob, then to Judah, and eventually to
David, and then to Messiah. Not all Hebrews are a blessing to all the families
of the earth. Only those Hebrews who inherited the patriarchy are a blessing
because it is through them that Messiah's line has existed. The other
Hebrews really don't count for much in that respect except that the nation,
as a whole, is credited with safe-keeping the Bible. (Rom 3:1-2)
†. Gen 28:15 . . Remember, I am with you: I will protect you
wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave
you until I have done what I have promised you.
Actually, hardly any of those promises were fulfilled in Jacob's lifetime— his
offspring didn't become as populous as the dust of the earth, nor did they
spread out to the east and the west and to the north and to the south. Nor
did all the nations of the earth bless themselves by Jacob and his
descendants. So what gives? How could God say: "I will not leave you until I
have done what I have promised you"
I believe God has continually associated with Jacob to this very day, ever
since the day of their first close encounter at Bethel. That didn't stop with
Jacob's demise. No, their association goes on.
†. Luke 20:37-38 . . Now even Moses showed in the burning bush passage
that the dead are raised, when he called the Lord "the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." For He is not the God of the dead but
of the living, for all live to Him.
In order to live "to" God (viz: live unto God) it is necessary to be in
existence. God has always been with Jacob, and never left him even once—
all these many years; better than three-thousand of them by now. And all
this whole time Jacob has lived under God's protection because God
promised He would protect Jacob wherever he went; and in order for that
promise to be meaningful, it has to include the afterlife. (cf. Ps 139:7-10,
Mtt 16:18)
Cont.
/
