“Heaven and Earth in the Same Place”

 Scripture   Genesis 28:10-22   

 

We are back to reading through the book of Genesis and we have completed the first out of the three part narrative of Jacob. Let’s go through a summary of what has happened so far. We have been using the Literary Design of Genesis created by Tim Mackey of the “Bible Project,” which he adapted from David .A. Teeter, a Hebrew Scholar from Harvard.

[ his “Biblical Symmetry and Its Modern Detractors“ paper delivered at the 2019 International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament congress.]

 

David Teeter noticed that the Biblical authors ordered the stories of the book of Genesis quite differently than we would tell a story. Rather than telling the narrative chronologically beginning with how the world began,

David Teeter noticed a different order. I have placed that order again in your bulletin in case you have forgotten. 

 

Let’s look at it. The stories in Genesis follow this particular sequence, over and over. 

 

LITERARY DESIGN OF GENESIS:

 

1) Creation & Blessing

2) Failure

3) Failure of the next generation

4) Non-chosen

5) Chosen

6) Cosmic Rebellion

7) Re-creation & Blessing

Repeat - Repeat - Repeat

 

Let’s review some of the stories we have read so far in Genesis that fit this design. 

 

* Let’s start in Genesis 2 - God created a garden, Eden, then in Genesis 3 the wife and husband are deceived, things go terribly wrong, failure, which leads to sibling rivalry, more failure a battle between the chosen and non-chosen, which leads us to a cosmic rebellion, 

and the story of the sons of Elohim. The outcry rises up to God, who chooses to send his chosen one to safety in the refuge of the ark, a floating Eden, which brings us back to the beginning. Noah gets off the boat, failure in a tent, sibling rivalry, division of sons, failure of the next generation. The cursed non-chosen has a descendant that goes East and builds Babylon. They build a city with a tower whose head is up in the skies, which leads to cosmic rebellion. 

 

Abraham comes on the scene, and follows the literary design through in his own life. Until his son, Isaac, the blessed one, ends up worshiping with the nations in a covenant of peace, by a tent at the altar, by the well of seven. 

 

Twins come onto the scene and then we have a story of deception between husband and wife, which leads to sibling rivalry and an outcry from the non-chosen, Esau. Who decides to choose inappropriate wives whom his mother detests. Which results in the chosen one to be sent away into the refuge of exile. A bit of a twist, but the story design remains the same. 

 

Can you guess which direction he’s being sent into exile? 

East.

 

Will there be an encounter with a really tall structure that unifies Earth and Heaven? 

 

Can you hear the melody? Do you recognize the cycle? 

 

The authors have intentionally placed these events in a particular order to prepare the reader for what happens next. However, they also manage to throw in a twist here and there to keep us on our toes. 

Good storytellers follow a similar pattern. They will tell a story with two or three repetitions and on the next repetition they throw in a twist, to tweak your interest and keep the story line fresh. 

 

It’s the same way in music. You sing the verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and then there’s a bridge or a hook, followed by the chorus.

 

In today’s Scripture we follow our deceptive chosen one into exile and begin the second part of Jacob’s three part narrative. We are told Jacob went out from Beersheba, the place of the well of seven, and headed for Harran, the place where Abraham came from long ago. He gets to a “certain place” and stops for the night. It makes sense, time to rest, so he takes a stone and puts it under his head and lays down to sleep. Not sure how much sense that makes. 

Stones don’t seem to me to be the best type of pillow, but a different time, a different place. Who knows if the hard pillow was the cause, but Jacob has a dream. In his dream he sees a stairway resting on the earth. The top of the stairway is in heaven and there are heavenly beings going up and down the stairway. At the top, Jacob sees God and God speaks to Jacob. Jacob has heard this speech a few times before, but this time it’s not his father giving him a blessing, this time God is talking to him directly,  Genesis 28:13-15,

“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. 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. 

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.”

When Jacob woke up he thought about his dream. Jacob realized he had just met his father’s God, face to face, and that God actually spoke to him personally. Jacob’s response? We are told he becomes afraid and exclaims, Genesis 28:17, 

“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

After figuring this out Jacob takes the stone he had used as a pillow and stood it up like a pillar and poured oil on it. He calls the place, Bethel, “house of God.” 

Out of response to his dream and his fear, Jacob makes a vow, Genesis 28:20-22,

“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 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

Okay, what’s going on here? Basically Jacob is fleeing for his life. He didn’t think to take along a nap sack or a pillow, so the first night out, he’s left to his devices and improvises with a stone. He comes to a “certain place” and manages to have a dream that to him signifies it is a very special place. Jacob gives this place two names, a house of Elohim and a gate of Heaven. He’s on the land but he sees a gate into heaven. Rather like a “portal” if we were to come at it with a sci-fi mindset, a portal to heaven. It becomes a place where Heaven and Earth are in the same place. 

We’ve read about a place like this before, where Heaven and Earth are the same place, beginning with the garden of Eden. Humans were there, God was there, and there were even spiritual beings, the cherubim. 

Actually, in the biblical story, 

Heaven and Earth 

are made for each other.  

It’s humans who forfeited their opportunity to be God’s image and participate in eternal life. 

Jacob gets to see this place where Heaven and Earth are one, but did you notice, he does so while unconscious. It’s like his conscious mind had to shut down in order for him to see the place for what it really was. 

This isn’t the first time a person has been unconscious. 

 

Remember when Abram was freaking out about not having any kids so God takes him out and shows him the stars and God tells him he would make his seed like the stars. Abram does trust, but then his trust waivers and Abram asks God for a guarantee. Then God sets up an elaborate system involving cutting animals and placing a path between them. Then right when God passes through the animals God puts Abram into a deep sleep, unconscious, and prevents Abram from walking through the animals with Him. Now we have his grandson going into a deep sleep and that is when the nature of reality becomes visible to him. 

There is even another time this has occurred. Back in Genesis 2, the first time in creation that things were not good. It turns out it was not good for Adam to be alone. He couldn’t be fruitful and multiply and rule the land as just one human. 

Yahweh makes Adam fall into a deep sleep and takes one of his sides and splits the Adam, pun intended. 

There we have it, when God’s chosen one is at a moment, 

a crossroads moment, 

when the thing that God has purposed for His chosen one

looks like it’s not going to happen, 

when all hope seems lost…

… a lonely human

… a childless couple

… a lonely Jacob in a field, exiled from his family and the rescue of the universe is sitting and resting in this guy’s future

God has them pass out - 

then shows the thing 

that only God can do 

if they would just chill out. 

It’s like he stops them from being humans 

so they can do the thing that He has called them to do. 

And what about the stairway that Jacob sees during his unconscious state? It links together heaven and the land, with Yahweh at the top, Jacob at the bottom, and heavenly traffic going up and down. Remember what Adam and Eve saw when they left Eden? They walked past cherubim, guardians at the boundary of Heaven and Earth. 

Heavenly beings stand at the boundary of that thin space where Heaven and Earth are the same place. 

Further on there will be cherubim in the architecture of the tabernacle, they will be woven into the curtains. Priests will walk through and pass the cherubim to go into and out of the holy of holies. 

Does anyone remember a structure that was an attempt to reunite Heaven and Earth with its head up in the skies?

While building the city of Babylon they say, “Let us make a city with a tower with its head in the skies,” same Hebrew words that are used here. That was the human attempt to reunite Heaven and Earth, which frustrates God. 

What Jacob sees reminds us that if Heaven and Earth are going to be reunited, and we experience Eden, it’s going to be God’s initiative, not a human scheme. But Jacob doesn’t see it that way. Look at how Jacob responds. 

God has declared His allegiance to Jacob and Jacob responds with, 

“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 so that I return safely to my father’s household, 

then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, 

Oh, and by the way, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

 

Jacob hears God out and responds with, 

“Okay, God, if you do all the stuff you say you are going to do, then you can be my God. 

Jacob actually skips over all of the promises about the land, 

the blessing, 

the seed, 

the blessing for the nations. 

He acts as if that hasn’t even been said, maybe because he thinks he has already been given those things from his dad. What he fixates on is the promise that God will be with him, but even that he twists around. 

“If God will be with me,” when God just said He would. But Jacob keeps saying, “If”, 

Then, Jacob would return back to the land and build a house and offer 10%. 

He’s all about creating his own little Eden with his own plans and schemes, including building God a house. We are given a deep understanding of the true character of Jacob. It’s like he twists what God directly says to fit his own agenda. 

Check in time. 

 

How many times have we acted just like Jacob? 

Be honest. 

It is such a human thing to do, isn't it? 

We read God’s promises and we twist them to fit into our own agendas and then consider it blessed by God. 

Instead of using God’s promises to serve our human agendas 

we should aim to align our agendas with God’s will.

Let’s take this to the New Testament. When Jesus was forming his band of disciples at the end of John chapter 1 Jesus sees a guy named Nathaniel. When Jesus sees Nathaniel He says, John 1:37

“Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

Remember Jacob’s other name - Israel? Although this Israelite has no deceit.

Nathaniel asks, “How do you know me?” 

Jesus responded with, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree…”

Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

What is the portal between Heaven and Earth?

Jesus is saying He is the portal. He is Heaven and Earth in one person. Jesus puts Himself in the place of the stairway. 

When Jesus began His ministry He proclaimed, Matthew 4:17

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus instructs believers to pray for this union: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven".

How much time and energy do we put into our life here on earth? 

How much time and energy do we put into our life regarding heaven? 

Why don’t we focus more on connecting heaven with earth? 

I think it’s because we have this notion that heaven is a place we will go to when we die. Since we are not dead, we can’t experience heaven yet. That’s where Christians miss the best part of being a child of the King. We don’t have to wait until we die to experience heaven. Jesus frequently talks about the Kingdom of Heaven as a present reality with a future final fulfillment. 

Heaven is God’s dwelling place. Therefore, if we are in Christ, and the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us, there is a piece of heaven in all of us. 

Granted, things aren’t heaven like here on Earth. However, we have the privilege of meeting with God every day, anywhere, whenever we choose. All it takes is spending more time with Jesus, the personification of the stairway between here and heaven.

Let’s pray.