Genesis 28:10-17

4. Jacob's Dream-Vision at Bethel (Genesis 28:10-17).

The Dream Ladder and the Angels. Jacob went out from Beersheba (Genesis 26:25)and set out toward Haran. Note the following differences of view: His departure from his father's house was an ignominious flight; and for fear of being pursued or waylaid by his vindictive brother, he did not take the common road, but went by lonely and unfrequented paths, which increased the length and dangers of the journey, until, deeming himself at a secure distance, he seems to have gone on the great road northward along the central mountain-ridge of Canaan (CECG, 199). Was Jacob a fugitive? In a mild sense, Yes. But they let their imagination play too freely, who make him run forth in haste from home in continual fear of being overtaken and let him cover the entire distance from Beersheba to Bethelabout 70 miles as the crow flies over mountain roadsin one day. Esau had threatened to kill his brother only after the death of Isaac [Genesis 27:41]. It may have been about the third day when Jacob arrived at this spot after traveling leisurely, for he had a long journey before him (EG, 770). The mention of the fact that he went out teaches that a righteous man's departure from a city leaves its mark. While he is in it, he is its splendor, lustre, and beauty. When he leaves, it all departs with him (Rashi, SC, 164).

The Place, Genesis 28:11, literally, he lighted upon the place, etc. That is, the place mentioned elsewhere (cf. Genesis 22:4), mount Moriah (Rashi). The definite article denotes the place well known to travelers, viz., an inn (Sforno) (SC, 164). The definite article prefixed to -place-' shows that he had purposely chosen as his first night'S-' resting-place the spot which had been distinguished by the encampment of Abraham shortly after his entrance into Canaan (Genesis 12:8); or that, the gates of Luz being shut, he was undesignedly, on his part, compelled to rest for the night, which proved to be -the place-' his grandfather had consecrated. By a forced march he had reached that place, about forty-eight miles from Beersheba, and had to spend the night in the open field. This, after all, is no great hardship; for a native, winding himself in the ample folds of his cloak, and selecting a smooth stone for a pillow, sleeps comfortably under the canopy of heaven. Awarm climate, and an indifference to dirt and dew, easily reconcile an Oriental to such necessities (CECG, 199). The words, -he hit (lighted) upon the place,-' indicate the apparently accidental, yet really divinely appointed choice of this place for his nightquarters; and the definite article points it out as having become well known (through the revelation of God that ensued (BCOTP, 281). Was this a cult-place? We doubt it very much. Such a -cult-place-' would hardly have been a seemly place for Yahweh to reveal Himself; for perhaps without exception these places were set apart for the idols of the land. Yahweh has nothing in common with idols. Such a spot would be an abomination of Yahweh.. The article simply marks it as the place which was afterward to become famous. Jacob spends the night just there because that was all that was left for him, for -the sun had gone down-' and the night had fallen swiftly, as Oriental nights do. The hardy shepherd is not disturbed by the experience, for shepherds often spend the night thus and are observed to this day sleeping with a stone for a pillow (EG, 771).

The Stone Pillow. One of the stones of the place, etc. The nature of the soil in this area, we are told, was stony. Was the prophetic power embodied in one of these stones? Would not this be sheer magic? We see no reason for these rather fanciful notions. It seems that Jacob simply took of the stones present and made for himself a head place. This is literally the meaning of the word used here. Here mera-'ashtaw does not actually mean -pillow-' but -head place-'a proper distinction, for pillows are soft, -head places-' not necessarily so. They who must find rational explanations for everything here conjecture about some stony ascent which Jacob saw in the rapidly descending dusk and which then afterward in the dream took the form of a ladder (even Edersheim). Dreams, especially those sent by the Almighty, require no such substructure. Not quite so harmless is the contention of those who import liberally of their own thoughts into the text and then secure a sequence about as follows: The stone used by Jacob is one of the pillars or sacred stones of the -cult-place-' (a pure invention). Jacob unwittingly takes it in the semi-darkness and prepares it for a headrest. The charmed stone then superinduces a dream. On awakening, Jacob is afraid, because he realizes he has rashly used a sacred stone and quickly makes a vow to fend off possible evil consequences and to appease the angered Deity. Such interpretations transport the occurrence into the realm of superstition, magic, fetish, and animistic conceptions, debasing everything and especially the patriarch's conception of things (EG, 771-772). Cf. Skinner: -He lighted upon the place-' i.e., the -holy place-' of Bethel (Genesis 12:6), whose sanctity was revealed by what followed.he took (at haphazard) one of the stones of the place which proved itself to be the abode of a deity by inspiring the dream which came to Joseph that night (ICCG, 376). We see no reason for importingas Leupold puts itpagan superstitions into the narratives of these ancient heroes of the faith. It is quite possible, of course, that some of these stones had once been a part of the altar set up by Abraham in the same vicinity (Genesis 12:8, Genesis 13:2-4) although it is difficult to assume that Jacob had some way of identifying them as such. The commonsense view would seem to be that, as stated above, Jacob simply took some of the stones he found here and made of them for himself a head place.

The Dream. It was natural that in the unwonted circumstances he should dream. Bodily exhaustion, mental excitement, the consciousness of his exposure to the banditti ofthe adjoining regions, and his need of the protection of Heaven, would direct the course of his dream into a certain channel, But his dream was an extraordinarya supernatural one (CECG, 199). The connection between heaven and earth, and now especially between heaven and the place where the poor fugitive sleeps, is represented in three different forms, increasing in fulness and strength: the ladder, not too short, but resting firmly on the earth below and extending up to heaven; the angels of God, appearing in great numbers, passing up and down the ladder as the messengers of God; ascending as the invisible companions of the wanderer, to report about him, and as mediators of his prayers; descending as heavenly guardians and mediators of the blessing; finally Jehovah himself standing above the ladder, henceforth the covenant God of Jacob, just as he had hitherto been the covenant God of Abraham and Isaac (CDHCG, 521). This for Jacob was the first of seven theophanies: cf. Genesis 31:3; Genesis 31:11-13; Genesis 32:1-2; Gen 12:24-30; Genesis 35:1; Genesis 35:9-13; Genesis 46:1-4.

The Ladder. Many commentators seem to prefer the rendering, stairway, or staircase, rather than the image of a mountain-pile whose sides, indented in the rock, gave it the appearance of a ladder: the rough stones of the mountain appearing to form themselves into a vast staircase: Bush, Stanley (PCG, 349). (Some will argue that the pile of rock which served as Jacob's pillow was a miniature copy of this image). Not so, writes Leupold: Dreams are a legitimate mode of divine revelation. On this instance the ladder is the most notable external feature of the dream. The word sullam, used only here, is well established in its meaning, -ladder.-' If it reaches from earth to heaven, that does not necessitate anything grotesque; dreams seem to make the strangest things perfectly natural. Nor could a ladder sufficiently broad to allow angels to ascend and descend constitute an incongruity in a dream. The surprise occasioned by the character of the dream is reflected by the threefold hinnehbeholds-': a ladder, angels, and Yahweh (EG, 772). Speiser differs: The traditional -ladder-' is such an old favorite that it is a pity to have to dislodge it. Yet it goes without saying that a picture of angels going up and down in a steady stream is hard to reconcile with an ordinary ladder. Etymologically, the term (stem, -to heap up,-' -raise-') suggests a ramp or a solid stairway. And archaeologically, the Mesopotamian ziggurats were equipped with flights of stairs leading up to the summit; a good illustration is the ziggurat of Ur (Third Dynasty). Only such a stairway can account for Jacob's later description of it as a -gateway to heaven-' (ABG, 218). At any rate, from Jacob's ladder we receive the first definite information that beyond Sheol, heaven is the home of matt (Lange, 523). The ladder was a visible symbol of the real and uninterrupted fellowship (Cf. Hebrews 1:14; Psalms 23; Psalms 139:7-10)

The Angels. The ladder was a visible symbol of the real and uninterrupted fellowship between God in heaven and His people upon earth. The angels upon it carry up the wants of men to God, and bring down the assistance and protection of God to men. The ladder stood there upon the earth, just where Jacob was lying in solitude, poor, helpless, and forsaken by men. Above in heaven stood Jehovah, and explained in words the symbols which he saw (BCOTP, 281). In Jacob's dream Jehovah, the God of the chosen race (Genesis 28:13; Genesis 28:16), in order to assure him that though temporarily exiled from his father's house he would not on that account be severed from the God of his father, as Ishmael had been when sent away from Abraham's household, and Lot when his connection with Abraham was finally cut off by his passing beyond the limit of the promised land. God was thenceforward Elohim to them all as to all who were aliens to the chosen race. But Jacob was still under the guardianship of Jehovah, who would continue with him wherever he might go. The angels (Genesis 28:12), however, are not called -angels of Jehovah,-' which never occurs in the Pentateuch, but -angels of Elohim,-' as in Genesis 32:2 (E.V. Genesis 28:1), who are thus distinguished from messengers of menthe Hebrew word for -angel-' properly meaning -messenger.-' This does not mark a distinction between the documents, as though J knew of but one angel, while E speaks of -angels-'; for J has -angels-' in the plural (Genesis 19:1; Genesis 19:15). The place where Jehovah had thus revealed himself Jacob calls -the house of God-' and -the gate of heaven,-' God in contrast with man, as heaven with earth. It was a spot marked by a divine manifestation (UBG, 340).

This vision represented the peculiar care of God concerning Jacob and other saints, and the ministration of angels to them (2 Chronicles 16:9, Ecclesiastes 5:8, Psalms 135:6, Isaiah 41:10, Acts 18:10, 2 Timothy 4:16-17; Psalms 34:7; Psalms 91:11; Matthew 18:10; Hebrews 1:14; Genesis 32:1-2). But chiefly this ladder typified Christ, as Mediator between God and man. He, in his manhood, is of the earth, a descendant of Jacob; and in his divine person is the Lord from heaven (Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 9:6;John 1:14; Romans 1:3-4; Romans 9:5; 1 Timothy 3:16): he is the only means of fellowship between God and men (John 14:6; Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 3:12; 1 Timothy 2:5-6); and he directs and enjoys the ministration of angels (John 1:51; 1 Peter 1:12, 1 Timothy 3:16)in his conception (Luke 1:31, Matthew 1:20)his birth (Luke 2:14, Hebrews 1:6)in his temptation (Matthew 4:11)his agony (Luke 22:43)his resurrection (Matthew 28:2; Matthew 28:5)his ascension (Acts 1:10-11; Psalms 47:5; Psalms 68:17-18; Daniel 7:10; Daniel 7:13)and second coming (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 2 Thessalonians 1:7, Matthew 25:31) (SIBG, 260).

The Divine Promise, Genesis 28:13-15, Genesis 28:13Yahweh stood by (marginal, -beside-') him and announced Himself as one with the God of his fathers. Genesis 28:16the land whereon thou liest: a description peculiarly appropriate to the solitary and homeless fugitive who had not where to lay his head. Thus forlorn, amid the memorials of the covenant, he was visited by God in a dream, which showed him a flight of stairs leading up from earth to the gates of heaven, and trodden by angels, some descending on their errands as -ministering spirits-' upon earth, and others ascending to carry their reports to Him, whose -face they ever watch-' in dutiful service. This symbol of God's providence was crowned by a vision of Jehovah, and his voice added to the renewal of the covenant a special promise of protection (OTH, 100). Yahweh reveals Himself first of all as the Lord (Genesis 2:4), the Covenant God of Abraham and of Isaac. It is remarkable that Abraham is styled his father, that is, his actual grandfather, and covenant father (MG, 387). Yahweh now renews the promise of the land, of the seed, and of the blessing in that seed for the whole race of man. Westward, eastward, northward, and southward are they to break forth. This expression points to the world-wide universality of the kingdom of the seed of Abraham, when it shall become the fifth monarchy, that shall subdue all that went before, and endure forever. This transcends the destiny of the natural seed of Abraham. He then promises to Jacob personally to be with him, protect him, and bring him back in safety. This is the third announcement of the seed that blesses to the third in the line of descent: Genesis 12:2-3; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 26:4 (MG, 387).

The land, given to Abraham (Genesis 13:15) and to Isaac (Genesis 26:3), and now to Jacob. The seed to be as the dust of the earth, promised to Abraham (Genesis 13:16), and to Isaac, but under a different emblem (as the stars of heaven, Genesis 26:4), and now, under the original emblem, to Jacob. The seed, moreover, to break forth toward all four corners of the earth, as promised to Abraham (Genesis 13:14; cf. Deuteronomy 3:27; Deuteronomy 34:1-4), and now to Jacob (Genesis 28:14). Note that a third emblem, designed likewise to point up the world-wide universality of the Kingdom of Christ (i.e., the Reign of Messiah, Christ) is used in the divine promise to Abraham, viz., the sand which is upon the seashore (Genesis 22:17; cf. Genesis 32:12). Note that the citizens of the Messiah's kingdom are citizens, not by virtue of having been born of the flesh of Abraham, but by virtue ofhaving been born again, that is, of belonging to Abraham by virtue of manifesting the fullness of the obedience of faith (Galatians 3:26-29), the depth of faith which Abraham manifested when God proved him to himself, to his own people, and to all mankind throughout the stretch of time (Gen., ch. 22). (Cf. John 3:1-8, Titus 3:5, Galatians 5:16-25, Romans 5:1-2, etc.)

Is the Lord blessing a cheat and prospering one who secured a blessing by craft? By no means.. Jacob is being strengthened in the faith and supported by liberal promises, because he was penitent over his sin and stood greatly in need of the assurance of divine grace. Besides, Jacob was deeply grieved at being called upon to sever the ties that bound him to house and home, and he was apprehensive of the future as well. The Lord meets him and grants him the support of His grace (EG, 773).
Note again the elements of Yahweh's Promise: 1. The possession of the land on which he now was lying, practically an exile. 2. A progeny (seed) as numerous as the dust of the earth. 3. Protection during the time of his absence from home, the protection in fact of God's personal presence: I am with thee, and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, that is, this very spot, this piece of ground, on which Jacob was lying, and experiencing the reiteration of the Abrahamic Promise. The language surely intimates here that Jacob's wanderings would be extensive; the ray of hope was in the promise that he would be divinely led back to this Land of Promise. The far-reaching element of the Promise was that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed (Genesis 28:14). The Seed, as we know from New Testament fulfilment, was Messiah, Christ (Galatians 3:16). (Note that this was in substance a renewal of the Abrahamic Promise: cf. Gen. 12:37; Genesis 13:14-17, Genesis 15:18, Genesis 22:17-18, Genesis 24:7, Genesis 28:13-15).

5. The Awakening, Genesis 28:16-17.

Jacob awoke from his dream with a sense of dread, of the awesomeness of God. He was afraid, and exclaimed, How dreadful is this place! Surely Yahweh is in this place! The underlying feeling is not joy, but fear, because in ignorance he had treated the holy place as common ground. the place is no ordinary haram, but one superlatively holy, the most sacred spot on earth (ICCG, 377). To this we reply that it was Jacob's vision that for him endowed the place with dreadfulness (holiness), not with unknown magical qualities which the particular spot engendered. Jacob had felt himself severed from the gracious presence and the manifestation of Yahweh which he knew centered in his father's house. Jacob understood full well the omnipresence of God, but he knew, too, that it had not pleased God to manifest and reveal Himself everywhere as Yahweh. Now the patriarch receives specific assurance that God in His character as Yahweh was content to be with Jacob and keep and bless him for the covenant's sake. That Yahweh was going to do this much for him, that is what Jacob had not known. To understand the word rightly note that Jacob could not have saidfor it would have involved an untruth'Surely, God is in this place and I knew it not.-' Of course he knew that. Any true believer's knowledge of God involves such elementary things as knowledge of His not being confined to one place. Such crude conceptions the patriarchs never had. To suppose that the account is trying to picture Jacob as on a lower level than Abraham in spiritual discernment is misunderstanding (EG, 775). Jacob does not here learn the doctrine of the Divine omnipresence for the first time, but now discovers that the covenant God of Abraham revealed himself at other than consecrated places; or perhaps simply gives expression to his astonishment at finding that whereas he fancied himself alone, he was in reality in the company of God (PCG, 350). Not that the omnipresence of God was unknown to him, but that Jehovah in His condescending mercy should be near to him even here, far away from his father's house and from the places consecrated to His worshipit was this which he did not know or imagine. The revelation was intended not only to stamp the blessing, with which Isaac had dismissed him from his home, with the seal of divine approval, but also to impress upon Jacob's mind the fact, that although Jehovah would be near to protect and guide him even in a foreign land, the land of promise was the holy ground on which the God of his fathers would set up the covenant of His grace. On his departure from this land, he was to carry with him a sacred awe of the gracious presence of Jehovah there. To that end the Lord proved to him that He was near, in such a way that the place appeared -dreadful,-' inasmuch as the nearness of the holy God makes an alarming impression upon unholy man, and the consciousness of sin grows into the fear of death. But in spite of this alarm, the place was none other than -the house of God and the gate of heaven,-' i.e., a place where God dwells, and a way that opened to Him in heaven (BCOTP, 282). Jacob does not think that Jehovah's revelation to him was confined to this place of Bethel. He does not interpret the sacredness of the place in a heathen way, as an external thing, but theocratically and symbolically. Through Jehovah's revelation, this place. which is viewed as a heathen waste, becomes to him a house of God, and therefore he consecrates it to a permanent sanctuary (Lange, CDHCG, 525).

FOR MEDITATION AND SERMONIZING

The Holiness of God

Text: Genesis 28:16-17. Note that Jacob on awakening from his dream-vision was afraid, that is, shaken, literally terrified (ABG, 218), and exclaimed How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Someone has said: Where God's word is found, there is a house of God; there heaven stands open.

In Scripture there is one Personand only one Personwho is ever addressed as Holy Father: that Person is God Himself, and God is so addressed by the Son of God in the latter's highpriestly prayer (John 17:11). Moreoyer, Jesus Himself forbids our addressing any other being as father, that is, in a spiritual sense (Matthew 23:1-12, esp. Matthew 23:9). Likewise, God alone is spoken of in Scripture as reverend (Psalms 111:9, cf. Hebrews 12:28-29). In view of these positive Scripture statements, how can men have the presumption to arrogate these sacred titles to themselves: not only just reverend, but also very reverend, most reverend, etc., ad nauseam. Note that Jesus, the Only Begotten, is also addressed as the Holy One of God (by evil; spirits, i.e., fallen angels, Mark 1:24; by Simon Peter John 6:69;cf. Acts 3:14; Acts 4:27; Acts 7:52). It should be noted, too, that God's dwelling-place is the Holy City (Revelation 3:12; Revelation 11:2; Revelation 21:2; Revelation 22:19), per facio the New Jerusalem (Galatians 4:2, Revelation 21:10, Hebrews 11:10; Hebrews 12:22). It is the presence of God that makes heaven to be heaven; it is the absence of God that makes hell to be hell (Revelation 21:1-8; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 22:1-5; Revelation 6:16-17, etc.).

The word holiness-' comes from the Greek holos, meaning all, the whole, entire, etc, Holiness is wholeness, completeness, hence perfection (per facio, to make or to do completely, thoroughly). The perfections of God, commonly known as His attributes, constitute His holiness (Matthew 5:48). (Cf. 1 Peter 1:16, Leviticus 11:44; Leviticus 19:2; Leviticus 20:7).

The attributes of GodPerfections of the Divine Naturemay be classified as ontological, that is, inherent in His Being, and moral, i.e., inherent in His relationships with moral creatures. In the former category, we say that God is eternal, unchangeable, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. In the latter category, we say that God is infinitely holy, just and good; infinitely true and faithful; infinitely merciful and long-suffering. (For a discussion of these attributes see my Survey Course in Christian Doctrine, Vol. I, College Press, Joplin, Missouri.)

It is the holiness of God, we are told, that is the subject-matter of the heavenly hymnody before the Throne of the Almighty (Isaiah 6:3). This is the burden of the heavenly anthem which is sung unceasingly around the Throne, in which the redeemed of earth will be privileged to join, in the new heavens and new earth (2 Peter 3:13, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Revelation 4:8). When we stand before God in that great Day the one outstanding characteristic of His nature that will be apparent to all His intelligent creatures will surely be His holiness. Is not His end in creating us in His image the building of a holy redeemed race fit to commune with Him in loving intimacy throughout the ceaseless aeons of eternity? Hence His admonition to us, Be ye yourselves also holy, etc. (1 Peter 1:15-16). It is because men cannot grasp the import of the holiness of God that they get such ridiculously distorted concepts of His dealings with His creation. Holiness is the foundation of all the Divine Perfections. We shall examine here some of the more significant aspects of this Divine Holiness.

1. The Holiness of God includes His truthfulness. He always speaks the truth. He would never deceive us. When He speaks, He speaks the truth; what He tells us that He will do, that He will do: we can depend on it. (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33; Luke 16:31; Romans 10:6-10, 2 Timothy 2:18-19, etc.). The foundation of God standeth sure, i.e., for ever. His word is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, etc. (Hebrews 4:12). (May I offer this personal testimony: the more I delve into the cults and philosophies of men, the more I am convinced that God's Word is to be found in the Bible, and the more confirmed I become in my conviction that what is found in the Bible is true, even if we as human beings cannot understand fully the meaning of it. After all, as Sam Jones used to say, You cannot pour the ocean into a teacup. In the Scripture God speaks to men, and what He speaks is truewe can depend on it. And the reason why multitudes are staggering in blindness and carelessness today is the fact that they do not knowor will not acceptwhat God is telling them in His Book. Their humanism, materialism, naturalism, agnosticism, etc., leave them utterly blind to the truth. They do not know God's Wordthey do not try to know itthey do not even want to know it. They are the blind leading the blindand their end can be only the pit (Matthew 15:14C.C.).

2. The Holiness of God includes His righteousness. What He tells us to do is right; what He tells us not to do is wrong (Galatians 5:16-25). Why do we have so many varying notions of right and wrong? The answer is simple: Because men follow what they think instead of what God has said. God loves righteousness, but He hates iniquity (Psalms 45:7, Hebrews 1:9). It has been rightly said that human character is worthless in proportion as the abhorrence of sin is lacking in it. The most evident sign of the moral flabbiness of our age is the manner in which we condonewink atsin. It was Herbert Spencer who said over a century ago that good nature with Americans has become a crime. Dr. Arnold, Head Master of Rugby once said, I am never sure of a boy who only loves the good. I never feel that he is safe until I see that he abhors evil. Lecky says, in his great book, Democracy and Liberty, There is one thing worse than corruption, and that is acquiescence in corruption. Dr. Will Durant has said: The nation that will not resist anarchy is doomed to destruction. To be incapable of moral indignation against wrong is to have no real love for the right. The only revenge that is permissible to Christians is the revenge that pursues and exterminates sin. Likewise, this is the only vengeance known to God. (We must remember that vindication is not vengeance).

3. The Holiness of God includes His faithfulness. That is, He faithfully executes His judgments and fulfils His promises. (2 Timothy 2:13, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Deuteronomy 32:4, Isaiah 40:8, 1 John 1:9, Matthew 24:35, 2 Peter 1:4, Hebrews 2:1-4, 2 Peter 3:1-13).

4. The Holiness of God includes His love (and in turn His mercy and His longsuffering). By His mercy, we mean that He is ever willing and anxious to pardon all who are truly penitent. (Ezekiel 33:11, Psalms 145:9, Luke 1:78, 2 Corinthians 1:3, Ephesians 2:4, Titus 3:5, John 3:16, 1 John 4:7-21). In the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), Jesus tells us that the father ran to meet his penitent boy returning home and fell on his neck and kissed him: is not this really the story of the Forgiving Father? Note, too, that the father was moved with compassion (Genesis 28:20). Robert Browning writes: God! Thou art love! I build my faith on that. Lowell: -Tis heaven alone that is given away; -tis only God may be had for the asking. Annie Johnston Flint: Out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth and givethand giveth again. By God's longsuffering we mean that He gives the sinner a long time for repentance, even to the limit at which love must give way to justice. 1 Peter 3:20the longsuffering of God gave the antediluvian world one hundred and twenty years of grace (Genesis 6:3); cf. 2 Peter 3:9. It is said that an atheist conversing on occasion with Joseph Parker, the distinguished British minister, exclaimed, If there is a God, I give Him three minutes to prove it by striking me dead. To which Joseph Parker replied with great sorrow in his voice, Do you suppose that you can exhaust the mercy of God in three minutes? Consider God's long-suffering patience toward the Children of Israel, despite their numerous and repeated backslidings. Think of the awful wickedness spread abroad over our earth todayyet God waits, for those who may come to repentance. God's mercy will follow you to the grave, my sinner friend, but it cannot consistently follow you farther. This life is probationary; in the next world, God's love must give way to His justice. No such thing as post-mortem repentance or salvation is taught in Scripture: as a matter of fact, the idea is completely rejected in the narrative of the Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31).

Note what God says to us through His prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 33:11). Note the Divine exhortation, Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways; for why will ye die? Is not this a wonderful revealing of the great Heart of out God? God wants us to repent, to turn to Him; he yearns for our turning to Him; and when we give Him our hearts, He delights in being merciful to us. Did you ever have the experience of your child turning away from you and probably getting into trouble? then to have him come back in penitence and tears, with an open confession, I have done wrong? Do you not gladly help him in every way you can? You do for him what he cannot do for himself. That is what God does for usHe does for us what we cannot do for ourselves: He who owns the world and all that is therein, comes down to buy us back, to redeem us. He rushes out the road to meet us and to throw His arms around us, if we will only come in penitence and confession. Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases through the blood of Him who died on the Cross to redeem us. He provided this covering of grace for our sins. He leads us back into His house and bestows on us the gifts of His divine Fatherhood. We can never merit salvation and eternal life; we can only accept these as Gifts (John 3:16). Dante tells us in his Divine Comedy (one of the greatest of all the epic poems) that the motto over the doorway to Hell is this: Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. The Bible tells us that above the gate to Heaven is the inscription: The Gift of God.

Yes, it is God's Love that causes Him to be a jealous God. I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, etc. (Exodus 20:1-6). We must not overlook the fact that jealousy is naturally an emotion that attaches to true love. The person who can remain complacent when he sees the object of his affection being led away by another who is unworthy, by one who seeks only his own selfish ends, certainly cannot have any measure of true love to begin with. To be jealous is to be pained, to be hurt, to be heart-broken, on seeing the one loved being led astray into what can only turn out to be a life of misery. I would not give a plugged nickel (pardon the slang!) for any kind of affection that does not have in it this element of jealousy. What does this famous passage in Exodus mean? It means this: I Jehovah thy God have a heart filled with affection for you, my people. But I am hurt, I am heartbroken, when I see you bestowing your affections upon the false gods before whom you bow down in idolatry. And when you do spurn my affection, when you turn a deaf ear to my wooings, I will see to it that your sins will find you out, that the consequences of your unfaithfulness will pursue you and yours from generation to generation, if perchance, knowing this, you may be brought to your senses and to return to me and to my love for you. This Exodus passage is the first statement in literature of the law of heredity, the law of the consequences of sin. (The law of guilt is to be found in Ezekiel 18:19-24).

Yes, the holiness of God includes His jealousy. (Cf. the Apostle's jealousy with respect to the Bride of Christ, 2 Corinthians 11:2). This was the terrible lesson that Hosea learned from his own experience: namely, that he was heartbroken by the unfaithfulness of his wife Gomer, so God was indescribably heartbroken (in such a measure as man could never be) by the unfaithfulness of His people Israel; that as he, Hosea, would go down into the marketplace and buy back his prostitute wife (redeem her) for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley, so God in the person of His Only Begotten would come down into the marketplace of the world, and by the shedding of His own precious blood, buy back all those who would accept the gift of redemption (John 3:16, Leviticus 17:11, John 1:29, Acts 20:28, 1 Peter 1:18-21, Revelation 12:10-12; Revelation 22:14). It was through his own personal experience that the prophet Hosea reached a concept of God's immeasurable love that is not surpassed anywhere in Scripture, not even in the New Testament.

5. The Holiness of God includes His absolute justice. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne (Psalms 97:2). God could not be holy and not be just. God could not be holy and fail to punish sin. God could not be holy and accept a sinner in his sins, for this would be putting a premium on sin, this would be rewarding sin. And because sin is transgression of divine law (lawlessness, 1 John 3:4), God could not be holy without demanding an adequate atonement (the word means covering). Hence for the joy that was set before him (Hebrews 12:2), the Eternal Logos as the Only Begotten Son of God provided this atonement, this Covering of Grace, so that God would be vindicated from the false charges brought against Him by Satan and his rebel host, and hence could be just and at the same time a justifier of all who come to Him by the obedience of faith in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:19-26). Because the One who died on the Cross was not just a man (in which case this would have been only a martyrdom), but the incarnate God-Man (John 1:1-14; Matthew 22:42; Matthew 1:23; Galatians 4:4; 1 Timothy 3:16; John 17:5; Matthew 16:16-19; 1 Peter 2:21-24 etc.), whose vicarious sacrifice was, therefore, The Atonement (Hebrews 9:23-28). God did for man what man could never do for himself. As W. Robertson Smith writes, (LRS, 62): To reconcile the forgiving goodness of God with His absolute justice, is one of the highest problems of spiritual religion, which in Christianity is solved by the doctrine of the atonement. It is important to realize that in heathenism this problem never arose in the form in which the New Testament deals with it, not because the gods of the heathen were not conceived as good and gracious, but because they were not absolutely just (italics mine, C.C.). The God of the Bible is just, absolutely just: under His sovereignty every transgression and obedience will receive a just recompense of reward (Hebrews 2:1-3); in the finality of things the Great JudgeChrist Himselfwill render unto every man according to his deeds (Matthew 16:27). Multitudes seem to cherish the fantasy that final Judgment will be a kind of military inspection in which the Judge will pass down the line as we number off individually as in the army, and consign each of us to his proper destiny. No so. The Acting Sovereign of the universe knows the moral standing of every person at any and every moment of this life. Hence the final Judgment will not be the ascertainment of the moral character of each human being; it will be, rather, the revelation of the absolute justice of God who will render to every man according to his works (Romans 2:4-11). A man who afterward became a Methodist preacher was converted in Whitefield's time by a vision of the judgment, in which he saw all men gathered before the throne and each one coming up to the book of God's law, tearing open his heart before it -as one would tear open the bosom of his shirt,-' comparing his heart with the things written in the book, and, according as they agreed or disagreed with that standard, either passing triumphant to the company of the blest, or going with howling to the company of the damned. No word was spoken; the Judge sat silent; the judgment was one of self-revelation and self-condemnation (Strong, ST, p. 1026). Cf. Luke 16:25, Hebrews 10:27; Matthew 25:31-46, John 5:26-29, Acts 17:30-31, Luke 11:29-32; Revelation 20:11-15, 2 Peter 2:1-10; etc.) The saints will appear in the Judgment clad in the fine linen of righteousness (Revelation 19:8; Revelation 19:14), their sins having been covered by the blood of Christ, forgiven and forgotten, put away from them forever; and clothed also in glory and honor and immortality, the habiliments of eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11-12). In their manifestation, the greatness of God's love, mercy, and salvation will be fully disclosed to all intelligent creatures. The wicked will be presented in the judgment as they really are; even their secret sins will be made manifest to the whole intelligent creation. For the first time, it seems, they will realize the enormity of their rebelliousness (as will also the evil angels) and their complete loss of God and heaven will impel them spontaneously to resort to weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, i.e., that of utter remorse and despair, not of hate. Thus will be consummated the complete vindication of God against all His enemies, angelic and human, which is, in itself, the primary design of the Last Judgment. This final demonstration will be sufficient to prove to all intelligences that Satan's charges against God have been from the beginning false and malicious (John 8:44, Luke 10:18, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 3:8-12, 1 Peter 5:8, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6-7,1 Corinthians 6:2-3, Revelation 20:9-15, Revelation 22:10-15). The greatness of this Consummation of God's Cosmic Plan will be determined, not by the number fully redeemed in spirit and soul and body, but by the ineffable glory of the salvation there to be revealed in its fulness (Romans 8:18-23, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, etc.). In a word, it can be rightly said that God's absolute justice is His holiness, for the simple reason that ever attribute of God must be under the primacy of His justice.

6.Last, but not least by any means, the Holiness of God must include His awesomeness. But what is awesomeness? It is defined in the dictionaryand properlyas meaning causing, or expressive of, awe or terror. There are multiplied thousands of persons on our earth today who look upon God as a kind of glorified bellhop, waiting and ready at any time to pander to their slightest requests and idiosyncrasies. And when and if He does not do this, they resort to orgies of self-pity. This is not the God of the Biblelet this fact be understood at once! Manifold numbers of human beings carry the notion of God's love to such an extent as to believe that all men will be saved ultimately, that is, let us say, if there is a God in their thinking). This is contrary to human experience itself, Only that person who has cultivated understanding of poetry can appreciate poetry; only that person who has cultivated understanding of music can truly appreciate music. And it is equally true that only those persons who Understand and cultivate the Spiritual life can expectand hopeto enjoy ultimate union with God. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people, we often are told. And this is not just a clicheit is sober fact. In the very nature of the casepsychologically as well as theologically speakinga wicked man would be utterly out of place in heaven. Only those who bring forth the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-25)can, in the very nature of the case, be prepared to share the Beatific Vision (Revelation 21:1-5, 1 John 3:1-3). I can-'t think of anyone who would be more miserable than the Devil would be if he could get past the pearly gate for a split second. Evil is always uncomfortable, even miserable, in the presence of good.

The awesomeness of God. This was one of the lessons, if not actually the most important lesson, that Jacob learned from his experience at Bethel. When he awakened from his dream-vision, he was afraid, we are told: literally, according to Dr. Speiser, he was terrified. Was not this to be expected. No man hath seen God at any time, that is, in the fulness of His being: no man could look upon God with the eye of flesh and live, because our God is a devouring fire, a jealous God (1 John 1:16, Deuteronomy 4:24). (Cf, the appearance of Yahweh in the time of Moses, on the occasion of the giving of the Law, Exodus 19:7-25; Exodus 20:18-26). For the impenitent, the negligent, the profane, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries (Hebrews 10:27). It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31). The Apostle tells us that unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil (Romans 2:8-9). The wheat and the tares must be allowed to grow up together, because only Omniscience, who looketh upon the thoughts and intents of the heart, can justly separate them; hence it will not be until the great Judgment that the wheat will be gathered into the granary, and the chaff will be burned up with unquenchable fire (Hebrews 4:12-13; Matthew 13:24-30; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10). Note the numerous references to hell as the abode of the lost in the lake of fire and brimstone, etc. (Isaiah 33:14, Psalms 11:5-7, Matthew 3:12; Matthew 5:29-30; Matthew 7:19; Matthew 25:41-46; Luke 3:17, John 15:6, 2 Peter 3:7, Jude 1:7; Revelation 14:9-11; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:8, etc.). There are many who will say that this language is all figurative. Perhaps soit could be, of course. But to say that all these references to hell are in figurative language is to accentuate the problem; for a figure must be a figure of something, and if the Bible descriptions of hell are merely figurative, I shudder to contemplate what the reality might be. For, whatever else we take with us into the next order of being, it is evidentfrom both Scripture and sciencethat we take memory (cf. Luke 16:25; studies in psychic research now verify the fact that the subconscious in man is the seat of perfect memory). It may turn out, then, that memory is the worm that never dies and conscience (if not at peace with God) the fire that is never quenched (Mark 9:43-48, Hebrews 10:27). (We must remember, in this connection, that when God forgives, He forgets; undoubtedly we may expect this to be one of the ineffable aspects of eternal redemption; cf. Psalms 103:12). On the other hand, one cannot even begin to comprehendor even to imaginethe mental anguish which the unredeemed will suffer on fully realizing the enormity of their loss in being separated from God and all good forever (Revelation 6:16-17; Revelation 9:6;Matthew 8:12; Matthew 13:42; Matthew 13:50; Matthew 22:13; Matthew 24:51; Matthew 25:30; Luke 13:28; cf. Heb. 18:15-20). (In this connection, it should be noted especially that the word which Jesus used to designate hell was not Hades [the underworld, or probably the grave], but Gehenna, the name derived from the Valley of Hinnom outside the city of Jerusalem, the place where Molech, Chemosh, and Tammuz (Ammonite, Moabite, and Syrian deities, respectively) were worshipped (cf. 1 Kings 11:7, 2 Chronicles 28:3; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Ezekiel 8:14, Jeremiah 7:30-34, Numbers 21:29). Its sinister history caused its defilement by Josiah (2 Kings 23:6; 2 Kings 23:10). It became the place where the refuse of the city, dead animals, and the bodies of criminals were burned; and hence was regarded as a fit symbol of the destruction of wicked souls. It is especially significant that Jesus used this name several times in his Sermon on the Mount.)

Undoubtedly the dreadfulness of God is a fact of His being, and an aspect of His holiness. Recognition of it would seem to be an aspect of the attitude of worship. Indeed the Preacher tells us that to fear God and keep his commandments is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Our God is to be feared in the sense that His awesomeness is to be felt at all times. All power is of God, and surely the forces that are unleashed as man discovers more and more about the physical power that is inherent in the submicroscopic world, should cause all of us to stand in awe of His righteous indignation that occasions His use of moral power (authority) to punish sin. Let it never be forgotten that God hates sin, and that this hatred is the source of the divine wrath which, in all justice and holiness, must inevitably be visited upon the wicked and impenitent.

Rudolph Otto, in his remarkable book, The Idea of the Holy, develops the thesis that religious dread is essential to recognition of God's holiness and hence to genuine Christian worship. Of modern language, he writes, English has the words -awe,-' -aweful,-' which in their deeper and most special sense approximate closely to our meaning. The phrase, -he stood aghast,-' is also suggestive in this connexion. The unique character of religious awe, he holds, is qualitatively distinct from all -natural-' feelings. Quoting again: Not only is the saying of Luther, that the natural man cannot fear God perfectly, correct from the standpoint of psychology, but we ought to go further and add that the natural man is quite unable even to shudder (grauen) or feel horror in the real sense of the word. For -shuddering-' is something more than -natural,-' ordinary fear. It implies that the mysterious is already beginning to loom before the mind, to touch the feelings. It implies the first application of a category of valuation which has no place in the everyday natural world of ordinary experience, and is possible only to a being in whom has been awakened a mental predisposition, unique in kind and different in a definite way from any -natural-' faculty. And this newly-revealed capacity, even in the crude and violent manifestations which are all it at first evinces, bears witness to a completely new function of experience and standard of valuation, belonging only to the spirit of man. This numinous awe, Otto goes on to say, appears first as characteristic of primitives in the form of -daemonic-' dread. Even when the worship of -daemons-' has long since reached the higher level of worship of -gods,-' these gods still retain as -numina-' something of the -ghost-' in the impress they make on the feelings of the worshipper, viz., the peculiar quality of the -uncanny-' and -awful,-' which survives with the quality of exaltedness and sublimity or is symbolized by means of it. And this element, softened though it is, does not disappear even on the highest level of all, where the worship of God is at its purest. Its disappearance would be indeed an essential loss. The -shudder-' reappears in a form ennobled beyond measure where the soul, held speechless, trembles inwardly to the furthest fibre of its being. It invades the mind mightily in Christian worship with the words: -Holy holy, holy-'; it breaks forth from the hymn of Tersteegen:

God Himself is present:
Heart, be stilled before Him:
Prostrate inwardly adore Him.

The -shudder-' has here lost its crazy and bewildering note, but not the ineffable something that holds the mind. It has become a mystical awe, and sets free as its accompaniment, reflected in self-consciousness, that -creature-feeling-' that has already been described as the feeling of personal nothingness and abasement before the awe-inspiring object directly experienced.

Otto cites as an example of the case in point the references in Scripture to the Wrath of Yahweh. The notion that this -Wrath-' is mere caprice and wilful passion, he points out, would have been emphatically rejected by the spiritually-minded men of the Old Covenant, for to them the Wrath of God, so far from being a diminution of His Godhead, appears as a natural expression of it, an element of -holiness-' itself, and quite an indispensable one. And in this they are entirely right. Closely related to the Wrath of Yahweh, according to this author, is the Jealousy of Yahweh. The state of mind denoted by the phrase -being jealous for Yahweh-' is also a numinous state of mind, in which features of the -tremendum-' pass over into the man who has experience of it. For characteristic aspects of what Otto calls the Mysterium Tremendum, the following are listed: the sense of Majesty (Overpoweringness), the sense of urgency (energy), the sense of the Wholly Other, the sense of Fascination, i.e., of the numinous object. The numinous consciousness, Otto tells us, is innate; it cannot be taught; it can only be awakened. Is not all this inherent in the oft-repeated descriptive phrase, in Scripture, The Living God? (See IH, pp. 12-24: cf. also the book by Miguel de Unamuno, The Agony of Christianity.)

In strict harmony with this experience of dreadful-ness in the presence of Yahweh was Jacob's experience at Bethel (as Otto points out). Genesis 28:17, Jacob says here, on awaking from his dream-vision, How dreadful is this place: this is none other than the house of Elohim! This verse is very instructive for the psychology of religion.. The first sentence gives plainly the mental impression itself in all its immediacy, before reflection has permeated it, and before the meaning-content of the feeling itself has become clear or explicit. It connotes solely the primal numinous awe, which has been undoubtedly sufficient in itself in many cases to mark out -holy-' or -sacred-' places, and make of them spots of aweful veneration, centres of a cult admitting a certain development. There is no need, that is, for the experient to pass on to resolve his mere impression of the eerie and aweful into the idea of a -numen-', a divine power, dwelling in the -aweful-' place, still less need the numen become a nomen, a named power, or the -nomen-' become something more than a mere pronoun. Worship is possible without this further explicative process. But Jacob's second statement gives this process of explication and interpretation; it is no longer simply an expression of the actual experience. The words used by Jacob undoubtedly connote a sense of eeriness or uncanniness. Cf. Moses at the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:5-7), Isaiah's Vision of Jehovah of Hosts (Isaiah 6:1-5), Daniel's Vision of the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:9 ff.), John's Vision of the Living One (Revelation 1:12-18), etc. Surely the awesomeness of our God is a realistic aspect of the very Mystery of all mysteriesthe Mystery of Being! Surely the dreadfulness of God is a phase of His holiness, and the awareness of it a vital aspect of Christian worship! For our Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, in His eternal being (John 17:5), dwells with the Heavenly Father, in light unapproachable, whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power eternal. Amen (1 Timothy 6:15-16).

FOR MEDITATION AND SERMONIZING

Lessons from Jacob's ladder

Genesis 28:10-15; cf. John 1:51

The writer of Hebrews tells us that God spoke by divers portions and in divers manners to holy men of old (Genesis 1:1). He came down and talked personally with Adam in the primeval Garden. He conversed in some manner with Noah and the ark was built. He talked with Abraham on different occasions, and also with Isaac and Jacob. He revealed His will to Moses at the Burning Bush, and to the entire assembly of Israel from the summit of Sinai. Indeed prophecy (revelation) never came by man, but only as holy men of old spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21).

We are quite familiar with the story of God's speaking to Jacob in the dream-vision which the latter experienced at Bethel: the vision of a ladder stretched from heaven to earth and angels ascending and descending upon it. This vision had wondrous significance to Jacob, of course, but in its antitypical aspect is has even more far reaching significance for Christians. Our Lord Himself reveals fully the spiritual meaning of Jacob's vision in terms we can all understand (John 1:51).

We are familiar with the circumstances which led up to this scene at Bethel. Jacob was in flight, we might truly say, to Paddan-aram, the home of his uncle Laban, to avoid the vengeance threatened by his brother Esau. On the way to Mesopotamia the event occurred as recorded in the lesson context. Physically exhausted, Jacob lay down to sleep, and then to dream. The earth was his bed, the canopy of heaven his coverlet, and a stone his only pillow. Then came the vision of the celestial ladder and its angelic host, and the voice of Yahweh repeating the Promise He had made previously to Abraham and then to Isaac. Said Jacob on awaking from his dream, This is none other than the house of God (Bethel)! Explaining this vision in the sense suggested by our Lord Himself, what lessons do we derive from the story? What truths did Jacob's Ladder typify or suggest with reference to Christ?

1. It typified the Person of the Savior. (1) the top of the ladder reached to heaven. So Christ is the spiritual Ladder who connects heaven and earth. He came from heaven and entered into human flesh, in order to purchase redemption for us. Those -scholars who would discredit the Virgin Birth would do well first to explain away the doctrine of His pre-existence. (Cf. John 17:4-5; John 1:1-14; John 8:58; Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:10; Hebrews 2:9-18; Philippians 2:5-11, and many other Scriptures which either assert positively, or clearly intimate, that the Son has existed with the Father from eternity and was indeed the executive Agent in the Creation, cf. Genesis 1:3; Genesis 1:6; Genesis 1:9, etc.). (2) In the beginning man transgressed the law of God, the sovereign law of the creation because it is the expression of the Sovereign Will. Absolute Justice demanded satisfaction, vindication of the Sovereign Will, else the law would have been rendered void and the Divine government discredited in the sight of all intelligent beings. There was nothing that earth had to offer, nothing within man himself, that, could provide atonement (covering) for the transgression of the divine law. Hence, it became necessary for Heaven to offer its costliest Gift, in order that the majesty of the law be sustained and God's law adequately demonstrated to rebellious angels and men. This offering was made: God gave His Only Begotten as the Sacrificial Lamb (John 1:29; John 3:16), and for the joy that was set before Him the Son gave His life (Hebrews 12:1-2), and the Holy Spirit has revealed the Word (cf. Colossians 1:13-23, Romans 3:25, Ephesians 3:8-12, 1 Corinthians 2:9-13, Hebrews 10:19-22, etc. Hence it was, that the bottom of the ladder which Jacob saw rested on the ground. Our Lord took upon Himself, not the nature of angels, but the nature of the seed of Abraham, He became Immanuel, God with us. (Hebrews 2:14-16, Isaiah 9:6,1 Timothy 3:16, Romans 8:3, Matthew 1:23). He was not just a son, but the Son, of the living God (Matthew 16:16). He was God in human flesh (John 14:9), yet while in the flesh He was subject to the frailties and temptations to which all men are subject (Matthew 4:2; Matthew 8:24; Luke 2:52; John 4:6-7; John 11:35). In the strength of perfect manhood He conquered sin in the flesh, and being made perfect through suffering, He was qualified to lead many sons into glory (Hebrews 2:9-10). It is on the basis of His human nature that he is given the title, Son of man. It is on the basis of His human nature that He has qualified Himself to be our great High Priest (Hebrews 2:17-18; Hebrews 5:8-10; Hebrews 9:24-28). John 3:13; this should read, freely translated: No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man whose abode is heaven (cf. John 1:18; John 17:5). His eternal abode is heaven; while on earth, He was temporarily out of that abode, to which He has returned as our Prophet, Priest, and King (Acts 2:36, Ephesians 1:20-23), the Lord's Anointed, (Matthew 3:16; Matthew 16:16, John 20:30-31, Acts 2:29-36; Acts 10:38-43, etc.) The matchless humanity of Christ is one of the irrefutable evidences of His deity.

2. It typified the mediatorial work of Christ. The ladder reached from heaven to earth, thus forming a bond of union. An integral phase of Christ's incarnate life was that of reconciliation; His ministry was the ministry of reconciliation (Ephesians 2:11-22, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21). The essence of true religion is reconciliation, as signified by the etymology of the word, religo, religare, which means to bind back. Christianity is the true religion in the sense that it is the authoritarian Faith, revealing to us the only One who can bind us anew to God. God gave the world to man, and man mortgaged itand himselfto the devil (Genesis 1:27-31; Genesis 3:6-8; Romans 7:14). Rebellion entered man's heart and separated him from his Creator. The Only Begotten (John 3:16) came to earth to offer Himself as a propitiation for sin (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10). He came, both to satisfy the demands of Absolute Justice and so to vindicate God, and to demonstrate God's love for man in such a way as to overcome the rebellion in man's heart and woo him back to the Heavenly Father (John 3:16; 1 John 4:11; 1 John 4:10; Romans 2:4). He came to heal the schism which sin had caused, to repair the ruin which Satan had incurred, and to remove the misery which iniquity had entailed (1 Corinthians 15:20-28, Hebrews 2:14-15).

He is our Mediator to-day, our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 6:20). There is no other name (authority) by which it is possible for us to be saved (Acts 4:12). There is no way of approach to God but through Him (John 14:6). We are no longer to pray directly to God, as did the Jew; we must address our prayers to the Father in the name of Christ (John 14:13-15). How, then, sinner friend, do you expect to come to the Father unless you have accepted Christ? How can you consistently ask God to answer your prayers until you have been inducted into Christ (Galatians 3:27)? I warn you solemnly that, as long as you are out of Christ, you are without a Mediator at God's right hand (1 Timothy 2:5). The Mediatorship of Christ is one of the blessings of adoption, and with it comes the privilege of prayer and personal communion with God (Romans 8:12-17). It is indeed doubtful that anyone has the right to call God Father who has not been adopted into the family of God (Ephesians 2:19-22). I realize that this statement is contrary to public opinionbut we must speak where the Bible speaks and as the Bible speaks.

A priest is one who acts as mediator between God and man: in Scripture, all Christians are said to be priests unto God (1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:9; Isaiah 61:6, Revelation 1:6), thus qualified to offer up the incense of devoted hearts (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17, Romans 12:1-2), through the Mediatorship of their great High Priest. In the old Tabernacle and Temple service, the high priest went once each year, on the Day of Atonement, into the Holy of Holies, with an offering of blood for himself and his people. Jesus, our High Priest, does not have to enter heaven once each year, but has entered into the Most Holy Place (Holy of Holies)heaven itselfinto the tabernacle not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, once for all, and there, again once for all time, He offered His most precious blood and His perfect body as the supreme sacrifice for the sin of the world (John 1:29; John 19:36; 1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Peter 2:21-25; Heb., ch. 9). There He is to-day at God's right hand (the seat of authority) acting as our Mediator (Hebrews 1:1-4; Hebrews 8:1-13), the Mediator of a better Covenant (Hebrews 8:6-13). Satan may appear before the gates of heaven to accuse the people of God (Revelation 12:10; cf. Job 1:11; Job 2:5; Zechariah 3:1; Luke 22:31; 1 Peter 5:8), but our High Priest is there, at the Father's right hand, to defend them (Ephesians 1:20-22). All Christians are priests unto God (1 Peter 2:5, Revelation 5:10); Jesus is their High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (i.e., a Priest-King, Genesis 14:18-20; Hebrews 6:20, Hebrews 8:11-13; cf. Psalms 110:4), and the antitype of Jacob's dream-ladder in which heaven and earth were seen to be united i.e., reconciled.

3. It suggests that Christ is the only Way back to the Father. There was but one Ladder in the dream; so there is but one way back to reconciliation with God. In Christ, God is well-pleased, and only those who are in Christ can be well-pleasing unto God (Colossians 1:19-20, Galatians 3:27, Hebrews 11:6). All offerings of obedience, prayer, and sacrifice must be in the name of Christ (Colossians 3:17). We are baptized in the name of Christ (Acts 2:38); we meet for the Lord's Supper each Lord's Day in memoriam of His death on the Cross (Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-30; Acts 2:42; Acts 20:2). There is no propitiation available in you yourself, my sinner friend, in your home, in your lodge, in your school, or in humanity in general. (Propitiation is that which vindicates Divine Justice and effects reconciliation between God and man). You must come to God by the obedience of faith in Christ Jesus, humbly imploring the Heavenly Father for forgiveness and pardon, crying as did the publican of old, (Luke 18:13; Luke 15:16-24), God, be merciful to me, a sinner!

4. It portrays the accessibility of Christ to the sinner. John 3:17God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world (i.e., all accountable beings)? Why not? Because the world is under divine condemnation, and has been since sin entered in, and separated man from God. The unredeemed world is under the curse of sin (Galatians 3:10, Revelation 22:3). When a person arrives at an accountable age, he is in the kingdom of this world (John 18:36, Romans 12:2, 1 Corinthians 1:20, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Revelation 11:1-5; Revelation 12:10); he stands without hope either in this world or in the world to come, until he accepts and obeys the Son of God as both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36, Romans 10:9-10). He must be regenerated, born again, adopted, transplanted out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of the Son, etc. (Colossians 1:13, John 3:1-8, Titus 3:5, Romans 8:12-17). These are eternal truths which the wisdom of this world, in our day as always, chooses to ignore or completely reject, in its attempt to deify man (in the name of humanism, naturalism, etc. and other such terms as only very learned (?) men could conjure up, cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25). Man today has no awareness, comparatively speaking of his own insignificance and guilt. The grace of God has little or no place in the twentieth-century edition of the wisdom of this world.

Jacob, on his way to Paddan-aram, was weary and footsore when he arrived at Bethel, heavily laden with the consciousness of his own wrongdoing, and burdened with the knowledge of his brother's estrangement and threatened vengeance. He was a pilgrim in a strange land. But the foot of this wonderful dream-ladder rested on the ground, right at his side. No matter if a stone were his pillow, the Ladder to heaven rested near him on the earth, the angels of God were walking up and down on it, and Yahweh Himself was talking to him. Herein we see the nearness of Christ to us. We are all sinners, saved by grace, if saved at all (Ephesians 2:8). We could hardly have any hope of heaven without this divine Mediator who knows our frailties and can sympathetically plead our case at the Bar of Absolute Justice. This writer is frank to say that the hope of eternal life which I cherish in my heart of hearts, rests solely upon the offices of the divine-human Redeemer, the Anointed of God, who emptied himself (Philippians 2:5-11, Hebrews 2:9-18), who stooped down to assume my insignificant state in the totality of being, who brought, and is continually bringing, the mercy and longsuffering of God within reach of every perishing sinner, including the forgiveness of His saints even after they have become redeemed (1 John 1:8-10: these words, it must be noted, were written to Christians).

5. Jacob's Ladder points up the office and work of angels both in Creation and in Redemption. Jacob saw the heavenly host ascending and descending on the Ladder. Note what Jesus said, in this connection, John 1:51. We have largely lost sight of the Biblical doctrine of angels. Angels constituted the citizenship of heaven before the worlds were created (Luke 10:18). It was the premundane rebellion of certain angels, led by the archangel Lucifer, which brought about the mass of evil with which earth has been afflicted since the seduction of man (Ezekiel 28:12-17, Isaiah 14:12-15, John 8:44, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6). Angels have existed from eternity in great numbers and with a celestial organization (1 Kings 22:19, Psalms 68:17, Daniel 7:10, Matthew 26:53, Luke 2:13-14; Revelation 5:11; Revelation 12:7-8, etc.). In fact we are told that the worlds were arranged, and peopled by human creatures capable of redemption and immortalization, in order that the Absolute Justice of God and the fiendishness of Satan may ultimately be demonstrated to both angels and men (Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12). If, in the Day of Vindication, just one soul of the human family stands fully redeemed in spirit and soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23), God will be gloriously vindicated of all the false charges Satan brought against Him and the creation itself will be proved to be an indescribable triumph (Isaiah 45:5-7; Isaiah 46:8-11; 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; Revelation 19:1-16; Revelation 20:11-15, etc.). It would seem that the justice and love of God could be demonstrated only in a world of lost sinners: that is a great mystery, of course. The simple fact is, however, that the price which man must pay for his freedomfor his being man, one might truly sayis the possibility of evil.

Angels are supernatural ethereal beings. They constitute a special creation, without sex distinctions, prior to man and superior to him in powers, endowed with superhuman knowledge, but lacking omniscience, thus filling the gap between Deity and humanity in the scale of intelligences. (Psalms 8:4-5, Mark 12:18-25, Acts 23:9, Hebrews 12:22-24). In Hebrews 12:22-23, we note the distinction between innumerable hosts of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect: this and other Scripture passages show us that angels are not disembodied spirits in fact there is no such teaching in Scripture; even the redeemed of earth will be endowed with spiritual bodies in the next life (1 Corinthians 15:42-54, 2 Corinthians 5:1-4). Angelic superhuman power, however, is limited in some respects (Mark 13:32).

Angels have always played a prominent role in the execution of God's eternal purpose for His creation. We meet them executing judgment on the Cities of the Plain (Genesis 19). We meet them frequently in the stories of the journeyings of the patriarchs (Genesis 16:7, ch. 18, Genesis 22:11, Genesis 24:7). We meet them on Sinai's mount communicating the law to Moses (Galatians 3:19). We meet them directing the battles of the Children of Israel on different occasions (Judges 6:12, 2 Samuel 24:16, 2 Kings 19:35, etc.). We hear them singing above the storied hills of old Judea on the night Christ was born (Luke 2:13-15). We meet them on the mount of temptation (Matthew 4:11), at the open sepulchre (Matthew 28:2), and on the Mount of Olives when our Lord ascended to heaven (Acts 9:1-11). We meet them comforting the saints, leading sinners to the light, delivering the apostles from prison (Acts 5:19; Acts 8:26; Acts 10:3; Acts 12:7, etc.). And we are told that every little child has its guardian angel always before the throne of God (Matthew 18:10).

Angels were walking up and down the Ladder which Jacob saw. That ladder typified Christ. In all ages, redemption has been offered man through Christ, the Lord's anointed: before the Cross prospectively, since the Cross retrospectively; and in all ages, angels have been walking up and down this ladder of redemption which connects heaven and earth. Note that Jesus said they are ascending and descending upon the Son of man, John 1:51. The work of angels has always been that of ministering to those who inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:13-14). And even in our day, as always, angels are said to rejoice every time one sinner repents and names the name of Christ (Luke 15:7). No wonder, then, that the angels, as ministering spirits, have always been vitally interested in the unfolding of the cosmic drama of redemption (1 Peter 1:10-12; 1 Peter 1:4; Acts 26:18; Colossians 1:12, etc.).

6. Jacob's Ladder signifies the truth that Jesus exalts His faithful people to their final heavenly state, clothed in glory and honor and immortality, and hence conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29-30), their minds united with the Mind of God in knowledge and their wills united with the will of God in love (1 Corinthians 13:12-13, 1 John 3:2).

The top of Joseph's Ladder reached to heavena striking metaphor of what Christ will do for His saints. Man, in the beginning, was natural; when sin entered his heart and separated him from God, he became unnatural; by grace, through faith, he can become prenatural (a better term for redeemed man than supernatural). Progression in the Spiritual Life is from the Kingdom of Nature through the kingdom of Grace into the Kingdom of Glory (John 3:1-8, 2 Peter 3:18, 1 Corinthians 15:42-54, 2 Peter 1:10-11). Heaven is truly a prepared place for a prepared people. Jesus is now engaged in the great work of bringing many sons into glory (Hebrews 2:10). Immortality is one of the promises (rewards), of the Spiritual Life (Romans 2:7; Romans 8:11; Philippians 3:20-21; 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, etc.). (Immortalityincorruptionis, of course, a term that has reference to the redemption of the body, cf. Romans 8:23). The Christian life is constant growth (2 Peter 1:5-11). In the end, we may stand before the Throne, redeemed in spirit and soul and body, if we continue steadfastly in the love and service of Him who bought us with His own precious blood (Acts 20:28, Philippians 3:20-21, 1 Corinthians 15:51-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18, 1 John 3:2). Our ultimate destiny, as God's saints, is the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 3:5; Revelation 3:12; Revelation 3:21; Revelation 5:9-10).

Heaven is not reached at a single bound:

We build the ladder by which we rise

From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,

And mount to the summit round by round.

That Ladder is Christ; and the rounds are these: faith, courage, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, love (2 Peter 1:5-8). In the bliss of ultimate union with God, faith will become reality, hope will be lost in fruition, and love will be all-fulfilling (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Review Questions

See Genesis 28:20-22.