Jacob’s Ladder

Jacob, fleeing his brother Esau, came to a place called Luz. Luz means “Almond”. Jacob had just swindled his brother out of the paternal blessing, and also the right of firstborn. All of Jacob’s journey to and fro was two dimensional, and concerned with the affairs of this life unfolding upon the face of the earth, as lichen grows on a boulder.

When Jacob came to Luz, the day was spent, and he lay down to sleep, using the stones of the place for his pillows. Using stone for head rests was a common thing in many places in history. As Jacob rested his neck upon the stone and slept, Jacob saw in a dream, a ladder reaching to heaven, and the messengers of God ascending and descending upon it. This revelation was a departure from horizontal going to and fro on the face of the earth, from one figurative shadow to another. When Jacob awoke, he declared the place to be the “house of God and the gate of heaven”. He anointed the stone his head had rested upon, and called the place “Luz, which is Beth El”… “the Almond which is the house of God”.

There is a place where the Apostle Paul wrote and touched upon these things. In the book of Hebrews, Paul addressed the bitter feud between Esau and Jacob, in which Esau was deprived of certain familial places of inheritance. Isaac, blessed Esau in faith, saying to him that, when he shall have the dominion, he will break his brother’s (Jacob) yoke from off his neck”.

Paul wrote:

[Heb 11:20 KJV] 20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

Having given both the blessing and birthright to Jacob, things which in the shadow and likeness of things that they were, they were irreversible. As long as Esau and Jacob strove in the shadows, what Jacob had done could not be undone. He would always reign over Esau. So, what are the “things to come” that Paul recognized fulfilled what Isaac saw? The resurrection. And to be exact, it is by faith in Christ who would come, that true and eternal inheritance could be won. Not the horizontal squabbling over things in the earth and this life, and who was superior to whom in this life, but the vision of the Kingdom of God and ascendancy that centers in Christ, who is without dispute, the heir of all the promises of God, and the One Seed of promise, of whom God spake to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jesus is the heir of all things, and now by faith, whether of Esau or Jacob, or of any of the seed of flesh on the earth, all may by faith in Him, be a joint heir with Him. This is what Isaac saw, and this is what he believed in blessing Esau and Jacob.

In the course of time, Jacob would take wives and concubines, and produce sons. And one son, Joseph, would be sold into slavery in Egypt, by his envious brothers, who hated him because of dreams he had. They did not understand the dreams, which likened Jacob, Rachel and the 11 sons, to the sun, moon and twelve stars. Also the twelve sons were revealed as twelve sheaves being bound. In the dreams, the sun, moon and stars paid homage to Joseph’s star, and the eleven sheaves of his brothers paid homage to Joseph’s sheaf. The dreams do not become clear until Joseph is cast into a pit to die, but is raised out of the pit, a figure of resurrection, and Joseph goes into Egypt where he eventually becomes ruler. All bread is in his hand. Though his household did eventually come and bow before Joseph, the real meaning of all this was realized in Christ, who rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father. Joseph’s dreams were not unlike Jacob’s dream of the ladder. Joseph’s dreams were of higher things than the order of things in a family, who were living in a shadow of things to come. Joseph’s dreams were of the one seed who would fulfill all the promises. The “sheaf” or “word” of this superior vision stood. It still stands. And every star, and the sun and the moon dim and pale in the blazing light of the resurrection. No shadow can ever hope to outshine that which it points to.

While Joseph was in Egypt, there was a famine in the earth. Jacob sent money and gifts into Egypt to buy grain from Pharaoh…or so he thought. It was in fact Joseph with whom he dealt unwittingly. Among the gifts sent into Egypt, into Joseph’s hand, were some Almonds. And generations later, a branch descended of that gift, would be cut off of the tree and made into a staff. That staff in the hand of Aaron would be instrumental in leading the children out of Egypt. In settling a question of leadership, that rod would be raised, bear a crop of seed, and in that state, enter into the tabernacle, into the holiest place, and be place in the ark of the testimonies which God gave.

Paul would later write of certain things signified by the Spirit of God, in the precise ordering of the tabernacle. Paul wrote that while priests ministered to the house, day in and day out, in sacrifices and offerings that could never purge the conscience of sin, the High Priest entered once a year, and once a year only, to offer for the sins of himself and the people. Remember that Jesus, our High Priest, while He Himself knew no sin, yet He became sin, our sin, that we, in Him, could become the righteousness of God. Paul wrote that the Holy Ghost signified in this arrangement, that as long as the order of things in the holy place, the place of the candlestick, as long as this is going on, the way into the holiest is not manifest. It is not seen. The “way” is not in never ending reenactments, never ending ritualistic offerings which do not deliver the conscience of the awareness of sin (or else the mind delivered would not return to the ritual). The way, the gate of heaven that Jacob saw in that Almond grove so many years ago, is revealed. It is to be buried with Christ and to be raised with Him in faith. Only by entering with Him can one enter at all. The candlestick of the Holy place was a man made effigy of a fruiting Almond tree. The resurrected Almond, and the generation it bore in resurrection, was a REAL almond. It really was cut off from a tree and died. And it really and truly was raised. Yet even it was not the fulfillment of all promises, dreams and visions. Christ is. For Christ is not entered into the house built with men’s hands, but is entered into the heavens themselves.

This may sound peculiar, but then, it is written that we are a peculiar people. But if you will consider it, you, by faith, if indeed you receive it in faith, are signified and identified by one of the almonds on that raised branch. In you, in faith and in heavenly places, is written all of the complete genetic inheritance of the Almond that fell to the earth and died, that it might not abide alone. In that good seed of the Kingdom of God, is given you power to become sons of God, who are the children of the resurrection (the gender of your tent is irrelevant). Do not let anything mingle with that vision, let no man steal that crown, let nothing, but nothing, tamper in any way with the vision of Christ in you, the hope of glory. From the moment it was birthed in you, in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, the world and it’s prince have been all about stealing or dwarfing it.

[Rev 22:12-21 KJV] 12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 14 Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 15 For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. 16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star. 17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book. 20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you all. Amen.