Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.

Genesis 28:10-11 (NKJV)

Jacob had just fled from his home where he lived with his parents, Isaac and Rebekah. They lived in Beersheba, a small town in the land of Canaan. Their home was near to that of his grandparents, Abraham and Sarah. Now he was running for his life. Why? What had he done? He had not only cheated his brother Esau out of his rightful birthright as the firstborn son of the family, but with Rebekah’s help he had also tricked his father Isaac into laying his hands on his head and declaring over him the Abrahamic blessing. His older brother was furious and had determined to kill him after his father died. Isaac had no choice but to tell him to get away from his brother Esau and travel to the home of his mother’s brother, Laban, who lived in a far-off Syrian town called Haran. From his Uncle Laban’s daughters, he was instructed to choose his bride to be.

So, young and scared, Jacob set out on his journey, carrying nothing but a sack of food, a few clothes and a shepherd’s staff in his hand. Fatigued and weary at the end of a long day’s journey he stopped to make camp for the night. The Bible says that he came to a “certain place.” There was nothing out of the ordinary but just a seemingly random clearing along the dusty well-worn path. The desert ground around him was parched and dry, covered here and there with ragged bushes, rocky terrain and long waving grass. He decided to camp there for the night. Looking around he saw a place on the ground nearby where it was relatively flat and free of gravel. He needed a rock for his head to rest on. There was a large oblong stone that caught his attention. He dragged it over to his makeshift bed and laid it down under his head. Exhausted and sore, he fell fast asleep.

Jacob had been named “Jacob” for a reason. The name Jacob means: “Supplanter” or “Trickster”. He had a huge future destiny, but his life had started off all wrong. God needed to turn him from being a headstrong and mischievous young man who cheated and manipulated his way through life to becoming one who would humbly submit his life to Him. It was not in Jacob’s nature to wait patiently for God to fight his battles, provide all that he needed or protect him. God was about to talk to him on this dark and quiet night, about how his family’s future destiny would impact the nations and bring salvation to the entire Gentile world. The Bible tells us what happened as he slept.

Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:12 (NKJV)

Jacob saw in his dream that although the land he slept upon was just the common dirt of the earth, yet on this plot of land, at this specific geographical place, God had forever joined heaven to earth. And at this “certain place” He established this spiritual ladder. This heavenly ladder allowed God’s angels to descend from the unseen kingdom of heaven above to the natural world of man below. God’s angels were carrying things up into His heavenly realm as well as bringing their celestial parcels back down to man. What they carried, or what their assignments were as they climbed the steps of this ladder we are not told, except to say that Jacob perceived them “ascending and descending on it”.

As we ponder this vision carefully, we will see here the coming together of two distinct universes, both of which were the creations of God’s hands. We see God’s heavenly Kingdom above, bright and glorious, connected with man’s tangible habitation below. Like a great umbilical chord we see these two joined for all time by means of a supernatural ladder, giving eternal access from one kingdom to the other. This shows us clearly that it is the desire of God’s heart that He have access to the world of man, and man to Him, since it was He that established this ladder. Jacob also saw in his dream that God’s kingdom was connected to the earth here in this “certain place”, which he would afterward name as “Bethel”, which meant in his Hebrew tongue, “House of God.” It would be here, to this “certain place”, to Bethel, the place of the everlasting ladder of God, to which he would return twenty years later. God instructed him,

“Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.” Genesis 35:1 (NKJV)

When he obeyed God and returned to Bethel, we read:

Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.” Then God went up from him in the place where He talked with him. So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel. Genesis 35:9-15 (NKJV)