The Stairway to Heaven is a Person Text: Genesis 28:10-22
Introduction: The Fugitive Prince
We come now to a central moment in the life of one of the patriarchs, a man who is, shall we say, a complicated figure. Jacob is on the run. He is a fugitive, fleeing from the righteous anger of his brother Esau, whom he has just swindled out of his birthright and blessing. He is a trickster, a supplanter, a heel-grabber, as his name suggests. He is not, at this point in the narrative, a man you would point to as a sterling example of godly character. He is heading out into the wilderness, alone, with nothing but the clothes on his back and a staff in his hand. He is leaving the promised land, heading back to the old country his grandfather Abraham had left generations before. By all human standards, this is a story of failure, of family implosion, of a man whose sins have finally caught up to him.
But this is precisely the kind of situation where God loves to show up. God's grace is not attracted to our moral resume. His favor does not depend on our prior performance. God consistently chooses the unlikely, the unimpressive, and the undeserving. He chose Abram, an idolater from Ur. He chose Isaac, not Ishmael. And now, He sovereignly reaffirms His choice of Jacob, not Esau. This is what we have called God's "covenantal juke move." Just when you think the line of promise will go the predictable way, the respectable way, God cuts in another direction. He does this to show that salvation is of the Lord, from start to finish. It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
So here is Jacob, a cheat and a liar, sleeping on the hard ground with a rock for a pillow. He is in the middle of nowhere, a place called Luz, which means "separation." He is cut off, alone, and vulnerable. And it is here, in this place of desolation, that God rips open the heavens and shows him the reality that undergirds everything. This is not just a quaint story about a man having a vivid dream. This is a foundational revelation of how a holy God condescends to dwell with sinful men. It is a revelation of the gospel.
The Text
Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down in that place. Then he had a dream, and behold, a ladder stood on the earth with its top touching heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, Yahweh stood above it and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your seed. And your seed will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. And I will bring you back to this land; for I will not forsake you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How fearsome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So Jacob rose early in themorning and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. And he called the name of that place Bethel; however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey on which I am going, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in peace, then Yahweh will be my God. Now this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”
(Genesis 28:10-22 LSB)
A Divine Interruption (vv. 10-12)
We begin with Jacob, the lonely traveler.
"Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down in that place. Then he had a dream, and behold, a ladder stood on the earth with its top touching heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it." (Genesis 28:10-12)
Jacob is not on a spiritual retreat. He is not seeking a vision. He is simply exhausted and trying to get some sleep. He finds a "certain place," which sounds utterly unremarkable. He grabs a stone for a pillow, which sounds utterly uncomfortable. Everything about this scene is mundane, gritty, and bleak. This is important. God's grace is not reserved for the cathedral; it breaks into the ordinary, the messy, the uncomfortable realities of our lives. When you are at your lowest, when you feel most alone and forgotten, that is often when the heavens are about to open.
And what does he see? "Behold, a ladder." The word can also be translated as a stairway or a ramp, like the ones that led up to ancient ziggurats. But unlike the Tower of Babel, which was man's arrogant attempt to build a stairway to heaven from the bottom up, this ladder is established from the top down. It is set on the earth, but its top reaches heaven. This is a divine initiative. God is the one who bridges the gap between heaven and earth. Man cannot ascend to God on his own terms; God must descend to man.
On this ladder, angels are "ascending and descending." Notice the order. They are ascending first, and then descending. This suggests they were already on earth, on assignment, and are now reporting back to the throne before being sent out again. This reveals a universe humming with activity. The spiritual realm is not static. God has His messengers, His agents, constantly at work in the world, carrying out His purposes, protecting His people. Jacob thought he was alone, but he was actually sleeping in the middle of a spiritual highway, a hub of cosmic traffic.
The Unconditional Covenant (vv. 13-15)
At the top of this stairway, the true revelation appears.
"And behold, Yahweh stood above it and said, 'I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your seed... I am with you and will keep you wherever you go... for I will not forsake you until I have done what I have promised you.'" (Genesis 28:13-15)
This is the central point. The ladder is not the main event; the God who stands above it is. He introduces Himself as the covenant-keeping God, Yahweh. He is the God of Abraham and Isaac. He is not a generic deity; He is the God of this particular family, with all its dysfunctions. God is reiterating and confirming the covenant promises to this undeserving fugitive. Notice the promises are all unconditional. God says "I will give," "I will keep," "I will bring you back," "I will not forsake you." There are no "ifs" attached to these statements. God is not saying, "Jacob, if you clean up your act, I will bless you." He is saying, "Jacob, because I am a God who keeps His promises, I am going to bless you, and I am going to use you, and I am going to change you."
This is the essence of grace. God's covenant love is not a response to our worthiness; it is the source of it. He promises Jacob land, seed as numerous as the dust, and a global blessing: "in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed." This is the proto-gospel, the promise that will find its ultimate fulfillment in Jacob's descendant, Jesus Christ. And then comes the most personal and comforting promise for a man in Jacob's position: "Behold, I am with you." This is the promise of the divine presence. Jacob is not alone. He never was. God's presence is not a feeling; it is a fact, grounded in His covenant promise.
The Proper Response: Fear and Worship (vv. 16-19)
Jacob's reaction is entirely appropriate. He wakes up, and he is terrified.
"Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it.' And he was afraid and said, 'How fearsome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.'" (Genesis 28:16-17)
His first realization is a profound one: "Yahweh is in this place, and I did not know it." This is the confession of a man whose eyes have been opened to reality. We live and move and have our being in God, yet we are often completely oblivious to His presence. We think some places are "sacred" and others are "secular." But for the Christian, all ground is holy ground because God is omnipresent. The issue is not His absence, but our blindness.
This realization does not lead to warm, fuzzy feelings. It leads to fear. "How fearsome is this place!" This is not the cowering fear of a criminal before a judge, but the awe-filled terror of a creature before the Creator. It is the beginning of wisdom. Our therapeutic, sentimental age has tried to domesticate God, to make Him a safe, cosmic buddy. But to truly encounter the living God is a fearsome, dreadful, awe-inspiring thing. It reorients your entire universe.
Jacob rightly identifies the place as "the house of God" (Bethel) and "the gate of heaven." Where God condescends to meet man, that is God's house. It is the portal, the connection point. His response is worship. He takes the stone he slept on, this instrument of his discomfort, and makes it a pillar, an altar. He anoints it with oil, consecrating it to God. He turns a common object into a memorial of a holy encounter. This is what worship does. It takes the stuff of our ordinary lives and sets it apart for God, acknowledging His claim on everything.
A Clumsy Vow (vv. 20-22)
Finally, we have Jacob's vow. And here, we see that while Jacob has had a genuine encounter with God, he is still Jacob.
"Then Jacob made a vow, saying, 'If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey... and I return to my father’s house in peace, then Yahweh will be my God. Now this stone... will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.'" (Genesis 28:20-22)
This is a clumsy, immature, bargaining kind of faith. It is full of "ifs." "If God does all this for me, then Yahweh will be my God." This is the language of a contractor, not a son. God has just given him a string of unconditional "I wills," and Jacob responds with a conditional "if... then." He is still thinking transactionally. He promises to tithe, which is good, but it is framed as part of a deal. He is still the heel-grabber, trying to get a handle on God, trying to manage the transaction.
And yet, God accepts it. God meets us where we are. He doesn't despise the day of small beginnings. Jacob's faith is flawed, but it is faith. He is taking God at His word, albeit clumsily. He is responding. And God will spend the next twenty years in Haran working on this man, chiseling away his self-reliance, teaching him to trust the promise, not the deal. He will leave Haran with a limp, a new name, and a faith that has been refined in the fire. God takes our flawed, fumbling vows and uses them to draw us closer to Himself.
The Ladder is Christ
Now, we must not leave this story in the distant past. The New Testament gives us the key to unlock its ultimate meaning. Centuries later, Jesus finds Nathanael, a man in whom there is no guile, unlike Jacob. After a remarkable display of His divine knowledge, Jesus says this to him: "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man" (John 1:51).
Do not miss this. Jesus takes this vision from Genesis 28 and applies it directly to Himself. Jesus is the ladder. He is the stairway. He is the connection point, the gate of heaven, the house of God. He is the only way that heaven comes down to earth and the only way that man can go up to heaven. He is the mediator. The traffic of heaven, the communion between God and man, all of it happens "on the Son of Man."
When Jacob had his dream, he saw a thing, a ladder. But Jesus tells us that the reality is a person. The way to God is not a system, not a religion, not a set of moral achievements. The way to God is the God-man, Jesus Christ. He is the one whose feet are planted in the dust of this earth through His incarnation, and whose head reaches into the highest heaven through His divinity and ascension. He is our Bethel.
Like Jacob, we are all fugitives, running from our sin, sleeping in a world of hard stones. We are spiritually in Luz, a place of separation. And God breaks in, not with a dream of a ladder, but with the reality of His Son. He comes to us and makes the same unconditional promises. "I am with you. I will keep you. I will not forsake you." He does not wait for us to get our act together. While we were yet sinners, Christ, the ladder, came down for us.
And our response must be the same as Jacob's, but matured in the light of the gospel. We must awaken to the reality that God is here, in Christ, and we did not know it. We must respond with fear and awe at the holiness of a God who would die for tricksters like us. We must set up pillars in our lives, memorials of His grace. And we must vow our allegiance, not as a bargain, but as a grateful response. We say, "Because you have been with me, because you have kept me, because you have given me everything in Christ, You are my God. Because You own everything, I will gladly give back a tenth as a tribute, acknowledging that You own it all." The stairway to heaven is not a structure we build. It is a Person we trust.