The story of Jacob’s dream in which he sees a ladder to heaven takes place as he is on the run from his brother Esau. Jacob was the younger of the two, and in the previous chapter he had stolen his brother’s birthright. Inheritance in this culture was based on primogenitor, or firstborn. For Esau and Jacob, this also meant being personally blessed by their father Isaac. Jacob, with help from his mother Rebekah, had fooled Isaac into blessing him instead. Jacob had fled, also at his mother’s advice, when Esau vowed to killed him. And then…
v.10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Gen 28:10-17 ESV
In the verses that follow, Jacob changes the name of the place to Bethel, literally the “House of God.” He vows to God that is he is blessed, he will return a full tenth of all he receives.
Describing Jacob’s dream is easy. Explaining what it means can be something else entirely. In the first place we probably imagine a ladder as being very upright with metal rungs, like one might use to climb onto the roof. A better translation from the Hebrew might be staircase. The angels would simply be walking up and down steps rather than climbing in this case. If you recall, the Tower of Babel may have very well been a Mesopotamian ziggurat rather than what we think of as a tower. Jacob’s “ladder” may have been akin to the steps leading up the steep sides of a ziggurat, rather than a vertical ladder like we might climb today.
Jewish scholars interpret Jacob’s dream differently than Christians. One allegory is a prediction of the exile, the angels ascent and decent implying periods of captivity and freedom. The place where Jacob has his dream is the future site of the temple, and the ladder he envisions connects heaven to earth itself. For the Jews, the Temple is the place where God meets humanity. The Temple represents the literal presence of God, and the mercy seat is the point of contact – as close as the Jews ever came – between God and man. For Christians, the point of contact between God and man is Jesus Christ. He is a more perfect sacrifice than the blood of lambs and birds, and he is a better high priest. Sacrificial temple worship is all about symbols and metaphors for the work done by Jesus in the New Covenant. In John 1:51 Jesus identifies himself as the ladder linking heaven and earth. Clearly he is referring to the Jacob’s ladder story in this passage.
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I found this article on Wikipedia very helpful, as well as the ESV Study Bible.
