Stairway to Heaven

God promised Abraham that He would make a great nation from Abraham’s descendants.

Step one of the promised nation-building was giving Abraham and his wife Sarah a son, which God did when Abraham was one hundred years old. The son’s name was Isaac. When Isaac was a young man, he married a woman named Rebekah.

When Isaac was sixty years old, Rebekah gave birth to twin boys. They named them Esau and Jacob. Esau was born first. In the culture of that day, the firstborn son was given special privileges, known as the birthright. The birthright included a leadership role in the family, the right to make judicial decisions, a double portion of the father’s inheritance, and a special blessing from the father.

One day Esau returned from hunting, famished. Jacob was cooking a bean stew. He offered to give his brother a bowl of stew in exchange for Esau’s birthright. Esau agreed, which showed how little he cared about his birthright. Later, Jacob posed as his brother to trick his nearly blind father into giving Jacob his special blessing. The blessing gave Jacob divine protection. Whoever cursed him would be cursed by God, and whoever blessed him would receive God’s blessings.

Esau was devastated—and furious—when he learned what his brother had done. He plotted to kill Jacob after their father died. To protect Jacob, Rebekah sent him away until Esau cooled off. While Jacob was on the run, he spent a night in a land named Luz. There, he had a dream in which he saw a stairway that extended from the earth all the way to Heaven. He saw angels going up and down the stairway.

God spoke to him from the top of the stairway. He reaffirmed His covenant with Abraham and reminded Jacob that the land where he slept belonged to him and his descendants.

What Jacob didn’t realize is that God had given him a glimpse of Jesus’ future work. Sin separated humans from God. There was no passageway between earth and Heaven, no hope for eternal life. But Jesus’ sacrifice changed that. He became the stairway to Heaven, the only way to eternal life.

Jesus identified Himself with Jacob’s dream when He said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth” (John 1:51 NLT).

In Genesis 32:9–16, Jacob prayed as he was on his way to make amends with Esau. He acknowledged the God of Abraham and Isaac as the true God. He confessed his own unworthiness. He brought his petition to the Lord. But it would have been better if he had said, “Lord, what should I do now?” Instead, he prayed and made his plans. In other words, he decided what he was going to do and then asked God to bless it.

Is that not like us? We make our plan and then ask God to bless it. But that is not really praying about a matter. Instead, we should pray along the lines of “Lord, give me wisdom from Your Word and from godly people who will guide me scripturally. Help me do the right thing.” But Jacob did not do that. He wanted what was right, but he went about it in the wrong way.

God helps those who can’t help themselves. This is what Jacob needed to realize. Let’s learn to seek out God’s will rather than bypass it.

Reflection Question: How do you feel about the claim that there are many different paths that lead to God? Discuss this with believers like you on Harvest Discipleship!

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