Good morning, saints. Today we are in Genesis 28, starting with verse 10. I can go ahead and read it. Verse 10 to the end of the chapter. It says here, 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. 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. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie. I will give to you and your descendants. Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth. You shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and 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 will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. 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. Then Jacob rose early in the morning and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel. But the name of that city had been Luz previously. Then Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I am going and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to you." This is the word of the Lord. And there is so much in this text that I won't even be able to begin to get into. I will only be able to scratch the surface of many of these things. I have, in fact, been meditating some of these truths found in this passage because in Dominguez I am going through John again and we are in John 1 and at the end of John 1 there's a passage that corresponds with this text. And there in Dominguez I don't teach with notes normally so I tend to go off on many tangents and sometimes I'm worried that I will confuse people because I get into some topics more deeply than I probably should. Thankfully today I am constrained by my notes, but there is a lot to see here in the text. We have come to this well-known story of Jacob and his divine encounter at Bethel. Entire songs have been written about this, or about Jacob's ladder. Many are familiar with this episode. But before we get into the text, a little background and recap is in order. If you remember, Jacob is in a dire situation, a situation that is largely a result of his own sin, almost entirely a result of his sin. Jacob, the heel catcher, the supplanter, the deceiver, has manipulated, contrived, schemed, and deceived his way into receiving the blessing of his father. And as we may know already by this point, the blessing of the patriarchs was very important. Receiving his father's blessing is essential in this story because it has to do with what? With the Abrahamic Covenant. It has to do with the promises given to Abraham. God had promised to make of Abraham a great nation, a father of many nations. He had promised to multiply him exceedingly, make him very fruitful and multiply him. He had promised to bless the whole world through his seed. And Isaac inherited these promises from his father. And next in line here would be Jacob. As we see back in Genesis 25, Even before the twins were born, Esau and Jacob, God had elected Jacob. He had not elected Esau. This was prior to them having done anything, good or evil. God revealed, at least, that He had elected Jacob there in Genesis 25, before they were born. But in this story, this is going to pass. This is certainly going to pass. Jacob is the one, the baton is going to be passed to Jacob. But the problem here in this story is that no one in this family seemed to trust in the Lord to make this come to pass. We have on the one hand Esau, who was a profane fornicator. He had no regard for the holy things of God. He didn't even care about his birthright. Then we have Isaac. Instead of believing God and believing that God wanted Jacob, to be the next in line to receive these blessings, the blessings of Abraham, to be the receptor of the promise. He favored Esau. And he wanted to bless Esau. He was about to bless Esau before his death as he was old. Then we have Rebecca. She tried to take the promise into her own hands through intrigue and cunning. And we have finally Jacob. He doesn't demonstrate in the narrative that he cares anything about the Lord. He seems to want the blessing for selfish gain. He has been elected by God, and yet we see in the text that he is no better than Esau. Election is not based on what we do. It's based on the grace of God. Both Esau and Jacob were hell-deserving sinners. They deserve the wrath of God. For me, it's not a wonder that God did not choose Esau, it's a wonder that God chose Jacob. It's a wonder that God elects any to salvation. But God chose this man Jacob, and Jacob didn't care about God. He was a sinner like Esau, and yet he was chosen. And we see in the narrative that he had gone along with his mother's plan and he had tricked his father. He had pretended to be Esau and in that way he got his elderly father to bless him. He managed to supplant his brother. And for this he incurs the wrath of Esau. Esau now plans to kill him. So he is sent to Paddan Aram, the land where his relatives live, to find a wife from their family, the family of his uncle Laban. In doing this, he will get out of Esau's way, hopefully enough until Esau has calmed down. That's the idea. And also, he will find a wife, of course, which is essential in the story as well. And here, when we get to this text, by this point, a certain level of suspense in the narrative. There is uncertainty. There are issues that need to be resolved. The perpetuation of God's covenant promises is at stake. Jacob is the inheritor of these glorious promises, but how will they be fulfilled? He needs, first, not to get killed by his brother. Secondly, he needs a wife. progeny, he needs to get married, and then who will be his wife? He doesn't need just any wife as we've seen already in the text, he needs a godly wife. And moreover, Jacob needs to be godly himself. Up until now, Jacob has only demonstrated ungodliness. But the seed in whom the world will be blessed needs to come from a believing community. If Jacob and his wife don't believe in the promises given to Abraham, then they will not want to continue that. They won't care about that. They won't care about God and His promises. And the line will end right there and the seed won't come. So, one of the major questions we come to, and the reader comes to in this text, How will all this occur? How will Jacob evade death? How will Jacob find a wife? How will Jacob himself be transformed in order to believe in the God of Abraham? And we begin to get the answer in the text that we just read. In spite of his sinfulness, God is working in Jacob's heart. The Lord draws near to him in an awesome and astounding way And we could divide this text into four parts, all under the heading, Jacob's Encounter with God. First, we see the place of the encounter. Secondly, the dream of the encounter. Third of all, the promise of the encounter. And finally, the response to the encounters. So let's break up this text into those parts and see it. First off, the place of the encounter. We see this in verses 10 to 11. There's something significant here. Verse 10 tells us that he went from Beersheba toward Haran. This is the same area as Paddan Aram, the same vicinity. And he's taken a journey of 550 miles on foot. That is impressive in and of itself. But what's significant here is that Haran was the place where Abraham was called out of. So Jacob is essentially retracing Abraham's journey but in reverse. He's doing the opposite of Abraham. Abraham came out of Haran and went into the Promised Land. He's going back to Haran. And while Abraham's journey from Haran was a journey of faith to the Promised Land, Jacob's journey to Haran is a journey of exile. He will be there for a couple decades and then he will return. And we must consider the significance of this in light of the original audience of Genesis, who was the original audience? Israel. Where was Israel likely reading this or where were they going to hear about this when they were in the wilderness? And they see here, they would be reading here that the Lord took Jacob. Jacob went to this land of Haran. He was in exile, so to speak. And then brought him back, brought him back into the land. There are parallels between the story of Jacob and the story of Israel, right? Israel would also be brought into the promised land. So this was to give encouragement to Israel. Jacob here is like a type of Israel foreshadowing what is to come. And as he will be brought back into the land, Israel will be brought back and they are to be encouraged by this account. They are to see the parallels there. This is to inspire faith in the Israelites. And verse 11 sets the stage for what's about to happen here with Jacob. It tells us there that it's night time. And Jacob stopped somewhere to sleep. And according to the verse there, it tells us that he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head. Seemingly, he uses one of the stones there as a pillow. That's not a very comfortable pillow. Nevertheless, this is what he seems to do. There are some commentators that point out that He may have just put it near his head as protection somehow, not very clear there. I kind of lean toward the pillow explanation. But regardless, this is all setting the stage for his encounter with God. Something is about to happen. This mention of night is not incidental. This is actually reminding us of his situation. Night time, especially for The people living in that area in those times had to do with what? With danger. Especially if they were all alone. Being all alone at night in the wilderness is not only not fun, but it's not safe. And this description of the night matches Jacob's situation and his present condition. There's a sense of foreboding here. Jacob has left home. He's traveling all alone in a place he doesn't know with his brother behind waiting to kill him. And for those of us who know the story that lies ahead, Laban is before him. He will meet up soon with Laban and Laban will exploit him. So, this description of darkness matches his present condition. He is in danger on all sides. It also matches the condition of his mind and heart. He would later refer to this moment in Genesis 35.3 as the day of my distress. He is in distress. He is not in a happy mood here. He is worried. He is fearful. He is insecure. He is vulnerable. He is anxious. Furthermore, I haven't read this in any commentary, but this description of nighttime reminds me of Genesis 15, verse 12 and following. You remember when God comes to Abraham, and then it tells us there in verse 12 that the sun goes down. Abraham falls into a deep sleep. Great darkness falls upon him. And the Lord speaks to Abraham of his posterity being enslaved for 400 years, but then rescued. Again, it's kind of a parallel here, and Jacob's life is kind of a parallel there to what will happen to Israel. And that takes place in the setting of night, nighttime. So that, you know, if you're reading Genesis from beginning to end, that might be God alerting us. Something's about to happen here, just like it happened to Abraham during the night. Something is about to happen here. God is about to act, and in verse 11, it tells us that He came to a certain place. Now, we're not told specifically where He came to until later on in this text. It tells us that the place was named Luz, and Jacob renames it to Bethel, but for now, it's an unnamed location. And he seems to have no idea that it was around here that his grandfather Abraham had built an altar to the Lord, in Genesis 12.8, around that area. He seems to be oblivious to that fact, the significance of where he is or what's about to happen. And the fact that he doesn't know what's about to happen is reflected also in the verb came. It tells us that he came to a certain place. This denotes a random, unexpected rendezvous. He just happened to arrive there. It wasn't purposeful, it wasn't intentional, it was almost accidental. He just comes to this place randomly He's not expecting to meet God. He's not looking for God. This is what we must realize, brethren. He is not looking for God. But God comes down. God comes to him. That's what we'll see right now in a few moments. God comes down to Jacob. This is an act of divine condescension. And as I so often preach when I go out downtown, what is the difference between false man-made religion and the religion of the Scriptures and true Christianity, what the Bible says. Man-made religion wants to ascend up to God. Right? The Scripture says, do not say in your heart, who will ascend up to Heaven to bring Christ down? The Bible tells us. It's not about us trying to reach salvation through our efforts. It's God Himself coming down and meeting with us, condescending with us. And we were not looking for Him. No one seeks after God. We were not looking for God. Jacob was not looking for God. God was looking for him. For Jacob, this is a random location. Not for God. This is part of God's providential plan. He is in the right place at the right time in God's timing. And wasn't it the same for us? Many of us? We were not looking for God. We were not looking for Him. We may have been at a random place. We didn't plan to be there. Someone came and shared the Gospel with us. We were not expecting it. Many people downtown, they're not expecting to hear the Gospel. Very few people are waiting for someone to come and tell them about Jesus Christ. They're just passing by. They're going about their business. Trying to have fun. Trying to entertain themselves. Relax. Have a nice time downtown. And they're hit with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For some of them, I hope and I pray that it is by God's appointment. Like Jacob, they were there randomly and yet God met with them. That's my constant prayer, that God would meet with people there, that God would save people. But this is what God does. And God condescends with Jacob. So we see the location, the place of the encounter. Now we move on to the dream of the encounter. or the dream that takes place within this encounter. The God of Abraham and Isaac comes to him in a dream. Verses 12 to 13, we see this. He dreams and it tells us, now notice here in these verses, there are three beholds. First, behold the ladder. Second, behold the angels. I know that the New King James omits the word behold there. In verse 12, it just says, and they're the angels of God, and the Hebrew says, behold. It's reflected in the King James and other versions. Behold the ladder first. Secondly, behold the angels. Third, in verse 13, behold the Lord. God is alerting us. This is very important. It's like trumpets blasting. This is so important. Pay attention to this. There is a ladder that comes down. There are angels ascending and descending. And the Lord Himself is there. And notice that what we see in verses 12-13 is none other than a union of heaven and earth. Heaven and Earth are united. That's what Eden was like prior to the fall. Heaven and Earth were united. Eden was the temple or the place of the habitation of God, where God dwelt, where God walked with man. And not only God was there, these heavenly beings were also there. We can surmise that. We can make a strong case for that, that these heavenly beings were ascending and descending. You say, how do you know? Well, there are many texts we can look at. One of them is Ezekiel 28. There's a description there of the garden. It's talking about the king of Tyre, but there's allusions to the garden and to Eden. It talks to us there about the anointed cherub in the garden, the fiery stones, which is a reference to these heavenly beings. And then we have in Genesis, we see how the serpent talks to Eve and Eve is not shocked. I envision and imagine the serpent not just like an animal but also some glorious being. Satan masquerades as an angel of light. She doesn't seem to be shocked by the serpent talking to her. And then in Genesis 3, further on, we see the cherubim. So it would seem that Eden was a place where angels were ascending and descending. Heaven and earth overlapped. But due to the fall, there was a terrible rift that occurred. Man is separated from God. But in this dream, heaven and earth are united again. And they are united by this ladder. Now, some translations say ladder, other translations say stairway. Which is it? Ladder or stairway? Well, this Hebrew word, tzulam, means a flight of steps and could be referring to either. But I would agree with many scholars that the most likely interpretation is that they were the kind of steps found in ancient ziggurats. Now a ziggurat was in those times a pyramid-like structure, a step pyramid. They would have this huge stairway in the middle that would join all the levels of this pyramid. And at the top there would be a temple where they would make contact with the gods, or attempt to make contact with the gods. And they are found all over the world. We see them here even in the Americas, in every ancient culture, or many ancient cultures at the very least. And they're especially found all over the ancient Near East. And this is what scholars conclude was the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. It wasn't a skyscraper, as we might imagine it. They didn't exist back then. It was in all likelihood a ziggurat with steps going all the way up. And there in Genesis 11, the point of the Tower of Babel was not to literally touch heaven, but they wanted to make a name for themselves and they wanted to make contact with the divine. They wanted to make contact with the heavenly beings, with the gods. It was man's rebellious attempt to spiritually ascend, to find purpose and meaning and significance and security and salvation apart from God. It was man's attempt to bridge heaven and earth on his own terms, apart from God. And this dream here has likely given us a similar image to what the Tower of Babel was, a stairway, a stairway of a ziggurat. In fact, the Hebrew word Sulam is related to an Akkadian word. Akkadian is the language of ancient Mesopotamia. It's related to an Akkadian word similtu, that means stairway. And, by the way, the Akkadian word for Babel means gate of the gods. That's very interesting. One ziggurat ruin found in Iraq was called the Temple of the Stairway to Pure Heaven. And ziggurats had those types of names. They were viewed as temples, a connection with heaven. The gate into heaven. And, returning to Babel in Genesis 11, man had attempted to ascend up to God's abode, making a name for themselves. And what did God do? God judged them. He dispersed them through the languages given. And in the very next chapter, what does God do? God condescends with Abraham. And He tells Abraham, I will make a name for you. Man's attempt to make a name for himself failed. Utterly failing. Man was judged. But then God condescends with Abraham and says, I'll make a name for you. And He promises all these glorious promises of a people and blessing for the world through the seed. God comes down to Abraham. And this is the same thing that we see here. God comes down to Jacob. just as he did with Abraham. And the Hebrew language here would suggest that this is not meant to be looked at as a stairway that's going up, rather it's coming down. It's God coming down, the stairway not to heaven, but from heaven. We are not climbing the stairway, contrary to what a famous song might say. We're not climbing Jacob's ladder here. God is coming down. God is coming down from the stairway. And angels appear here because they are part of the Lord's heavenly court. They are part of God's divine counsel. They are with God, worshipping Him, privy to God's providential acts, even privy to God's creative acts in the beginning of Genesis. And they are also communicators of God's revelation. You remember what the Word of God later on tells us, that the law was given by disposition of angels. There were angels there as God was giving the law at Sinai. Angels helped to reveal God's will. And they are also ministering spirits sent to serve the saints. And I think all of that is conveyed by their appearance here. Angels ascending and descending on this ladder or stairway. A portal has been opened up to heaven. And they are coming down. They are like divine mailmen delivering God's truth and protecting. They are there to protect Jacob. And they are there for the preservation of the promise of God. The Abrahamic promise. And in verse 13, it tells us, and behold, the Lord stood above it. Now here, I think that. Here as well, there would be a. There's a better way to translate this phrase, a better translation would be the Lord stood beside him. This Hebrew word translated as it is masculine and can very well be referring to Jacob. And the Hebrew preposition translated as above can also mean beside. In fact, that's why some translations say the Lord stood beside him. And this exact same Hebrew language, these words are used in Genesis 35.13 where it mentions that the Lord went up from beside Jacob. So I think we can make a strong case here as well that it would be better translated a different way. The Lord stood beside him. And that would make sense in the light of the context. God tells him in verse 15, I am with you. And Jacob realizes that the Lord was in this place, not just up there in heaven, on top of the stairway. He was here in this place. He calls this place Bethel, the house of God. So the image and emphasis here I would submit to you is not one of transcendence. God is all the way up there, unreachable in the heavens. but is one of imminence. God has come down. God has come down from the stairway. He has come down to man. He has come down to be with Jacob. To reveal Himself to him. To be with him, to protect him, and to save him. To advance his kingdom and its purposes through him. So this is what this dream is conveying. We see the promise of the encounter. The promise given here by God. Starting with verse 13, on to verse 15. He says, God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie, I will give to you and your descendants. Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth. You shall spread abroad to the west and to the east, 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 will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you. The promise. We can call it promises, but promise singular comprises many of these smaller promises there. This is comprised of many elements here as we read. God reiterates to Jacob first what he told Abraham. The promise of the land. The promise of descendants being fruitful and multiplying, spreading all over the world. The promise of blessing for the earth. through the seed, the seed of Abraham. As we know from the New Testament, talking about one, the seed. And this seed would come not only through Abraham, through Isaac, also through Jacob. Jacob himself. So this is passed down. Passed down unto him. This is what Isaac had wished and prayed for. Concerning Jacob earlier in the chapter, remember, he says in verse three, starting there, may God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may be an assembly of peoples and give you the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham. This is what Isaac prays over and wishes upon Jacob. And God is reiterating this. He says, I will surely make this come to pass. Jacob, you are receiving the baton. You are the inheritor of these promises. I'm going to do great things through you. I have a wonderful plan for your life. Regardless of how that expression is used nowadays. That's essentially what he tells Jacob. I have a wonderful plan for your life. You are part of my redemptive plan. Confirming the promise of Abraham and the covenant of Abraham. And in verse 15, he gives this amazing, amazing promise. Behold, I am with you. I am with you. And I will keep you wherever you go. So God promises His presence to be with him. He promises to protect him, to keep him wherever he will go. He promises to bring him back to the land there in the same verse. and promises to do everything that He has spoken and not leave Him. God's presence, God's power, God's protection, God's faithfulness. This is what's promised to Jacob. And there's so much I could say about this because this is a promise that is reiterated everywhere. We see it in the patriarchs. We see it down the line with Israel. God says, I am with you. We see this promise through the prophets, major prophets and the minor prophets in post-exilic times. For example, in Haggai, God says, I am with you. He's reiterating the promise. I am with you. I'm going to do that which I have designed. And finally, this promise comes. It's handed to us, brethren. The same promise given to the patriarchs, given to Israel, is handed down to us. The true spiritual line of Abraham. the true descendants of Abraham by faith. I am with you. That's what Jesus says in the Great Commission, Matthew 28. I am with you always, even to the ends of the age. I am with you. He has promised us His presence. And if we have His presence, we have nothing to fear. We have His presence. It's glorious to know that we ourselves are the inheritors of this. It's passed down to us, God's covenant people. And therefore, we know that God will fulfill His purposes in us through His church. He will advance His kingdom. And He will have dominion in all the earth. And everything as promised will come to pass. Because He is with us. He is working in us. So next, and finally, We see the response to the encounter. We see how Jacob responds in verses 16-17. It tells us there that Jacob awoke from his sleep and he says, surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. Again, he wasn't expecting this. He wasn't even thinking about God. He wasn't even conscious of God. And yet God comes down. The Lord was in this place. After waking up, he realizes he has met God. Even if it was a dream, God was there. God was there. And notice how he reacts in verse 17. He was afraid. He says, how awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. This is the house of God. This is the dwelling place of God. This is a gate into heaven, a portal into heaven. But notice, it says he was afraid. How does man react when he comes into contact with a holy God? What is the instinctive reaction of man to God's, not only His holiness, His might, His power, His transcendence. Even His goodness. Everything that God is. How does He react? Man is afraid. Fearful. I mean, just read about the encounters of other saints in the presence of God. Read about Isaiah. Daniel. Ezekiel. Even John in the book of Revelation. How did they react? They fell to their face. John falls to his feet as dead. That is the instinctive reaction of man. And God has to strengthen man in order for man to be there, remain in his presence. What does he tell John? Jesus Christ touches John and says, fear not. Why? Because he was afraid. He has to strengthen him with grace in order not to be afraid in his presence. John had a revelation of the almighty nature of the living Christ. And so many other saints in their encounters with God, they fall to their faces. You say, but God is love. Yes, He is. And I praise God. It's such a glorious thing that we can encounter His love in His presence. But, the instinctive reaction of man when he comes to meet God is to fall on his face, is to be afraid. Let's say you come into contact with a huge grizzly bear. Let's say you meet a grizzly bear. You're face to face with a grizzly bear. I don't care how loving and nice and tame that grizzly bear might be. Maybe someone filed down all his teeth and he doesn't have sharp nails. Maybe he's just like a pet. It doesn't matter. You come face-to-face with a grizzly bear, you are going to be afraid. That's going to be your instinctive reaction. You will indeed be terrified. And what's greater, a grizzly bear or God? We even see the very disciples who are with Jesus Christ, who are with Him, who are intimate with Christ, when Jesus is transfigured, they are terrified. before the holy presence of Christ. God is God and we are not. God is holy, we are not. We can't stand in His presence apart from His sustaining power. So this is how Jacob reacts. He is afraid. And he realizes he was in the presence of God. And then in verses 18-22 we see that Jacob consecrates. He anoints the stone that he had put at his head. He sets it up as a pillar. He pours oil on top of it. And he makes a vow. He calls the name of that place Bethel, the house of God. And he makes a vow saying, if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I am going and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God and this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to you. Now, commentators differ on whether this was a good thing or a bad thing that he did. And to be frank and honest, I'm not entirely sure. Some people see this as him testing God. Well, if you're really going to do this, then I'll serve you. Other people see this as him praying for God to do what God had already promised. Not so much as testing God. They interpret the if as since. Since you're going to do this. When you do this, you will be my God. Regardless, what we see here, what is very clear in the text, is that the Lord is not his God yet. The Lord is not his God. He says, then, verse 21, then the Lord shall be my God. Then Yahweh, the covenant God of Abraham, of my father Isaac, then He will be my God. So He's not a believer. He hasn't embraced the God of Abraham. He hasn't believed in Him in a salvific way. But God is working in his heart. God is working in his heart and he will eventually bring him. He will have another encounter with God, an encounter that will leave him crippled. He will wrestle with the angel. And as a side note, Jacob, by the way, later on, he says that what he encountered here was the angel of the Lord. I believe it's Genesis 48. He encountered the angel of the Lord, the angel of the Malachiahweh, the angel of the Lord. which brings us to the end and to the conclusion of what we're seeing here. The angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord often appears in the Old Testament. And God, when He appears, for example, before Moses, it says God appeared before Him in Exodus 3, but the angel of the Lord appeared before Him. And then God promises to Moses that His angel will go before Him, but the angel is described as God. And the Bible tells us that it was God who led the people out of Egypt. into the promised land. And yet, we see the angel let the people into the promised land. The angel is clearly God in the Old Testament. And yet, God speaks of Him in the third person. He. Isn't that interesting? You know, in the ancient Jews, especially in Second Temple Judaism, if you read something about that, they wrestled with this. They clearly saw that there was plurality within the Godhead, but they couldn't explain it because God is one. They came up with all these theories. One of the theories is that the two powers are in heaven. There's God, the transcending God manifests Himself on earth as a second power. Philo, the ancient Jewish philosopher, calls the second power the Deuteros Theos, the second God. And he calls them, as other Jews did, the Logos, the Word. Ancient Judaism saw They were confused by it. They didn't know how to explain it. Then along came the Christians saying, oh, pick me, I know the answer. That's why John says, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. This was not an entirely foreign notion to the Jews. They believed that God through His Word created the universe. They even saw in the scriptures, for example, there's passages that the Word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, How does the Word say? The Word comes saying. The Word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. How does the Word come in a vision? The Jews read this and they were like, well, the Word has personality. They saw personality in the Word of the Lord. It wasn't merely just spoken speech. And this is all fulfilled in Jesus Christ with the Word of God, the Logos of God. He is the Angel of the Lord. That's what we see clearly in the pages of the New Testament. Jesus is the Angel. Paul calls them the rock, the spiritual rock that led the people out of Israel. The angel of the Lord was Christ. Now, if we want to get real technical here, it was the spirit of glory revealing the Son, because we also see the spirit there leading the people out of Israel. Isaiah 63, for example. It was the spirit that led them to rest. It was the Spirit of the Lord revealing the sun, but it was a sun. The sun was this angel of the Lord who was with God's people. And this passage, what we see here, it points to Christ. There's many ways in which this points to Christ. Some indeed see this description here of the rock. They would see a link between the rock that is anointed with oil, with the rock which is Christ, the rock that led the people of Israel out of Egypt, and the anointing, they would see a connection there with the anointed one, the Messiah. You might think that's a bit of a stretch, but nevertheless, that is what many Christians throughout history have seen in this text. But here is a more clearer connection, because here in this passage, Jesus references this passage, right? In John chapter 1. Let's go to John chapter 1. John chapter 1, starting with verse 45. We have the encounter. Jesus Christ is calling His disciples, some of His disciples here in John 1. Jesus, the new creation, the Word who created the heavens and the earth, the One who is the life, whose life is the light of men, the One who saves and redeems, the One who has come down from heaven, who in John 1.14, He is described there, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, this Greek verb dwelt, literally tabernacled. He pitched his tent among us, alluding to the tabernacle in the wilderness. In other words, he is the presence of God. He is divine. He is God, distinct from the Father, but God nevertheless. And he comes down, he tabernacles among us and we beheld his glory, it says there. Glory is of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth." John tells us very clearly there that Jesus is the temple of God, the true temple. All the other temples were pointing to Jesus Christ. He's the true tabernacle of God. He's the true dwelling place of God. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is the temple of the new creation. If you read John 1-2, you'll see that there is a seven day, week, a week, obviously seven days, described here. I believe that to be a reference to an allusion to the original creation and teaching us that there is a new creation that has come. There's a lot of allusions to Genesis 1. Light and darkness and other things. John is showing us that Jesus is the new creation. The new creation temple has come. And then he's calling forth a new creation people, his disciples. And here, verse 45, it says, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found in him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. So Nathanael already has a prejudice against those from Nazareth. He's starting off on the wrong foot here. But Jesus is patient with him. Verse 47, Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. So starting there we see, and we'll see it more clearly in the next verses, but starting there, we see there's kind of an allusion to the story of Jacob. Who is the deceiver? Jacob. Whose name was changed to Israel? Jacob. An Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Jesus is pointing out the fact that Nathaniel's sins were forgiven. Blessed is the man whom the Lord does not count iniquity. in whom there is no guile. What was happening here? What took place here? We're not sure. In verse 48, Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, before Philip calls you when you are under the fig tree, I saw you. Jesus saw Nathanael under the fig tree. What was he doing? People in those times would get under trees in order to pray, meditate on the Word. Perhaps that is what Nathanael was doing. Perhaps he was repenting of some sin. Maybe. Maybe repenting of deceit. We're not told specifically. But Jesus points out the fact that there is no deceit in him presently. That he is a true Israelite. Maybe he had been forgiven. Maybe he had come to the Lord. We don't know for sure. But Jesus saw him and Nathanael realizes that this was a divine encounter, that Jesus is the Messiah. How did you see me? He's completely taken aback by this. Nathanael answered verse 49 and said to him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. Perhaps Nathanael thought he was alone praying to God. Perhaps Nathanael was even meditating on Psalm 32 or meditating on the passage that we've been studying, Genesis 28. We don't know for sure. But Nathaniel realizes, Jesus, He's not just a man. He is the Son of God. He is the King of Israel. He is amazed. And notice how Jesus answers him. Verse 50, Jesus answered and said to him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, verse 51, most assuredly I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. He is directly referencing Genesis 28. What is Jesus telling Nathanael? I am Bethel. I am the house of God. I am the dwelling of God. And I am the ladder or the stairway to heaven. I am the way to heaven. Angels will ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. Me. As they did in the ladder or the stairway of Genesis 28. He mentions Son of Man. This title that everybody knew in those times. All the Jews knew. It was a reference to Daniel chapter 7. The Son of Man who comes with the clouds and He is glorified and He is exalted. He comes through the Ancient of Days. And the ancient Jews interpreted the Son of Man as being divine. They didn't know how to explain it. What is Jesus saying? I am God in the flesh. I have calmed down. I am the true temple. I am the true tabernacle. I am the true Emmanuel, God with us. The dwelling place of God. And I am the way to heaven. Later on, Jesus will say it very clearly. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me. And He will say it repeatedly in this Gospel. He has come down from heaven. Just as the stairway came down from heaven, He came down from heaven. He reiterates that over and over. I have come down from heaven. I have come down from heaven. My Father has sent me. My Father has sent me. Jesus is a stairway. Jesus is a temple. This is a claim to deity. And as I often repeat at Dominguez as I'm preaching through this, how can you read? Let's put the rest of John aside. Just John chapter 1. How can you read John chapter 1 and conclude that Jesus is not God? It says it over and over again. Jesus is divine. Jesus is the incarnate Son who has come, who reveals to us the Father. So I will leave you with that. There is much application I can give, but let us end and conclude by taking notice that Genesis 28 is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The fulfillment is clearly Jesus Christ. Let's pray.