Weekly Pursuit – Week 1 of August
Verse:
Gen. 28:12 “And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”
Gen. 28:18-19 “And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put under his head, and he set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel….”
Excerpts:
After having the dream, Jacob set up the stone for a pillar (Gen. 28:18). The stone upon which we lay our head must become building material. Before coming into the church life, we could not understand this. But now, having come into the church, we realize that the very stone upon which we lay our head for rest must become a pillar, that is, the stone must become the material for God’s building…After coming into the church life, day by day we are setting up our experience of Christ to be a pillar. It is no longer just a pillow but a pillar. It is not only a matter of our rest; it is a matter of God’s building for His rest.
Jacob not only set up the stone as a pillar; he also poured oil upon it (28:18)… As long as you set up your pillow to become a pillar, the oil will be poured upon it…. When the pillow is set up to be a pillar, it is fully baptized. This is the genuine baptism of the Holy Spirit. In John 1 we also have the baptism, the stone, and Jacob’s dream (vv. 33, 42, 51).
This ladder is the center, the focus, of Jacob’s dream. This dream is a revelation of Christ, for Christ is the reality of the ladder that Jacob saw (John 1:51 and notes). Christ as the Son of Man, in His humanity, is the ladder that brings heaven (God) to earth (man) and joins earth and heaven as one (cf. John 14:6). Our regenerated spirit, which is God’s dwelling place today (Eph. 2:22), is the base on earth where Christ as the heavenly ladder has been set up (2 Tim. 4:22). Hence, whenever we turn to our spirit, we experience Christ as the ladder bringing God to us and us to God (see note 191 in Heb. 10). Where this ladder is, there are an open heaven, the transformed man, the anointing upon this man, and the building up of the house of God with this man. The issue of Christ as the heavenly ladder is Bethel, the church, the Body of Christ, and the consummation of this ladder is the New Jerusalem.