Genesis 28:11-12

Gen. 28:11, 12. There seems to be a double representation in this story. It seems to be a type that has respect to two things.

(1.) By Jacob sleeping and having heaven opened to him, and God appearing in heaven as his covenant-God, and the angels of God ascending and descending on him, seems to be represented Christ, which is confirmed by what Christ says (John 1:51), in which Christ plainly alludes to what is said here in verse 12; and Jacob's sleep here, seems to represent the death of Christ. As Jacob in his sleep has the gate of heaven opened and a ladder set on the earth, on the land of Canaan, whose top reached to heaven, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it, and God appearing in heaven revealing Himself as the covenant-God of him and his seed, and promising that his seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and that in him and his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed. So Christ, by His death, procured that the gate of heaven should be opened towards the earth, and that there should be a union between heaven and earth, and that there should be a way from heaven to the earth procured, as it were, a ladder, by which there might be an ascent from this sinful miserable world to heaven. Christ procured this way to heaven for His covenant people, for His spiritual posterity, and therefore the foot of the ladder is set on the land of Canaan, the land of His people, on Jacob's land, or the land of Canaan, the land of His people, on Jacob's land, or the land of Jacob's posterity; and Christ, by His death, procured that the angels of God might ascend and descend to and from the land of Canaan, in and through His mediation, or on His ladder, to be ministering spirits to the inhabitants of Canaan (Hebrews 1:14). So through the death of Christ, God appears as the covenant-God of Him and His seed, promising to give heaven to Him and His seed, as in verse 14, He promises to give Canaan to Jacob and his seed, and also, as bound in Covenant, to multiply His seed as the dust of the earth, as here to Jacob (Isaiah 53:10); and promising to give Him the Gentiles in all parts of the world, or from the four winds of heaven, to be His seed (which was accomplished soon after the death of Christ), as here He promises to Jacob that he should spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, and as promising that "in him all the families of the earth should be blessed." Note that Christ is evidently called by the name of Israel, one of the names of Jacob, in Isaiah 49:3, which renders it more probable that Jacob is here a type of Christ.

(2.) Jacob here represents a believer, or rather believers collectively, as the Church is spiritual Israel, of whom Jacob, or Israel, is the father; and the stone that he slept or rested upon represents Christ, who is from time to time compared to a stone; and that Christ is represented by this stone seems more evident, because he anointed it (verse 18). Thereby He is represented - that is, Christ, or the anointed, and is called so, not only as He is anointed of God, but also as anointed by His people (see Daniel 9:25; Mark 14:3); and another thing that confirms that this stone is a type of Christ, is what Jacob says of it in verse 22, for Christ is the house of God, "in Whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (Colossians 2:9) It was He that was signified by the Tabernacle and Temple, as is evident by what Christ says of His own body, for, says He, "destroy," etc.; and the Lamb is said to be the temple of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:22). And it is still further evident by the use that he put it to, for he set it up for a pillar - i.e., for an altar (see Exodus 24:4). For the oil that Jacob poured on it was to consecrate it as an altar, and was also as an offering to God on the altar, as the precious ointment that Mary poured on the head of Christ was an offering to Christ and to God through Him. And this will be more evident if we compare what is said here with Genesis 35:14, where we have an account that Jacob in the same place set up a pillar of stone (and probably it was the same stone) and poured a drink-offering thereon, and poured oil thereon. What we are told of, Genesis 35:7 - "And he built there an altar, and called it El-beth-el: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother." This altar probably (as I have observed) is the same spoken of in verse 14, on which he poured a drink-offering and oil - viz., the stone which he set up for a pillar, which was probably the same stone that is spoken of in this place, or that that stone at least was a principal stone in the altar. But this he calls El-beth-el, - i.e., the God of Bethel, - because it represented the God of Bethel, or Jesus Christ, who is that God. Jacob promises, at the end of this chapter, that when God should return him again into his own land in peace, that this stone which he had set up for a pillar should be God's house - i.e., this very place shall be that which I will make the place of worship (and therefore he set up the stone that he slept on for a pillar or monument whereby to remember the place); and this very stone shall be the altar on which I will worship and offer offerings to God: as we are told of David, when he had built an altar in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, in the place where the angel appeared to him; (1 Chronicles 22:1), which accordingly was the place where the Temple was built. And therefore, when Jacob was returned to Canaan and seemed to be negligent of his promise, God put him in mind of it, and commanded him to go and dwell there and make that the place of his worship (Genesis 35:1); and therefore, doubtless, the stone that he set up when he came there, that we have account of (verses 14, 15), was in the very same place, and, we have all reason to think, the same stone. There God talked with him again then, and we have an account (verse 13) that God went up from him in the place He talked with him, which denoted that place where God appeared. There was the gate or entrance into heaven, as he says this place is, and so doubtless was the same spot. Besides that, we find Jacob calls it by the same name, verse 15…. Hence we may learn that their altars of old were types of Christ, especially in His Divine nature. They represented Him who is the "rock" of Israel (see Judges 13:19). And therefore it was the manner of the heathen to set up pillars or small altars instead of images, as Bedford in his "Scripture Chronology," and other historians have observed: which was strictly forbidden to the children of Israel, (Leviticus 26:1, and so Deuteronomy 16:22); and the children of Israel were required to destroy the pillars of the people of the land, (Deuteronomy 7:5; Deuteronomy 12:3); and hence the children of Israel were strictly forbidden to have any other altar but one, - no other but the altar of the Lord, because God was one, and Christ was one, and because altars represented Christ. This is not the only place where the name of God is given to an altar. We have the like in Exodus 17:15. Jacob's sleeping or resting on this stone (for this stone, we are told, was his pillow), typifies God's people believing in or resting on Christ. Christ invites the weary to come to Him, and promises that in Him they shall have rest. Jacob, while resting on this stone, has heaven's gate opened to him, and a ladder reaching from him to God in heaven; so it is by faith in Christ that God's people have heaven's gate opened to them, and have a way prepared for them to ascend and come to God in heaven. Jacob, while resting on this stone, has God appearing to him as his covenant-God; so it is through faith in Christ that God becomes their covenant-God, and whereby they become interested in the promises of that covenant of grace, and it is by faith that they become related to heaven and have the privilege of the ministration of angels. Jacob's sleep here represents both death and rest. If we look on Jacob here as a type of Christ, his sleep is a type of death. If as a type of the Church, or of the Israel of God, then it represents spiritual rest. But let us take the type which way we will, we may observe that the great privilege and blessing is obtained, of having heaven's gate opened and a way to heaven from the earth, and the ministration of angels is enjoyed in Bethel, in the house of God, - i.e., in God's Church, - and in the improvement of the ordinances of His house.

Gen. 28:18-19