JACOB’S LADDER

JACOB’S LADDER: Jesus descended through seven heavens to come down to Earth

Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.” [JHK Note: The first thing we have to understand is that there are multiple heavens but only one Earth.] 1 Kings 8:27 & 2 Chronicles 2:6 – “The heaven of heavens cannot contain You!” [From Solomon’s Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple.] Nehemiah 9:6 – “You alone are the Lord! You have made the heaven of heavens with all their host.” * Psalm 19:1 – “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament displays His handiwork.” * Psalm 115:16 – “The heavens are the Lord’s, but the Earth He has given to the children of men.” [See also Jeremiah 32:17]

Genesis 28:10-22 – Jacob “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.” [This occurs as Jacob flees the wrath of his brother Esau in Beersheba to go to Padam Aram / Syria to meet his Uncle Laban, brother of his mother Rebekah, and spends the first night of his journey at Bethel, which after the conquest of Caanan by Joshua becomes part of the territory of Benjamin, which borders the larger territory of Judah. Bethlehem is in Judah, and Jerusalem is on the border between the two.] * John 1:51 – “You shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

John 18:37 – Jesus says to Pontius Pilate, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this reason I was born and have come into this world, that I should bear witness to the truth.” John 8:14 & 23 – “I know where I came from and where I am going. .. You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” John 7:28-29 – “I have not come of myself, but He who sent me is true. .. I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent me.” John 6:62 – “What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before [he came down to Earth]?”  John 3:13 – “No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” John 6:38 – “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” * Mark 16:19 – “After the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.”  Luke 24:50-51 – “He led them out as far as Bethany, lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.” [See also Acts 1:11] * Ephesians 4:8-10 – Paul quotes Psalm 68:18, “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. What does this “He ascended” mean but that he also descended into the lower parts of the Earth? He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens.”

In 2 Kings 2:1-18, “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven,” while Elisha exclaims, “My father! My father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” * Isaiah 14:12 – “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer. Son of the morning!” * Luke 10:18 – “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” [According to “The Ascent of Isaiah,” one of the 88 books of the Ethiopian Bible, there are seven heavens, and Jesus descended through all to be born as a human baby in Bethlehem.]