Angels ascending, Animals descending

In his dream Jacob saw a ladder telescoping to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it.

The angels were ascending – that is, originating from the earth. How can this be so? Isn’t heaven the home of angels? So they should be descending down the ladder first before ascending. Shouldn’t that be the proper order of things? No, not now.

At the beginning of his ministry, of all the passages from the Old Testament to authenticate his advent, Jesus cites Jacob’s dream: “Truly I say to you, you will see the heaven opened, and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

So this is the answer to the riddle of Jacob’s dream! Now that Jesus has come to tabernacle with us, the angels are here also. We should not be hoping for angels to come down to us once in a blue moon, because they are here with us, now.

Why wait anxiously for the postman when the package is sitting next to you?

What did Jacob call the place of his dream? He called it Beth-el, the House of God. The house of God today is where Jesus is tabernacling. And with him (which is to say, with us) are the angels. And they are ascending and descending to heaven and back. There is a lot of traffic going on in ministry to the Head of the Church and to his Body.

Even the Pope would be impressed.

Now, in Peter’s dream, a large sheet came down from heaven filled with animals considered unclean in the Old Testament. Peter was told to eat them! And Peter, the proper Jew, was repulsed! He’d never eaten anything unclean; how can heaven tell him to do this sort of thing now!? The answer from heaven: What God has made clean, don’t you call common.

We are living in extra-ordinary times. Angels live right amongst us, ascending to heaven and back. What does descend from heaven are not angels, but a decree that all peoples of the earth, once considered unclean and without hope in the world, are now considered clean, which is to say, qualified to be sons and daughters of God. In carrying this message to all, we need the help of those angels who ascend and descend on our behalf.

Logos2Go:

Genesis 28.12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! … (and) he called the name of that place Bethel …

John 1.51 And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Acts 10.10-15 … he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." But Peter said, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." And the voice came to him again a second time, "What God has made clean, do not call common."

Ephesians 2.12-14 … remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility