When we come to Jacob, without the divine light we can see only a naughty boy. But this naughty boy, while escaping from his brother Esau, slept in the open air and had a dream (Gen. 28:11-19).
Jacob dreamed of a ladder set up from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it. The angels were not descending and ascending, but ascending and descending. This indicates that the ladder was from earth to heaven. We usually say that our dreams come from what we think. If we have something on our mind, it will come to us as a dream while we are asleep. In Jacob's case, however, I don't believe he dreamed what had been in his thoughts during the day. In those days he must have been thinking about how he was running away from Esau. In his dream, though, there was no Esau and no Laban. He saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. When he awoke, he had an inspiration from God and said, "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. 28:17). He set up the stone he had used for his pillow and poured oil on it, calling the name of that place Bethel, which means the house of God.
Noah was commissioned by God to build an ark, and Abraham received a promise from God that the entire earth, all humankind, would be blessed in his seed. But this naughty boy, the grandson of Abraham, had a dream. Waking up from that dream, he said something wonderful, something which composes and directs the entire Bible—the house of God. This is a directing point, running throughout the Bible. Out of this naughty boy who had such a dream came a people, the people of Israel.
In the second book of the Bible, Exodus, all the children of Israel were gained by God. He not only rescued them, but gathered them together at Mount Sinai. There God gave them a vision (Exo. 19), not just a dream. There is a connection between the vision Moses received from God on Mount Sinai and Jacob's dream. Jacob in his dream saw something related to God's house, and now his descendants, a people who came out of Jacob, were there at Mount Sinai with the heavens opened to them. One of their representatives, Moses, went up the mountain to stay with God, and God showed him the pattern of His house, a pattern of how to build the tabernacle.
The tabernacle is God's house. First Samuel 3:3 calls the tabernacle the temple of the Lord; that is to say, it was God's house. The tabernacle as the dwelling place of God is also called the temple, the house of God.
On Mount Sinai Moses saw all the designs, and the children of Israel built a tabernacle according to this pattern. In the last chapter of Exodus the tabernacle was erected, and immediately God's glory descended from the heavens and filled this tabernacle (Exo. 40:34). This is marvelous! It was even greater than God's creative acts. To create the universe is something general, but for God to have a definite spot on this earth that He could descend upon and enter in the way of glory was truly marvelous. The physical tabernacle was a type of all the children of Israel as God's dwelling place.