In the Scriptures there is first the creation of God and then the building of God. As we saw in the previous chapter, at the conclusion of the work of God’s creation there was the garden of Eden, and at the conclusion of the work of God’s building there is the holy city, the New Jerusalem. A city is very different from a garden. In a garden there is the natural scenery of the things created by God. A city, however, has the significance of building. It is not something of nature but something built up. We must remember these two pictures-a garden and a city.
After the completion of God’s creation in Genesis 2, there was the garden of Eden, in which God placed the man created by Him. God placed man before the tree of life because God’s intention was to build man with God by his experience of God as life (vv. 8-9). With the tree of life, there was a flowing river, and in the flow of the river there were precious materials for the building (vv. 10-12). We can see this clearly with the help of the record in the last two chapters of the Scriptures. In the last two chapters of Revelation there is a city built up with these precious materials, a city of gold, pearl, and precious stones. This reveals that after God’s creation, God intends to do another work-to build Himself into man and to build man into Himself.
The entire Scriptures reveal these two works of God, the work of creation and the work of building God into man and man into God. The building of God is the mingling of divinity with humanity. Therefore, at the end of the Scriptures there is a city as the building of God, and that city is the mingling of God with all the redeemed persons, including the Old Testament and New Testament saints, composed together as a container to contain God and be mingled and permeated with God. This is the mingling of God and man as the building of God.
In Genesis 28 God reveals for the first time that He will build Himself with man by bringing heaven to earth and earth to heaven in order to join heaven and earth together. The story of Bethel in verses 10-22 is wonderful and full of the divine principles concerning God’s building. The entire Scriptures are needed to expound this brief story.
Before that time, man was a wanderer. When Jacob had his dream at Bethel, he was a homeless wanderer, having no rest. He even laid his head on a bare, hard stone as his pillow. If we read this portion carefully, however, we will realize that not only was man a wanderer, a homeless person, but even God Himself was homeless, having no resting place. In this situation, God gave Jacob a simple dream about a ladder set up on the earth and reaching to heaven. On that ladder the angels of God ascended and descended. After Jacob awoke, he said something wonderful. He said, “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (v. 17). Truly, such a naughty young man as Jacob could not have said something so wonderful by himself.
In speaking of the gate of heaven, he indicated that heaven was open, and there was the possibility for people to enter into it. In other words, there was the possibility for people to enter into God. A ladder is a way, like a street, except it is vertical. That ladder was a vertical way between earth and heaven, that is, from man up to God and from God down to man. With this ladder, this vertical way, is the opening of heaven where God is. This signifies that there is an access for man to touch God and contact God.
As far as the opened heavens are concerned, this place is the gate of heaven, while as far as the very spot on the earth is concerned, it is Bethel, the house of God, the dwelling place and resting place for God. The resting place for God is not in heaven but on earth. We may want to go to heaven, but God wants to come down to earth. Matthew 6:10 says, “Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.” God is desirous to come to earth because earth has been corrupted, usurped, and occupied in a wrong way by the enemy of God. God’s desire is to recover this earth. Today in Christianity there is a wrong concept. People often speak about a “heavenly home,” but there is not such a thing in the Scriptures. Rather, God’s intention is to have a dwelling place, a Bethel, on the earth.
Home | First | Prev | Next