Jacob's Ladder and the Chiastic Architecture of God's Word

"10 And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.

11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

13 And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.

17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

19 And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,

21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God:

22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee" (Genesis 28:10-22).

This passage contains volumes, but the basic procedure New Christians follow is approximately: 

1. Look for the Heavenly marriage and whether it is upright or reversed.

2. Look for correspondences and whether they are upright or reversed.

3. Look for the four-quarter prophetic cycle of the Church from charity or Full to the absence of charity or Empty.

4. Compare all of it to one's will/intentions, deeds, and thoughts; as well as to what can be discerned in the lives of others.

The stone which Jacob sets for a pillow in the night signifies 'the truths of faith'; the oil which Jacob pours on top of that stone in the morning signifies the 'the good of love'. This meaning is basically the same as the wise virgins with oil in their lamps: we do not just memorize spiritual information, which is the lamp or the stone; rather, we take the spiritual information we have memorized and apply it to growing in love of God and the neighbor actively in our lives. One who does this has poured oil on the stone and has oil in their lamp.

"This is the house of God and the gate of Heaven" because the house of God and gate of Heaven involve the Heavenly marriage of love and enlightenment, oil and stone, bread and wine. And that is why Jesus says He stands at the door and knocks; and will enter in and sup -- ie have bread and wine with the person inside of them -- if the person answers the knock at the door in Revelation.

Does the Heavenly marriage occur elsewhere? Yes. If God gives us bread to eat, and raiment to put on, then He has given us love, bread, and raiment, spiritual information which supports our growing in love; and if He does this, then He is our God, for the Lord will certainly be our God if we have the Heavenly marriage in our hearts and minds and in our outer lives.

How does the ladder look in terms of bread to eat and raiment to put on? It looks like becoming more and more loving, more and more understanding of love of God and the neighbor. It involves crude bread and crude clothing at the bottom which becomes finer and finer bread and finer and finer clothing with each subsequent rung up Jacob's Ladder. It involves finer and finer oil, finer and finer stone. And at the top of the Ladder is the finest bread and finest clothing and finest oil and finest stone: the Lord our God.

Now, we have recently covered how predicates of the heart and mind can be in a healthy relation one to the other while being of different predicate classes. Since this pattern occurs with the Jacob's Ladder passage, it does to relate it to other items in the same set; other instances of the Heavenly marriage or chiastic structure that follow the same pattern:

"And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God" (Genesis 28:20).

"And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing" (Isaiah 23:18).

"And having food and raiment let us be therewith content" (1 Timothy 6:8).

When the Word mentions bread and wine or honor and glory or beasts and birds or brass and iron or gold and silver, all of these mentions involve healthy relations of the heart and mind which are of the same predicate class. For bread and wine are both part of the culinary predicate class; and beasts and birds are both part of the creatural predicate class; and honor and glory are part of the superlative predicate class etc.

Let us look at another healthy relation of the heart and mind which involves different predicate classes: 

"For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee" (Job 5:23).

We have here the predicate of mind, stones, and the predicate of heart, beasts; with stones and beasts in a healthy relationship or marriage but in separate predicate classes.

We should look for this pattern and be open to what may be learned from all such patterns as regards the Word and our practice.

Here it is again: "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God" (Genesis 28:20). 

If God gives me love, and I do not trample it underfoot; and if God gives me understanding, and I do not spurn it, then shall I come again to my Father's house; for such are His who do not trample on His love and do not spurn His enlightenment. 

And this is peace, to marry the love and light of Jesus Christ in our hearts and minds.

"And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine" (Rev. 6:6).

And see thou trample not on the love of God and that thou spurn not the light of God and that thou hurt not their healthy interrelation.

“And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him" (Luke 10:34). 

For if you are not able to stand upright and see clearly yourself, how can you pour love and light into wounds of evil and darkness? 

God grant you bread to eat and raiment to put on and coming again to our Father's house in peace.

Appendix: "In the original tongue the term "ladder" is derived from an expression which signifies a "path" or "way," and that "path" or "way" is predicated of truth, may be seen above (n. 627, 2333). Moreover, when angels are conversing about truth, this is exhibited representatively in the world of spirits by "ways" (n. 189, 3477); all of which shows what is signified by a "ladder, one extremity of which is set on the earth, while the other reaches to heaven," namely, the communication of truth which is in the lowest place with truth which is in the highest, which communication is treated of in what follows. (That there are lowest truths and goods, and also highest truths and goods, and steps between them as of a ladder, may be seen above, n. 3691" (Arcana Coelestia 3699).