Gate of Heaven - the Land and Yeshua
My spirit is rejoicing as I once again embrace the mystery of the Land of Israel and how the Land reveals Yeshua. This Land, in many ways, is a living picture of our King. It is this Land, this place, that Jacob called "the gate of heaven".
Immediately we are reminded of another Gate. Yeshua called Himself the "Gate". Yeshua, like the Land, is the Gate of Heaven. He and the Land are speaking to us in ways that we cannot embrace without Spirit revelation. I marvel at the words that Jacob used to talk about the Land as he dreamed the dream of the stairway to heaven.
He said so many things in that one passage in Genesis 28:10-19. He spoke of the stairway, the ladder, that rested on the earth and reached to heaven; of the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder; he saw the Lord standing at the top of the ladder in heaven and knew that God is the God of the patriarchs; he realized that the Land he was sleeping on is the fulfillment of the ultimate Promise of God; he understood that it is through the blessing of the people of Israel, the dust of the earth (through the Son of Man), that the Promise is fulfilled; he recounted the words of God that there would be an end-of-the-age-Aliyah and the return of the Jewish people (and the Messiah!) to the Land. And when he woke up, he was astounded, afraid and filled with awe that he was actually resting on that exact Promised Land!
He proclaimed that this "place" is the gateway of heaven. He even said words that I think most of us can also say – we sometimes totally miss the revelation of God that is staring us in the face – we are not aware of the fullness of what we are seeing. Jacob said "surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it". The parallels of the oneness of the Lord with the Land speak of that Day when eternity total converges with earth. I cannot even imagine how it will all become visible to us.
In fact, the words of Jacob were just the beginning of the continuing revelation about the Land and about Elohim. He said "how awesome is this place"! This is none other than the house of God: this is the gate of heaven."
How totally remarkable - this Land, upon which Jacob rested, is the actual dwelling-place of God. God lives here. This Land is the promise. Yeshua is the Promise. We live in Him. This Land prophesies of the eternal Kingdom. This Land is like Yeshua, the ultimate Reward of the righteous. The Land is the place of the eternal Kingdom glorified. This is our destiny, to be "in" this place, just as we are "in" Yeshua, and He is “in” us.
In this Land, we receive the revelation of eternity. In this Land, a type of our Yeshua, the mystery is being revealed. We see the revelation of heaven and the eternal Kingdom. We see that the revelation of eternity rests, like the ladder, on the Land of Israel, and opens up our spiritual eyes to the gate as it opens into heaven, where we glimpse the Lord in the heavenly realms. The mystery of the ages, revealed in Messiah Yeshua, requires that we embrace God’s covenant of the Land with His people, Israel.
We must understand about the Land of Israel if we are to walk in the revelation of eternity. Jacob saw the Lord at the top of that ladder. The revelation that he received is that the one true God is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and that Land represents the Promise, the Messiah.
Astoundingly, Yeshua used the words from Genesis 28 to describe Himself and how He is this same God of Israel. He actually used the same words that Jacob said about the Ladder that rested on the Land and applied them to Himself,
"..Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man". John 1:51
He is speaking of Himself in the same way Jacob spoke of the Land. Just like the angels ascended and descended on the ladder that rested on the Land and reached to heaven, the angels ascend and descend on Yeshua, the Son of Man. Both He and the Land are the place where heaven opens, where the mystery is revealed. Yeshua was proclaiming that He is the fulfillment of the Land covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is the unconditional fulfillment of the Promise of the Land!
He is the Awesome Place! He is the Dwelling-place! Just like the Land is the dwelling-place of Elohim. The place was called "Bethel" - house of God. Yeshua and a Place might seem like a difficult concept, but this is part of the mystery. The prophet Isaiah even referred to Him as a "place" in Isaiah 8:14:
"He will be a Holy Place; for both Israel and Judah He will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock...." Isa. 8:14
We must give this spiritual quest to the Ruach and ask Him to show us the things to come. There is so much in this passage in Genesis 28 - we see Yeshua everywhere in it. He is the Stone that was anointed with oil - He is the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Resting Place and the Stone that causes men to stumble, just like the Land of Israel, just like Jerusalem.
And when we receive this Spirit of Revelation, we must proclaim it for His glory and the hope of His people. No wonder we are called so mysteriously, so powerfully, so irresistibly, to the Land of Israel. No wonder we love it like we love Him. How much strength it gives us for the journey to know that the God of Israel wants us to see His Glory, revealed in Yeshua, in the Land of Israel. Surely, this is the Gate of Heaven!
