spiritual power in the old testament

It has increasingly become more clear to me that one simply cannot read a single page in the Bible without noticing the evidence of spiritual power. I think we'd be hard pressed not to find an example on any given page [except maybe for the Psalms and wisdom literature]. But open randomly to any page - particularly in the Old Testament or New Testament Gospels - and guaranteed some incredible sign or miracle or wonder is taking place. So, why is it then when we read the Bible - and when I say "we" I mean mostly "me" - that we either ignore the evidence of spiritual power or we just gloss over it all the while thinking to ourselves, "Oh, well that was cool" and put our heads back down and continue reading as if it didn't really happen or mean anything in particular.

I'm going offer one example of spiritual power in the Old Testament which relates to my previous post on worldview, which you can check out by clicking here. The text comes from Genesis 28:10-17, which reads -

Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it.
Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you." Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, "God is in this place—truly. And I didn't even know it!" He was terrified. He whispered in awe, "Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God's House. This is the Gate of Heaven." [The Message]



So, what in the world is going on here and what does it have to do with spiritual power and worldview? Well, the world of the scriptures is strange and wonderful - so there is a gap between the scriptural worldview and what we are typically taught in the West. This passage commonly referred to as "Jacob's ladder" seems to pose problems for many of us who subscribe to either a naturalist or dualist worldview. This passage illiminates the sacramental or biblical worldview.

Jacob is running away and does not have a home at this time. He left Beersheba and is running toward Haran. He is a fugitive. He doesn't have a place. Basically, he's a no "body" right now. As the sun sets, he set his head on a stone as a "head stone." And in a dream he saw a stairway to heaven and he saw angels ascending and descending the the stairway - probably much like the picture above - a sort of continuous processional. Angels are a symbol system of talking about the embodiment of the gracious power of God. Angels are the embodiment of the love of God and God sends them out to proclaim this love. Judgment is not outside of God's love either. So it is also true that agnels are the embodiment of God's judgment. However, love and judgment are not opposites of each other.

Okay, so God said to Jacob, "I am with you..." So Jacob is lost and God is with him. Jacob is being directed by God vis-a-vis his dream to thevery infrastructure of reality as it really is. Jacob is not being taken out of the world...he's being taken in to the very center of it. What Jacob saw in his dream is what we would see if the layers of the material world could be peeled back to expose this infrastructure. This is a sacramental moment where the heavens and the earth kiss to reveal what reality is truly like. This is really cool to think about. What do you think? Can you wrap your mind around the infrastructure of our world as depicted as angels ascending and descending a stairway all the while proclaiming God's love for creation? I can. And it's amazing!