And “God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
“And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham” (Gen 28:3-4).
Israel was born to a great heritage. As a seed of Abraham after the flesh, all the blessings of the Covenant made between God and Abraham are his. Born and circumcised, he becomes an heir of the great blessings made even before his father was born. This included the blessing of fruitfulness and prosperity in every area of life, the blessing of multiplication, and the blessing of the inheritance promised to Abraham and his seed.
Isaac revisited these blessings and pronounced them on his son Jacob the day he was leaving home, fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau, as recorded in Genesis 28. He blessed Jacob and specifically said in Young’s Literal translation, “And give to thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee, to cause thee to possess the land of thy sojournings, which God gave to Abraham” (Gen 28:4, YLT). The blessing of Abraham, the promise of an inheritance, is for the seed of Abraham. Jacob or Israel is the seed of Abraham after the flesh. He was a partaker of Abraham’s flesh and blood and therefore a beneficiary of the heritage of Abraham.
But the everlasting inheritance that God promised Abraham is for the seed of Abraham—not his seeds after the Law or after the flesh, but his seed, which is Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. The “blessing of Abraham” was given to him for the benefit of his seed, which is Christ Jesus. And, as we will discuss in the next chapter, Christ Jesus, the Anointed One, is not just one, but includes both Himself and His body. He is the Head, and His body is the fullness of Him that fills all in all. And so the Holy Ghost speaking through the Apostle Paul says:
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
“That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal 3:13,14).
The blessing of Abraham belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah. He is the rightful owner. He is the heir for whom the promises were made. But in the infinite plan of God, it has pleased Him to incorporate us in the Body of the rightful Heir. We become part of Him at new birth, and thus become joint heirs with Christ. So, not only does new birth bring us redemption from the curse of the Law, it also makes us joint heirs with Christ Jesus. This was His purpose in dying for us, so He could take us from our depth of nothingness and propel us into becoming partakers of His unlimited and eternal inheritance.
The blessing of Abraham includes physical, mental, and material prosperity; spiritual and physical protection; fruitfulness and multiplication; physical healing, divine health, and soundness in mind and body; and being the head and not the tail, lenders and not borrowers, in addition to deliverance from the curse of the Law. Christ has delivered us from the curse of the Law, made us heirs of the Abrahamic blessings, and qualified us to become recipients of the promise of the Spirit through faith.
We are joint heirs with Christ Jesus to the blessings of Abraham. We are rightful owners of the land that flows with milk and honey. Not only this, but we are heirs of God: that’s what the Holy Spirit calls us. At the time of our birth, the Spirit of God proclaimed us heirs of God in Christ Jesus.
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:16,17).
Since we were born again by God Himself, the divine life of God is in us. We not only become heirs of the things of God, but heirs of God as His true children. We inherit His nature. Just like hereditary transfer works in the biological world, we have His characteristics transferred to us because we’re His offspring. What a heritage! What a blessed inheritance.
Partakers of His Divine Nature
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Pet 1:3-4).
We are partakers of His nature. We’ve been born of the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. We have been born again from the incorruptible seed by the word of God, and we inherit the Life of God.
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Pet 1:23).
We are partakers of His divine nature. That means we are partakers of the blood of Jesus Christ, and therefore inherit an overcoming life in the flesh. The Scriptures tell us that the life of any living creature is in its blood. That means we inherit a supernatural immune system that will overcome any army of invading microorganisms or foreign particles and allow us to enjoy divine health.
We are heirs of a vibrant, lively, and overcoming life on this earth. This is a result of our new birth. We inherit this from our new Father, who passed down the divine nature to us, and we now display His traits in daily life. Ours is a glorious inheritance!
In the passage above, we see Isaac the son of Abraham, the son of promise, ,passing the blessing of his father Abraham down to his son. Jacob then left home, having made a quality decision to be totally obedient to his father from then on, and set out on his journey toward Haran. As he traveled along, it became dark, so he stopped in a place to spend the night.
“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.
“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” (Gen 28:11,12).
While he slept with the stones as his pillow, Jacob had a dream. The dream was both scary and wonderful. In his dream, Jacob saw a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of the ladder reached up to heaven. He then saw the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. And at the top of the ladder in heaven, the Lord God stood and spoke blessings upon him.
There’s a parallel to this in the gospels. Our Lord Jesus, talking to Nathaniel, said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man” (Joh 1:51).
A ladder is a link between the ground below and a higher realm above. The ladder that Jacob saw was a link between earth and heaven, between man and God. There’s only one Being that this describes, and his name is Jesus Christ the Lord. He is the mediator between God and man. He is the way that leads to heaven. He bridges the gulf between heaven and earth. He is the ladder that links the earthbound man here below to the God of heaven. And it is through Him and Him alone that communications travel back and forth, up and down, from man below to God above and vice versa. It is for Him that we see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending to heaven and descending back to earth while ministering to Him. The angels of God ascending and descending signify continual intercourse between heaven and earth, through the mediating ministry of Christ, who is God manifested in the flesh.
Again, the top of the ladder is in heaven and the feet are on earth. This divine metaphor is so appropriate for the Body of Christ. The Head is in heaven and the feet are in contact with the earth. The ladder therefore is symbolic of the Body of Christ, of which Jesus Christ the Lord is the Head. Jacob was so right in his declaration when he woke up from the dream and said:
“Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. 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” (Gen 28).
Jacob then proceeded to change the name of the place from Luz to Bethel, the “House of God.” The New Testament makes it clear that the Body of Christ is the House of God. In the third chapter of Paul’s Epistle to Timothy, the apostle writes:
“These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Ti 3:14,15).
Jacob gathered the stones, arranged them into a pillar, poured oil upon the top of the pillar, and sanctified it unto Jehovah, the God of his father Abraham. Anointing the pillar, he called the place Bethel, the house of God.
The pillar was built out of the “stones” that he had initially used for his pillow. The apostle Peter writes:
“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5).
Inherit His Anointing
The disciples walked, talked, and ate with Jesus for several months without a clue as to the meaning of His name. It took a revelation of the Spirit for them to begin to see that this same Jesus of Nazareth was also “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” When He was born, heavenly angels announced His birth to the startled shepherds, saying, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Angel Gabriel had instructed Mary before His birth, saying, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus (Yashua, Yahweh is Salvation), for He shall save His people from their sins” (Mat 1:21).
Despite the fact that a large percentage of present-day believers frequently use the name “Christ” to refer to the Lord Jesus, very few people even know what it means, and much less understand the message behind the name.
“Christ” is not an English word—it’s a Greek word that the translators have neglected to translate, but merely brought over virtually in its Greek form.
“Christ” comes from the Greek word “Christos,” which simply means one anointed with holy oil. The word in itself simply means to pour oil over, to smear oil on and rub into. The Hebrew “Mashiach,” from which we get our word “Messiah,” has the same meaning as this Greek word “Christos”—Anointed One. For generations we Christians have missed out on the great meaning and significance of this Name, for we have ignorantly used “Christ” merely as His title.
The first time we meet with holy oil in the Scriptures is in the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis, in the narrative of Jacob’s experience at Luz briefly described above. Jacob was fleeing to Padanaram in fear of his brother Esau, after pulling a fast one on him. When he got to a certain place, and it was getting dark, he settled down there to pass the night. He gathered the stones that he found in that place and carefully arranged them as his pillow, and went to sleep.
“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.
“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; 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.
“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.
“And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
“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.
“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.
“And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first” (Gen 28:16-19).
From that memorable morning when Jacob set up the pillar of stones and poured holy oil on top of it, all through the Old Testament, wherever there was an article of ministry to be separated unto God, Jacob’s holy oil was employed. Whenever a place was to be sanctified unto God, or a common object was to be dedicated to holy use, or a Levite was to be sanctified as a priest, or a descendant of Judah was to be enthroned and crowned, the holy oil was always employed for those sacred purposes. Anointing became one of the most important of all the sacramental signs and seals in the Old Testament era.
Everything concerning Jacob’s dream or vision speaks about Christ and His Body. The ladder with its top in heaven speaks of Christ as our link between man and God: Christ the Head in heaven and His body and his beautiful feet touching the earth. When Jacob woke from the dream, he was afraid and said the place must be the “house of God and the gates of heaven.” He renamed the place Bethel—the house of God.
“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5).
Jacob gathered the stones that he had used for his pillow the night before, and built a pillar, and sanctified this unto the Lord. This also speaks of the church of the living God as taught by Paul the apostle in his Epistle to Timothy.
As we stated above, Jesus the Christ is the Anointed One. “Thou art the Christ” (Mat 16:16). “God has made this same Jesus both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1). He was the prophet, priest, and king upon whom the oil was poured. He is not the anointing—He is the Anointed! The oil typifies the anointing, but the one upon whom the oil is poured is the anointed. Jesus our Lord is the anointed, and the church of the living God, the pillar of truth, shares His anointing.
“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ!” (1 Cor 12:12).
The same anointing that is poured upon the Head-Christ flows all the way down to the feet, so that every member of the body is anointed with the same anointing as the Head. We have received of His Anointing. “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you…and ye shall abide in Him” (1 John 2:27).
