Genesis 28:10-22 gives us a good description of the relationship between heaven and earth and their meeting place, the temple, the house of God.
Heaven is above the earth, and sheol is beneath it. Angels inhabit the area between God and man in the old covenant, and they put man under the law and keep him out of the holiest sanctuaries of God. When Adam is cast out of Eden, an angel guards the gate, and ever after angels guard the entrance into heaven.
Jacob sees angels ascending and descending the ladder to heaven. His response is to build the temple. Jesus says that angels will ascend and descend his body, since he is the new temple. After God becomes man in Christ and ascends into the heavens, mankind is now in a higher state than the angels, and when Stephen sees the heavens opened, the only angelic being in sight is him.
So the universe changes in the new covenant. Man in Christ becomes the new ladder to heaven, and believers are no longer under the tutorial oversight of angels. Believers are not under the law. Rather, they establish law. Christians are the new angels, and it is they who carry out God’s holy warfare now.
This has implications for worship, as we no longer enter into a copy of the tabernacle, but rather the real thing. We have direct access to God’s throne room, so we ascend in the Spirit above the glassy sea.
But Jacob didn’t have all of this. He just had a stone to anoint.
Over time, the stone would grow.
