IN the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis, wherein is told the story of Jacob's vision, the earliest mention of "the house of God" in the Scriptures is found. It will be remembered that Jacob was on his way from Beer-sheba to Padan-aram when he stopped for the night at Luz. Here in the open fields, with a stone for his pillow, he dreamed that he saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, upon which the angels of God were ascending and descending. When he awoke, Jacob realized that he had been in the presence of God, and he naturally assumed that the place where he had slept was consecrated ground, for he exclaimed, "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Then he "took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar. . . . And he called the name of that place Beth-el." He thereupon made a vow that if his expedition proved successful, and if he returned again to his "father's house in peace," then the stone which he had set for a pillar should be "God's house."
This primitive conception of a place of worship, considered spiritually, contains all the essentials of the true temple or church, for it was a place where man had talked face to face with the true God, and where he had received a promise of spiritual protection. The ladder which Jacob saw in his dream was a figure representing the ascending gradations of human thought as they rise by stages from earth to heaven. The angels ascending the ladder are typical of human aspirations striving after righteousness, and the angels or messengers coming down from God represent spiritual ideas encouraging mankind on their upward journey. In this lonely spot, without any of the paraphernalia of ecclesiastical worship, Jacob became so conscious that God was in that place, and so sure of having received His blessing, that he confidently declared, "Of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee."
Jacob's spontaneous desire to express gratitude to God implies a recognition of the divine Principle of all true giving and receiving. His tithe-giving was a prototype of the "thank-offering" afterward instituted by Moses in the wilderness, by means of which the Levitical hierarchy was maintained. It was not, therefore, a gift in the old propitiatory sense of the term, but a self-offering designed to remind him of the invisible Giver. (See definition of Abel, Science and Health, p. 579.) Some twenty years later, when Jacob had become rich in flocks and herds and his name had been changed to Israel, he was reminded of his vow and came back to fulfil it. Here God appeared to him the second time and confirmed His former promises concerning the future of the children of Israel. Jacob then marked the spot where God had twice talked to him by setting up an altar of stone, and pouring out a drink-offering upon it, he dedicated the place to "El-Beth-el," which means "God of the house of God."
