Jacob's Temple Experiences

Jacob had two experiences in the wilderness that have similarities with our temple experience today. As he fled his home and went north to Haran, he slept one night with stones for his pillow. We read, “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” (Genesis 28:13). He had a vision in which he saw angels coming down and going up, and he also saw the Lord. Marian G. Romney said this about the experience: “Because he had met the Lord and entered into covenants with him there, Jacob considered the site so sacred that he named the place Bethel, a contraction of Beth-Elohim, which means literally ‘the House of the Lord.’” He continued, “Temples are to us all what Bethel was to Jacob. Even more, they are also the gates to heaven for all of our unendowed kindred dead.” This was indeed a temple experience for Jacob. Jeffrey Chadwick said in a recent podcast, referring to this room in the Salt Lake Temple, “There in the Salt Lake Temple, look at that room right there. And there is a stairway. Now, anybody that goes to the Salt Lake Temple, or did until they've reconfigured all the rooms, because we'll never see that again, I don't think. But there for many, many years, people went up and down stairway. And those who've gone to the Salt Lake Temple know who goes up and down that stairway and what they're doing. And when my wife and I used to go to the temple there regularly, because I love going to the Salt Lake Temple rather than any others, she'd always poke me and say, ‘Jacob's ladder.’ Jacob's ladder, right there.” There is indeed great connection between what happens in that room and the ladder that Jacob saw.

               Another passage describing a significant moment in Jacob’s life also reminds us of the temple. On his way back to his homeland, “And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him” (Genesis 32:24-25). For those who have made covenants in the temple this too proves similar to some of what happens there for us today. What struck me as I thought about these two experiences of Jacob—and of course we know so very little about what actually took place there—is that he was making similar covenants we make in the temple. What we do in the temple is indeed ancient and goes back as far as the patriarchs. It was not invented by Joseph Smith but rather has been around as a part of God’s plan since the beginning. As we participate we can know that the ceremonies of the temple are not new to this dispensation and find connection with our ancestors back to Jacob who also were endowed by the Lord. I remember when I did the BYU study abroad in Jerusalem we went down the Karnak Temple Complex in Luxor. At one point our instructor told those who were endowed to listen carefully to the guide’s description of certain pictures showing what happened there, and it was clearly very similar to something that takes place in the endowment today. This was another witness to me that the ordinances of the temple have been around for a very long time in one form or another. Of course, what matters most is that we learn to keep the covenants we make there so that, like Jacob, we can one day likewise “enter into [our] exaltation” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:37).