The Vision (1.24.25): And behold a ladder set up on the earth

 

Image: Nicolas Dipre, Le songe de Jacob, c. 1500, Avignon, Petit Palais.

Note: Devotion taken from sermon last Sunday on Genesis 28.

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 (Genesis 28:12).

In Genesis 28 Isaac blesses Jacob and then sends him to the land of Padan-aram to find a suitable wife, who shared a common faith in Jehovah.

Moses tells us that as Jacob traveled through Beersheba “he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun had set…” (v. 11). It sounds coincidental, but God was directing his path.

Moses continues, “And he dreamed….” (v. 12). This was the time before the completion of Scripture. This is God speaking by special revelation. That he did so then does not mean we should expect he will continue to do so now. We now have the Scriptures written.

What did Jacob see in his dream? “And behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven…” It was a portal between earth (the realm of man) and heaven (the realm of God).

Moses continues, “and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” Angels are messengers, taking communications back and forth between earth and heaven. We can imagine the prayers of the saints being lifted up and the sovereign replies and comforts of God coming down. Here is a picture of something unseen that happens when God’s people pray and worship. The ladder also anticipates the Scriptures whereby God speaks to men.

Yet it is more than this. It anticipates the incarnation of the LORD Jesus Christ.

Christ himself once pointed to this passage early in his ministry, telling his disciples they would remember it when they saw him on the cross doing his mediatorial work: “And he saith unto him, 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” (John 1:51).

Paul would later write in 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

The believer can confess concerning the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, “and behold a ladder [is] set up on the earth.”

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle