I’ve always loved the story of Jacob’s ladder. Genesis 28:12-13 says this: “And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! And behold, the Lord stood above it…” I love the Hebrew word for “ladder.” It might be translated as “road,” or “way” or even “access.” It is sometimes used to refer to a “breach” as a door or opening in a wall. I like that. It’s a vision of the world beyond. Reminds me of “stargate.” Jacob’s ladder is the passage way from this world into the next, from the physical realm into the spiritual. Through that doorway God could be seen at its head, with the angels coming and going from their home to ours. They were the messengers of God. In Greek, the word “Angel” literally is “Messenger.”
In John 1:51, Jesus quotes from Genesis 28:12&13. He told Nathaniel about the great things that lie ahead for him. He said to Nathaniel, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” His point is clear. Just as Jacob’s vision was of an access to God’s abode in heaven, he told Nathaniel that he would have a vision also. The vision was of the angels ascending and descending from the spiritual realm to the physical through another doorway, that doorway was Himself. It helps me understand what Jesus meant when said “I am the door,” “I am the way,” No man can come to the father but through me.” He is the access, the breach from the physical into the spiritual, the road, the way, the eternal life.” Jesus is the “stargate.”
Jacob had been driven from his home because his brother wanted to kill him. He had stopped at a lonely spot on the way and had only a rock as a pillow. He was an outcast. He had no home, he had left everything that he thought was going to be his to his brother Esau and the only person that really loved him was his mother Rebekah and he would never see her again! Can you imagine how he must feel. We might feel that way also but just as Jacob learned that God was with him even on that lonely road. So too, is God with us. Boice says, “As we look at Jacob’s experience, I want you to see that God is also with you. You may be on the verge of a mental collapse; but although you cannot sense it, God is with you right now. You may be quite ill. You may be misunderstood by your friends. You may be abandoned by a husband, a wife, or your children. Even the church may have turned its back on you. You may have lost a job. You may be discouraged. You may have so little self-worth that you feel that no one will ever care for you again.”1
1 James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 766.