Jacob was a deceiver (Genesis 27). His mother Rebekah came up with a plan. She and Jacob deceived Isaac and stole Esau’s blessing. Esau planned to kill Jacob as soon as their father died. Rebekah heard about Esau’s plan and told Jacob. At Rebekah’s prompting, Issac sent Jacob to Haran to find a bride among her people. Jacob set out on his journey. On his journey, he had a dream.
“Because the sun had set, Jacob took stones and used them for his pillows, then he laid down to sleep. In a dream, Jacob saw a ladder set on the earth. The top of it reached to heaven. Jacob saw the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder, and the LORD stood above it.” (Genesis 28:10-13a)
Notice the ladder began on earth and reached to heaven. The ladder is our way to God.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth and filled them. Adam and Eve were in oneness with God. They walked with Him in the Garden of Eden. But when they disobeyed God, they were separated from Him. There was no way to come back to God and be in fellowship with Him unless God made a way.
“Your iniquities have separated you from your God…” (Isaiah 59:2)
And God DID make a way. God spoke of His plan in Genesis. God is the only one who could make a way for us to come to Him. He promised a Deliverer who would reconcile man with God and destroy Satan.
“The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. Her seed will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.’” (Genesis 3:15)
God continued to work out His plan to send the Deliverer. Many years had passed since God gave the first promise of the Deliverer in the Garden of Eden.
There is only one way to come to God and be accepted. God showed Jacob this truth through his dream. The Deliverer will be like the ladder that Jacob saw reaching from earth to Heaven. The Deliverer will make it possible for God and man to be reconciled/reunited. How many ladders did Jacob see? Just one. The coming Deliverer would bridge the gap between man and God.
In Jacob’s dream of the ladder, “the Lord stood above it and said, ‘I am the LORD God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your seed the land on which you lie and to the east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. I am with you, and I will keep you everywhere you go, and I will bring you into this land again; because I won’t leave you until I have done that which I have spoken to you.’” Genesis 28:13-15
Jacob knew about the promises given to Abraham (Genesis 12:3, Genesis 17:19, Genesis 22:18) and Isaac (Genesis 26:3-5). God had not forgotten His plan. He now revealed that the promised Deliverer would come through Jacob.
Think about the timing of this message from God. Jacob had deceived his father and stolen his brother’s blessing. He had been sent away from home because his brother wanted to kill him. Jacob was not making godly decisions. His life was a mess. And yet God chose that time to give Jacob a dream and tell him that He would fulfill His promises through him, this deceiver.
What a message! God can use us even when we are making bad choices, even when our life is a mess!
In Genesis 28:21, “Jacob said, ‘The Lord will be my God.’”
When God spoke to Jacob through his dream, he chose to serve God.
Jesus is the Ladder, the One Way to God
Years passed and the prophecies of the Deliverer were fulfilled.
“God sent his Son (Jesus) into the world… that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17)
Jesus used the words of Genesis 28:10 to refer to Himself.
“Jesus said (to Nathanael), ‘You will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man.’” (John 1:51)
Jesus is Jacob’s ladder, the way between earth and heaven. Jesus is the only way to come to God and be accepted.
“Jesus said, ‘I am the way (singular), the truth (singular), and the life (singular): no man comes to the Father, except by me.’” (John 14:6) ONE WAY
“There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)
“Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead… There is salvation in no other. There is no other name under heaven, by which we can be saved.” (Acts 4:10,12)
When Jesus was on the cross, he took all of our sins on himself. He took on all that evil and paid the penalty for our sin with his blood and his life.
Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15)
“…Through Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself… God has made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that we can be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:19,21)
We are reconciled with God through Jesus, reunited into oneness with Him.
Jacob saw a dream of a ladder representing this reconciliation, and Jesus revealed that He IS Jacob’s Ladder.
What will you do with the knowledge you have been given – the awareness that Jesus is that Ladder and the one way to God? Will you admit your sin and trust in Jesus?
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
“If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away; all things are new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” Psalm 146:5
