Climbing Jacob's Ladder

 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 28: 12)


And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” (John 1:51)\

Jacob must have thought a great deal about his sin and his life as he traveled to his mother’s family country.  His sin brought him separation from his family. He felt alone and discouraged, for even his relationship  with God was affected by his sin. I wonder how many people in the world today are the same way? Jacob wanted and his heart longed for peace and forgiveness.  He desired and wanted the fellowship of his God, who was in heaven, but he could not find a way to achieve it.  He did not know how to go about it. His sin was ever before him, separating him from the Lord.  As night approached, he laid down to sleep and a dream was given to him from God.  In the dream he saw a ladder that touched the earth on one end and reached to the gates of heaven on the other end. Then the LORD spoke to Jacob and promised to be with him and that the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. ( Genesis 28:11-15.) 

Jesus is the fulfillment of this dream and its promises.  Because Jesus is the only link between heaven and earth.  As we grab hold of the ladder to climb, we must remember that every step up that ladder is a truth on our way in our passage to heaven.  Truth is a belief, an very effective and valuable force. It is a working principle, a standard of belief, that molds and shapes our hearts and lives.  Every step, that we take and every truth, that we say amen to and abide by will have a transforming impact upon our life so that the life of Jesus is reflected in us as we continue to climb that ladder. Each step that we take as a Christian we are letting Jesus mold and make us into a vessel of his choosing. We must keep climbing that ladder.

 What we are talking about here is by no means salvation by works, because we are saved by our faith in Jesus.  He is our reason for wanting to climb that ladder.  As I write this article I recall what Paul said  in Philippians 3: 13-14.  “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”  We are to continue in our spiritual growth every day.  We must picture it just like climbing Jacobs’s ladder.

The representation of the ladder should, by all means, bring hope to all, because, that ladder reaches all the way from Heaven to earth.  It reaches down and touches man when he lives in his fallen state.  Climbing a tall ladder requires painstaking and diligent effort.  Every step on that ladder is important and not one rung of that ladder is to be missed or meant to be skipped.  We must take hold of Jesus and never let go.  The journey may look like it is long and hard at different times but the reward, in the end, will be worth it all.

“The angels of God ascending and descending on it”  makes known all the resources of God which was at the disposal of Jacob and is now at the believers disposal.   It is the same for every modern day believer, if we put our trust in Him and properly understand Jesus Christ and look to Him solely and according to what He did on the cross in the Sacrifice of Himself on the cross.  Some of us may be tired and weary, but we got to keep on keeping on because Heaven is there not far from our view!