Christ in the Old Testament

Genesis 28:12

He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (NIV)

Today’s Reading: Genesis 28:10-22 and John 1:43-51

There’s a lot of symbology and meaning in this dream of Jacob’s! Jacob was on his way to his uncle’s house to find a wife at this time. He was fleeing the wrath of Esau because Jacob had stolen Esau’s birthright and his father’s blessing. Interestingly enough, even though Jacob had his father’s blessing, he didn’t have God’s blessing. But here in this dream, God gives him that blessing. And again we see in verse 14 that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.” From earlier studies, we know this is fulfilled in Christ. But there’s more!

This stairway Jacob saw was “resting on the earth” and “above it stood the Lord.” So it connected God to us. Do you recall any time prior to this where something similar happened? Assuming you got it correct, it was in fact the Tower of Babel from Genesis 11. The people were attempting to build a tower to connect man to God to bring glory to themselves. But God put a stop to those shenanigans. Instead, God would build the connection.

Fast forward to Jesus in our reading today from John chapter one. Jesus is calling his disciples to follow him and he calls Nathanael to be a disciple. Nathanael agrees to follow him and in fact calls Jesus the Son of God after Jesus tells him a very simple fact about himself. But then Jesus tells Nathanael one of the greatest things that he will ever see. He will see “heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

I love that Jesus is constantly calling himself the Messiah and everyone seems to miss it. It’s hard to say if Jesus’s followers made the connection at the time because generally they have to have these things explained to them. But Jesus is literally saying that he is Jacob’s ladder. He is the one who will connect man to God.

Babel reveals our inability to reach God. We cannot reach God by our works. We can only be with God through grace. Jacob’s ladder is God reaching down to us.  Jesus tells us here that He is the ladder.  He is the one that bridges the gap between God and man. Jesus has come to rescue us and restore us to a right relationship with God. 

Today’s Prayer: Lord, help me to rest. I am working hard to please you and that’s not going to work. Help me to accept your forgiveness and grace and be free from the burden of having to earn your favor. Thank you Jesus for rescuing us from ourselves!