And we are told, As he lay that
night, and he was asleep, 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.
And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and
said, I am the Lord God of Abraham
thy father, and the God of Isaac, the
land whereon thou liest, to thee will I
give it, and to thy seed.
And it was right in that area, by
the way, is where God first appeared to
Abraham there in the land.
Verse 14, And thy seed shall be as
the dust of the earth, and thou shalt
spread abroad to the west, to the east,
to the north, and to the south.
And in thee, and in thy seed, shall
all the families of the earth be blessed.
Now, God is giving to this man.
You see exactly what He'd given first to
Abraham.
He repeated it to Isaac.
Now He confirms it and reaffirms it to
Jacob that He'll do this.
Now God says to him, verse 15, And,
behold, I am with thee, and will keep
thee in all places, whither thou goest.
And I'll bring thee again into this land,
for I'll not leave thee until I've done
that which I've spoken to thee of.
Now, you can see how this would be
comforting and helpful to a lonesome, homesick boy
that has really had to leave home in
a hurry, and he's on the way to
a far country.
And this was a great comfort and help
to him.
God says, I'm going to be with you,
Jacob, and I'm going to bring you back
in this land.
But the vision that He gave him in
that dream was of a ladder that reached
up to heaven, and God spoke to him.
Now, what does that ladder mean?
Well, our Lord interpreted that when He called
Nathanael.
Nathanael was a wise acre, by the way.
He said, Can any good thing come out
of Nazareth?
And our Lord, I tell you, He dealt
with this fellow, and when He said, How
in the world do you know me?
I said, I saw you under that fig
tree.
Well, He said, Rabbi, thou art the Son
of God, thou art the King of Israel.
The Lord Jesus said, You're pretty easy to
convince.
And He was.
He was a skeptic at the beginning of
the ministry of Christ.
It took Thomas three years before he got
the light.
But notice this man, Nathanael.
The Lord Jesus said to him, Because I
sat unto thee, I saw thee under the
fig tree.
Believest thou, thou shalt see greater things than
these.
Well, what will he see?
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.
Now, what is that ladder?
Well, that ladder is Christ.
And God, from the top of the ladder
in heaven, a voice out of heaven said,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased.
And God is speaking to man through Christ
today.
You can't come to God directly.
I hear people say today, every now and
then in a testimony, somebody said, Well, when
I was converted, I just came directly to
God.
I have access to God.
You do not, my friend.
You come through Christ.
We have access through Christ, through the grace
that we have in Christ.
That's the only way you and I get
into God's presence.
This is the ladder let down from heaven
that sinners might not climb while the angels
of God are ascending and descending on it.
You see, they come from Him, the Lord
Jesus Himself.
Now, it is first given to old Jacob,
usurper.
Nathanael, our Lord said to him, You are
an Israelite in whom there's no guile.
That is, there's no Jacob.
He's no trickster.
Nathanael wasn't.
He's just a wiseacre.
He's just being humorous.
But this man, Jacob, God is going to
have to deal with him.
And He gives him this wonderful, glorious promise.
But now listen to Jacob.
Oh, he has so much to learn.
And isn't that true of all of us
today?
No wonder God has to school us.
No wonder God has to discipline us.
Every son He receives, we're told that He
scourges him.
He disciplines him.
He did Abraham.
He did Isaac.
He's going to do Jacob.
Everything's been going Jacob's way.
You know, so many people, they're just members
of the church.
They don't know the Lord at all.
They're just church members and just the biggest
hypocrites in the world.
And the Lord has to shake us, you
see.
And these things come to us.
They discipline us.
They put iron in our backbone.
They put iron in our blood, too.
And they put courage in our lives and
enable us to stand for God.