I Realized This about Jesus and Jacob's Ladder (Genesis 27-30)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

It’s important to remember that, as with other Biblical characters, there are two stories at play in the life of Jacob. One is personal, and the other ties into what God has been doing throughout human history.

Several years ago, I wrote a book titled Walking With A Limp, where I walked readers through the story of Jacob and the personal dynamics of his encounters with God. In short, from birth, Jacob was a “heel grabber” and someone who was by nature conniving and manipulative. He deceived his brother twice and stole his birthright and blessing in the process. He then continued this same conniving behavior with his Uncle Laban, who turned out to be every bit as manipulative and deceitful as Jacob. Only through a dramatic sequence of events does Jacob change.

The personal side of Jacob’s story is that it forces us to confront some of the darker areas of our lives. It reveals that, like Jacob, we are born natural manipulators. And only by God’s grace will we ever change. We resonate with the words of Elie Wiesel in Dawn, “Something told me that at the end of the road we were to travel together I should find another man, very much like myself, whom I should hate.”[1]

That’s the personal side of Jacob’s story. But when we look at Jacob’s life through the grand metanarrative of Scripture, we see something else at work. In Genesis 28, Jacob runs for his life to his Uncle Laban’s in Haran. En route, he has an encounter with God.

¹⁰ Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹ He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place. ¹² And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it. ¹³ The Lord was standing there beside him, saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land on which you are lying. ¹⁴ Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south. All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. ¹⁵ Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Not only is this Jacob’s first personal encounter with God, but it’s the first time God’s promise to Abraham is extended to him. And this account tells us something powerful about how God works. Like Jacob, within every person, there are two stories at play. One that confronts our character and decision to choose or reject God and a second that is far beyond our control.

 A Meditation to PRAY

Praise | Thank you for the incredible story of redemption you have been telling since the beginning of time.

Release | I release my desire to manipulate and deceive others.

Ask | Help me to live in your truth and listen to your voice when you correct my character.

Yield | I give control of my life to you. You are my only hope for a life well lived.

A Challenge to Act Like Christ  

Jacob’s encounter with God at Bethel points us to Christ. In John 1, Jesus encounters a man named Nathaniel (identified in the other gospels as Bartholomew), who would become his disciple. In verse 49, Nathanael tells Jesus, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!” Jesus responds in verse 51 with these words, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Notice the language that parallels Jacob’s encounter with God at Bethel. Noting this connection, Willem VanGemeren says,

Here the angels go from heaven to earth not on a ladder but on Jesus himself—Jesus, in other words, is the ladder. In him, sinners on earth are restored to God in heaven. Jesus is the final “Bethel” or house of God, the true end-time temple. For in him, as in the temple of old, mankind is restored to God. In him, unclean sinners are made clean. Reflecting on such grace, our hearts are moved with fresh worship of the Lord of mercy who undertook to draw near to us sinners in our weakness and filth (Luke 19:10; Rom. 5:8).^[2]

Jesus is the only way to the Father. Thus, we should apply Jacob’s story to our lives in two ways. First, we should realize that we are naturally deceivers and manipulators. Second, we should see our only hope is Christ. Doing good things and doing our best to work against our selfish natures is not enough.

In a world where everyone is trying to climb the ladder of success and earn their way to something higher than themselves, the hope of the gospel is that Jesus Christ is the only true ladder, the Godman, the perfect mediator between us and God. Only when we place our complete trust in him does life have meaning.

*Unless you specify otherwise, comments and questions you ask may be featured in upcoming podcast episodes.

[1] Elie Wiesel, Dawn (Topeka: Tandem Library, 1982).

^[2]Bryan Chapell, eds. Gospel Transformation Study Bible Notes. Accordance electronic ed. (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), paragraph 497.