'...THEY THAT WORSHIP HIM...' - 4. JACOB

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'Then he dreamed...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. And...the Lord stood above it...' (Gen.28:12,13 NKJV).
   When God revealed to Jacob in a dream the spiritual platform that conveys our requests to God from earth to heaven and back to earth with His response, He was starting a new thing. The Bible is showing us that our offerings of thanksgiving, praise, worship, supplications, petitions, intercessions and other manner of sacrifice are definitely taken up to God and that He responds to them. We are told there is an innumerable company of angels in heaven to do that (Heb.12:22). So it would seem that we all have ministering angels assigned to us who take up our sacrifices to God and bring us back the deserved answers by this revealed platform (John1:51).
What does the ladder represent? A number of interpretations have been given to Jacob's dream of the ladder. One says, "Jesus can be seen as being the ladder, in that Christ bridges the gap between Heaven and Earth. Jesus presents himself as the reality to which the ladder points...the reunion of Heaven and Earth, Jesus brought this reunion, metaphorically the ladder, into reality'' (Adam Clarke, Theologian and Bible scholar). Another says, "The place at which Jacob stopped for the night was in reality Mount Moriah, the future home of the Temple in Jerusalem. The ladder therefore signifies the 'bridge' between heaven and earth, as prayers and sacrifices offered in the Holy Temple soldered a connection between God and the Jewish people" (Unspecified source). This interpretation is corroborated by the fact that Jacob, in his broken state after the wrestling match with God, actually returned to build an altar at that same site where he dreamt, and worshiped God there with his family as he vowed to do (Gen.35:7). It was the precursor of temple worship. Jesus Himself said, “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). He was the ladder! He was confirming this old testament event revealed to Jacob! The dream was an invitation to man in his sinful state to come to the Father and receive salvation on the platform of the Son. The Son says, "I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me" (John 14:6). He is the platform on which our salvation is laid. To God be the praise for giving us His Son Jesus Christ as our ladder to heaven!
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