Jacob's Ladder

Had imagery in my prayers tonight of 'Jacob's Ladder' resting over the community house.

The story of Jacob's ladder is in Genesis 28. Isaac, son of Abraham, has two sons, Esau & Jacob. Jacob is the swindler & cheats Esau out of the father's blessing/inheritance. Esau is enraged & swears to kill Jacob & so Jacob flees for his life. In the early days of Jacob's flight, he pulls up some rocks for pillows & falls asleep & in his sleep he dreams of a ladder/staircase reaching into heaven & the angels of God ascend & descend the ladder/stairs in between the heavens & the earth... & it is in this place that God speaks over Jacob the same blessing given to his father Isaac & his grandfather Abraham. God the Father gives Jacob this unearned blessing, the blessing handed down through the generations of patriarchs to this most undeserving one.

After having this vision, Jacob awakens & fear & names the place 'Bethel', the house of God (Hebrew 'Beth' = house, "El" = God) because, as he says, "God was in this place & I didn't realize it".

Fast forward a thousand years or more. In John chapter 1, there are two brothers Philip & Nathaniel. Philip sees Jesus & believes that he is the Messiah, the promised deliverer/saviour & goes rushing to tell his brother Nathaniel. Nathaniel is skeptical, but tags along to check things out. When Jesus sees him, he starts to basically recite Nathaniel's life back to him & amazed by this, Nathaniel starts to profess that Jesus must be the son of God to know all these things. Jesus replies to him & says:

"Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, for this you believe? You will see greater things than these..... Truly, truly, I say to you, Hereafter you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." (John 1:50 & 51)

The Bible interprets itself. This phrase about "the heaven's open & the angels ascending/descending" is an exact quote of the Jacob's Ladder passage. What Jesus is saying is that He is Jacob's Ladder, He is the ladder/stairway leading into heaven...

& yeah, anyhow, not sure how this applies to anything, but it's just a neat little connection piece that may have some relevance somewhere.

Nite.