Creator, Father, King #61

You will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.

Jacob—the heel-grabbing, rock-headed patriarch—was changed forever when God confronted him with a spectacular dream as he slept on a stone. As God softened his heart, he began to see himself for who he was in God’s redemptive plan.

But there’s a deeper meaning to this story. It has to do with the stairway that Jacob saw in his dream. Here’s what Jacob saw: “As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway” (Genesis 28:12).

To unlock the greater significance of this stairway, we must fast-forward nearly two thousand years from Jacob’s era to the time when Jesus walked the earth.

What’s It Mean?

Jesus often told parables to his disciples and then explained their meaning. Sometimes, he even reminded them of Old Testament stories and interpreted them in light of his coming. This is what he did one day when he first called Nathanael to be one of his disciples.

Nathanael was a skeptic. He initially didn’t believe that the Messiah could come from lowly Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown. But when Jesus proved his divinity by displaying supernatural knowledge about Nathanael that only God could know (John 1:47-48), Nathanael humbly exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!” (verse 49).

Jesus’ response was fascinating: “You will see greater things than this. . . . I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth” (John 1:50-51).

In essence, Jesus was telling Nathanael, “Do you remember the story of Jacob and his dream about the stairway between heaven and earth? Well, I’m the stairway.”

Jesus is the only way we can access a holy God in heaven. Only through God’s Son can we—as sinful humans on earth—have our sins forgiven.

Jesus descended the staircase, so to speak, to make us right with God through his sacrificial death and resurrection. Through faith in his finished work on the cross, we can ascend to the Father in eternity. Thank you, Jesus!

Now What?

Read John 1:43-51 to learn more about Jesus’ conversation with Nathanael.

Did You Know?

By calling himself “the Son of Man” in John 1:51, Jesus linked himself to the mysterious figure referred to in Daniel 7:13-14 and also affirmed his deity and eternal nature as the second Person of the Trinity.