# 28 Jacob's Ladder Personified

Joh 1:50 Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." 51 And He said to him, "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."

Jesus has laid Nathaniel bare. He has established that there is nothing He doesn’t know about Nathaniel. He knows his thoughts, his secrets, his whereabouts, and his physical condition at all times. That should be enough to boggle the mind of Nathaniel (and you and I) but wait! There’s more!

Jesus adds, “You think that’s a big deal? You’ll see even greater things as you follow me!” “Most assuredly (emphasized truth) you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Cool! But what does that mean? What does that look like? We see no literal occurrence of this anywhere in the New Testament.

To me, this is a picture of THE heavenly connection. It is the fullness of the shadow cast by the incident of Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28:11-22. In his dream a ladder reached to heaven and angels were ascending and descending on it. Listen to what took place after he awoke from this dream: Ge 28:17 And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!"

The gate of heaven! Jesus is the Gate as He said in Jn 10/:9,  “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” He is the Gate, the Ladder that breaches the gap between sinful man and a holy God!

Nathaniel will see this very real connection in miracle after miracle during the “Son of Man’s” (Jesus’)  ministry on earth. In Jesus, Nathaniel would see God touching people and His creation in many miraculous ways. There would be no doubt in Nathaniel’s mind of the direct pipeline between Jesus and the Father!

He would know and be assures that Jesus and the father are one!

Angels are both messengers and ministering spirits, and here they are a reminder that Nathan would hear messages from heaven itself spoken through Jesus. Jesus said in Joh 12:49 "For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.”

Further, Jesus ministered to others as the Father led, as HE stated in  Joh 5:36 "But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish--the very works that I do--bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.”

 His ultimate goal in His words and deeds would be to connect sinful man to holy God! And Nathaniel would be an eyewitness to all of it!

To think that the Creator of the universe, the all-knowing, all powerful God desires to connect to us poor sinful beings through Jesus should cause us all to fall on our faces before the Lord and say with the Psalmist in Ps 8:4,5, “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? 5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.”

God, who knows every sordid detail of your life and mine, desires to forgive and forget those sordid details and be connected to you and I!

Amazing grace!