+DEV+ Jesus: Our Access to God

Date: August 9, 2012 9:44 PM
Topic: +DEV+  Jesus: Our Access to God

Jesus: Our Access to God

"[Jacob] had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it."  (Genesis 28:12)
Scripture Focus: Genesis 28:10-17

Jacob - later renamed Israel - had run away from home. With the help of his mother, Rebecca, he had tricked his father, Isaac, out of brother Esau's inheritance. He'd gone about 50 miles into his 500 mile journey to Haran when he had a dream. In it he saw a great stairway reaching from the earth to heaven and "the angels of God were ascending and descending on it." What did the dream mean?

First, the dream confirmed that heaven actually exists. Second, heaven is interested in the earth. Whatever else it meant, the stairway's central focus was on God and His promise to Abram that "All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring" (Genesis 28:14). The trickster Jacob was heir to that promise. Through him and his boys, not yet born, would come One who would be the ultimate blessing to the nations. The stairway foreshadows Jesus. Jesus said to Nathanael in John 1:51, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Insight: Jesus Is The Mediator Of The New Covenant. He Is The True Stairway To Paradise - Heaven - The Only Access To The Father  (John 14:6).