we are climbing Jacob's Ladder

The Word for today:
John 1:35-51

mark these:

John 1:51 --
"I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

Genesis 28:12 --
And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!

The Bible student should be on the lookout for all the pictures of Jesus that are in the Bible!

No, these aren't pictures of his face--no one knows what he looked like, because God hasn't shown us that.

But pictures of his heart, his work, his character, his life, his cross, his death, his resurrection, his kingdom--pictures of these are strewn throughout your Bible.

Yesterday, when John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and exclaimed, Behold, the Lamb of God (1), he was teaching us that the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament was but a picture of Jesus, who would take our sins upon himself, dying in our place.

Today, Jesus points to the well-known Old Testament story about Jacob's ladder (2). In Genesis we are told that Jacob dreamed of a ladder which stretched from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it.

Jesus teaches us in John 1:51 that he is Jacob's ladder. He is the connection between man and God; the commerce between heaven and earth will be upon him. The transaction at the cross, and the ongoing transaction in prayer are through him. He is the covenant; he's where the deal goes down.

Here in John chapter 1 we hear from two great Bible teachers, Jesus and John the Baptist! Both of them use the pictures God provides in the Old Testament to show us the Bible's deepest truths.

When we begin to see that the Lamb is Jesus, that Jacob's Ladder is Jesus, that the Old Testament is one picture of Jesus after another--then we are climbing higher, higher.

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(1) John 1:29; (2) John 1:51, referring to Genesis 28:12.