Jacob's Ladder

Jesus tells his disciples that they will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

What is Jesus saying? Jesus assumes that you know the story of Jacob's ladder.

In Jewish tradition, the simplest explanation was that there were certain angels charged with the protection of the Promised Land, and other angels charged with other lands. Therefore, they suggested that as Jacob left the Promised Land, a new set of angels was charged with protecting him – so the “Promised Land” angels ascended the ladder, and the “foreign land” angels descended in order to accompany him.

But Jacob's ladder became a picture of the sufferings of the Jews. One interpretation saw the angels as pictures of Israel's exile. So for instance, the angel of the Babylonian exile climbed 70 rungs, and then fell down. Then the angel representing the exile in Persia went up and fell down,and then the angel representing Greek oppression. The fourth angel was the Roman exile – symbolized by Edom (remember that the Romans used the Herods – who were Edomites – to keep Israel under their thumb – and one rabbi said that this angel was Esau himself!). This angel went up and Jacob feared he would never come down, but the angel who stood with him promised that eventually Esau would fall down.

This is all very interesting – but Jesus says that he is the ladder.

What does he mean when he says, “You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man?”

In order to understand this, we need to go back and look more carefully at what this ladder is doing in Genesis 28.