Genesis 28:10-15 And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.… I. THE PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SCENE. 1. It could not have been exclusively personal to Jacob. 3. Furthermore, the vision is not exhausted in any mere engagement of God's providential care. 3. Hence the vision must be interpreted as belonging to the kingdom of grace. 4. This vision, therefore, is discharged of its full weight of meaning only when we admit it to be a fine, high symbol of Jesus Christ. II. ITS DOCTRINAL REACH. The plan of redemption comes out in this symbol. Jesus Christ became the medium of grace and restoration. If, now, no mistake has been made in our inquiry thus far, the conclusion we have attained will be fairly corroborated from the disclosures presented of Jesus' person and work. 1. Begin with His Person. Surely no more felicitous image could have been presented. Christ's double nature is well shown. It would have been only a mockery to Jacob to disclose a ladder coming almost to this earth, yet falling short by a round or two, so as to be just out of reach. Then the angels could not have alighted, and no human foot could have risen. Nor would the case have been anywise better if he had been made to see that his ladder reached nearly to heaven, not quite. For then the angels would have had as great need as he, and an uncrossed gulf would have been beyond them in the air. 2. As to the work of Christ, furthermore, we may remark the same exquisite aptness of this figure in Jacob's vision. Examining it closely, we find that it teaches the sovereign assumption, the perfect completion, the evident display, and the free offer, of the plan of grace. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. |
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