Genesis 28:12

And he dreamed, and behold,. ladder set upon the earth.

God was pleased, in this spot where Abraham "had called on the name of the Lord," and where he had revealed himself to the patriarch, to appear also to Jacob. It was in. remarkable vision of the night season, that he appeared to him.. ladder, or staircase, perhaps stony steps of the mountain peaks, reached up to heaven, the sky above the head of the sleeper, and it was crowded with angels, ascending and descending. "The import of the vision is obvious. It is an instructive image of the real though unseen connection of the heavenly agencies with the affairs of earth. Its special design here is to give Jacob the assurance of an ever-active providential agency, though invisible to him, through which the promises that follow would be most surely accomplished. The record of it conveys the like assurance to all who have faith in an overruling providence, and commit themselves to its care."-- Conant. "As connecting earth and heaven it was. striking image of mediation and reconciliation by him who is THEe WAY. This is the New Testament explanation of it. Hereafter ye shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man (John 1:51). Whether it was the vision of. common ladder, or flight of steps, or whether, as some suppose, it was. pile of mountain terraces, matters little. The flight of steps hewn in the rocky sides of the mountain near Tyre, on the edge of the Mediterranean, is called ' the ladder of Tyre. '"-- Jacobus.