Main news for 28 July 2025

What is the meaning of the ladder Jacob saw? And how is it connected with the meaning of the whole vision as a whole? That on that night God renews with Jacob the covenant once concluded with Abraham is obvious. But what, in that case, can the ladder mean?

From the point of view of historical and cultural realities, it most closely resembles the altars that were found then in great numbers in the cities of northern Palestine and Phoenicia, pyramid-shaped structures with an altar platform at the top, to which a ladder led from the ground. Jacob evidently sees just such an altar, on whose upper platform the God of Abraham stands. Unfortunately, the biblical narrative does not mention exactly how He appeared to Jacob. But the meaning of the vision in such a context becomes clearer: God is evidently calling Jacob after Himself, offering him to climb the ladder as all who desired a meeting with Him climbed it.

This is not surprising, since the renewal of the covenant meant the establishment of relations between God and Jacob, who quite possibly had previously thought more about the right of the firstborn and about power in the tribe than about God. Now he had to become better acquainted with the God of his fathers and become the leader of the people of God, which was far from simple. Until now Jacob had probably thought that becoming a leader was not so difficult: for that one needed only desire, which he had, a little cunning, and a little luck. Now, when he had to flee from his enraged brother, he apparently began to understand that when power is involved, even if only in a small nomadic tribe, everything can turn unexpectedly serious, so serious that a claimant to power has to fear for his life.

But most likely he did not yet understand that life in general is so harsh that one can survive only with God's help, and all the more that without His help it is impossible to become a leader. And now he had to understand this, to understand it through his own difficult experience of life in foreign parts, among relatives who are glad to see you while you are poor and persecuted, and not very glad when you become strong and rich.

And Jacob also had years ahead of him of ever closer communion with the God of his fathers, who over these years would become his God too. And He would make Jacob not merely the head of the tribe into which he had been born, but the leader of His people.