The One at the Top of the Ladder - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

[Jacob] dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven.
Genesis 28:12

The One at the Top of the Ladder
Jacob had the assurance of the Lord's support, for He said, "I will keep you wherever you go" (v. 15). In like manner, the Epistle to the Hebrews very blessedly unfolds to us the priestly grace of the Lord that supports us in our journey through this world. The Lord, at the top of the ladder, is keeping His feeble, failing saints who are at the bottom of the ladder. In Hebrews 7, we learn that the One who is made higher than the heavens ever lives for those who are on their way to heaven. It is true that the man at the bottom should ever live for the One at the top of the ladder, even as Paul could say, "For to me, to live is Christ"; but while we often fail to live for Him, He never ceases to live for us.

Further the Epistle unfolds the effect of the Lord, at the top of the ladder, living for the man at the bottom. In Hebrews 2, we learn that He can help us in our temptations, and that He does so as One who Himself has suffered being tempted. To resist the temptation involves suffering. The Lord, when tempted, would rather suffer than yield to the temptation; and now, in the moments of our temptation, He is able to help us to suffer rather than sin by giving way to the temptation.

Again we learn from Hebrews 4:15 that He feels for us in our infirmities. He is not unmoved by what His people suffer from the weakness of the body, for He has not only known temptation, but has known weariness and hunger and thirst.

Lastly He intercedes for us according to His perfect knowledge of our needs. Thus we have the support of One who not only lives, but "ever lives"; and, ever living, He is able to save us to the uttermost, until earth's journey ends in heaven's glory, and time is closed by eternity.

Hamilton Smith