Jesus Christ meets our most basic human needs. We need companionship (we don’t want to be alone), we crave security (we don’t want to feel vulnerable), and we want a home–somewhere to belong (we don’t want to be rootless).
When God comes to Jacob, the patriarch is a fugitive who is alone and vulnerable. He’s been told by his parents to leave home–to leave the land of Canaan–and go about 450 miles to the northeast to find a wife. On that trip, he stops to sleep, and God appears to him in a dream and makes three promises: I am with you (you’re not alone), I will keep you (you’re not vulnerable), and I will bring you back to this land (you have a home).
It’s fascinating how Jesus uses this story in John 1 to show us something even more beautiful than what Jacob received. “Jacob’s Ladder,” for us, is actually a Person, and One who gives us everything that we truly need and want.