heaven open
John 1:51
1:51 heaven open. Nathanael had been convinced by the Lord’s miraculous knowledge concerning himself (John 1:47-49), and Jesus was very pleased to find a disciple “in whom is no guile.” The resulting prophetic promise given to Nathanael obviously referred back to the remarkable vision of Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:12), when he saw angels going up and down on a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. The reason for Christ’s surprising statement may well have been that Nathanael was reading that account in Genesis when Philip approached him. Jacob’s ladder thus is revealed to be a type of Christ, who is Himself the ladder from earth to heaven. He Himself had ascended and descended from heaven (John 3:13), and the time is coming “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that…obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II Thessalonians 1:7-8).
