He Is With Us
Jacob was running away from his brother Esau, in fear for his life, when he ran into the only one who could save it…. God. In Genesis 28:10–22, God blessed Jacob by passing on to him, the covenant He originally made with Abraham. Additionally, God promised Jacob that He was with him and would watch over him. And in response, Jacob vowed to make the LORD his God. I pray that you would find God at your point of need and you would trust in the assurance of His promise to be with you. Amen
Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. ” (Gen. 28:10-15)
Jacob’s dream presents to us an image that has been called Jacob’s ladder. The significance of this image of angels ascending and descending a ladder, is that heaven and earth are meeting. They are not far apart from one another. Jesus would later say that the kingdom of heaven is near. The purpose of Jesus was to be that ladder and to draw heaven and earth together to become one. God speaks to Jacob in his dream to renew the Abrahamic covenant with Jacob. That represented the covenant being passed down to the next generation. Further, God promised to be with Jacob! That was everything to Jacob, whose life was in danger from his brother Esau and who was on the run.
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. (Gen. 28:16-19)
Jacob commemorated the place where he had encountered God as someplace special. He took the stone that he had used as a pillow to make a pillar, which he anointed, and called that place Bethel (house of God). Bethel is the city mentioned in Old Testament scripture only second to the number of times it mentions Jerusalem. Jacob identified the place as special because he said this is the house of God/ the gate of Heaven. Jesus would later call Himself the gate (John 19:9) and would say “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth. ” (Gen. 28:20-22)
Jacob’s vow in essence reiterated God’s covenant promise to him. Then he agreed that if God would be with him (God’s presence and His provision), the LORD would be his God.
Jacob was scared, tired and on the run. He had stolen his brother Esau’s birthright and his brother had threatened his life. He was running back to Harran, the place that God had told Abraham to leave. In every way, Jacob’s life seemed to be sliding backward. But then he laid down to rest, weary from running and weary from the mess he had made. It was then that he encountered God in an awesome way and received God’s promise to be with him.
It is often at the depth of our mess, when we are weary, weak and worn, that we are open to God and encounter Him in a special way. But it is in Jacob’s mess that God revealed Himself to Jacob, and Jacob received God’s promise to be with Him. Jacob’s vow reflected his attempt to bargain with God, but he eventually learned to trust God and submit to Him because of God’s faithfulness to His promises. Have you learned to trust Him and submit your will to His? Our praise is that God has been faithful, even when we have not been faithful to Him. Just like He did with Jacob, God promised to be with us…. and that is the blessing that embodies everything we will ever need.
Blessings, Rev. Glenn
18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,[a] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” ~ Matthew 28:18-20
