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. (Genesis 28:15)
It is fascinating.
Like his grandfather, Jacob had such an encounter with God that it became a significant milestone for him. Such was the impact of the encounter he named an area after it. In the light of the encounter that took place in his dreams what had been a second-hand experience through others such as his Dad, became something very real to him.
It is something to hear and read stories about God. It is something being brought with a church-influenced background. Parents and other loved ones can tell you about it and share their experiences. It can never substitute, however, the personal experience with God that happens.
What’s also fascinating, however, is how Jacob makes a vow that if he returns to the spot then he will acknowledge God as his God and will give a tithe. That’s interesting for a lot of reasons, but what others have taken from it is that it reinforces the Place of God thinking that influences a some when it comes to buildings to do with God. As though it is a special building where God lives.
What’s interesting is that God does not say He will stay there and wait for Jacob to return. The last words of God in the encounter say He will be with Jacob wherever he goes. It is to say it’s not about the building and monuments, it’s the reassurance of the presence that can make all the difference in our walk through life.
For those of us reading the story thousands of years later, God still offers to be with us. He is not a god for a building to be visited once a week like it’s a hospital visiting time. He is the One who will be with those who follow Him. He will be with them to the end of the age. As we go, He goes with us.
We are, likewise, assured that He will be with us until the end comes and what a glorious end that is too. Everything He is to accomplish through us will be accomplished. No need for concern over a life wasted when you follow the all-wise, omnipresent God.
It’s why that divine encounter can make all the difference to our way of living.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 