Context No. 3007 of 4322 · Genesis

Genesis 28:16-22: in context

16Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I didn’t know it.” 17He was afraid, and said, “How awesome this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.” 18Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on its top. 19He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on, 21so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, and the LORD will be my God, 22then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God’s house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give a tenth to you.”

Jacob wakes from his dream of the ladder reaching to heaven and says, surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it. Filled with awe, he calls it the house of God, the gate of heaven. He sets up the stone he had slept on as a pillar, pours oil over it, names the place Bethel, and makes a vow: if God will keep me and bring me home in peace, the LORD will be my God, and I will give him a tenth of all he gives me.

Two things stand out. Jacob's discovery, the LORD was in this place and I did not know it, names how often God is present exactly where we least expect and fail to notice, in the ordinary or the desolate spot. A fugitive, sleeping on a stone in the middle of nowhere, meets God. And his vow, though still tinged with bargaining, if God will do this, then, is a real beginning of faith, marking the place and pledging a tenth. God met Jacob before Jacob deserved it or even sought him, at the low point of a lonely flight.

Where might God be present in my life, in an ordinary or hard place, that I have failed to recognize, and would I too say, the LORD was here, and I did not know it?

Sources

Genesis 28:16: "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I didn't know it."
Genesis 28:17: "This is none other than God's house, and this is the gate of heaven."
Psalm 139:8: "If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!"