The Promise in Person

“Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!”

Born into a dysfunctional family? Making your own way through life anyway you can? Does God know where to find you?

When Rebekkah’s time to give birth came, sure enough, there were twins in her womb. The first came out reddish, as if snugly wrapped in a hairy blanket; they named him Esau (Hairy). His brother followed; his fist clutched tight to Esau’s heel; they named him Jacob (Heel). Isaac was sixty years old when they were born.

The boys grew up. Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman. Jacob was a quiet man preferring life indoors among the tents. Isaac loved Esau because he loved his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. (Genesis 25:24-28.)

Years later, Jacob the heel-grabber buys Esau’s birthright with a bowl of stew. The birthright was recognition of the chief position in the family and the inheritance of a double portion of everything a father owned. Esau rashly “sells” the birthright to Jacob for a bite to eat after a day of hunting.

Jacob said, “Make me a trade: my stew for your rights as the firstborn.” And Esau said, “I’m starving! What good is a birthright if I’m dead?” Esau did not appreciate the gravity of birthright.

Jacob had had his eye on the birthright and saw the moment to grasp it by cooking up a stew.(Genesis 25:19-34)

Years after that, Jacob the heel-grabber, by tricking his weak blind father, grasped the blessing that Isaac had in store for his favorite son Esau. The blessing was more personal than the birthright. It provided, with God’s assurance, a purpose and a path for the family’s future.

God had promised to bless Abraham and, through his descendants, the world (Genesis 12:1-3). The blessing was passed on to Isaac who first heard of God’s personal presence (Genesis 26):

I am the God of Abraham your father;
    don’t fear a thing because I’m with you.
I’ll bless you and make your children flourish
    because of Abraham my servant.

The scheme was concocted by the boy’s mother Rebekkah. She was going by what God had told her when she was pregnant:

“Two nations are in your womb,
    two peoples butting heads while still in your body.
One people will overpower the other,
    and the older will serve the younger.” (Genesis 25)

When Esau found out about the stolen blessing, he was furious and ready to kill Jacob. Rebekkah gets word of this. She pretends like nothing has happened and lies to her husband Issac. She presses Issac to send Jacob some five-hundred miles away – to her homeland. She says that Jacob should find a wife there among her kin and not from among the locals.

So, Isaac sends Jacob away, to Paddan-aram and to Laban, the brother of Rebekah. Turns out, Laban is a schemer just like his sister. (Genesis 29)

Jacob left his hometown Beersheba in a hurry and headed toward Haran. On his way he came to a place outside the city of Luz in the land of Canaan. He camped there for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. And he dreamed of a ziggurat stairway that reached all the way to the sky. Messengers of God were going up and down the stairway, between earth and heaven. (Genesis 28:10-12)

Jacob saw God standing beside him and saying, “I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I’m giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they’ll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Yes. I’ll stay with you, I’ll protect you wherever you go, and I’ll bring you back to this very ground. I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.

Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, “God is in this place—truly. And I didn’t even know it!” (Genesis 28:10-16)

At the foot of the stairway and not from the towering top of the ziggurat, a man-made temple where mortals ascend to the gods, God revealed himself to Jacob as the same God who spoke to Abraham. He confirms Jacob’s place and identity in the chosen line. Jacob is given a divine promise of presence.

And that very night the Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you and make your offspring numerous for my servant Abraham’s sake.” Genesis 26:24, cf. 26:28

God has come all the way down the stairway to be where Jacob is (intimacy) to announce himself to Jacob. It is on the earth where human beings sleep that we encounter God and not at the top of the ziggurat of philosophical reasoning and empirical research.

This is the first time Jacob encounters God. It’s his first acknowledgement of a transcendent dimension to his life. He is gob smacked by the experience. To mark the spot of God’s presence, he places a stone pillar, pours oil over it to sanctify it, and calls the location Bethel – house of God. This is Jacob’s first religious response. Then Jacob vowed a conditional vow:

“If God stands by me and protects me on this journey on which I’m setting out, keeps me in food and clothing, and brings me back in one piece to my father’s house, this God will be my God. This stone that I have set up as a memorial pillar will mark this as a place where God lives. And everything you give me, I’ll return a tenth to you.” (Genesis 28: 18-19)

Jacob’s vow to God is all about taking care of himself. He is preoccupied with personal well-being and wanting his father’s assets. He is obsessed with blessing and property. His vow is not a commitment but a bargain. His personal bandwidth, even with the presence and promise of God, hadn’t expanded. But God’s encounters with Jacob would continue.

As noted above, Jacob as he was leaving the land promised to him, has an encounter with God in a “ladder” dream. When he returns to the land, he has another encounter with God – a wrestling match at the river Jabbok (emptying).

Like all of us, Jacob is a work in progress. He is of questionable character and not someone we would have thought of to be the namesake (Israel) of a line of people who are to represent God’s character to the world. But God, in His wisdom and mercy, works with Jacob- his faults, his dysfunction, his deceitful ways, and his sins – and seeks to redeem him for his purposes. God is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy (cf. Psalm 103: 6-18) (unlike many judgmental types today who are loathe to work with God to redeem relationships with those they do not deem worthy).

Of course, there is much more to the Jacob/Israel story than presented here. But this was presented so that you might know that God will encounter us. He may find us in a dysfunctional family (Jacob). He may find us roaming a desert watching a flock of sheep when most of our time on earth is behind us (Moses). He may find us sitting beneath a tree or up a tree (Nathaniel, Zaccheus). He may find us working on a fishing boat (Simon, Andrew, James, John) or at a tax collecting booth (Matthew).

The incomparable and personal God will search for us, the lost sheep and the lost bad pennies, to make his presence and promises known. When we find out that we are found, what will be the response?

~~~~~

For another perspective on God tracking us down, read what Fr Donovan learned when he was attempting to evangelize the Masai, a fiercely independent semi-nomadic tribe of herders spread over thirty thousand square miles of Tanzania.

A Masai elder contrasted ways of faith in hunting terms: a white hunter shooting an animal from afar to a lion wrapping its limbs and claws around its prey. You will want to read this to find out about the lion:

The Hound of Heaven – A Sermon preached in Duke University Chapel on September 16, 2007 by the Revd Dr Sam Wells

The Hound of Heaven (duke.edu)

~~~~~

Who is God? – with Iain Provan (gospelconversations.com)

Iain W. Provan | Faculty | Regent College (regent-college.edu)

~~~~~

Passion – Crushing Snakes (Live From Passion 2020) ft. Crowder, TAYA (youtube.com)