Title: God of Bethel
Contents
Genesis 28:10-19
God of Bethel
Among the many characters in the Bible, Jacob has many similarities to us living in modern times. No one is great from the start. It is through the grace of God. In this respect, Jacob can say that the process of his previous life is a process of change. Jacob is well characterized by his name. In addition to the meaning of ‘holding the heel’, it also has the meaning of ‘a deceiver’. The older brother, who returned from hunting, cleverly takes advantage of the hungry situation to take over the authority of the eldest son. Of course, Esau's fault was great, but Jacob was wise in not giving him red bean soup for his brother. When his father Isaac is about to bless Esau, he wears his brother Esau's clothes and disguises himself as Esau with goat skins. Jacob deceives his father, who cannot see well because of his age, saying, ‘I am Esau, your firstborn son’ (Genesis 27:19). So I got a blessing from my father. So, was Jacob all right?
Jacob's life was to reap where you sow. Jacob, who was given the birthright and received the blessing, ran away from it. You take all the things that you devised and worked on. The first is the text. When his brother Esau returns from hunting, he learns that his younger brother Jacob has been blessed by his father. And out of anger, he decides to kill his brother (Gen. 27:41). So Jacob runs away. On the day he was caught by his brother, he was unable to sustain his life. He received blessings from his father, but he became a fugitive overnight. To escape from his brother, he leaves for Haran, where his uncle Laban's house is. And on the way, they cut stones in this wilderness and sleep. How miserable he is is sleeping on a stone pillow in the field.
You don't know how afraid Jacob was. There used to be a town called Ruth, but the reason I sleep in a remote and secluded place is so that my brother doesn't find out. On the way Jacob was going, he did not know when he would meet a robber or when he would return home. Was there no fear and loneliness? But the deceiver, the plunderer, and the fugitive Jacob, God loved him.
God comes to Jacob. The text does not describe Jacob as seeking God. Jacob is not a great person. Nevertheless, God came to a man like Jacob. And make you dream. The ladder appears in it to connect the earth and the sky. The ladder is not just going up In other words, this ladder is not for Jacob to climb up, but for God to come down to Jacob and to connect with Jacob.
There is nothing worthy of praise for Jacob, who deceives his brother and father and runs away to save his life, and even Jacob, who does not live in a village and sleeps with a stone as his pillow in the wilderness. Fear, shame, despair and loneliness, and needless Jacob, cannot predict the future. God came to him. Why did you come? Because I love you. why do you love There is no reason to be loved in his life. Nevertheless, you come. It is because God has chosen them (Romans 9:12-13, Genesis 25:23). God has a plan for Jacob.
God, who comes to us in the same circumstances as Jacob and Jacob, also comes to us today. A place where a stone pillow is cut, a situation of pain and fear, but God comes to that place. And he made a promise to Jacob. He will bless you (verse 15). I promise to be with you. He promises to protect you and bring you back. God makes a special promise to Jacob, who does not know what will happen tomorrow. It was a blessing that Jacob could not have imagined at all. God directly spoke and promised Jacob, who had struggled to receive blessings through human cunning. The barren Bethel became a place of blessing in the presence of God. Bethel was the temple of God and the gate of heaven. The seat of pain and loneliness was the place of promise to heaven. I am not alone when there are times in our lives when we sometimes encounter pain, tremble with fear, and bask in the night dew. I hope that you will meet God in the place of suffering and pain and hear the voice of the promise.