When Jacob awoke from his dream, he encounter God. God showed Jacob through this dream that he was chosen to carry on His covenant. Jacob was selected to be the third Patriarch, but he had a choice.
Jacob’s response is interesting…
“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.’” Genesis 28:16-18 NIV
Let’s break this down. Jacob first says…
“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it…”
UNAWARE
When Jacob had laid down in his exhaustion prior to this dream, he was not “God aware.” He just wanted to sleep. But as he slept, God was “Jacob aware.”
I don’t know whether Jacob was running from God or not. I truly think that he was just “doing life.” Doing life without an awareness of God. He knew God was external, but he hadn’t made God internal. God was an existence, not a reality.
Even for those of us who have a relationship with God, we float through life not being “God aware.” We wake up in the morning and once we place our feet on the ground, it is go! God is a small blinking light in the background of our everyday chaos. We just “do life” without any awareness of God. I mean, it’s just life, isn’t it?
When I look at this story and see myself in the place of Jacob, I see that in my complacency and disconnection with God, He still wants to be with me. I ignore him but often not on purpose. In the ease of life, I simply don’t need Him. I draw Him into my world when things are off kilter…only when I need Him. But the truth of the matter is that He wants me to be aware of Him everyday. He wants me to walk through life allowing Him to affect every aspect of my living. This does not mean I have to be on my knees in prayer 24/7; it doesn’t mean I have speak Christianeze to every person I meet in the grocery store; it doesn’t mean that I am a lesser Christian if I don’t wear the “Jesus” t shirt. It simply means I walk with Him; I talk with Him; I laugh with Him and I cry with Him. He is the “go to” when life is frustrating. He is the “go to” when life is fun…I live with an awareness of Him in my life ALWAYS.
Here is the why…because when things are really hard in life, I know who I am running to. He is not a stranger or a genie in a lamp. He is my friend, my confidant. He knows me and I know Him because I have lived being “aware of Him”.
Here is the how…this one is easy! Talk to Him. I get to know my friends most when I talk with them, when I go for a walk with them, when I have coffee with them. The same is true with God. Driving in the car on the way to work? Talk to Him about your day. Walk through your schedule and pray for wisdom. When making a decision whether small or large, talk to Him. When you see the beauty of a day, tell Him thank you. Take time to pause in life and draw in awareness of God.
JACOB’S RESPONSE
“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.’”
Afraid and Awed…
If I had a dream like this, I would have been afraid too. But once the “sleepies” were wiped from my eyes, God’s presence may have too awed me. Fear pushed Jacob into the arms of God. He went from being completely unaware of God, to walking into His house right through the Gate of Heaven!
Jacob worshiped…then questioned!
As Jacob woke up the next morning, he worshiped. He worshiped the God that he had been unaware of by taking the stone that had been his pillow the night before and making it a place of worship.
Then he questioned! Read this slowly to see if you can see where the question lies.
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 21so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord[a] will be my God 22 and[b] 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.” Genesis 28:20-22
Look at the words “if” and “then”. What does this tell you about Jacob’s faith? Do you think that this moment with God in his dream made him a firm believer? Does he have the deep faith of this father and his grandfather?
When you look back at his heritage, his grandfather Abraham had no “if’s” and “then’s”. Neither did his father Isaac. God spoke and they moved. But Jacob was a bit different in his faith. His faith wasn’t so blind. He needed evidence that God was God.
It is an amazing revelation when you look at it. We think of these Patriarchs as having strong faith with no need for God to give them any evidence that He was God. They just knew and they followed. But Jacob was a slow learner. Or maybe a smart learner. His faith needed something tangible…something he could touch and taste. If God gave him food and clothing, then…
It is easy for us to see this as no faith at all. And maybe rightfully so! But what if it is just faith “growing” instead of faith “knowing”. God was not shocked at all in Jacob’s question of “if” and “then”. He was preparing Jacob for what was ahead.
When I look at this again through the filter of “me”, I see a lesson that is deeper than just having faith. I see how God takes us exactly where we are…no more and no less! He doesn’t expect us or shame us because we don’t have “big, audacious” faith. He simply gives us what we need when we need it. Once we grasp that, then He walks us to the next step.
Think about that this week when you are tempted to shame yourself for lack of faith. It could be just “faith growing!”
THE WALK 