"Beth - El"
July 17, 2011

Genesis 28:10-19

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel.

=====

So here’s Jacob, in this passage from Genesis. Jacob, the just-barely younger twin brother of Esau. And just as we sometimes look at our own children and wonder how they could be as different as night and day, it was the same with Esau and Jacob. Esau, the big, strapping, hairy outdoorsman. The hardworking, physical one. The firstborn, heir apparent to his father, Isaac. A man’s man, and apparently, the favorite of his father. Then there was Jacob. The slighter, smoother one, the one who spent his days inside. He’s a Mama’s boy, Rebekah’s favorite. Jacob’s the thinker, and in the run-up to today’s story and in the later events of his life, we find out he isn’t just smart, he’s an outright con man, a hustler. In fact, that’s what his very name, Yakov, means in Hebrew – supplanter, trickster. And he continues to be pretty much his whole life. Leading up to today’s story, Jacob has tricked his brother Esau into giving up his birthright, his automatic inheritance of the bulk of his father’s estate, for a bowl of lentil stew and a bit of bread. And then, he further tricked his father into giving him the blessing he’d wanted to give to Esau, by wearing animal hides so old, blind Isaac would think smooth-boy Jacob was his hairy older brother. And now, Esau has had enough and decides that as soon as the old man kicks the bucket, he’s going to kill his little con man of a brother. But mom gets wind of Esau’s plans, and she sends Jacob away, supposedly to find a wife but more importantly to save his own skin. And in today’s story, here’s Jacob – the smooth-skinned, smooth-talking con man who prefers the softer life, hanging around inside the tents than spending his time outdoors – on the run for his life, trying to get out ahead of his brother, out in the middle of nowhere. And night falls, and he can’t go any further that day. He doesn’t have a tent for shelter, he’s sleeping out in the open and even has to use a stone as a pillow. This has to be about the low point in the life of this young man of very questionable character.

Now this is the part of the story where we’d want Jacob to get what he deserved. Either Esau catches up to Jacob and gets revenge for the way he’s been double-dealt, or God sends down judgment from heaven and punishes him for the shoddy and sinful way he’s dealt with his father and brother.

That’s what we’d expect. That’s what we’d hope for, anyway. But as we read, God does something completely different. Rather that we’d hope for, God causes Jacob to have this amazing dream where Jacob sees God’s angels ascending and descending on this stepped walkway, this ladder-like thing, right before his very eyes. And God appears to Jacob, and tells him the same promise he’d given Abraham, and Isaac, before him. God promises the land he’s currently in to Jacob, and he promises that his offspring would be so numerous as to be uncountable, and that all the nations would be blessed through him and his offspring. Rather than punish Jacob, God continues to bless him, God promises to use him for God’s own good purposes. Jacob, of all people!

Can you imagine what must have been going Jacob’s mind in the midst of all this? Considering what he’d done, and the fact that he was on the run for his life, he must have been having one of those “oh crap!” moments when suddenly God appears to him, imagining his number’s up; no running away from this judgment. And when it’s all over, and he’s trying to regain his composure, he’s so awestruck at having been in this place, in God’s very presence, that he takes the stone he’d used for a pillow and sets it up in a pillar, and claiming the place is holy. It is “Beth-El” – the house, or place, of God. He’s amazed that here he was, in God’s place all along, and he hadn’t even been aware of it.

Three things come to my mind when I read this story. First is the truth that God very rarely acts in the ways we would expect him to, or that we would predict. God’s ways, the fullness of God’s will and truth are beyond our ability to comprehend or second-guess. Just when we think we have God figured out, he does something like this, that goes against everything we’d expect based on our current understanding of God. That’s an important lesson for all of us, any time we want to presume to state categorically what God would or wouldn’t do, or what the will of God is.

The second thing is that God has a habit, seen over and over in the scriptures, of blessing and using people that we wouldn’t expect. People that we’d write off as being unqualified, or not of sufficient moral character, or otherwise not part of God’s “A – List” of potential agents. Moses was a poor public speaker, and a murderer, and didn’t always completely trust God. David, also a murderer, and adulterer, and yet he’s still considered a “friend of God.” Peter, who denied Christ three times on the night of his arrest. Paul, who participated in the persecution and stoning of early Christians. And the interesting thing is that in all of these cases, these people’s flaws and idiosyncracies didn’t disappear after they turned to the Lord; their problems continued with them all through their lives. That was certainly the case with Jacob. And it will certainly be the case with all of us, too. We heard a couple of weeks ago about Paul’s ongoing internal struggle, and we don’t need to hear a sermon about our own. And yet, in all of our flawed and imperfect glory, God still uses us, and blesses us, and calls and commissions us, flaws and all, to do his work and to achieve his will.

The third thing I get out of this story is that, just like Jacob, we are actually in God’s presence all the time, and we just don’t see it. We just don’t realize it, except in certain surprising moments when God allows us to see through the veil, and to see God in those special moments. To be awestruck, and to realize that we were standing on ground that had been made holy by God’s very presence; that we were in our own “Beth-El.” Judy talked about someone who had that experience a couple weeks ago. I talked with a man the other day at the hospital who had a dream like Jacob’s, in which God appeared to him and told him that his ninety-year old mother was going to die in four days, but not to worry or be afraid, that she was going to be in Paradise. And the other night, I sat with a man who was dying. He was a highly awarded, very successful, nationally acclaimed person in his profession. But to his daughter, who cuddled up against him in his hospital bed, stroking his hair, and kissing him, and telling him how much he was loved, he was just “Dad.” The beautiful gift that she gave to her father in his last moments, this loving and touching goodbye was so moving – the love was so intense – that I realized in that moment, I was also in a Beth-El – a house of God. It brought me to tears. I almost wanted to take my shoes off, in recognition that I was very much on sacred, holy ground in that moment. And that all of the complicated, detailed points of theology and religion paled in comparison to the greatest power in the universe, the power of love. In the end, love, the very essence of God, shared between us and God, and shared among ourselves, is what our entire existence is all about.

So remember that whenever we’re convinced that we know the heart and mind of God, we’ve just set ourselves up for a rude, and sometimes costly, awakening. And remember that you are just as qualified as Moses, or David, or Peter or Paul, or Jacob, for God to bless your life, and to use you for great things in his name, and that God promises to you the same thing he promised to Jacob, that he will always be with you and will keep you wherever you will go. And always keep your eyes open, being ready and willing to see God’s presence wherever you are. And when you do find yourself in your very own Beth-El, marvel in it, revel in it, bask in it, and when you're in it, be sure to say

Thanks be to God!