Jacob realized that the God of his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, was a holy God with an awesome presence that caused Jacob to say: “How dreadful (fearful) is this place” (Genesis 28:17). Perhaps for the first time in his life he was afraid of God. Jacob realized that there was something special about this place where he set up pillars for his head to sleep on. He spoke out and said: “This is none other but the house of God.”
Even though God is omnipresent and the whole of heaven and earth belongs to Him, He chooses certain places to reveal Himself to us. God wanted Jacob to understand that He chooses some places to be more special than others. Some places will be more like God’s house to us than other places. God loves to dwell in houses and He loves to reveal Himself to us in special places.
Jacob honestly felt that God’s presence was in this place far more than any other place he had been. He was so impressed with this place as he realized it was a gateway or an entrance into Heaven itself. This was where angels came down on a ladder to bring answers from Heaven. This was where angels took our requests and needs back into Heaven to God Himself who stood above that ladder.
What a great thing it is when we can find such a place where God’s ministering angels are so active to meet our needs. How blessed we are when we find a place like this where we can lay down our wearied heads at night and have God minister to us through His angels.
To be continued.
Be encouraged.
Colin Campbell
Jacob’s experience also deepened his well of coming to know the faith of his fathers in several ways:
Genesis 28:16: “Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.” Verse 17 continues: “And he (Jacob) was afraid and said, How dreadful (fearful, awesome) is this place! this is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.” Jacob was just getting on with his own affairs with traveling to his mother’s kinsfolk. Like Jacob, we can often be ignorant of the presence of God.
Jacob’s well was a deep well. The Samaritan woman who sat on the well at Sychar said to Jesus: “Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep” (John 4:11). Jacob was a man who began early in his life as a deceiver or supplanter (Genesis 27:36). However shallow his well may have been in his early life, through God-ordained experience, his well became much deeper.
Psalm 78:15: “He cleaved the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.”
We begin a new series today, WELL DIGGERS.
Solomon 8:6: “Jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.”
Proverbs 14:30: “A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.”
Amos 3:3: “Can two walk together except they be agreed?”
Disunity, argument, and divisions are chains that bind the free flow of the Holy Spirit. They must be broken.
The traditions of men are strongly spoken against by Jesus in Mark 7:1-13. Jesus states in verses 9 and 13: “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition . . . Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.”
“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).
“The fear of man bringeth a snare” (Proverbs 24:21).
Isaiah 10:27: “And the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.”
WE BEGIN A NEW SERIES TODAY.
I cannot help give praise to God for the victory for Ted Cruz in Wisconsin. The country needs a man with a proven track record of standing up against the liberal agenda of the Washington establishment. We simply cannot afford to put in another president just because he seems to say some good things, but has little if any history to back it up. We must continue to earnestly pray that God will continue to give Ted Cruz great favor in all of the rem
Men, we should never underestimate the great doctrine of grace. Where would any of us be without the grace and love so lavishly poured upon us through our Lord Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection on our behalf? At the same time, we must never underestimate the consequences of God’s wrath and judgment upon those who refuse to follow Him according to His terms.
Exodus 34:7: “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”
What is the testimony of our God? “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:7).
James 2:13 (ESV) states: “Mercy triumphs over judgment.”