Jacob was where you and I may have been on occasion — alone (not only from friends, but from any form of hospitality), running from trouble, and the recipient of bad counsel (twice, and from his mother both times!).
When he put down his head on a rock to sleep (a fitting demonstration not only of the absence of lodging, but also the “hardness” that results from sin — cf. Prov. 13:15), it’s doubtful he was thinking happy thoughts about all the blessings bestowed on him by God. Yes, he’d received the blessing of Isaac instead of his twin Esau, but that wasn’t looking like either a good idea or a blessing as he bedded down on his rock (Gen. 28:11).
Yet during that night, God appeared to him in a dream and promised Jacob that the Abrahamic covenant would be fulfilled through his lineage, that God was indeed with Jacob, that even though Jacob was running at the moment, God would still bring him back to the promised land, and that God would not leave Jacob until everything promised had been completed.
Undoubtedly when Jacob awoke, that vision and those promises more than compensated for the rocky start to his night. We know that by Jacob’s two responses.
First, he acknowledged that while he had been unaware of the presence of God, even in that lonely outpost, “the Lord is in this place.” In ignorance (Jacob uses the frank term “I did not know it”), Jacob had evidently assumed that leaving the home of Isaac in fear also meant that he was leaving behind the blessing and presence of God. In a surprising revelation, God had informed Jacob’s ignorance.
Similarly, believers must be aware that wherever they reside (I speak in spiritual terms, not physical), the Lord is there. He is an ever-present help, incapable of deserting his own (Heb. 13:5-6). Moreover, where might we flee from His presence (Ps. 139:7-9)? Wherever you are today, be comforted by the awareness that you live not alone — God is there.
It is tragic to be ignorant of great spiritual truths — yet multitudes are unaware of the presence of God. Astronomers see the universe, yet do not see the God of the universe. Physicists follow the track of the electron in the cloud chamber, but are themselves in a cloud without God.…Ministers get sermons from the Bible, yet do not find the Lord Himself in its pages. Are you aware that God is actually with you at this moment? Do you know that the Lord has put you where you are, in order to be gracious to you? [Barnhouse]
But soon after that comforting first response, Jacob had a second, very different thought: “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” (28:17). While awakening from his happy slumber, Jacob slowly understood the danger of being in the presence of the Lord. Like so many others who came close to the presence of God, when He comprehended the reality of God’s presence, he was terror-stricken — who can stand in the presence of the Lord and live (cf. Is. 6:5ff; Mk. 9:5ff; Rev. 1:17)?
As one writer has noted, “Throughout Scripture, the encounter with God brings fear; when sinful man meets the holy God, he is overawed and often becomes acutely conscious of his sin and unworthiness to stand in the divine presence.” And this too is a grace of God, for only as a man is humbled and grief-stricken by his sin will he be comforted.
So if you are alone, you also might respond in two ways — with the comforting awareness that He is near, caring for you in your need, and because He is near, coming to Him with humility and self-examination clinging to Christ and the cross, through whom you have been declared righteous.
Words of Grace 