It certainly wasn’t the most comfortable place to spend the night. He’d had better. Much better. Home would have been nice. Soft bed. Warm house. Hot food. Instead, here he was watching the sun sink the final inches behind the hills and bedding down with a stone. Literally. A stone. He really shouldn’t complain. It was his own fault he was in this mess. He spent nearly every moment of his existence, both in utero and out, striving with his brother. They had wrestled endlessly while in the womb. They’d still been squabbling when they entered the world. His brother had been faster, winning the birth race by mere seconds. Attempting not to be outdone, Jacob grabbed Esau’s heel upon their exit. It must have been a battle declaration. He’d spent the rest of his life being a thorn in that same heel.
Esau had every right to be angry at him. Furious. Irate. Enraged. Every line of Jacob’s life had been full of deceit. Manipulation. Trickery. He had swindled Esau out of his birthright. Outright stolen his blessing. He’d won his place of superiority by hook and crook. He wasn’t even ashamed of it. Scared of his brother. Running for his life. But not sorry he had lied, cheated, and stolen his way to the top. It would have been better if he had been. Maybe he wouldn’t be running for his life right now. That final act of treachery had sealed the fate of their brotherly relationship. It was nonexistent. Dead. Lifeless. Impossible to revive. There was a strong likelihood Jacob would be the same if he stuck around. So he ran. And ended up here. Bedded down on the hard ground with his head on an unforgiving stone pillow.
Completely exhausted from his frantic journey and the constant looking over his shoulder, Jacob drifted off to sleep regardless of his uncomfortable circumstances. He was too tired to stay awake. Tired of running. Tired of worrying. Tired of being who he was. The guy who had a reputation for deceit. He was more than ready to move on to the next chapter of his life. Ready to build a new reputation among people who were unaware of the old. Meet his relatives. Find a wife. Settle down. Build a family. Make a life for himself and see how that fraudulently obtained blessing from his father panned out.
The dream came as a surprise. A big one. He’d never experienced anything like it. Not asleep or awake. Jacob had never had a moment where God seemed so real, so close, so personal. He’d never gotten a direct message from the Almighty. Had never met God face to face or audibly heard His voice. He never expected to. His life wasn’t exactly the place a holy God would find attractive or choose to set up camp. Jacob knew that. Given his proclivity for deceit, a visit from God didn’t seem like something he’d be in line to receive. But here he was, his head resting on a stone, positively asleep, yet dreaming the most realistic dream he’d ever had. And God was talking. Loudly. To him.
Words of promise poured from God’s lips to lodge in Jacob’s weary, fleeing soul. God was there. The God who had been so close to his father, Isaac, and grandfather, Abraham, was there. In that place. With Jacob. He wasn’t just poking around, either. He had no questions about what Jacob was doing or why he was sleeping on the ground in some desolate place. No. God had things to say. Real things. True things. Promises He was certain to keep. Plans He would most decidedly enact. He would protect, preserve and prosper Jacob. In every way. The very land he was lying on would be his own. Generation after generation would trace their heritage back to Jacob. Though he would travel on to visit his relatives, find a wife, start a family, God would bring him back to this place. He would never leave or forsake him until He had fulfilled every word of this exact promise.
Startling out of sleep to review the words and promises of his dream, Jacob makes some promises of his own. If God was going to be with him, watch over him, feed, clothe and provide for him all through his journey and bring him safely back home, he was going to follow God. Exclusively. There would be no idols, no foreign gods, no false beliefs. He wasn’t going to trust in his own strength, ingenuity, or acumen. He was going to be God’s guy. Completely. His family, when he had one, would be God’s people. Only. His home would be a place where God reigned supreme. Always. And Jacob would converse with God Himself. Frequently. (Genesis 25:19-34; 27; 28:10-22)
It wouldn’t always be in a dream. God would often visit Jacob, actively maintaining His part of their covenant. Wisdom and direction would come from above whether about tending flocks or packing up to head back home. Reminders would come as well. Reminders of the promises God made to Jacob and of the vows he’d made in return. Eventually, God would issue the command. Go back to Bethel. Get back to the physical place, the spiritual space where you first met. God now. And Jacob did. He set his house in order. Rid their ranks of idols. No matter whose they were or how they came to be among them. They had to go. All of them. As people, they needed to purify their hearts and clean up their acts. They needed to hit the road. Go back to Bethel. Go meet with God. Get back to the place where God first spoke over Jacob’s life. And stay there. Stay in that place. Stay in that stance. Stay in the space of worship and awe, the place where conversations with God bring about confessions, corrections, and conversions. But first, they had to clean house. They could hardly come and appear before a holy God while clinging to the idols of the world. (Genesis 31:1-13; 32:24-30; 35:1-7, 9-15)
Wait! Why were there idols in Jacob’s house? He knew better. He knew God. He’d promised that as long as God took care of Him, the Lord would be his God. So what happened? Did he change his mind? Did his wives beg him to accept their gods? Were his servants just that persuasive? Why, exactly, had Jacob allowed his household to be infiltrated with idols at all? Was he blind? Ignorant? Or just too weak to kick them out the moment they came through the door? Did he truly not notice their increasing presence, or did he simply not care to do anything about it? Did it bother him at all that his beloved wife, Rachel, stole her father’s idols and carried them along on their journey back toward Bethel? Maybe she hid them for a while, but as much time as Jacob spent in Rachel’s tent, it seems he’d have noticed eventually. How long did he allow them there once he was aware of their presence? How long would he have allowed them there if God hadn’t called him back to Bethel? Would Jacob ever have cleaned house had God not directly commanded him to get himself back to the place he’d been when he’d promised to make the Lord his God? (Genesis 29:13-22; 31:30-35)
Somewhere between my irritated sighs and exasperated questions over Jacob’s odious shenanigans, I catch a glimpse of us. All of us. Everyone who has met Jesus and promised to make Him the Lord of their life. We all started in the same place. Our intentions were good. We walked carefully and closely with Jesus. Strictly held to the first and second commandments. No other gods. No idols. We surrounded ourselves with Jesus only. It was great while it lasted. After a while, though, we got distracted. Not by figurines on our mantles or good luck charms. No. We didn’t fall for that. We fell for another, less obvious but more dangerous, trap. We fell to the idols we couldn’t see. The things we want. The desires we chase. The dreams we will give anything to attain. We shifted our spiritual life into autopilot and trained our eyes on earthly things. Fashion. Fame. Fortune. Fictional freedoms that bring us nothing but bondage. We think we have them under control, pointing out our regular church attendance, abbreviated Bible reading, and quickly whispered prayer. We don’t. We aren’t invested like we used to be. We aren’t following hard after God. We aren’t dedicated to Him above all else. Why? Because the idols of the world have drawn our attention away and we’ve slipped from the commitment we made when we first met Jesus. (Exodus 20:1-4; Joshua 24:23; I Corinthians 10:14; Colossians 3:5; Matthew 6:24)
In one of His New Testament parables, Jesus addresses this exact issue. He speaks of ground covered in thorns that choke out the words of life, preventing new life from taking root and growing. Those thorns have names. Cares of this life. Love of riches. Desires for earthly things. There is no alliteration. There is simply truth. Our desperate, endless search for the next big thing, the next financial windfall, the next promise of notoriety, the next opportunity to separate us from our circumstances, does only one thing. Separates us from God. The consuming distraction draws us away from Him, placing us in that exact space beside Jacob. Needing a housecleaning. Needing a trip to Bethel. Needing to remember the promises we made to God and the fervor with which we made them. Needing to reignite the hope and joy and peace of following hard after God with no distractions, no drawbacks, no idols. (Mark 4:13-20; Revelation 2:1-6; Psalm 63:8; Ecclesiastes 5:4)
Distracted as we are by the dreams, desires, and demands of our lives, I would submit to you that we need to go back to Bethel. Our Bethel. Yours. Mine. Go back to the place in our hearts where we met with God and committed ourselves fully to Him. The place where we chose to be His people and accepted Him as our God. The place we were before the drifting started, before the distractions drew us away. We need to get back to the first and second commandments. No other gods. No idols. Nothing between our souls and His heart. Nothing physical. Nothing spiritual. We need to do some housecleaning. In our hearts. In our souls. In our lives. We need to go back to Bethel and stay there. Stay in the place where conversations with God happen. Listen to His voice. Soak in His presence. Feel the awe of His power. Drench our souls in the hope of His promises. Remember our own vows to God. Resolve to keep them. Reset our hearts and minds to follow only Him in a world full of things that demand our attention and draw our affection. Rest in the immutable truth that God is sovereign, God is faithful, and, just as He promised and proved to Jacob, God is with us. Always. In Bethel and beyond. (Psalm 37:5; 116:1; Hebrews 13:5; Deuteronomy 31:8; II Chronicles 15:2; Jeremiah 24:7; II Thessalonians 3:3; I Chronicles 29:11-12)