REFOCUS
Use this prayer adapted from Psalm 2:1 as a breath prayer:
I will worship the Lord with reverence.
And rejoice with trembling.
READ
Luke 19:9-10
Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Proverbs 8:17
I love those who love me, and those who diligently seek me will find me.
Deuteronomy 4:29
But from there, you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.
Luke 11:9-10
So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
REFLECT
Jacob’s Ladder
One of the things I love about the Bible is that it doesn’t “sugarcoat” its characters. Their flaws and blemishes are depicted in plain sight. These “men of God” are presented as are with enough transparency to make one blush at times.
Such honesty is understandable. After all, the point of the stories is not to build our respect and love for the characters, but for the God they interact with.
So it is with Jacob. His flaws are fully evident. Even his name (“Jacob” means ‘cheater”) warns us that this fellow is not someone of great moral virtue. Even his spirituality seems suspect. We quickly find that not only is he is a liar and a thief, but that for most of his life he shows very little concern for God, except as a means of justifying his scandalous behavior.
When he does meet the Lord in a God-sent dream, we see that he was previously unaware of His presence. We can imagine him scratching his head as he remarks, “Surely the Lord was in the place and I did not know it.”
One might wonder “why not?” If God was there, how did Jacob miss him? Certainly, it was a time of crisis when he could have used the reassurance of God’s reality. And yet he doesn’t. We can only speculate as to why? Still, such speculation is helpful because it can echo our own experience of spiritual coldness when God seems absent. It can also warn us of the obstacles that keep us from the beauty of seeing God in our lives.
So here ae some possibilities. As you read them, do a bit of personal inventory. Perhaps there are some in this list that decrease your “God-sight.”
Perhaps, Jacob’s “faith” was not his own. Perhaps he was riding his families’ coattails. There is no doubt that Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham, knew the Lord personally. Although the Bible makes Abram’s faults clear, he continues to “walk with God.”
Isaac, Jacob’s father, also appears to know the Lord — albeit with less vigor as his father. Could it be that over the generations the “faith of Abraham” had become the “family religion?” It’s not uncommon for those from a strong family background of faith to simply assume that they are OK in that department.
While they may know the stories, the doctrine, the practices of the family religion, they can easily miss having a faith relationship of their own. Talk about the things of faith does not equal faith itself. When we rely on “hand me down religion” we are left what the Bible calls a “form of religion” that “denies its power.”
Perhaps Jacob wasn’t even looking for God. Scriptures that promise that if we “seek” we will find” come to mind. While there may be times for us when God powerfully “breaks through” we are more likely that we experience Him in the otherwise mundane and common places and times. If we are not looking, He may easily be missed. A degree of intentionality and receptivity is required.
It is clear that Jacob was afraid. He is running for his life. Fear can be a deadly force in blocking the ability to see God. In some ways, it is the very opposite of faith – and believing often precedes seeing.
The scripture tells us that those who want something from God, must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those that seek him. Without such belief we are likely to discount God’s activity around us as pure happenstance. Our fears can easily make us unwilling or unable to trust and let go of the outcomes.
It is also possible that guilt got in the way. Jacob has just deceived his aging and ailing faither. He has cheated his brother. He has disappointed his mother. Anyone of those are enough to produce guilt. Does his awareness of his wickedness lead to not wanting to get to close to God? It does for many of us.
When I am aware of my faults it is difficult to come to a holy and sinless God. His presence will simply remind me of my failure. And so, with some misguided thinking, I am apt to avoid Him and things that remind me of my faults.
Finally, he may have just been too busy. It may not be unrelated that Jacob is running to his lack of perception to spiritual things. Many of us are simply too busy to perceive God’s work and presence around us. One of the reasons for the “sabbath” day is to allow us to slow down not to miss God in our lives.
Dallas Willard when asked what the secret of a deep spiritual life once remarked, “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry.” Willard’s point was that hurry keeps us from the quietness that is the best ground for connecting with God.
It seems that any of these factors could have kept Jacob from the Bethel epiphany. The wonderous thing is that it happened at all. Yet, that is the amazing punch line to the story.
God cares so much that he moves beyond all these obstacles to reach Jacob. God appears to someone who is not seeking him. It is one of many times that we see that this is the God of the Bible.
Ultimately, He is the one who will clothe himself in human flesh to join humanity and be crucified. He does that, Jesus tells us, “to seek and to save the lost.” In some ways it radically separates Biblical faith from other world religions.
We should give a little credit to Jacob as well. One supposes that once he experiences God, he still could have resisted or rejected it. Many do. He could have chosen to remain in his guilt in order to properly beat himself.
He could have continued in fear, ruminating on the threat chasing him and ignoring the clear Word of God that promised him a blessed future.
He could have discounted the entire encounter and chalked up the dream to an overly active imagination or what he ate the night before. And rather than stop to acknowledge that God had shown up for him he could have gone back to his frantic run.
But Jacob meets God. Not because he is so special – but because God is.
RESPOND
Questions to Consider
- In the past what experience do you have with any of the following keeping you from experiencing God?
- Depending on others for my experience of faith
- Not looking for Him
- My fears
- Guilt over what I’ve done or shame over who I am
- Hurry and Being too busy
- What do you need God to “break through” now so that you can connect more closely with Him?
- Reliance or reaction to others faith
- Indifference to Him or lack of interest in Him
- My anxiety and fears
- My sin
- My preoccupation with other things
Prayer
Almighty God, you reached out Jacob even when he was unaware, filled with fear, preoccupied, and under the weight of sin. In Your mercy grant us the grace to seek you with all our hearts and minds, and because we are sorely limited by our sin, pursue us and overtake us by your love.
Blessings,
Rev. James R. Needham, PhD, MDiv