Finding the House of God

Finding the House of God

 

God made an agreement with you and He put it in writing.

Do you remember your agreement with God?

Maybe we should put it in writing, too.

Jacob flees from his brother Esau

with the blessing of his father and mother.

They require that he does not take a wife

from the land they live in.

Not to take a Canaanite or Hittite as a wife like his brother.

One night on his journey to his mother’s family,

he has a dream.

Jacob sees angels coming and going

between earth and heaven.

The Lord tells him the promise

to Abraham was extended to him.

When Jacob wakes up he says,

“The Lord is in this place.”

“This is none other than the house of God

the gateway of heaven.”

There are some very significant things

that happen at the House of God.

Even though Isaac was leaving this place,

God promised to never leave him.

God said he would watch over him

and bless him and bring him back.

His descendants would go to the four ends of the earth

from there they would bless all people of the earth.

Jacob makes a conditional vow:

If God will take care of his basic needs of food, clothing

and return him home safely to his father’s house,

then all that the Lord gives him

he will give a tithe back to God.

What a picture of us and the church.

From the church to heaven is a stairway.

When we, the people of the church,

communicate with the Lord

angels are dispatched from heaven to earth

to help us accomplish His will.

The church also is to grow

and spread out to the ends of the earth

and all people of the earth are to be blessed

by the people of the church.

And God gives us the promise,

He will never to leave us.

Jacob’s journey parallels so closely

the life of every believer.

Maybe reading Jacob’s story

should cause us to revisit our altar

and the House of God

and renew the agreements we made with God.

Scripture Reading

Genesis 28 NIV

28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him:

"Do not marry a Canaanite woman. 2 Go at once to Paddan Aram,

to the house of your mother's father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there,

from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful

and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.

4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham,

so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien,

the land God gave to Abraham." 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way,

and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean,

the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him,

"Do not marry a Canaanite woman,"

7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram.

8 Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac;

9 so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth

and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11 When he reached a certain place,

he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there,

he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth,

with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending

and descending on it.  13 There above it stood the LORD,

and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.

I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.

14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth,

and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south.

All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go,

and I will bring you back to this land.

 I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought,

"Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it."

17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place!

This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."

18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel,

though the city used to be called Luz. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying,

"If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father's house,

then the LORD  will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."