“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!’” (Gen 28:16 NLT)
Genesis 28 is about Jacob’s journey from his home to his uncle Laban’s house. It wasn’t a causal trip to visit a favorite uncle. Instead, Jacob was running for his life because his twin brother, Esau was plotting to kill him.
How the feud started
What caused so much animosity between the brothers? Jacob stole Esau’s inheritance. In those days according to the Law of Moses, the firstborn son was entitled to a double portion of his father’s inheritance. This was called the birthright.
Although birth-wise they were twins, Esau was the oldest, even if it was only by a couple of minutes. So he had the birthright.
But in a strange twist, according to Genesis 25:29-34 Esau voluntarily sold his birthright to his brother for a bowl of stew.
I don’t know if birthrights can actually be sold. Or if someone does sell it, if it’s legally binding. Whatever the case, Esau agreed to give Jacob his birthright. Then to turn around and be upset when Jacob received the double portion of the inheritance made no sense. Considering that is exactly what Jacob would be entitled to since he had the birthright.
This doesn’t mean Jacob wasn’t culpable because he was. How he procured the birthright was wrong. He (and his mother) tricked his father into believing he was Esau not Jacob. This was how he wound up getting the inheritance and simultaneously turning his brother against him.
So it’s easy to see why Jacob had to leave home and stay with his uncle for awhile.
Jacob’s pit stop
Getting back to our story, the journey to Laban’s house was long and the sun was about to set, so Jacob found a good place to spend the night and took a pit stop.
He sets up camp and Genesis 28:11 says he finds a stone to rest his head against and goes to sleep. I had to read that verse several times to make sure I read it correctly. But I did. It does say Jacob used a stone as a pillow.
What kind of place was this that the only item Jacob could find to rest his head was a stone? Or what was Jacob’s mental state that he didn’t care what he used as a pillow? I know for sure, a stone would not be my first choice. My head hurts just thinking about laying on one all night. Yet this is what Jacob did.
Jacob’s dream
Amazingly, that night he dreams about a stairway that had angels climbing up and down. The stairway went from the earth and reached all the way to heaven. Above it stood God and He spoke to Jacob in the dream (Gen 28:12-15).
So in this middle-of-the-road place where stones are pillows, Jacob has his first encounter with God.
When he wakes up the next morning, he says ” ‘Surely, the Lord was in this place. And I wasn’t even aware of it’ ” (Gen 28:16b NLT).
And why would he think God would be there? It was only meant to be a pit stop. A place to rest and recuperate until he could resume his journey the next day.
God is in the ordinary
It made me wonder how often we go about our day focused on our tasks.
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- Laundry
- Attending meetings
- Going to appointments
- Driving from one place to another
- Shopping
Never once realizing God was there.
Naturally, we expect to find Him at church and even during our prayer and Bible study times. But in the middle of the ordinary, mundane, and routine, do we ever look for Him?
Jacob certainly didn’t. His only goal was to get to his uncle’s house. This was just a pit stop. A temporary pause in his journey.
I’d even call it an insignificant pause. Honestly, how often do we expect to find something extraordinary at a pit stop (unless it’s Buc-ees of course 😉)?
Pit stops of life
There are probably millions of these pit stops scattered throughout our journey. Insignificant places we have to stop at, not because we want to but because we have to.
For Jacob, it was getting dark and he had to wait for the sun to rise before he could get back on the road.
For us, it could be:
- waiting on test results
- waiting for someone to get back to us
- waiting for a diagnosis
- waiting for…fill in the blank
But they create a pause in our journey. And sometimes it’s easy to be so focused on our destination that we forget God is here. He is present even in these pauses.
God is in this place
Jacob wasn’t aware when he took that pit stop and set up camp for the night, choosing a stone for a pillow that God was in that place. But He was. And once Jacob realized that, he changed the name of the place from Luz (meaning almond tree) to Bethel, house of God (Gen 28:19).
I hope this remind us to look for God in the ordinary insignificant moments of life. I also hope it encourages us to remember that God is present in pit stops even if we aren’t aware of it.