Saturday, July 26, 2008

God is near

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it" (Genesis 28:16).

As human beings born with limitations, we have a hard time understanding our God since He has no limits. Since we don’t know everything, it is hard for us to accept that God knows everything, even the deepest secrets hidden in our hearts. Since we are sometimes unwilling to forgive, it is difficult for us to understand how God can forgive us over and over again. It is also hard for us to believe that God is present everywhere. Since we can only be one place at a time, we tend to think of God as being restricted in the same way. We tend to treat God as if His presence is restricted to certain places or certain times of the week.

Usually, we are aware of the fact that God is present in church. But are we aware of His presence outside those walls? Are we always aware that our Lord is present with us in our living rooms, our kitchens and our bedrooms? Do we remember that He is next to us when we speak to our spouses, discipline our children, or do business with our neighbors? Do we remember that God is with us where we work and play?

This was Jacob’s mistake. He forgot that God is present everywhere with His merciful love. Looking back, Jacob exclaimed "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." Jacob didn’t realize that wherever you are, God is always present.

Jacob had a brother named Esau. Esau was the elder brother, and for that reason he was owed the birthright. The birthright was both a gift and a responsibility; the son who received the birthright from his dying father got a double share of the inheritance, and was also given the responsibility of leadership over his brothers and sisters as the new head of the family. But Esau didn’t give much thought to the future; one day, when Esau came in hungry from unsuccessful hunting, Jacob took advantage of the situation to swindle him out of the birthright in exchange for a delicious meal. I doubt that Jacob would have done such a thing if he and his brother were standing at the altar of God; but in his home, Jacob forgot that God was present and therefore resorted to trickery to get what he wanted.

Later, as their father Isaac lay nearly blind on his deathbed, Jacob again stooped to deception. He knew that his father planned to give his blessing to Esau, but Jacob wanted the blessing of the dying man for himself. So when Esau went out hunting in order to serve Isaac his favorite cut of meat, Jacob quickly prepared a meal of his own, disguised himself as his brother, and brought his meal to the dying man. Notice how boldly Jacob lies to his father; Genesis chapter 27 records their conversation as follows: He went to his father and said, "My father." "Yes, my son," he answered. "Who is it?" Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing." Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so quickly, my son?" "The LORD your God gave me success," he replied. Jacob even used God’s name to give credibility to his lie! Again, I doubt that Jacob would have done such a thing if he were standing before the altar of God, or if he had remembered that God was present there in the room with him.

Forgetting that God was aware of everything that was going on, Jacob sinned and his sins got him into trouble. Esau vowed to kill his cheating younger brother. Jacob must have felt very alone as he wandered by himself through Palestine to find refuge with his uncle Laban far to the north. He was separated from his mother, separated from his brother, and even separated from God because of his sins. How isolated and lonely he must have felt as he lay on the ground to sleep, using a rock for a pillow?

But while Jacob was sleeping, he had a dream. Not just an ordinary dream. Before the days when the books of the Bible were written, God frequently made Himself known to His people in this way. In his dream, Jacob saw a long stairway reaching all the way from earth to heaven. Multitudes of angels were ascending and descending this lstairway. But this wasn’t the most important part of the dream. Above the ladder was God—and, to Jacob’s surprise, this was not an angry God, not a God who yelled or threatened, but a God who knew that Jacob regretted his sinful deeds. This God spoke to him in words of tender, forgiving love: "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. 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. 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" (Genesis 28:13-15).

In this way, God promised Jacob two things; He promised Jacob the land of Palestine as an inheritance for his descendants, and He promised that from those same descendants would be born the Savior of the world who had been promised to Adam, Abraham, and Isaac before him. God promised Jacob a Savior whose death would free every repentant sinner in history from their guilt, including the sins that Jacob had committed in cheating his older brother. No wonder that Jacob exclaimed as he awoke, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it."

From this point on, Jacob was a changed man. No longer a man who acted like a believer just when he was at God’s altar, but a man who believed that God was present with him in love wherever he was, whatever he was doing. This conviction changed his whole life. Confident in God’s continual loving presence, Jacob no longer felt the need to get anything through lying or cheating.

Let’s look at this new man as he deals with his unscrupulous uncle Laban. Laban had two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Jacob loved Rachel and promised to work for Laban for seven years to gain her hand in marriage. But when the seven years of service were up, Laban cheated him by giving him Leah instead; only now did Laban insist that, by local custom, the eldest daughter must be married first. How would you have reacted? But remembering that God was with him and loved him, Jacob trusted that the Lord would cause things to work out for the best; Jacob gave another seven years of service to Laban in exchange for permission to marry Rachel.

Consider also how Jacob sought reconciliation with his brother Esau. When he eventually returned to his homeland with two wives, over a dozen children, a large herd of animals and many servants, he did not meet his brother with armed men ready to protect him or to force negotiations for peace. Instead, Jacob sent his brother gifts. Instead of scheming or plotting, Jacob knelt to God in sincere prayer, saying: I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau (Genesis 32:10-11). Truly, Jacob was a changed man.

And God blessed this new Jacob. Over the many years that Jacob worked for Laban, his uncle changed how his nephew was to be paid ten times, hoping by such maneuvering to keep most of the wealth for himself. Yet no matter what Laban tried, God insured that Jacob always came out ahead. At one point, Jacob was allowed to keep for himself any goats born with spots; subsequently, most of the newborn were spotted. When the terms were changed to allow Jacob to claim calves born with streaked coats, most of the newborn calves were streaked.

But the greatest blessing came to Jacob one night as he slept alone by the Jabbok River. That night, a strange man wrestled with Jacob until morning, even causing Jacob’s hip to become dislocated to see if Jacob would give up or resort to dirty fighting. But in spite of exhaustion and pain, Jacob would not admit defeat, nor did he try to win the match by using some trick. Instead he wrestled honorably, insisting that he would not give up until he received the stranger’s blessing. In response, the stranger told him "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." So after the stranger blessed him and departed, Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared" (Genesis chapter 32).

No Christian need ever feel alone. The Bible assures us that God is present everywhere with His love. It is true that God is in heaven—Psalm 115 says, Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. It is also true that God is present in His Church—the prophet Habakkuk tells us, the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him (Habakkuk 2:20). But the Bible also teaches that God is everywhere. When Solomon dedicated to God the great Temple in Jerusalem, he said, The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! (1 Kings 8:27) There is no church big enough to contain God. His greatness fills all of creation. King David asks, Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast (Psalm 139:7-10). Jesus Himself promises us, surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20). This is another way of saying, "I’ll be with you wherever you go." Whether you are working in town, washing dishes at home, studying at school, or serving overseas in the armed forces, Jesus is always there with His love.

And Jesus is with you in every situation that you face in life. He is with you when the crops receive too much rain or too little; when your body becomes sick or you receive bills that you cannot pay; when you can’t get your grades up or when you are snubbed for being an old-fashioned, stick-in-the-mud Christian. He is present when a mother struggles with morning sickness or feels constant back pain from being pregnant; when a child tests the limits of her parents' patience and authority; when a teen worries Mom or Dad because he finds more joy in sinning than in spending time with Christ. Jesus is present when your joints ache and your vision is fuzzy and it is hard to remember the faces of those you have loved and lost over the years. He is present when your body begins to lose its warmth, your breath starts coming in shallow gasps, and you feel the approach of death. At every time and place of your life, Jesus stands near, ready to listen to your prayers, soothe your soul, give you hope and encouragement, bless your efforts made in His service, and, at the last, to take you to be with Him forever in heaven.

God is present everywhere with His love. May He enable you to remember this important truth every day. May He keep you aware of His loving presence wherever you are—in church, at home, at work, at school, in days of prosperity and in days of adversity, in days of happiness and in days of sorrow, when you sin, when you pray, and in the hour of your death.

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