“I
Am With You And Will Watch Over You Wherever You Go”
Jacob left Beersheba and
set out for Harran. 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. 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. 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. 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.”
When Jacob awoke from his
sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of
it.” 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.”
Genesis
28:10-17
As Jacob fled from his
brother Esau, he found himself in a strange and lonely place. Asleep on the
hard ground, he met God in a dream. And God promised Jacob a home. “I will give
you and your descendants the land on which you are lying,” He told him. “All
peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.”
From Jacob, of course,
would come the promised Messiah, the One who left His home to draw us to
Himself. “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be
where I am,” Jesus told His disciples.
Home
is not so much a place on a map, as it is a place to belong. God gives us that
place.
Our
Daily Bread – December 21, 2017