3/17/68
Gen. 28.16,17
‘And Jacob said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. This is none other than the house of God, the gate of heaven.’
Jacob, was like many of us. He was ambitious to do big things. But he was defeated, and his success was delayed. By great skill and cleverness he had won his objective–only to lose his faith and his peace. He found himself in a wilderness. It was night. His pillow was hard, his sleep disturbed. Though he was in a blind alley, he had not completely lost his faith. And God did not let him alone to go to the dogs. He came to him in a dream. When Jacob looked up to God and realized his presence and listened to God’s Word telling him of his holy purpose for his life, the desert bloomed as a rose. The voice of God filled the silences. The presence and peace of God entered his solitude. Uplifting companionship abolished his loneliness. Jacob became a new man. Yet there was no magic deliverance. Jacob was still in the wilderness alone and in the night as far as human strength and wisdom was concerned. His pillow was still a stone, but letting God into his life transformed his life and values so that the spiritual became more real than the material. The wilderness became the house of God. A ladder reaching from the sinner’s feet to God’s throne took the place of loneliness. The voice of God with a new purpose and plan of life filled the night. The stony pillow became an altar of prayer. Yes God can open a gateway to heaven in our darkness hour, if we will only let him.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In