A Personal God: Genesis 28:10-17

God is already here, working in your life.  Sometimes it is obvious, like when He teaches a lesson through life experience.  Sometimes it is less obvious, like when He meets us subtly in our thoughts and prayers.  Whether we notice Him or not, though, it does not change the fact that He is here and working in our lives.

As Jacob heads to Haran, he stops for the night and has a vivid dream.  He sees a ladder connecting heaven and earth across which God’s messengers could come and go.  Heaven and earth are connected places.

There can be little doubt that Jacob heard about God from Isaac and Rebekah.  It is one thing to hear stories about a far-off powerful God and quite another thing to realize the far-off powerful God is connected to us.  God and His messengers can come to us.  He is not merely sitting up in heaven observing us from a distance.  He is interacting with us personally here and now.

As Jacob notices the ladder, God stands above the ladder and speaks to Jacob.  God announces His being and reiterates the promise He made to Abraham so Jacob can hear it and own it for himself.  God declares He is watching over Jacob and will protect Jacob even as Jacob leaves the land to go to Haran.  God is not just the God of the land of Canaan; He is a God that can go wherever He wants and has dominion wherever He goes.

God makes Himself personal to Jacob.  Jacob may have heard the faith from Isaac and Rebekah, but at some point, Jacob needs to internalize it.  Jacob needs to take ownership of that faith.  Hopefully, Jacob had already internalized the faith by this point, but if not, this vision would certainly help Jacob realize how person God can get.

God also makes sure Jacob realizes God wants relationship with him.  God may have made the promise to Abraham and God may have extended the promise to Isaac, but God makes sure Jacob understands how much God is interested in Jacob personally.  God isn’t looking out for Jacob because of some favor to Abraham.  God desires relationship with Jacob on his own merits.  Relationship with God is a personal one.

When Jacob awakens, he realizes something about himself.  God was in the place where he slept, but Jacob didn’t recognize it until after the dream.  We’re not always capable of noticing God at work.  We may think God is far off when He’s right beside us.  We may think God has stopped listening to us when it may be us who cannot hear Him.  We limit ourselves to what our senses can understand, but our senses are not as attuned to seeing and hearing God as we think!

God is personal.  He wants to know each of us.  He wants relationship with each of us.  God is already here, working in your life.