“Jacob built an altar there and called the place El-bethel because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.”
There are happy moments and there are difficult moments, and then there are “Bethel Moments.” Jacob had one, how about you?
What would it have been like to walk with Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, to witness some of the crazy moments of his life? This is the guy who bartered for a birthright, lied to his father to gain his blessing, woke up to Leah (discovering that he too could be duped), made a fortune outsmarting his crafty uncle, and also ran for his life.
But the Jacob moment that that caused me to pause was Bethel. Because at Bethel, God revealed himself. Jacob was on the run and with good reason. Esau—his muscular twin, an expert with bow and arrow—had a strong mind to kill Jacob for stealing his birthright and blessing. Jacob leaves home in hurry, bound for the land of his Uncle Laban. On the way, he stops at Bethel where God meets him, extends the covenantal promise, and the pledge to “watch over you wherever you go” (Genesis 28:15).
Game changer!
Jacob arises the next morning. He journeys to the land of his uncle. He spends the next twenty years there, becoming a successful and prosperous man. Then he returns to Canaan, reconciles with his brother, and begins to settle down when God tells him:
Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
Jacob gathers his family and does what God says. They head to Bethel. At this point, the Scripture says:
Jacob built an altar there and called the place El-bethel because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. Genesis 35:7
Jacob stopped at Bethel. I stopped at verse seven. When I read that verse I had to pause and ponder: “Where has God revealed himself to me?”
Of course, the theologically accurate response is “the Word” — the Living Word and written Word of God.
But all of us, like Jacob, walk with God. Walks leave footprints. And footprints can be traced. Tracing my faith footprints immediately took me back to three Bethel Moments where God “revealed himself” to me:
Bethel Moment #1 — Near a campfire at a youth camp in central Florida when I was 12. God was doing some surgery on my young soul. He drew me to himself.
Bethel Moment #2 — In my study. God loves to showcase his strength in our weakness; the preaching process is one of mine. Sunday messages generally come with difficulty. I cannot count how many times my pre-message moaning was followed by post-message praising. The words, “God came through!” dot the landscape of my daily journals through the years.
Bethel Moment #3 — Years ago at Maria’s Italian Ice in Lake Park, Florida. Temptation was tugging and God arrested my wandering eye with a well-placed friend who showed up at exactly the perfect moment to get my eyes — and heart — back where they belonged.
These Bethel Moments come quickly. No doubt, a little pondering would surface more.
I am grateful for these timely manifestations, but interestingly God “hides” far more than he “reveals.” That makes perfect sense. It makes sense because of the nature of God. God is Spirit (John 4:24). That is why John says in two places “no one has ever seen God” (John 1:18; 1 John 4:12). But it also makes sense due to the nature of what it means to walk with God. “We walk by faith, not by sight,” (2 Corinthians 5:7), and the blessed one is the individual who has not seen and still believes (John 20:29).
The Scriptures give us a Faith Hall of Fame (Hebrews 11), but no such grand assembly of those who have talked with burning bushes, wrung out fleeces, and eaten from the leftover baskets of bread.
Those kind of manifestations are glorious, holy, anomalies. And yet, like Jacob, we sense God more distinctly in some moments than others.
Jacob comes back to Bethel to refresh his heart in worship, but after chapter 35, the Scripture only records one more “Bethel Moment” in his life and it came some twenty years later.
That is important to note!
It is good for the soul to visit Bethel from time to time; to take inventory of those moments when God “revealed himself,” but it is not so good to sit in expectation of continual duplication.
We walk by faith and not by sight.
So we give thanks to God for those Bethel moments; we worship and journey on!