In the uncertainty of your certain place, God will meet you.

Jacob is doing two things: fleeing from his brother, who wants to kill him, and pursuing the prospect of a wife for himself. He is heading to the region where his family came from, including his grandfather, Abram, and his great-grandfather, Terah, who had settled there. On the way, he would meet with God in a dramatic way.

“Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. ¹¹ 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. ¹² 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. ¹³ There above itstood 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. ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ 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 v10-15)

He reaches a certain place. We are not told what that place was called, not yet anyway. It was getting dark. We have a picture of vulnerability. Escaping, sleeping outside, a stone for a pillow, this wasn’t a great time for him.

Are you in a vulnerable, uncertain place today and tomorrow?

God came to Jacob, and He can come to you, too.

God calls on the covenant first given to Abraham. “I am … the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.” He then promises Jacob what was in the original Abrahamic covenant: land, descendants, blessing to all nations, and His presence with him.

The ladder he saw in his dream indicates that heaven is never far from any of us. Angels were coming and going. God is involved with Jacob’s situation. That was the message. In this uncertain ‘certain’ place, God was there. We don’t have to have everything in order or attend a spiritual conference to find God. God is here. Not because we are good enough or we have arrived at a certain destination. God is here because He is.

It is this truth that changes everything.