A stairway at Bethel
“Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken of to you.””Genesis 28:15 · WEB
Jacob is running for his life with nothing but a staff, sleeping in open country with a stone for a pillow — a fugitive, and by his own doing. And there, at the lowest point of his life, God shows up. A stairway between earth and heaven, messengers going up and down, and the God of his grandfather standing above it, repeating the old promise to the least deserving man in the family: I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go. Not one word about Jacob's behaviour. Jacob wakes shaken — surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it. He sets up his stone pillow as a marker and calls the place Bethel, house of God. Grace arrives before repentance, not after it.