Genesis 28:18-22
So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”
Tag: Encounter with God
Jacob is on the run! He is leaving his father and mother (Isaac and Rebekah) and will soon meet Rachel (his future wife) and crooked Laban (his father-in-law). in the middle of all of this, Jacob has an encounter with God. On the place where this all happens Jacob erects a monument called, Bethel. The term Bethel means, House of God. Jacob had meet God in the middle of his fear. In the middle of the fear, in the middle of his running, God stepped into his life. If we are going to have a relationship with God we have to have a God ordained encounter with God. Jacob prays that "if" God brings him back to this place and blesses him, Jacob will give God tithes. This must have been so laughable to the God of the universe. God wanted Jacob's life, Jacob was going to give God a tenth of his wealth ... wealth he admitted would come from God anyhow. Encounters with God are intended to establish a relationship with God to produce a Lordship with God. We all need an encounter ... but it comes with Lordship. Until God meet Jacob here, the name of the place was Luz. The meaning of the place is nothing special. Luz meant "almond tree." Apparently for the many almond trees in the area, but that is like calling something an "oak tree" in the land of "oak trees." When God meets Jacob here the place becomes a "place of God." God turns the ordinary into extraordinary. That is what an encounter with God does to us. We owe Him our lives as a result.
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