An infidel once thought to tease a little girl by asking her: "How far is it to heaven?" She replied: "I don't know, sir; but I sent a message there this morning, and got an answer back in less than a minute."
It was this nearness of heaven to earth that Jacob learned that lonely night at Bethel. Up to that time he had been an ignorant believer. He was not "a profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." (Hebrews 12:16)
He had a believing nature, or rather, we may say, he had retained his childish faith; but it was uninstructed. He believed in the promise made to his father, so much that he was willing to use any means to secure this inheritance, but he was so ignorant of spiritual things that he did not know God can be worshiped only "in spirit and in truth," (John 4:24) and that He must fulfill His own promises. It was an exceedingly crude faith that he had, but God recognized it and responded to it.
"When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." (Psalm 27:10)
This Jacob learned also that night. It is true that his parents had not cast him off, yet he was nevertheless an outcast from his home. He had the birthright, but he was a fugitive from home, with no possessions but a traveling staff. Then God gave him his first real lesson in fatherhood and home. For the first time Jacob had a conception of the magnitude of the Father's house, in which there are many mansions. That night he learned that God is everywhere--that heaven is His throne, and the earth His footstool, (Isaiah 66:1) and that one cannot travel so far as to be out of His presence.
"Whither shall I go from your spirit? or whither shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, You are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hides not from You; but the night shines as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to You." (Psalm 139:7-12)
There are many professed Christians today as ignorant as Jacob was. Often, if their eyes were opened, they would be compelled to exclaim, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not." (Genesis 28:16)
Wherever one may go or stay, it can truly be said: "The Lord is in this place."
The sad thing is that His people do not recognize His presence. When one awakes to the truth that God is in every place,--not as a dim theory, but as a living personality,--the earth to him becomes new, and heaven rests upon it. Then one first begins really to live. To see God everywhere, in everything that He has made, and where nothing at all is visible to the eye of the body,--more than this, to feel Him, and know Him, is the highest wisdom possible to man.
"And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." (Genesis 28:17)
Do not make the mistake of confounding the word "dreadful" with "frightful." The Hebrew word here rendered "dreadful" is identical with that which in (Psalm 111:9), is translated "reverend": "Holy and reverend is His name." (Psalm 111:9)
That is, the name of God is holy and to be feared. Think of this word as synonymous with awful, that is, "filling with awe." Such is the place and the presence of God; and they who dwell in His house will never be found indulging in light and foolish talk or actions. A knowledge of God's presence must produce a dignity and steadiness of character.
"Holiness becomes your house, O Lord, for ever." (Psalm 93:5)
Yet this consciousness of being in God's house, in His immediate presence, by no means begets sadness, gloom, or melancholy. Quite the contrary. There are no long, woe-begone faces in His house.
"Happy are they who dwell in your house: they will be still praising You." (Psalm 84:4)
Before Jehovah's awful throne,
You nations bow with sacred joy.
(Isaac Watts, Psalms of David, "Psalm 100," 1719.)
Christ the Connecting Link
What is the ladder that Jacob saw, set up on earth with the top reaching heaven, and "the angels of God ascending and descending on it?" (Genesis 28:12)
John contains the answer in the words of Christ to His disciples: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter you shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." (John 1:51)
It is He who unites earth to heaven, and makes both one. "In Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth; and in Him all things consist." (Colossians 1:16-17)
In coming to earth, He has brought heaven with Him, and His presence recognized makes a heaven of any place in earth.
In Him all my wants are supplied,
His love makes my heaven below.
(Annie Wittenmeyer, Hymn: Jesus is Might to Save)
Christ is so much greater than anybody has ever yet realized. No one has yet comprehended to the full, "what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, [of the] love of Christ, which passes knowledge." (Ephesians 3:18-19)
He is the substance of all reality. Scientists have for years vainly sought "the missing link;" if they would only look to Christ in simple yet perfect faith, they would find it. In Him is life, for He is the Word of life which was from the beginning: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." (1 John 1:1-2)
And it is His life that gives every created thing its existence and its distinctive character. He it is, also, who gives to all things in creation their family likeness. There is indeed a unity in all nature; but instead of teaching, as evolutionists imagine, that all things are but developments of one original portion of matter, which evolved itself from nothing, this likeness reveals the presence of Him from whom all things have come.
The highest intelligent creature is indeed related to the lowest plant, but this relation is not that of offspring to parent, but of brotherhood, because all things, high and low, great and small, draw their life from one common Source. From the bosom of God all created things draw their nourishment; for in Christ all things were created and still consist, and He is in the bosom of the Father.
"[God] dwells in the high and holy place, "and at the same time with Him," (Isaiah 57:15)
"On the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, "He is on earth with His people." (Hebrews 8:1)
"He is not far from every one of us." (Acts 17:27)
But that alone is not enough; we must by our conscious recognition of His presence, come near to Him. God has united all men in himself, "if haply they might feel after Him and find Him." (Acts 17:27)
Many jostle against Him in the throng; few touch Him by faith; but the few know the reality of the joys of heaven. Christ is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, "the fullness of Him that fills all in all," (Ephesians 1:23) so that when we come unto Him by intelligent faith we at once receive the end of it. Thus in Him, earth and heaven meet.--Present Truth, August 29, 1901--International Sunday-school Lesson for September 8--Genesis 28:10-22.
E.J. Waggoner