Surely God is in this place and I did not know it

"Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it."" (Genesis 28:16 ESV)

Life is unpredictable. It usually does not turn out the way we think it should nor does it usually go how we expect it to go. It is often easy to be plagued with feelings of regret and a case of the "what if's" or "if only". There is this wonderful place in Genesis where this one brother named Jacob tricks his Dad into giving him his older brother's birthright. Back in those times, oaths had tremendous power. So much so it was believed that if you gave an oath blessing or cursing something, the oath somehow had some kind of power and binding over what was swore over. Needless to say, this was a pretty serious offense against his brother and although their Dad feels terrible about what happened, he cannot go against his oath. Jacob's brother threatens to kill him and somewhere shortly after all of that Jacob hits the road and flees for his life. In Jacob's flight he suddenly gets tired. It is an interesting story.

10Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." 16Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." 17And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." (Genesis 28 ESV)

Here Jacob is asleep somewhere random on the side of the road and the LORD reveals Himself to Jacob in a dream. Jacob had spent his life hating his brother and does him wrongly and is on the run and out of nowhere in this seemingly "random" place God shows up out of nowhere and tells Jacob that He has a plan for him.

It is kind of how God does in the life of His children. We are out in the world "apart" from God's plan for us and He comes in a mighty way and opens our eyes to see Him. All of the stuff in our past is deserving of God's wrath but even all that God could use to condemn us for has led us to the place where God has revealed Himself to us. God has sovereignty guided us to the place where we would receive Him. All of the "what if's" or "if only's" we have are worthless in light of what He has planned for His children.

I cannot deny how God had purposed the past to bring me to where I am today but I still struggle with how all of the stuff going on right now fits into that. It is kind of like being aware of God's presence but not knowing how present He is in the situation. We get into situations and wonder where God is while the whole time God is leading us to a place to surprise us and bless us.

I do not know why all of the things that happen in the world happen. But as Christians, God comes to us and reminds us in a big way of who and where He is. Sometimes we immediately know His presence and exclaim "Surely God is in this place and I did not know it!"

Other times we don't always know it. We expect God to show up like He did to Moses but walk around depressed like Elijah. We give up and go hide in a cave. And yet the LORD still comes to us.

"And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
10 He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

14 He replied, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

15 The LORD said to him, "Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him." (1 Kings 19)

Sometimes when all of the world is coming at us, we need to get still before the LORD and have eyes to see God in the small things that He tries to speak to us in.

God wants to speak to us in the quiet place of our hearts and tell us that He is here. Not only that, but He wants to give us rest. Oh how I pray that we may have hearts to receive that with.

1"Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.[a] 3Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
"So I declared on oath in my anger,
'They shall never enter my rest.' "[b] And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work."[c] 5And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest."
6It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts."[d]
8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God." (Hebrews 4 NIV)

I pray that you hear the voice of God speak to you in whatever is going on in your life and that you can exclaim: "Surely God is here and I did not know it!" Let us press on to know the LORD whether this time for us be hard or easy that we may be in the presence of God and enjoy Him forever more. Make that day Today.