And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and said, Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I knew [it] not.
Jacob lay down at a random stopping place with a stone for a pillow. He woke to find he had been sleeping in the presence of God. His words admit what he had not known, and that admission is where the commentators start.
One writer sets out how low Jacob had sunk when he stopped for the night:
When Jacob first reached Luz — the place he later called Bethel — he was as badly off as anyone on earth. He had been sent away from his family, and he deserved it. He was homeless and friendless. His future was uncertain. All he owned was a staff. His bed was the ground and his pillow a stone. There he lay down to sleep. But the Lord was in that place. Never did he receive such a revelation of Him, and of His endless resources in heaven and on earth, as he did at Bethel. Never did he receive richer promises of constant, watchful care and of future blessing. And he found Him faithful Who had promised.
The second half of Jacob's sentence matters as much as the first. One writer asks what it means to be near God without knowing it, and why that was dreadful for Jacob but is delightful for us:
The dream woke Jacob up to the fact that God was there. We may be in the presence of God and not know it at all. That is a solemn thought. To Jacob it was more than solemn; it was dreadful. But that was because he had no settled standing before God on the ground of redemption. Believers could only say "We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ," having received the reconciliation, once the death and resurrection of Christ had actually happened. For us the presence of God is not dreadful but delightful.
Why did God come to this man at all? One writer looks at what Jacob brought to the meeting:
Here again is Sovereign Mercy. What did Jacob do to merit all this? Why should God meet him thus? Did he think of the Lord and call on Him for mercy before he slept on the stone? Nothing whatsoever. And Jehovah kept His promise and did all He had promised. "I will not leave you" is a repeated promise. See Deut. 31:6; Josh. 1:5; 1 Chronicles 28:20; Hebrews 13:5-6.
Jacob found the meeting dreadful, not delightful. One writer traces that to Jacob himself, not to anything God had said:
God's revelation of Himself is one thing. Our resting in that revelation is quite another. God shows Himself to Jacob in infinite grace. But as soon as Jacob wakes up, we see his true character come out. We see how little he really knew of the blessed One who had just revealed Himself to him so wonderfully... His heart was not at home in the presence of God. No heart can be at home there until it has been fully emptied and broken. God is at home — blessed be His name — with a broken heart, and a broken heart is at home with Him.
Jacob named the spot and set up a pillar. But that did not change the direction he was going:
God met Jacob there. That is why he called it Bethel, "the house of God." In doing so he recognised a very important principle in God's ways. He raised a pillar up and called it God's house, but still he kept on going the wrong way... On the spot where Jacob raised the pillar there was a wilderness but it was where God was. That is the important thing about God's house: it is where God Himself is... Bethel was called Luz at first. Luz means "separation" and Bethel means "house of God." The house of God is always separate from everything else.
Years later God called Jacob back to this place. One writer draws out the pattern:
In calling him back to the land of promise, God revealed Himself to him as "the God of Bethel," reminding him of the pillar he anointed and the vow that he made. So God called him back to the beginning of his direct dealings with Him. This is always God's way with His people. We may wander away, but we have to come back to the very spot we left. The point of departure proves to be the place of recovery.
- Place. Jacob's Bethel was a wilderness with a stone for a pillow. What made it the house of God was God Himself being there, not the ground.
- Presence. His words admit that God had been there all along. We can be in God's presence and not know it.
- Priority. Jacob had not prayed, had not asked, had done nothing to deserve the visit. God came first.
- Panic. He was frightened, not glad. His heart was not yet at home with God, and commentators put the problem in Jacob, not in God's words.
- Path back. The place where his dealings with God began became the place God later called him back to. The point of departure is the point of recovery.
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.
Jacob had left home as a fugitive, and God met him in a dream with promises he had done nothing to earn. He woke up frightened, and named the place twice over: God's house, and the door into heaven. (The ESV reads "How awesome is this place." Older translations read "How dreadful," and the writers below use that wording.)
Nothing in the dream was threatening. The dread came from what Jacob knew about himself.
We might have thought that Jacob would wake up in delight after such a wonderful vision and such amazing promises from God. But it was not so, for he was afraid. He knew he was in the presence of God, and that brought terror to the heart of a man who had deceived his father and robbed his brother. He had not come into God's presence by choice. He himself said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." God's presence is not an attractive place to a wrongdoer. It is the last place he wants to be, because God's presence exposes what he really is.
The same writer adds a contrast. The sinful woman of Luke 7 felt no such dread before Jesus, and neither did the son welcomed home by his father. "All fear is driven from the heart that truly knows the love and grace of a Saviour God."
Jacob's dread did not shrink the vision.
But Jacob's soul was not quite up to this way of grace. He found the place "dreadful" — the place where he saw the ladder and the angels, and where the God of his fathers spoke to him. In some sense it was too much for him... But the ladder still reaches to heaven, and the angels are going up and down it in Jacob's sight... For the grace of God is richer than what the soul understands of it. God shines in Himself, above our experiences. And it is in Himself that He is to be known, not in the reflections of our experience.
Jacob's phrase opens a theme the rest of the Bible carries.
The first mention of the house of God is in Genesis 28:17; the last, in Revelation 21:3. From the first book to the last, the house of God has a very great place in the purpose of God. It reaches from the present creation in time right on to the new heavens and earth in eternity. What the house is made of may vary from period to period. In Old Testament days it was boards and curtains, and later stones. Today it is believers, or living stones. But the purpose of the house is always the same: to be a dwelling place for God among men.
So what made this spot the house of God?
Jacob recognized that where the LORD shows His presence, there is the house of God.
The second half of Jacob's confession is not decoration. A gate in Scripture is a working place.
The first mention of a gate is in Genesis 19:1, where Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. This shows that the word means more than a place to go in and out. It also means the place where men of age and wisdom sat to give judgment. So "gate" has a figurative meaning as well as a literal one. Where God dwells in His house, there is the place of heaven's administration and judgment.
The gate is also for our use, and it is not far away:
The gate presents the thought of access to heaven. Through the gate we are able to get in touch with heaven for praise and prayer. And note this: the gate is not in some far-off place beyond the edge of the earth. The gate of heaven is always on earth, and here, while we are on earth, we are to use the gate.
Many readers take the ladder itself as a picture of Christ, joining heaven and earth. One writer calls that a mistake:
This is not very important to our present subject. But the common error appears here again — that Christ is the ladder on which angels descend, uniting heaven and earth. So I will note it. Christ has Jacob's place, not the ladder's. Jacob was at the foot of the ladder, and these messengers were coming down and going up, from God to him and from him to God. Now the Son of Man was to be the object. God's angels would have the Son of Man as the object of their service from an open heaven.
- Presence. Jacob's confession starts with a discovery, not a doctrine — God was there all along, and he had not known it.
- Dread. That presence terrified him. A guilty conscience finds God's nearness exposing. The promises were pure grace, and he still woke afraid.
- Grace. His fear measured him, not God. The ladder still stood, the angels still moved, and grace remained richer than his understanding of it.
- House. His words open the Bible's first door onto the house of God. The theme runs on to Revelation 21:3, always with one purpose: a dwelling place for God among men.
- Gate. A gate is both an entrance and a seat of judgment. It gives access to heaven for praise and prayer, and heaven administers from it. That gate stands on earth, and we can use it now.
And Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had made his pillow, and set it up [for] a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it.
Jacob had slept at Luz with a stone for a pillow. In the morning he stands that stone up and pours oil on it — why a stone, why oil, and what does the act say about him?
One writer reads the stone at both stages — pillow, then pillar — as a picture of Christ:
We know that Christ is the "stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious." We know that though to the natural mind it seems a hard and comfortless pillow, the spiritual mind arriving at Luz (separation) finds sweet rest and a soft pillow in the heart of Jesus — a pillow of rest first, and then this same Jesus a pillar of witness and worship, anointed with oil — the Holy Spirit. And so Luz becomes Bethel — the house of God! This is the wanderer's sanctuary.
The shape Jacob chose carried its own meaning:
And further, Jacob's action in taking one of the stones that had served him as a pillow, and anointing it as a pillar, and identifying it with God's house, is remarkable and significant in the light of 1 Timothy 3:15. In ancient times pillars were used for support, as we see in Solomon's temple. But they were also set up as witnesses to certain facts. Three times we read of Jacob raising pillars; here and in Genesis 31 and Genesis 35, each time as a witness.
Another writer says what the stone witnessed to, and what the oil stands for:
The pillar indicated testimony or witness (Gen. 31:52). In this case the witness was to the unfailing faithfulness and mercy of God (the LORD God of Abraham, etc.). The oil was a type of the Holy Spirit who makes the house of God a living reality now. Jacob named the place Bethel, or house of God, although no real house then existed.
Oil served everyday needs and sacred ones. The sacred use is what Jacob reaches for here:
There were three general uses to which it was put: for food, for light, and for anointing… it was used again and again to anoint or consecrate persons, places and articles. So priests were anointed, and the tabernacle with its various articles of furniture. David and all the kings of Judah were anointed. Elisha the prophet was to be anointed. A striking case is Jacob's anointing of the pillar at Bethel (Gen. 28:18; Gen. 31:13), where he set apart the place as "the house of God," a kind of anticipation of the tabernacle.
This passage is where the house of God first appears in Scripture, and Jacob's two words — house and gate — are read as two abiding privileges:
Jacob says, "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Then he sets up "a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it." The gate presents the thought of access to heaven. Through the gate we are able to get in touch with heaven for praise and prayer. And let it be said, this gate is not in some far-off place beyond the bounds of earth. The gate of heaven is always on earth, and here, while we are on earth, we are to use the gate.
Commentators differ on whether the anointed pillar is a fine response or a poor one. Some see grace doing its proper work in him:
And so with us, divine grace brings such vast and eternal blessings, and so wholly undeserved, that it awakens hearts, makes us know that we are in the presence of God, exercises the conscience, and draws out our souls in worship.
Another writer sets this pillar beside the two Jacob raised later:
His first had been one of confidence in the flesh (ch. 28:18-22); his second was the pillar of broken confidence (ch. 31:45), signifying the untrustworthiness of the flesh. This third is the pillar of confidence in God. For this time he makes no vow, but pours a drink offering and oil on the pillar…
- Stone. Jacob's pillow became his pillar. Writers read it as a picture of Christ: rest in the dark, then a monument in the light.
- Pillar. A pillar holds something up, or it bears witness. Jacob raised three, each one a witness — here, to God's unfailing faithfulness and mercy.
- Oil. Anointing set people, places and objects apart for God. Here it set the place apart as the house of God — an early hint of the tabernacle, and a figure of the Spirit.
- Bethel. Jacob called the place the house of God, and also a gate — access to heaven for praise and prayer. That gate is on earth, where we are.
- Test. Commentators differ: was this worship drawn out by grace, or confidence in himself? Years later Jacob came back to the same place and raised a better pillar, with no vow attached.
And he called the name of that place Beth-el; but the name of that city was Luz at the first.
Jacob wakes from his dream and renames the ground he slept on. The old name of the town stays on record beside the new one, which raises three questions: what did "Luz" mean, why call a bare hillside "the house of God," and what became of the place later?
Writers differ on what the older name meant. Some read it as a word for setting apart, and draw a lesson from it about God's dwelling:
He set up the stone he had used as a pillow and poured oil on it, calling the place Bethel, "the house of God." Abraham had lived earlier between Bethel and Ai (Gen. 12:8), and Jacob renames the place. "The name of the city was Luz at the first" (v. 19). This name means "separation," and it reminds us that the house of God must keep a place of holy separation from all the principles of man's civilization.
Others take the word to mean a curve or bending, and hear in the change something about the man as much as the map:
The old name of the place was Luz, meaning a curve. It pointed to what Jacob's life had been — far from straight. But now for Jacob it was Bethel, the dwelling place of God, and it had a very significant place in his later history.
The first mention of God's house in the Bible comes to a man with no home of his own:
The first passage in Scripture that speaks of the House of God is Genesis 28:10-22. There Jacob, the homeless wanderer, sees a vision of the House of God. At once two things come before us: the purpose of God, and the responsibility of man towards God's House. God reveals Himself to Jacob as the One who is determined to bless man in sovereign grace... The gate stands for access to Heaven. Through it we reach Heaven with praise and prayer. And this gate is not in some far-off place: the gate of Heaven is always on earth, and while we are here we are to use it.
Jacob built nothing at Bethel. He set up a stone and poured oil on it. One writer draws a warning from later attempts to copy him:
Jacob set up a pillar and poured oil on the top of it (v. 18); the pillar indicated testimony or witness (Gen. 31:52). Here the witness was to the unfailing faithfulness and mercy of God... The oil was a picture of the Holy Spirit, who makes the House of God a living reality now. Jacob named the place Bethel, or House of God, although no real house stood there. Since that day many have tried to copy Jacob's example. They have put up houses and memorials of different kinds and called them God's, but without prophetic insight. As a result they have blurred the features of the real house.
The name was a memorial of a promise made to a man at his lowest point:
The place where Jacob stopped would be marked by the mixed fortunes of Israel. It was no picture of the church. Jehovah made Bethel a pledge of sure mercy to Jacob when he had nothing left — whatever the king, raised up to punish the people, would later twist it into in honour of a strange and rival god.
Jacob names Bethel twice: here, and again on his return. Some have argued that the two namings come from two rival accounts. One writer answers plainly:
In the case of Bethel, God appeared to Jacob when he left the land of Canaan, and he called the name of the place "Bethel." On his return, God tells him to go up there, and already calls it Bethel. Then God appears to Jacob there a second time, and Jacob confirms the name "Bethel." He had a double reason. But the second part of the history calls it Bethel already, before he gets there. So the case is very simple and very clear.
The place Jacob named did not stay true to it. A king set up an idol there, and God spoke of the place under another name:
Bethel, meaning "House of God," was sacred as the spot where God showed Himself to Jacob, and graciously pledged Himself to His servant (Gen. 28:10-22). Now one of Jeroboam's calves stood there (1 Kings 12:28-29). So Jehovah spoke of the place with contempt as Bethaven — "house of folly" (Hosea 4:15).
- The name given. Jacob renames Luz as Bethel, "the house of God." Scripture keeps the old name on record; writers read Luz either as separation or as a crooked path now made straight.
- The name explained. The first passage in Scripture about the house of God comes to a homeless wanderer. It shows God's purpose in grace on one side, and man's responsibility on the other.
- The name witnessed. No building stood there — only a stone and oil. The pillar witnessed to God's faithfulness, and the oil pictured the Spirit, who makes God's house a living reality now.
- The name confirmed. Jacob names Bethel again on his return. That is not a rival account but a second meeting with the God who kept His pledge to him when he had nothing.
- The name lost. Where Jeroboam's calf later stood, God called Bethel "Bethaven" — the house of God turned house of folly. A people can forfeit the name grace gave them.