Surely the Lord is in this place

10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the 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. 12 And he dreamed that there was a stairway[a] set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And the Lord stood beside him[b] 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, 14 and your 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 all the families of the earth shall be blessed[c] in you and in your offspring. 15 Know that 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.” 16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” Genesis 28:10–17

Surely the Lord is in this place
The Bible passage from Genesis tells us about Jacob, who is on the road, running away from home, carrying fear, uncertainty and a complicated family story with him. He stops for the night in an unfamiliar place, puts his head on a stone and falls asleep.

And then he dreams and in his dream, he sees a stairway reaching from earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it. And God speaks to him.

But when Jacob wakes up, what stays with him is not simply the sight of the angels, but the realisation of God’s presence. He says:

“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” What a powerful statement.

Jacob thought he was alone, but he was not alone. He thought he was simply passing through an ordinary and unfamiliar place, but that ordinary place became a place where God made his presence known.

And perhaps that is a word we need to hear today

We often think that our relationship with God begins with our searching for God. But the Gospel tells us something deeper: God comes looking for us and meets us with grace.

Jacob was carrying fear, uncertainty and the consequences of his past. Yet God came to him and spoke a word of promise:

“I am with you.”

We too look at our lives, our churches, our communities and our world and see conflict, suffering, loneliness and uncertainty. There are times when we may wonder,

“Where is God?”

But Jacob reminds us that God can be present even when we fail to recognise God.

Perhaps there are moments in our own lives when, looking back, we realise:

God was there.

A difficult season that we somehow came through.
A person who appeared at exactly the right moment.
A word of encouragement when we were struggling.
A moment of peace in the middle of uncertainty.

So our prayer today is that God may give us the eyes of Jacob—eyes that recognise God’s presence in unexpected places and hearts that trust God’s promises even when we cannot see clearly.

May we recognise God’s grace in the ordinary places of our lives—in our homes, our churches, our communities and our daily journeys.

And may we be able to say, with Jacob:

“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

Amen.
Rev. Rebecca Daniel