And I Was Not Aware
“When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.'”
— Genesis 28:16 (NIV)
Jacob was running from a brother who wanted to kill him, sleeping outdoors with a stone for a pillow. It was the worst night of his life and nothing about the place was special. He was not looking for God. He was asleep. God showed up in the middle of a night Jacob would have skipped if he could. Jacob only understood it in the morning.
If you look back at a hard season, stop there for a moment. Jacob slept through the worst night of his life and noticed nothing. He saw God only in the morning. You did not see Him then, and He was still there.
Name the Place
- 1Pick one hard season from your past. Ask honestly: where was God in that, looking back now?
- 2Tell one person what you can see now that you could not see then.
God, show me what I slept through in the season I would rather forget.
I will look back at where I could not see Him.
Why was Jacob sleeping outside?
He was fleeing his brother Esau after taking the blessing. He had no shelter and used a stone for a pillow.
Was he looking for God that night?
No. He was asleep and running. The encounter was entirely God's initiative, which is part of the point.
What did Jacob do next?
He set up the stone as a marker and named the place Bethel, house of God, so the moment would have a location he could return to.