And, be it remarked, that it was his failure in the habitual recognition of this that led him into so much sorrow and pressure. God's revelation of himself is one thing, and our resting in that revelation is quite another. God shows himself to Jacob, in infinite grace; but no sooner does Jacob awake out of sleep, than we find him developing his true character, and proving how little he knew, practically, of the blessed One who had just been revealing himself so marvellously to him. "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." His heart was not at home in the presence of God; nor can any heart be so until it has been thoroughly emptied and broken. God is at home, blessed be his name, with a broken heart, and a broken heart at home with him. But Jacob's heart was not yet in this condition; nor had he yet learnt to repose, like a little child, in the perfect love of one who could say, "Jacob have I loved." "Perfect love casteth out fear;" but where such love is not known and fully realized, there will always be a measure of uneasiness and perturbation. God's house and God's presence are not dreadful to a soul who knows the love of God as expressed in the perfect sacrifice of Christ. Such a soul is rather led to say, "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth." (Ps. xxvi. 8.) And again, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple." (Ps. xxvii. 4.) And again, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord." (Ps. lxxxiv.) When the heart is established in the knowledge of God, it will assuredly love his house, whatever the character of that house may be, whether it be Bethel, or the temple at Jerusalem, or the Church now composed of all true believers, "builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." However, Jacob's knowledge, both of God and his house, was very shallow, at that point in his history on which we are now dwelling.
We shall have occasion, again, to refer to some principles connected with Bethel; and shall now close our meditations upon this chapter with a brief notice of Jacob's bargain with God, so truly characteristic of him, and so demonstrative of the truth of the statement with respect to the shallowness of his knowledge of the divine character. "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God; and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee." Observe, "_if_ God will be with me." Now, the Lord had just said, emphatically, "I _am_ with thee, and _will keep thee in all places_ whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land," &c. And yet poor Jacob's heart cannot get beyond an "_if_;" nor, in its thoughts of God's goodness, can it rise higher than "bread to eat, and raiment to put on." Such were the thoughts of one who had just seen the magnificent vision of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with the Lord standing above, and promising an innumerable seed and an everlasting possession. Jacob was evidently unable to enter into the reality and fulness of God's thoughts. He measured God by himself, and thus utterly failed to apprehend him. In short, Jacob had not yet really got to the end of himself; and hence he had not really begun with God.