Real Life: Did Not Know It
God Is Always Already there
Romans 8:12-25
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. July 19th, 2026
Jacob is on the run. He secured his brother Esau’s birthright and then tricked him out of his father’s blessing. Esau was left with nothing that would belong to the firstborn. He was full of murderous rage and it became well known that once Isaac died Esau would take matters into his own hands. So Rebekah, their mother, arranged for Jacob to leave for Haran and find a wife.
For the first time in his life Jacob is alone. He is the one who must navigate. He is the one who must pitch the tent. He is the one who needs to find food. He can rely on no one else. Not his parents, his brother, or his servants. He is alone.
We are told when the sun set he stayed in a certain place with nothing but a rock to use as a pillow. In his dream he receives a vision from the Lord. He sees a stairway going up to heaven and angels ascending and descending on it. As he stares at this scene in awe the Lord appears next to him. The God of his father Isaac. The God of his grandfather Abraham. And The Lord reiterates the promises he made to his grandfather so may decades ago. “the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring, 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 in you and in your offspring. 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.”
It was then he awoke, and he was filled with fear. “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it!”
Ancient Near Eastern religions, like the Assyrian religion or the Canaanite religion, associated their deities with different cities or parts of the environment. The God was the living essence of a place. This is why they built temples at the heart of their cities. The God was believed to dwell in the temple and priests acted as their servants. The priests would feed the god, wash the god, clothe the god, take care of the god’s bed and so on. So with this idea in mind it’s no wonder Jacob is so frightened. He believes he has entered a god’s house and knew it not. Which is why he names the place house of God, Bethel.
But in truth it is not that this space was any more holy or any more sacred than all other places. It was not that God was there and no other place. He does not introduce himself as the God of Luz, or the God of Bethel, or the God of this place. He introduces himself as the God of Abraham. The God of Isaac. In the Bible God unites himself to people and is their deliverer and protector. It is not that Jacob happened upon the abode of God. It’s that God is following him on his way to Haran. And God promises to always be with him.
So Jacob finds he is never alone. And even in the most difficult or frightening circumstances, there God makes himself known.
This morning we hear from Paul that God is not content to simply be our God. He does not come to us and say I am the God of your fathers, and I will be your God as well. More than that, through the Spirit that has been given to us, we might be called children of God. He doesn’t want to just be our God, but he would adopt us as his children. And if children, then heirs. Heirs to the inheritance. Heirs to all of God’s promises.
And certainly God does not abandon his children. But as Jacob discovered God was already in his midst we may know no matter how tough our circumstances God does not leave us or forsake us. "If we in fact suffer with him,” Paul says “so that we may also be glorified with him.”
The Bible makes no promises that we will not suffer. In fact, it states the opposite. We are expected to suffer. We are expected to face tribulation. We are expected to even face persecution. Suffering is part of the human lot. And happiness isn’t found in avoiding or eliminating suffering. That only postpones the inevitable and makes the inevitable worse. But happiness is found in Christ who carries us through our sufferings that draw us closer to him.
Whenever I have hit a rough patch I normally take far too long to realize it is something I should submit in prayer. But when I do I always find that my prayers are far more comforting than they’d ever been. That God is far more closer to me than I had known before. It is when all I can do is throw myself on him that I learn that truly I am a child of God.