I didn't know it

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. 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. – Genesis 18.16-17

God was about to start working in Jacob’s life.

There was no written word of God, so God spoke to him through a vision of angels ascending and descending from heave.  When God got done Jacob said something very profound – ‘surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it!’

It is easy for us to say ‘how an God here and we not know it?’

But I think we do that all the time. When things are prospering we can think things are prospering because we have do something right. When things are going badly we can imagine that things cannot be that bad and God still be here. And then on an everyday basis was can just take God for granted.

In fact, we can live for expanses without ever really thinking about God in a real a personal way.

It makes me think of a song called ‘The Silence of God’ that addresses the issue of those times when we are facing time and trouble and it seems like all we get is a deaf ear from Him. Those times do happen. Habakkuk had a time like that when all he could see was the trouble of the land. Habakkuk chose to sit down and listen for God.

God is still here, but if we are not listening and looking we, like Jacob, are not going to know it.