Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God.

–Genesis 28.10-21 (NIV)

If you are not really that familiar with the great stories of the Bible, chances are you have a distorted view of what real faith looks like as it is manifested in God’s broken world by God’s broken people. I know that was the case for me before I started reading the Bible seriously. I used to think that folks in the Bible were probably perfect do-gooders, without my flaws and foibles. To me, they represented an impossibly high standard for me to try and reach. But this is not the kind of people and their respective faith that the Bible usually depicts.

Take today’s story for example. Here we see the beginnings of a case study on what a new and developing faith looks like when it is manifested in the real world and a given historical context. We are told that God visits Jacob and reaffirms the covenant promises God made to Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham. As we think about the ramifications of this, and assuming we didn’t know anything about Jacob, we would probably assume that Jacob was a real do-gooder (you know, the kind everybody hates to be around). We would likely expect him to be delighted to hear what God had said because we too want to hear that God is for us and not against us. We would furthermore expect that Jacob would be greatly comforted by God’s covenant promises to him to bless him and make his descendants a prosperous people. After all, what’s not to like about that?

Instead, we read that Jacob was afraid!

For anyone who has had an intimation of God’s Presence in their lives, Jacob’s reaction rings true. I know that I was afraid (or perhaps ashamed is a better descriptor) the day Jesus visited me and showed me the wounds of his crucifixion. Yes, there was a tremendous sense peace afterwards, a peace that passes all understanding unlike that which I had ever experienced before or afterwards, but when I first realized it was Jesus, I tripped all over myself apologizing for who I was and the shabby life I had lived. But he stopped me and told me it was OK, showing me his wounds as he did.

For you see, the profane always recognizes itself for what it is when it comes directly into the Presence of the Holy and it is for our good that it does because it reminds us that we need to correct our present life course and make God our center and reason for living, not ourselves.

Even after Jacob acknowledged that God had visited him and had built an altar to God, he was not ready to live a faithful life. Notice the condition he set on putting his whole hope and trust in God. God would have to provide for his safety and physical needs before Jacob would trust him, i.e., have faith in God. This is particularly rich on Jacob’s part since Jacob, whose name represents the Hebrew idiom which means “he deceives,” did not have a particularly good track record with either God or his fellow humans and we have to shake our head and wonder what God saw in this man whose life up to that point was characterized by deceit.

But here is where we realize the joke! Scripture reminds us many times and in many ways it is not about us; it is about God’s faithfulness to us and his great love for us! Notice that God did not give up on Jacob. He did not condemn Jacob or strike him down. Instead, God kept pursuing Jacob, finally wrestling with him all night until Jacob finally understood the joke of God’s grace.

Jacob was no saint but he finally came to put his whole hope and trust in God, something that would not have been possible if God were not faithful and good to his word. God kept pursuing Jacob, despite who Jacob was, and Jacob kept running from and resisting God’s advances. We can read his story and shake our heads, wondering why he was so stupid and arrogant to resist and run from God in the first place.

But then we realize that we are Jacob! Jacob’s story is our story! We too resist God’s advances and run from him, determined to be our own boss and make our own decisions. We too have deceived at least ourselves, if not others, into thinking we have control over our lives and our destinies. And like Jacob, this makes us afraid because in our most honest moments we realize that living life on our own terms is a farce and a sham. It makes us realize that more often than not we are making the things that cannot bring life or raise us from the dead our priority instead of focusing on that which brings life, and we wonder what on earth is wrong with us.

But thanks be to God that he loves us and keeps pursuing us despite this. Like he did with Jacob, God keeps inviting us to give him a chance and to trust him. And like Jacob, we will probably have to wrestle mightily with God before our eyes are opened to his great love and promise to us to end our exile from him.

But if we open our eyes, ears, and mind, we too can be in on the great joke. After all, that is one of the wondrous promises of Christmas. We remember that God condescended to us, became human and suffered and died for us. He died for us so that we might live for him, both in this life and for all eternity. He condescended to live with us so that we might be elevated to live with him forever. He became weak and mortal so that we might become immortal and strong in his power and great love for us.

Real faith, therefore, is not divested from the world in which we live. It is broken, profoundly broken, and so are we. But the good news of the Bible is that it isn’t about us. It is about God’s great love for us and his unwavering faithfulness to us. If you are one who is convinced you could never pass God’s muster or demonstrate a biblical faith, then read the story of Jacob with your eyes and mind wide open. You will see a wonderfully human and flawed man fall into God’s gracious arms and grow into the person God created him to be.

The same hope and promise that was Jacob’s can be yours also, but you have to take the plunge. The more you read Scripture, the more you will realize that God does not call us to be moral supermen and women. He calls us to give our whole selves to him and to open ourselves to his great love and mercy. When that happens, we don’t have to be afraid anymore, despite our flaws and foibles, because we remember that it isn’t about us. It is about the mind-blowing and transformative love and mercy of God manifested to us in Jesus Christ.