I Still Might Build An Altar Though

Genesis 28:10-22, New Living Translation (NLT)

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
10 Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. 11 At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. 12 As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.

13 At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. 15 What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”

16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” 17 But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”

18 The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. 19 He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although it was previously called Luz.

20 Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, 21 and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God. 22 And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.”

For fifteen years now I have been going off on sabbath to spend time alone with God.  All but two of these journeys have been taken in a couple hundred acres of virgin woods and meadows in a tent. I have spent a week there alone, in hopes of a personal encounter with my Maker.  Certainly I have encountered God in the wind and the trees, in the rain and the silence. I have floated on water absorbing the Son's rays, and I have laughed aloud, knowing I was being laughed at.  But I have never dreamed a vision.

I wish I would dream a vision. I wish I would hear God's voice audibly or be shown something glorious or divine while I am there.  I wish I could wake knowing exactly what God was doing and what he wanted me to be doing.  I wouldn't hesitate to take Jacob's cue and build an altar and pour oil down over it and mark that place and moment in a special way.  

Yet, I also know that God will indeed be with me and protect me on my journeys, and will provide me with food and clothing, and the Lord will certainly be my God... with or without a dream or vision.  So maybe it isn't really necessary, after all.  Jesus once said, "Blessed are those who believe without seeing."

I still might build an altar though... just sayin'.