Bethel
An abbreviated chapter from the Keswick Year Book 2007.
Has anyone come here to escape their past? Perhaps, underneath it all, you’re trying to get away from God. Perhaps you think people can hide from him. If that’s so, I have bad news for you, and the story of Jacob underlines it. There is no-where: no depths so low, no height so high, no place so distant and secluded, that you can escape God.
Jacob conned his brother out of his birthright, deceived his way into his father’s affections to receive the blessing, and now Esau is out to kill him. There are indications later that Jacob had begun to realise that he was in this mess because what he had done to his brother was not a nice thing to do. So he is far from home (and) far from God. But it’s while he’s far from God — this is where the grace of God kicks in — that God steps into his life. The grace of God always takes the initiative.
