An Encounter With God — R. Edward Miller

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

Well, praise the Lord. Genesis 28, now there's a major change in Jacob's life. After the blessing, and Rebekah began to do a little bit more maneuvering, and she realized that Esau was very angry and had threatened to kill Jacob.

So she went to Isaac with a complaint about her daughters-in-law, who were Philistines, and she wasn't at all happy about that, and used that as a means to incite Isaac to send Jacob back to where Rebekah came from to seek a bride and to escape Esau's wrath.

As we know, that the man is the head of the house. Are we agreed or not? Well, in this case, and in most cases, the woman is not the head, but she's the neck that turns the head, so she got what she wanted, and that was protection for Jacob.

And so Jacob was sent down back to Paran, where Rebekah came from, where Rebekah's family lived, and on his way, Bethel, he stopped and slept that night. And in a certain place, we read in the 11th verse, he tarried all night because the sun was set, and he took the stones of the place and put them for his pillow, and laid down in that place to sleep.

If I had a stone for my pillow, I wouldn't sleep. I don't know if that means he had a hard head or not. And he dreamed, behold, a ladder set up on earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, to the north, to the south, and in thee, and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all the places where thou goest. Bring thee again to this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken unto thee of.". The words of God when he speaks to us are usually quite brief, but extremely, extremely filled with riches and realities.

Encounters With God and Genuine Conversion

He had two major encounters with God in a whole lifetime. Abraham had a few more. A real encounter with God is not that often. They are very high. And for that reason, they are very important in a life.

And until the first one, the first encounter with God, is the entrance into a relationship with God. We have, shall I say, lowered salvation until you can save yourself. You do this, and do that, do something else, even if you are an evangelistic service, you raise your hand, you come forward, you say the sinner's prayer, you sign a pledge, give your name and address, start coming to church, attend the services and the classes, and learn to know all the things, and you've done everything.

All that you were told to do, you did. Now you're a Christian. But there's not been an encounter with God. There's not been a meeting with God. That is different. That is different. And that life will be empty, and will be a strain, because to try to live a good Christian life, without Christ living within, it's a hard job, and full of many failures.

This is his first encounter with God. And God made it very clear, he said, I am the God of thy father, thy grandfather, and stopped. He didn't say, I'm your God, did he? He wasn't yet, but he planned to be.

Christ as the Ladder and the Only Way to Heaven

Now that ladder signifies Christ. That's the way into heaven. There's only one way into heaven. Any other way, Jesus said, is a thief and a robber. Anyone tries to enter any other way. If we try to make our way into heaven, we're thieves and robbers, as far as God's concerned.

There's only one way. And if you'll notice, it was a ladder, not an escalator. We would like an escalator. We'd like to ride into heaven. Better yet, we'd like for one of the angels to carry us. That would be lovely, wouldn't it?

But they don't do that. I didn't, Jacob didn't see one angel carrying anything. They were just going up and down, carrying messages, probably, showing that they are ministering spirits, and they minister on earth, and they receive their instructions from heaven.

And we see that God was on the, stood at the top. In fact, the older versions say that God rested on the top of the ladder. In other words, he's observing, he's watching, he's caring for everything. But the other, as I say, the older versions use the word rested.

In other words, he wasn't trying to do something. God isn't straining. He's seated on the throne. That's what Isaiah saw in his vision. God was seated on the throne. Because he's in such total control of everything, he's not anxious, he's not worried about things.

The Fear of the Lord and the Holiness of God

We worry about things. We see a person go into a valley, and take a deep dive, and get into trouble, and maybe leave church for a while, or do some crazy thing that, in their desperation, the enemy got through to them.

And sometimes it's so serious, we just wipe them off our list of good Christian people. Of course, you usually have to write them back on later. And we get desperate, especially if they're people we're fond of, especially if they're friends or relatives.

But all the while, we're all upset and worried about them, and praying about them, and trying to help them, and counseling this, and counseling that. All the time, God is resting. God is resting there at the way, at the top of the way.

He's watching it all. He's knowing all that happens. I think some people don't realize that God really does know about things that happen here on earth. I've had many people tell me a person's problem, some other person's problem, so that I can pray better.

I don't think I have to inform God about all that's taking place. I've always felt that he probably knew more about it than I did. But there he was, and he was resting, and he was observing. He wasn't climbing.

God showed Jacob the way. After he awoke, he was afraid. I think several reasons. But one was, it was an encounter with the Almighty God. You know, one of the things that's so sadly lacking in our modern-day church is the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord.

And I'll tell you one thing, if you've ever really had an encounter with God, you'll begin to fear the Lord. That's the beginning of wisdom, the wise man said in Proverbs. That's the beginning of wisdom, David said in the Psalms.

That's where wisdom begins, is the fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord brings great blessings, and many of them are enumerated in Scripture. But that's where it starts, to realize that how small we are, how helpless we are, how dependent we are, and how we test and try and tempt and strain the mercies of God.

And sometimes, he says, my spirit will not always strive with man. Sometimes, he'll just say, all right, that's it. And when he closes the door, no man can open it. There was a dread, there was a fear came upon Jacob.

As he saw the angels, he saw the way into heaven, he saw that he would have to struggle. He'd have to climb. He'd have to strain and struggle upwards. As I said, it wasn't an escalator. There was no other way except climbing if you want to get there.

You know, a lot of people want to be carried. We sing that song, and I think of it sometimes when I sing that song, Higher Ground. And we sing, Lord, lift me up, and let me stand on heaven's table land.

Lord, lift me up. I don't want to have to climb. Lord, lift me up. Or, all right, God, if you're so busy, have the pastor lift me up. We expect him to lift us up. I've thought many times of the woman that touched a hem of his garment.

Faith That Reaches for Christ

The scriptures say that before she went, now, she wasn't invited. No one knocked her door and said, come, Jesus wants to heal you. No one offered to take her. She was on her own, totally on her own. There was no apostle knocking at her door, saying, I have a word for you from Jesus.

Now, he wants you to come. He's going to heal you. That would be very nice, but it didn't happen. She was all alone, and she talked to herself before she came to Jesus. And she said, now, she'd been to all the doctors there were, and she'd spent all the money she had, but she said to herself, there's enough power in that man that if I can just work my way through and touch the hem of the garment, I will be healed.

She persuaded herself, she initiated her own faith, she initiated her own actions, and she was healed without even asking for it. And I've thought many times, I'd like to be in a church someday, where everybody, before they came to church, had a little talk with themselves, and said, I'm going to church this morning, and I'm going to reach through and touch God.

I don't care what anybody else does. And if everyone did that, wouldn't we have a service? Wouldn't we have a service? But usually, the talk goes this way. I don't know if I want to go to church this morning, I don't feel good, but I'll go, and I hope Sammy's got enough power to get through and break through, because I need some help this morning.

Well, of course, in your church, it goes a little different. It won't be Sammy, it'll be somebody else. Lord, lift me up, and if not, let my pastor do it. It's a ladder. It's a ladder. And Jacob didn't climb yet, but it was set before him, and from then on, he did some climbing and a little slipping up and down, because the angels were going up and down, and sometimes you miss a step and slip down three or four and have to climb them all over again.

But not one angel offered to carry him. They were going up, and they were bringing messages down, but the ladder was set there. The way was there, Christ is the way. And in a sense, because Christ is the way, it represents the cross.

It represents the cross. There is no other way. No other way. A new and living way through the blood and through the rent veil, which represents his flesh that was crucified. It's the only way. And that's in type.

And as I said before, you can find Christ in the cross all through the scriptures. Again God is showing the cross. He's showing there is a way into heaven. All the way. It's a long way. All the way from earth to heaven, there is a way.

A way that will cause you work and sweat and tears, and a way that will cause you fears. But there is a way. And that way is through Christ. There is no other way. And Jesus said of himself, I am the way, the truth, the life.

Grace Versus Human Works

Many religions are based on the human actions and are earning our way and our works get us into heaven. And the religions that are most popular are religions that rest on your efforts. The largest, the greatest church in the world is a Catholic church.

And you can earn your way all the way to heaven. In fact if you live nice enough and well enough and you pay enough money if you have it, or in other words you donate your life to their causes and you can even pass right by purgatory.

We don't have one of those things but they do. But it's all on your efforts and it's the largest church in the world. People like that. People like to feel that they've paid for it. People like to feel that they've earned it.

People like to feel that now I deserve it. Because we have a much better opinion of ourselves than God has. We don't love ourselves as much as he does but we have a greater opinion of ourselves than he does.

He knows what we are. But we want to wipe that out by feeling that we earned it, we deserve it. We have it coming to us. It's fair. And because of that it's very popular. Any ministry that will cater to that feeling within us is a ministry that will be well-received.

Because that's the way we want to feel. We don't want to feel that we're absolutely morally bankrupt. We don't want to feel that what Paul said, in me that is my flesh there dwells not one good thing.

You know a lot of people like things fair. As I've said before, God is not fair. He's just but he's not fair. Fairness is based on equality and we're not equal. We like to think that fair is fair. And because fair and fair, if I go to church and pay my tithes and take time for services out of my busy schedule and if I all of a sudden work for God or teach a Sunday school class or become a worker, that it's fair for God to give me things.

But if God really gave us what we deserve, hell's too good if you didn't hear that. If there's one prayer, never pray, not even think of it, that God gives you what you deserve. That God gives you all he can give you in grace, but not give you what you deserve.

There is no good in us. Because we judge ourselves on human standards, because we judge ourselves against the drunkard or against the murderer or against the serial murderer or against the people that have given their life to vile actions and lifestyle, we think we're worth something.

But you see, when you really meet God and the awfulness of his purity, the awfulness of his holiness, I've seen times when that holiness has been revealed and the first time I saw it, I was about 18, I think, and I don't know why I did, but I felt I wanted to see the holiness of God.

And that prayer gripped me, and I wept and prayed and wept and prayed, I was at every altar, crying out, God, let me see your holiness, and that went on for about six months. And one night, it was such a deep, I guess you could say longing in my heart, and I don't know why.

And finally they turned the lights out on me and I went home, and I went to my little closet, and there I went on praying for about a half an hour, an hour, and all of a sudden, all of a sudden, that holiness, and it lasted about one minute, and I got out of that closet fast.

It scared me silly. It was so awful. It was so unbelievable. It was so far from what I thought it might be. It was dreadful. It was frightening. It was not attractive. I wanted to get away from it, and I never prayed that prayer again.

Nevertheless, nevertheless, little by little, God began to bring me to that. And I realized, take for instance in Argentina, where they wept and wept and wept and wept and wept for ten solid weeks, a whole congregation of about 50.

Holiness, Grace, and the Way to God

That holiness purified me. When Jacob saw that, he said there was a dread. There was a fright. He said, this is awful. This is the house of God. This is God. God said to Moses, as soon as Moses heard the voice of God, maybe 100 yards away, maybe 200, maybe 300, and as soon as he could hear, he said, Moses, don't you get any closer.

You stay there, and take your shoes off your feet. Why? I want you to touch my holiness. I don't want you to be separated by anything. I want you to put your feet where the holiness is and touch it with your own body.

And you know what Moses did? When he realized it was God, he covered his face and fell on the ground, said, my God, as I've heard many times, I'm in your presence and I'm unclean. I don't care how clean you think you are, when God manifests his holiness, you won't tell God how good you are.

You'll cry out for mercy. This was an encounter with God. But in that, in that awful encounter, there was a ladder. In that awful encounter, it was shown, there's a way, Jacob. You're Jacob. You're what you are.

I know what you are. But there is a way. You can come. There is a way. It reaches all the way to earth, from heaven. There is grace. You're not locked out because you're a filthy sinner. You're not locked out because you are who you are, a deceiver, a liar.

You're not locked out for that reason, because there's grace. Because there is grace. God has made a way, a new and living way for us. And we read that he dreamed that, and the Lord stood there and said what he said.

And then he said, the land whereon you lies. Remember, he wanted the blessing. He wanted the birthright and the blessing. He got it from Isaac, but now God gives it, direct, direct to him. He begins, he takes the same promise he'd given to Abraham, which Jacob so longed to have, he gives it to him.

This time it isn't Isaac. It's the Almighty. And he said, gave him that same blessing. More than Isaac's blessing, he got the blessing from God. The land where you lie, I will give it to you and to your seed.

And your seed will be many, and they'll spread abroad to north, south, east, and west. And in thy seed, which means in Jesus, shall all the families of the earth be blessed. That's what Jacob so longed for.

That's why he was ready to even pretend to be Esau. That's why he wanted that birthright. There was that wonderful promise. There was that promise that he could foresee. I don't think he saw very much, but the little he saw, he so wanted that he was really willing to deceive his father.

But in that wanting, God put that desire there. God put that want there. God put that in his heart way back, so he tried to get the birthright. It was in him. I want it. I want that promise. I want what God gives.

I want it. It was given to my grandfather. It was given to my father, because God said the same thing to Isaac. I want it, and he got it. You know, God puts desires in our hearts, and those are holy desires.

Cultivating God-Given Desires

Go to work on them. Go do everything you know to do. Pray, seek the Lord, fast, whatever. But I have a goal. I have a goal. My first goal, my very first goal, I wanted a genuine conversion. I didn't want to say a sinner's prayer.

In fact, I did that 50 times at least, literally, church after church. I wanted reality. And after six months of weeping and praying and walking the floors at night, one afternoon he came, and it was real.

Set your goals. Let those desires grow in your heart. Let them get bigger and bigger. Cultivate them, because those are seeds that God has planted, and he knows how to bring it to pass. Look how he had to deal with Jacob.

He took him through all kinds of things before he was through, but he made it, didn't he? And the one thing I like about Jacob is God used him to show that even with the worst of the family, with the worst of the lot, he can bring forth the best.

It's not because we're worthy. It's not because we're... I think God delights to use the worst ones, not the best ones. I know in dealing with children and young people, the worst kids are the most promising, the ones that give you the most trouble.

I like those. I'll fight with them, because I know they've got stuff there. They've got something in there that's not satisfied. I've had people say to me, Oh, pray for this young man. He makes such a wonderful preacher.

He's got such wonderful giftings. I know he'll never make it. I don't bother to pray for such people in that sense. God doesn't use those kind of people. They're too good already. He uses the worst. One time I asked God why he chose me.

To use me, and he said, so I can show others how much I can do with something so worthless. Behold, I am with thee. I will keep thee in all places where you go. I will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

What a beautiful promise. What a beautiful promise. Whatever God takes you through, he says, I'm there, and I'm going to bring you through, and I'm going to bring you all the way through, and I won't leave you till I do.

That's lovely, isn't it? He gave him that promise. He said, I'm going to bring you again. I'm going to go with you. Whatever he went there, it was over 20 years. He was 21 years just getting his bride, wasn't he?

And then, how much after that, we're not sure. But I'm going to keep you all that time. And God did keep him all that time. We'll go into the story later. Jacob waked up, and 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. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, took the stone he had for a pillow, and put it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it.

That was a ceremony they used in those days. Called the name of the place Bethel. Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God be with me, if what he says is true, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God.

Then I will surrender completely. I want you to notice something. God said in the 15th verse, Behold, I am with thee. I will keep thee in all places where you go. I will bring you again to this land. I will not leave you until I've done that which I have spoken to thee of.

And I want you to notice, there is not one condition in those promises. Many promises are conditional. Other promises are not conditional. One reason they are not conditional, because the promises to Abraham were conditional.

He had to leave his land, he had to leave his home, he had to leave his relatives, and until he did, God didn't come to him again. His promises were conditional, but Abraham fulfilled the conditions. And because he fulfilled the conditions, the different conditions God gave him, and because he offered up his son Isaac, if you remember, then God promised him and his seed, didn't he?

Therefore, because Jacob was loved and Esau was hated, therefore, God in a sense, to keep his own promise to Abraham, had to bring forth Jacob, because he was the only seed left, wasn't he? And he gave these promises to Jacob, and there wasn't one condition made.

There are promises that are conditional, there are promises that are not. Don't mix them up. Don't mix them up. God gives many promises conditional, if you fulfill the conditions, but there are promises that are not conditional.

And these are promises that are not conditional. God said, just as what I am going to do. It was more a purpose, a divine purpose on God's part. Like again, he said, you haven't chosen me, I've chosen you, and I'm going to make you bring forth fruit.

Those weren't conditional, were they? I'm going to prune the vine. I'm going to take care of it. I'm going to, my father's a husband. He's going to take care of all this. Those are not conditional promises.

For God so loved the world, gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth, there's a condition. But if we believe his word, then he says, you haven't chosen me, I've chosen you. Now I'm going to do this.

You fulfill that condition, but here's beautiful promises that are not conditional. And that's what God does with us. He gives us promises that are not conditional. Just as what he's going to do out of his own will, out of his own goodness, out of his own grace, out of his own mercy, he's just going to do it.

He didn't say how he was going to do it. He didn't say, Jacob, to be able for me to fulfill this, I'm going to have to make you work seven years without wages. That's not fair. And because you had a little deceitful moment with your father Isaac, which was all right because it belonged to you, we'll have a little deceitful moment with Leah.

Your dad didn't do what was right. And I am going to have to do what is right. Because you don't like Leah, you want Rachel. But I like Leah. And you see, we have head of our story now. You see, Leah, out of Leah came Judah and Levi.

The two priestly tribes. Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah, not Joseph. Not Rachel's son. In other words, to do what was right, it looked like God practiced a little bit of deceit too, didn't he?

But that's the way head of our story. Now I want to go back to the 22nd verse. And this dome which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

Tithing as a Response to Encountering God

Abraham said the same thing. You know, a lot of people think tithing is in the law, so we don't have to do it. God didn't ask Jacob to do this, and God didn't ask Abraham to do it. They said they would do it.

They wanted to do it. It came from them. It came from their own hearts. It came from their own initiative. They were not... People say, well, tithing is in the law, and tithing is not in the New Testament.

I beg your pardon. It goes way back before the law, and it has nothing to do with the law, because God gave no law to Abraham. But it says, I want to do it. I want to have something to give to you. I want to show in some way.

I want to show how much I appreciate, how much I love you, how much I owe everything to you. I remember my second church I pastored. Because of the IRS, and it wasn't nearly as bad as it is now, I decided to put offering envelopes, so we could keep track of people's giving.

To my amazement, the congregation were very upset with it. They didn't think it ought to be done. But I pressed through anyway. And to my amazement, the offering increased almost 50 from then on. They all said they were giving our tithes.

Why should we have to do that? Well, I presume they were, but somehow, some reason, there was considerable increase after that. This came from Jacob. We talk about that Jacob nature, don't we? But this came from him.

And when we've had an encounter with God, and it's real, there comes a sense, there comes a sense, I want to do something. I want to be able to give to God. He's given me so much. I know He doesn't need it.

You know, God doesn't need anything we do. I need it. I need to give to God. I need to give out of my heart. I need to do these things. It isn't that He needs it. He says, well, now that you've given it, let's put this money to help some orphans, or let's help a mission, or let's take care of our expenses, or let's do this or that.

That's fine. What's done with it? Because He can't use it. I don't want to discourage anybody, or dishearten anybody, but there's no shopping malls in heaven. That's why God made it, so you can't take it with you.

I read in a Jewish book, of Jewish customs and so on, of this very wealthy man that was very much in love with his money. And when he got sick, and the doctor said it was terminal, he called his wife and said, honey, I know I have to go.

But he said, they say you can't take it with you, but I'm going to take my money with me. And he said, when I get just about ready to die, I want you to take my money, and put it in that trunk up by the chimney in the attic, and when I go up, I'll get it.

Well, the dear wife did what she was told. A couple of days later, she said, I wonder if he did take it with him. She went up there and opened up the trunk and looked, there it was. She said, oh, I made such a mistake.

I shouldn't have put it in the attic, I should have put it in the basement. Don't try to take it with you. There's no shopping malls there. God doesn't need your money, but you need to give. I need to give.

We need to learn that spirit of giving. And the more you give, it's an interesting scripture, give and it shall be given to you. Isn't that right? Most of us say, I wish I had so I could give. Is that right?

I wish I had so I could. But the Bible doesn't put it that way. He said, give and it shall be given to you. He didn't say, wait till you have and then give. There's three levels of giving. I don't know why I got on the subject.

I'll stay for a few minutes. First is duty. I have to pay rent on my earth that I live on, the house I live in. It's all God's. It belongs to him. And I claim it. But at least I have to pay a little on it.

That's order of the Lord. Then there is the giving of sacrifice. Over in Philippians you read of that. In verse 18, he'd received a gift from Epaphroditus and the things that were sent from them. And he says, it is an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice, acceptable, well-pleasing to God.

But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. We like to take verse 19 but forget verse 18. They go together. In other words, he was saying, God shall supply all your needs to the people who had made a great sacrifice and had given this gift to Paul for the work.

And he said, that's a sacrifice that's well-pleasing, a sweet odor to God. He doesn't say that about any other sacrifice. A sacrifice is when it's really costing you something, isn't it? Like David said, he said, I will not offer an offering to God that doesn't cost me something.

When he made an offering there on the threshing floor. But there's another level of giving, faith. Let me illustrate it. You earn $100. $10 belongs to God. Every week you get $100, that's all. Well, you get more now, but I remember when I got less than that for a week's wages.

Then, the Lord speaks to your heart and says, for a special work, I want you to give $50. What am I going to live on? I want $50 for this. I want you to have a share in this work. Well, we'll haggle and haggle and perhaps cry and argue, but you'll end up giving $50.

That's a sacrifice. You have to live on beans and macaroni for a week. But that's well pleasing to God. He loves that. But then, you earn $100 a week, and God says, now for this special work that they're doing, I want you to give $500.

Wait a minute. I don't got $500. I don't have it. Where can I get it? Because I want you to give $500. All right, God. But you know as well as I know what I have. So you're going to have to supply it so I can do it.

And that will take some faith, and you'll give your pledge. You'll say, all right. I want you to know. Here's my note. I owe you $500. Payable by the 15th of next month. And you've got about 25 days to have some good prayer meetings.

Some wonderful prayer meetings all alone, just you. And two days before the 15th comes a letter that someone had owed you, that devoured some money from you 14 years before suddenly remembered it and sent you $500.

Faith. Faith.

That begins to tap into all the resources.

Of God. And I've seen.

God build our buildings, take care of our family of 100 people, had to eat every day for 25 years. And there was no income except all the resources of the world at your disposal. When you learn to give.

One-tenth we took we took our books and we added it all up. We found out we were giving nine-tenths. We were living on.

One-tenth. And why not? I've lived quite well, haven't I? I've outlived some already.

That was a principle started with Abraham. And when God gave those promises to Jacob, that was Jacob's response. Of all the things he could have said, that was his response. If you bring me here again, you'll be my God and I'll give you a tenth of everything that you give me.

And because it's in a place it is and because it's by whom it was given, it's important. Or God wouldn't put it in the Scriptures. At that high moment in Jacob's life, that's the one thing he thought about.

That's the one thing he said to God in his vow to God. You bring me here. You keep me well and bring me back. Then all that you give me, I'll give you a tenth. Father, we thank you that you take such people as Jacob.

Closing Prayer and Questions

People that in this world, they're not appreciated. Isaac didn't appreciate him. Esau hated him. But of all the people, he's the one.

You loved. People didn't.

Men didn't. But you did. And Lord, those are the people. You didn't come to save the righteous. You came to save the sinners. You didn't come to heal the well. You came to heal the sick. Father, give us to learn from the Scriptures themselves your ways.

Before Jacob, you set a ladder and said, Jacob, you're a long way down, but there's a way up. There's a way up. Climb it. Let there be in our hearts that longing that was in David's heart that brought him step by step up that ladder until he met you in Peniel and the work was finished and you restored everything, even his son Joseph was restored to him.