Finding Heaven in Hard Places

His name is Jacob. It's the third day he's been on the road. He's now about 75 miles from home. Comes to a place called Luz. There were no motels or hotels. Nobody opened a home to him. A very rocky place.

The people in Israel will tell you a tradition that they passed down. Israel is a very rocky place. God gave all the rocks in the world to the angels and said, we want you to go around the world and distribute these rocks. And when they got over Israel, they all tripped and fell. And this is why it was such a rocky place.

Had you and I been watching, we would have seen a man who was defeated, discouraged, disappointed, and probably wishes he could start all over again. When he looked back, he realized he'd made a mess in his own home. He'd lied to his father. He'd conned his brother out of the birthright and out of the blessing. Esau, his brother, was out to kill him. And so when Jacob looked back, everything was dismal and bleak. And when he looked ahead, it was worse.

He was out searching for a wife, going to a strange country among a strange people. And so the past was discouraging and the future was hopeless. And when he looked around, it wasn't much better. The present was terrible. He was lonely. He was afraid.

But his biggest problem was not behind him, and his biggest problem was not ahead of him, and his biggest problem was not around him. His biggest problem was not behind him. His biggest problem was inside of him. The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart.

And you and I like to blame our families. We like to blame our circumstances. We like to blame the breaks in life. But deep down inside, we know that what life does to us depends upon what life finds in us. And in Jacob's case, it didn't look too good.

But you know what happened? Jacob had a midlife crisis. In Genesis 28, Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and tarried there all night because the sun was set. He took one of the stones of that place and put it for his pillow and lay down in that place to sleep.

Jacob's dream was to be a shepherd. He dreamed and behold, a ladder, staircase, or perhaps you've seen pictures of these pyramids they built, step pyramids, a ladder set upon the 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 shall spread abroad to the west and the east and to the north and to the south. And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places to which thou goest and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

And Jacob awaked from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not. And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place. This is none other but the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillow and set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it.

And he called the name of God and said, The Lord God of Israel is here and he has brought thee into this land. And Jacob said, I know the name of that place Bethel, the house of God. But the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

And Jacob vowed a vow saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and he 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. And this stone which I have set for a pillar will be God's house and of all that thou shall give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

This was the beginning of a brand new life for Jacob. There's something you have to remember about Jacob. It's this. Jacob is just like your neighbors. He's just like your pastor. He's just like your mother and father. He's just like your mother-in-law and your father-in-law. He's just like your brother and sister. Jacob is human. Jacob had very high aspirations, much higher than Esau, his brother. Esau, according to Hebrews 12, was a profane man.

Now we use the word profane to mean somebody swears, curses. That's not what the word means. The word profane means outside the temple, two Latin words, secular. Esau was a secular man, successful, a good hunter, the kind of fellow you'd want for a neighbor. He could tell you hunting stories and fishing stories. A man with real charisma, a muscle man.

But a secular man, no place for God in his life. Esau despised his birthright. Jacob valued it. Jacob had high spiritual ambitions, but low methods. Jacob's goals were good goals. He wanted the spiritual, but he didn't wait for God to give it to him. And so Jacob, from before his birth, wrestled and tripped up his brother. And then when they were born, he reached out and grabbed his brother's heel.

Jacob was the supplanter, the manipulator, the bargainer, the cheater. And I find that many of us have high spiritual ambitions. We want the church to go forward. We want our lives to count for the Lord. We want our children to live for God. We want that God's work shall prosper. We want all of these things.

Then we proceed to do it our way, in our time, the way we want to do it. That was Jacob's whole trouble. High ambitions, low methods. High motives. Low motives, low methods.

But that night at Bethel, something happened to him. And I want that to happen to me. I want it to happen to you. He wasn't inside of a church building or a temple. He hadn't been through a worship service, didn't even own a Bible. And yet God did something for him and through him. That's why you're here.

We aren't here to be special. We aren't here to be spectators at a meeting. We're here because we want God to do some new thing for us. And it's going to happen to us as it happened to Jacob when we make some very wonderful discoveries. That night, Jacob made three life-changing discoveries. And you can have those same discoveries in your experience today.

Discovery number one. Jacob saw a vision. He saw a vision. And he discovered that God is with us. Now, I can just see Jacob fleeing from home. He was a fugitive. Jacob said, as soon as my father's dead, I'll kill you. Or Esau said to Jacob, as soon as my father is dead, I'll kill you. He ran for his life. The excuse was go get a wife. That was the excuse.

And Jacob was a homebody. He and his mother were very close. Jacob was sort of a mama-baby to some degree. Esau was a virile man of the world. Jacob was a quiet homebody. And now he's away from home. One day away from home, two days, three days, all alone.

Then he goes to sleep and he sees this staircase. It's not a ladder with rungs on it as you see in the fire department. It was sort of a staircase up to glory. And in this vision, Jacob sees Jacob. And in this vision, Jacob discovered God was with him.

As he walked down that road, three days journey from Beersheba, he was saying to himself, I'm all alone. My mother's not here to help me. I've lied to my father. I've infuriated my brother. I'm done for. I'm all alone. And then he had this vision and he discovered God was with him.

Now this vision told him, first of all, about God's grace. You see, if I were God, I would have left him in the dark. If I were God, I would have looked down and said, well, there you are lying in the rocks. There you are taking a rock for your pillow. That's not unusual. In the East, you'll see the Egyptians had little square boxes that were kind of hard. The Chinese people do the same thing. They don't use the kind of pillows we have. I've been in some motels where they've had that kind of a pillow. With a mattress to match.

God looks down and says, all right, you're between a rock and a hard place. You go back home, you'll be murdered. You stay there, you're going to have a bad back and a bad neck and life is rough. Stew in your own grease, Jacob. You've earned every bit of that. Learn your lesson. But God didn't do that.

God didn't do that to you either, did he? Remember the last time you rebelled against the Lord and you cheated somebody, you lied to somebody, you disobeyed your parents? You did something you shouldn't have done. You started to run away. Did God forsake you? No. No, he didn't.

It was a vision of God's grace. God is with us. We may turn our back on him. We may break his heart. God is with us. It was also a vision of God's government. You see, the night shift was arriving.

The angels that had taken care of Jacob in the day were going up and the night shift was coming down. And as they were going up, they were saying, watch out for this guy. God's government. You see, Jacob thought he was all alone and he discovered an amazing thing. Heaven's not very far away. The angels of God were working for him when he didn't even know it. And Jacob discovered that heaven and earth were linked by a gracious connection of God's government and God was in control.

God is with us. I discovered something else. The angels were serving. They were going up to get their orders and coming down to obey those orders. You see, one of Jacob's problems was he didn't want to be a servant.

At home, he wanted everybody to serve him. And he would scheme and manipulate and lie to get others to do what he wanted them to do. By the way, that's an awful way to live. For two reasons. One, it's self-destructive. And two, you're always disappointed. You can't control other people that much.

Selfishness is not getting what I want. Selfishness is getting you to get what I want. That's the way Jacob was. He didn't want to be a servant. And God said, Jacob, I want you to watch these angels. You know what they're doing? They're serving.

Now, I'm up here at the top of this staircase. I want you, Jacob, and I want you to be my servant. And you know what? For the next 20 years, Jacob learned how to serve. You know why? God wanted to make a prince out of him. And you can't be a ruler until first you learn how to be a servant.

He had a vision and discovered that God is with us. The God of grace, the God of government, the God of glory. He saw the glory of God. God was saying, Jacob, those cheap things you did. You gave your brother a bowl of soup to get his birthright. And you cheated your father, you lied to your father, you stole the blessing. I would have given those to you.

Before you were born, I ordained that the elder was going to serve the younger. You know, God had the whole thing planned before Jacob was ever born. By the way, God has it all planned for you.

Oh, I know there are some books coming out these days that are telling us that God does not have a personal plan for our lives. That I could serve God just as well as sweeping the streets in Lincoln, Nebraska, as making radio programs. I don't believe that. I believe Ephesians 2:10. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before prepared that we should walk in them.

Jacob, there is not much glory to what you have done. Oh, the world admires you. He is successful, but there is not much glory. I want to make you a part of something very glorious. That is the tragedy of sin. Sin is so cheap. Sin is so unglorious.

Discovery number one. God is with us. We have all of this in Jesus Christ. Somebody here today is saying, oh boy, if I could have an experience like that. I am going to go to bed tonight and say, Lord, show me a staircase. You won't see one. If you do, call a doctor.

I want to see an angel. You won't see one. Because you already have it in Jesus Christ. Turn to John 1. Our Lord is out calling his disciples. And Philip goes and says to Nathanael, we found the Messiah. John 1:45. And so Nathanael comes to meet the Lord Jesus.

John 1:47. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile. Now if Jesus had pointed to Jacob, he would have said, behold, there is an Israelite in whom there is lots of guile.

Nathanael saith to him, how knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, before Philip called thee when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, because I sat unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree. And thou believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these.

And he saith unto him, verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Who was this ladder, this staircase? The Lord Jesus. What is your link to heaven? Your living link to God's grace and God's government and God's glory? Jesus. You say, well, I know him as my Savior.

Then yield to him as your Lord. And when that happens, what happened to Jacob happens to you. You discover God is with you. When Jesus is about to be born in Matthew 1, we read, give him the name Emmanuel, God with us. At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus is about to leave, he says, lo, I am with you. I am with you always.

I want you to know wherever you go, God is with you because you know Jesus Christ. You're hard at work at your machine, God's with you. You're driving your truck, God's with you. Changing diapers, God's with you.

Getting the water out of the basement after the last flood, God's with you. Being wheeled into surgery, God's with you. Walking into that funeral home to view a loved one, God's with you. Isn't that great? He had a vision and he discovered God is with us.

Now he made a second discovery. Not only did he have a vision, but he heard a voice. And when he heard that voice, he discovered God is for us. Now it's one thing to have God with you. And it's quite something else to have God for you. By the way, the last time you complained, you were saying God's against me.

The last time I got upset, and if you want to know about it, ask my wife. The last time I got upset, I was sure that God could not run the airlines. Because they so fouled up my schedule that I was aggravated for days. And I was just simply saying, Lord, you must be against me. You go to the doctor and the doctor pulls out the x-rays and the reports. And he gives you the report in a very tender way. And says, well, we're going to have to operate.

And our first thought is, God, where are you? But Jacob discovered when he heard the voice that God is for us. Now notice what God did. Genesis 28:13. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, God speaks to him now. What would you have said? I would have said, I told you.

I would have said, you scoundrel, treat your father like that. Treat your brother like that. God doesn't talk like that. Oh, there are times when God has to spank us. A loving father must discipline his children. But God said to him, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father. Now Abraham was actually his grandfather, but the Jews talked like that.

And the God of Isaac. Be thankful if you have godly grandparents and godly parents. Don't take that for granted. One of the greatest things in all the world is a godly heritage. I'm standing here preaching today because of a great-grandfather who prayed, Oh God, may there be a preacher of the gospel in every generation of our family, and there has been.

I suppose sometimes you young people will say, My father is so strict. You know, my mother is so pious. And oh, my grandfather. You just be thankful you've got grandparents and parents about whom God can say, I'm their God.

But he reaffirms the old promises, and the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed, to thy children. Notice these little phrases. I am. I will. I will. I like that. I am. I will. You see, Jacob's been saying, I am, and I will.

God says, oh no. I am. God's name is I am. Jacob's name was I ought to be. Or I wish I were. And Jacob had been saying, I will, I will, I will. God said, no, you won't. I will. I will. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth.

Now God had said, Abraham, like the stars of the sky, I can't count them. Then like the sand of the seashore, you can't count them. But the dust, that's even finer. And you're going to spread abroad. And in Genesis 28:14, we read that God was going to use Jacob to bless the whole world.

Now hear me. Whenever God blesses an individual, it's so that that individual might be a blessing to the whole world. God called Abraham: "through you all the world to be blessed". Isaac: "through you all the world to be blessed". Jacob: "through you all the world will be blessed". Joseph: "through you all the world to be blessed". You, that you might be a blessing to the whole world. Are you a blessing to the whole world?

You say, well, how can I be? I mean, I live in a town so small, our zip code is a fraction. Who am I that I can be a blessing to the whole world? David said the same thing one day. David said, who am I? I come from a small family. He was a blessing to the whole world.

When you do what God wants you to do, you're a blessing to the whole world. You may not know it. Here was one little man in a little place, Luz. You got any mail from Luz lately?

Here's a little man in a little place in a little country off in a corner of the world. And God said, I'm going to use you to be a blessing to the whole world. When Dr. R. A. Torrey was pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, it was on Chicago Avenue and being used also by the Institute. And one Sunday morning he gave a call for consecration and a little six-year-old boy stood up in a sailor suit. A little six-year-old boy stood up in that great church to give his life to Jesus Christ. I'm sure the people around smiled and said, isn't that cute? That little boy's doing that. You know who that little boy grew up to be? Borden of Yale.

William Whiting Borden, who gave his life for missions to China, never got there, died in Egypt, but because of his life and his death, multiplied millions of people have been blessed. Never underestimate a decision made at Gull Lake or in your little church. We think the only things going on in the world are in the big churches, but what about the big crowds on television? Don't kid yourself. God is at work in every place where His Word is being preached.

He said, Jacob, I'm for you and I'm going to use you to touch a whole world. A little lady named Mary in Bethany. You can hardly find Bethany. It's on the side of the hill there. There it is. Little town called Bethany. She came into her little house with her gifts and gifts of faith.

She poured it out at Jesus' feet and Jesus said, what you just did is going to reach around the world. No television, no radio, but it reached around the world. Mother, you get on your knees and you pray for your children and you give them to the Lord. God says, I hear you now. What you've just done is going to touch the whole world. If you're here this week to be a reservoir, to pull everything in and keep it, go home. Because you'll leave worse than you came.

But if you're here to be a channel, to receive what God has for you and then share it, you're going to touch the whole world. Now God gave to Jacob a brand new promise. He said, Jacob, I'm for you. Look at Genesis 28:15. Behold, I am with thee. That's God's presence. And I will keep thee in all places to which thou goest. That's God's protection. And I will bring thee again into this land. That's God's providence. And I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. That's God's purpose.

Now I can live on that. Dear friends, we do not live on explanations. We live on promises. People come to me and say, why did this happen? I don't know. Why did that happen? I really don't know. It's not important that I know. I don't know. But for every situation of life, God gives us a promise.

Now look what Jacob had to live on for the rest of his life. Number one, God's presence. I'm going to be with you. I'm for you, Jacob. Everybody else is going to be against you. Laban is going to be against you. Oh, he had a father-in-law second to none.

He met his match when he met Laban. But I'm for you, Jacob, because I'm going to be with you. I'm for you. I'm going to protect you. Your brother's out to kill you. I'll protect you. And Jacob, my providence is going to be there.

I'm going to guide you. My protection, my provision. You're going to have clothes to wear and food to eat. That's what Paul said, having food and raiment, let's be content. We aren't. We have to have three cars, a boat, parakeet, and a video game.

You see, when you have God's presence and God's protection and God's providence and God's provision. Then you're fulfilling God's purpose. You can live on that. The thing he discovered was that God was for him. So when you get to the hard places in life, you look for that vision. You remember that Jesus Christ is God's living link and you say, God is with me. Then you listen for that voice.

Lay hold of God's promise. You'll say. He's for me. Would you remember this? The next time your pillow is a stone, next time it's dark and difficult and you can't see what's going to happen next. God is not against you. God is for you.

If God be for us, who can be against us? Now the devil loves for me to say, well, God hates me. And boy, then he moves right in. God is not for me. If God were for me, he'd be working things out the way I want them worked out. No.

If God were against me, he'd work things out the way I want them worked out. I have lived long enough to be thankful for unanswered prayer.

He made a third discovery. He saw the vision and discovered God is with us and he heard the voice and discovered God is for us. And then he made a vow and discovered that God is changing us. May I remind you? May I remind you that Jacob was not a teenager at Bethel? He wasn't even a young man. According to my calculations, he was at least 75 years old. Talk about a midlife crisis.

As I said last night, if I were to have a midlife crisis, I'd have to back into it. I hear people saying, well, I'm too old. You know? I never trust anybody over 30. That's what I mean. 30 is what they used to say. Then the fellow who said that turned 30.

Jacob is living proof we are never too old to make new beginnings with God. Now I know they lived longer in those days. He lived half of his life at this point. So if you want to just cut that in half and say, well, here I am. I'm 35, 36. Fine.

What difference does it make? Our God dwells in eternity. And the work he does is an eternal work. He's not limited by time. And don't you retire from God's service. I meet people all over this country who say, well, I did my stint. I was deacon for 10 years and trustee for three years. I'm retired now. Let somebody else do it. Maybe somebody else should be in the office. I'm not saying that.

All I'm saying is you'd better live for the Lord no matter how old you are. And don't say, well, I made a mess of it. I've really ruined it. No, no. God came to Jacob and said, Jacob, I am changing you. Now notice what happens. Genesis 28:16, Jacob wakes up.

Genesis 28:18, he gets up early in the morning. The sun is rising. Here's the dawning of a brand new day. He went to bed one kind of a person and woke up another kind of a person. He woke up with a new assurance. Look at Genesis 28:16. First thing he says is, surely the Lord is in this place.

Now, up till now, he hadn't been sure of anything. He wasn't sure of his father. He'd lied to him. Wasn't sure of his mother. She was quite a planner, quite a schemer. He wasn't sure of himself.He wasn't sure of Esau. Is he going to kill me or not? He wasn't sure about his future wife. He wasn't sure about his son. He wasn't sure about his surroundings.

Up till now, he wasn't sure about anything. But when you've seen God and heard God's voice and when you lay hold of God's promise, there's a brand new assurance.

There was also a new attitude. He was afraid. Up till now, he'd been afraid of Esau. Been afraid of his father. He was afraid of himself. What kind of a mess am I going to make when I get to Haran? But now he's afraid of God.

By the way, that's the fear that cancels all fear. When you have a fear of God, you need not fear anything else. The fear of man brings a snare, but the fear of God brings freedom. When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Now he fears God and he starts to get smart because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? Wisdom. Up till now, scheming, scheming.

I saw my friend Pete Quist here last night. And we were in Youth for Christ together. And I can never forget one day walking into his office to see Pete about a matter, probably to get him to straighten out something I had goofed up. And there under the glass on his desk was a little slogan that said, Faith is living without scheming. I wrote it down. I said, I need that.

A new assurance. A new attitude. A new awareness. This is none other but the house of God. That's a bunch of rocks. Oh no. God's here.

People say, I'm going to go on a pilgrimage. I'm going to go here or there. I want to find God. If you can't find God in your backyard, you won't find him anyplace else. These folks will have to run from meeting to meeting and from geography to geography.

Any of you who have been to the Holy Land know how superstitious people get about the real estate down there. Oh, I had such a great experience on Mount Tabor. Fine, I'm glad you did. You could have had that same experience at the corner of First and Main.

A new awareness. Paul discovered God in a prison. Jacob discovered God in a rocky place. David discovered God in a cave. Zacchaeus discovered God up a tree. Started a branch office. Vance Havner says some of you folks who are afraid to go out on a limb haven't even started to climb the tree yet. John discovered God exiled on the Isle of Patmos.

Now don't tell me you have to go to some holy place to find God. He had a new assurance and a new attitude and a new awareness. He said, God is here. I didn't realize it. Jacob discovered that the invisible world is more real than the visible world.

Up till now, he'd been living by the visible. My brother. I'll put on my brother's clothes. I'll put some fur on my arms and I'll deceive my father. Good thing my father's blind. He'd been living by the visible. Do you live by the visible, what you can see and touch and taste and feel? Or do you live by the invisible? Paul says the visible things are perishing but the invisible things are gonna last forever. Dr. Tozer used to say the only real world is the invisible world. That's true. A new awareness.

And there was a new affirmation. Genesis 28:20. If God will be with me, now he lays hold of the promise. God you said you'd be with me? Okay. If you are going to be with me, your presence, and keep me, that's your protection, in the way that I go, that's your providence, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, that's your provision, so that I come again to my father's house in peace. That's the one thing he needed. He was at war with his brother. At war with his father. At war with God. But now he makes a new affirmation. Then shall the Lord be my God.

And I'll prove it by my worship. And he sets up this stone and makes it an altar. And I'll prove it by my stewardship. He gets practical now. He said Lord I'm even willing to tithe. Boy that's revival.

Jacob was going to take into daily life the experience that he's had. Is that what you're going to do? Say, oh I had a great experience at Gull Lake. Well, how's it going to change your daily life, your checkbook, the way you treat your neighbors, the way you drive your car, the way you do your homework?

There was a new affirmation, and to seal this, he puts this name on it, Bethel. He said, let's not call it Luz anymore. That's an ugly name anyway. Let's call it Bethel, the house of God.

I have walked into hospital rooms where saints of God were lying in their beds in pain, but I want you to know that hospital room was a house of God. We fellowship together in spite of suffering and pain and tears. I've walked into little apartments where elderly people live on subsistence, but it's a house of God.

What makes a rocky place a house of God? What happens in your heart? What life does to you depends upon what life finds in you.

And Jacob made a vow. And Jacob said, this is the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. Now, in Old Testament days, the gate was the place where the authority rested. The council met at the gate. The mayor was at the gate. When they wanted to make big decisions, they went down to the gate. He says, here are all these rocks. I didn't realize it. This is the gate of heaven.

This is where the authority of God is at work. All authority is given to me. Now get going.

A gate is also a place of accessibility. You see, Jacob arrived there and thought he was on a dead end street. But when he got up that morning, he discovered his dead end street was a gate and he had the brightest possibilities ahead of him. Oh dear friends, no matter what your situation may be, if this is your experience, you are at a gate, not a dead end street. God does not close doors except to open doors. You say, yeah, but Brother Wiersbe, I'm not well and the prognosis is not too good. You're at a gate.

Christians don't leave places. They go to places. We're not on a dead end street. We're not facing closed doors. We are not looking at blank walls. When you realize that God is with you and God is for you and God is changing you. And he says, I'm not going to let you go until I've finished my program. That's Philippians 1:6. Being confident of this very thing that he has begun a good work in you will complete it. He'll perform it until the day of Christ.

Dr William Culbertson, who was such a blessing to me, I often heard him pray "Dear Lord, help us to end well." When F.B. Meyer was dying in a rest home in England, he wrote to a friend, please pray that my life will not end in a swamp. I want to go on being a clear channel of blessing for God. This is the gate of heaven. When Jacob left home, he was a fugitive, but when he woke up that next morning, he discovered he was a pilgrim.

A new man. Oh, not automatically all at once. No, no. It took 20 more years of discipline, but he was a new man. And Jacob put that pin on that some of you wear: "Please be patient. God is not through with me yet." When you find yourself in the hard places of life, I want you to see the vision and realize God is with you. I want you to hear the voice and realize that God is for you, not against you.

By the grace of God, let's make that vow so that God can be changing us. God laid one hand on Jacob. He laid one hand on Jacob's circumstances and began to work and bring them together. And at the end of the line, before Jacob dies, God has made himself a great man. So great that God has called himself the God of Jacob.