HAVE you ever been tempted to believe that a change in your material circumstances or surroundings would solve your problems for you, or at least make it easier for you to solve them for yourself? If you have been so tempted, you have had much company. Even Jacob, whose spiritual growth finally earned for him the title of Israel, or the prince of God, was tempted to believe that he must escape because his brother Esau was angry with him. In the midst of this fear-filled journey, however, spiritual understanding came to his rescue, and he awoke to the realization that he was in the presence of God and that he could not be elsewhere.
In his journey, the Bible tells us, he "lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed. . . . And, behold, the Lord . . . said, I am the Lord. ... I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest. . . . And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not" (Gen. 28:11-13, 15, 16).
It is interesting to note as the Bible narrative continues that the very stones on which Jacob pillowed his head became, to his awakened thought, a suitable material with which to build an altar to God in commemoration of His presence. What were these stones? What are the stones of our own time over which we today stumble, and on which we seek in vain to dream of ease and repose in our human experience?
