When I walk through each land, I often wonder, what mysteries lie hidden under this soil I walk on, under this very earth - that I don't know about. More and more old fossils, remains of history, underground passages, etc. are being newly discovered in almost every corner of the world. When you look at it that way, what treasures may be hidden under this piece of land that we are carelessly treading on!

After deceiving his father and brother, Jacob is running away from them. On the way, he sleeps for the night at the place he had a reached. He uses a long stone as a pillow. In his sleep, he had a vision of God. He sees a ladder or something like that connecting heaven and earth, and God being seated on his throne in heaven. He sees God repeating to him the promise He had made to his grandfather Abraham. At any rate, the dream haunted him. He felt that it was a place where God had touched in a special way. He assumed that was why he had that dream.

There, Jacob did something that no one else in Israel’s history had done. As the pagan Canaanites of that place would do, he set up the stone he used as a pillow as a pillar and poured oil on it. He named the place Bethel (the House of God), Jacob prays to God and makes a vow to Him (Gen. 28:18). Later, we see God, referencing to his act to introduces Himself (31). Jacob would return to there to fulfill his vow (35). We learn from the indications of the first instance that it was the very place where Abraham had camped and God had appeared to him.

What stories of earlier contacts has this soil! History throbs; the God of history presences here!