In verse 13 we see that here Jacob was met by God for the first time. We all need to be met by God. This is basic. Jacob was born into a godly family. Abraham, Isaac, Sarah, and Rebekah were all godly people. Although it is good to be born into such a godly family, we must still have our own direct, personal meeting with God. Everyone in your home may eat, but you must still be an eating person yourself. Do not say, "Oh, my grandfather was Abraham, my grandmother was Sarah, and my parents are Isaac and Rebekah." What about you? Everyone in your family is an eating person, but do you yourself eat? Concerning God, Jacob had acquired knowledge, but he had not eaten anything. He had been born into a godly family, but before the dream at Bethel, he himself had had no direct meeting with God. But, much to his surprise, here at Bethel, God met him for the first time. Jacob did not intend to meet God. It was God who was waiting there for him. God had already come down from heaven and was there on earth.
The experience of the Samaritan woman in John 4 is similar to Jacob's experience in Genesis 28. The Lord Jesus, who had come down from heaven, went to the well purposely to meet her. To that Samaritan woman, Jacob's well was Bethel, and Jesus was there as the heavenly ladder. If, like Jacob, she had had an actual dream, she would have seen the angels ascending to heaven to bring the good report that she had met the Lord. The angels might have said, "The sinful Samaritan woman, the one who has had so many husbands and who is living with a man who is not her husband, has come to Jesus!" The situation was the same when you came to the Lord. Jesus, the heavenly ladder, was waiting for you. On the day you were saved, you had your first dream and were met by God for the first time. How wonderful this is! If you examine your experience, you will say, "Praise the Lord! Now I understand what happened to me that day. Before I was saved, the heavenly ladder had been set up on earth, and God was waiting there to meet me."
When God first met Jacob, He said, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac" (v. 13). This implied that God was to be Jacob's God. We all have experienced the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. Since the God of Abraham is the God of justification and the God of Isaac is the God of grace, this means that we have experienced the God of justification and the God of grace. Although we have experienced such a God, we also need to meet and experience the God of Jacob. This means that God will be to us the God of transformation, the God of dealings. Knowing the God of Abraham means that we are justified, and knowing the God of Isaac means that we enjoy the grace of God. But we must also have a dream in which the God of Jacob says, "I shall be your God. I shall be the God of a heel-holder, the God of a supplanter. The more you supplant, the better I can deal with you. The more you hold the heels of others, the more I shall put you into the oven. I shall be to you the God of Jacob." Eventually, the Bible says that God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and that this God is not the God of the dead but of the living (Matt. 22:32). My God is not only the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac; He is also the God of Jacob, the God of dealings who deals with me all day long. If we only stay with the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, never experiencing God as the God of Jacob, we shall not have the needed transformation. Whose God do you love—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, or the God of Jacob? While we love the enjoyment, none of us loves the dealings. God is the Triune God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Be prepared—one day you will meet Him as the God of Jacob.
Often the brothers and sisters like to sing about the glorious church life. However, the more we stay in the glorious church life, the more we are dealt with. Nearly all of us can testify that since coming into the church life, God has dealt with us. Before we came into the church, we did not have many problems. But after we came into the church and began to sing of the glorious church life, things began to happen one after another. You might have said, "What is this? Perhaps I am wrong." No, you are not wrong—you are right. Because you are on the right track, the track of transformation, all these things have been happening to you.
God measures our environment and everything that happens to us. For example, He may let you have a little illness, but that illness is measured and will not kill you. This is similar to what God did with Job when He charged Satan not to go beyond a certain limit (Job 2:6). This is God's dealing. In the following chapters of Genesis, we do not see that Jacob enjoyed very much. Rather, wherever he went, God was there dealing with him. God seemed to say, "I am the God of Jacob. Eventually, I want to be the God of Israel. When your transformation is complete, My dealings with you will be over."