THIS IS NONE OTHER BUT THE HOUSE OF GOD

It was Jacob’s first day away from home and, at nightfall under the stars of heaven and with a stone for a pillow, he dreamed. The experience was so vivid, and the presence of God so obvi­ous, that he named the location Bethel, the house of God.

In this present age, there is no location or structure that can be called the house of God, for the ‘Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands’, Acts 17. 24. However, ‘the church of the living God’ is likened to ‘the house of God’, 1 Tim. 3. 15, and some of the things that feature in Jacob’s experi­ence should be reflected in every local assembly.

It will be observed that angels were in attendance in Genesis 28, and one of the reasons that sisters cover their heads in the assembly is,’ because of the angels’, 1 Cor. 11. 10.

A sense of reverence gripped Jacob at Bethel, ‘How dreadful is this place!’ An awareness of the divine presence filled him with awe. When Paul was anticipating ideal conditions of godly order in the assembly, he indicated that even the visitors would have to acknowledge, ‘God is among you indeed’, 1 Cor. 14. 25 RV. Let that respect for the presence of God prevail among us.

Jacob also called Bethel ‘the gate of heaven’. In the Bible, the city gate was the place of administration, Ruth 4. 1, 2. The assem­bly should be the place where divine administration is acknowledged; it is the church of God; it is the house of God. Personal preferences and human proposals should never impinge on the pattern that God has for His house. He governs, and we submit; He controls, and we comply.

At Bethel, the stone that Jacob had used as a pillow became a pillar, and in scripture pillars are often linked with witness and testimony, Gen. 31. 44-53. This should be a feature of the present day house of God. It is ‘the pillar and ground of the truth’, 1 Tim. 3. 15. Gospel truth should radiate from it as at Thessalonica, when ‘from you sounded out the word of the Lord’, 1 Thess. 1. 8. Indeed every aspect of divine truth should be promoted mili­tantly, and defended when under assault, for the assembly is also the ‘bulwark of the truth’ RSV.