The Moon Is Following Me

As a kid, I remember sitting in the back of my parent's car on a long trip at night, staring out the window at the moon. It appeared to travel right along with me, and journeyed at the same speed we were going. When I remarked to my parents that the moon was following us, they told me it only appeared that way because the moon was so very large and so very close.


Genesis 28:10-22
"Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." 18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord  will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth." 

In the ancient pagan mindset, gods were local. Each locality had a particular god, and that god was acknowledged by that particular people. But when the God of Israel began to make himself known to the people of Israel, there was a different nature to His sovereignty. He began to reveal that His intentions were for more than a small group of villages in a tiny corner of the world. This God was to be the Sovereign over all peoples, and His call would be worldwide.

Jacob would soon discover that thought he had traveled far away from his family to a foreign place, God was still with him. Unlike the small, local deities, our God is very large and close, and goes wherever we do.