Hi, everyone.  It's been awhile since my last post.  I'm now in the latter part of Genesis, learning about Jacob, a dishonest man who had to spend twenty years working for his dishonest father in law.  In the end he finds that God, who met him when he was on the run, had been with him the whole time.  Verse 13 caught my attention.

Genesis 31:13  I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.' "

Note:  The Lord has intervened in dreams, in animal husbandry, in genetics, and in business and economics in order to defend Jacob from Laban, a man in a position of power determined to cheat and oppress.  Cf. Genesis 28:10-22, in which Jacob has the powerful dream of the angels ascending and descending the stairway to heaven.  He called that place "Bethel"-the house of God.  Before then the village was known as Luz.  It is this God who has come to his aid all these years. 

            Jacob would go back to live at Bethel, but in other generations that locations would be the site of idolatry.  It's sacred nature may not be due to its location but to the experience of Jacob and his vow, which serves as a symbol of all who met God in some sacred way and vowed to follow Christ as Lord as a result.