God's Self-Disclosure Does not Necessarily Wait Upon Our Righteousness

As I've mentioned before, I'm using D. A. Carson's For the Love of God as a devotional these days. Carson's book is keyed to the reading schedule of the M'Cheyne Bible Reading Plan. This morning's reading included Genesis 28, which includes the story of Jacob's night vision of the "angelic stairway" between earth and heaven. Carson first makes the point that Jacob was not a particularly reputable character. Even in his response to the vision he attempts to negotiate with God: "If God will do this and that and the other, if I get all that I want and hope for out of this deal, then the Lord will be my God." (Gen 28:20-21). Carson sums up today's reading with this perceptive remark:

One of the great themes of Scripture is how God meets us where we are: in our insecurities, in our conditional obedience, in our mixture of faith and doubt, in our fusion of awe and self-interest, in our understanding and foolishness. God does not disclose himself only to the greatest and most stalwart, but to us, at our Bethel, the house of God.