God's promise to Jacob were made at Bethel, a place where heaven met earth, as evidenced by the traffic of angels. While recognizing this fact, and even planting a memorial stone there, Jacob showed some hesitation in accepting the integrity of God's promises. Was this because he himself had, up to this point, not been a man of integrity?

He had been blessed by his father, Isaac, and this had earned him these promises originally made to Abraham, his grandfather. However, his acceptance of God's promises, his trust in God's word, was conditional at that point of time: "If ¡K, if¡K, if¡K" (Gen. 28:20-21). Do we not tend to be the same, slow to trust in God?

The Psalmist, however, had a more confident attitude towards God's love and promises: "My refuge, my stronghold, my God in whom I trust," (Ps. 91:2). This same attitude is dramatized in the raising of the official's daughter. Jesus had just been speaking (Mt. 9:17) of the new wine in old wineskins, and here came the official, a representative of the old, to ask humbly not for a healing but for a resurrection. His trust in the power of a God new to him was great indeed.