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. The fear is the appropriate response to genuine encounter with the holy — the same fear that overcame Abraham in Genesis 15:12, Moses at the burning bush, Isaiah in the temple. The naming of the place as the house of God (beth-el) and the gate of heaven is the theological interpretation of the dream: this is a place of divine habitation and divine access. The application: the awesome is the name for the experience of genuine divine presence. When the place where you encounter God is the place where you feel most appropriately small, the encounter is real.

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