house a "den of robbers."
Gen. 28:18-22. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethe-el: but the name of the city was Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I
go, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, and Jehovah will be my God, then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
In the morning of this new understanding even the temporal surroundings become holy in our sight. Like Jacob we set up the common things, the stones upon which we slept in ignorance, and pour the oil of joy and gladness upon them. Then we name the place (our body temple and its affairs) Bethel, the "house of God." Jacob took the stone that he had used for a pillow and made a pillar of it. Instead of whining over the hardness of his experience he blessed it and made it a sustaining point in his mind.
Jacob was awestruck by the tremendous thought of omnipresence: what seems so commonplace may be the very house of God, and thinking some true thought or doing some loving act may be the gate of heaven. Jacob's vow to be more faithful to God and to give Him one tenth of all he received is a recognition of God as the source of all that man requires and also of the need of a constant reminder of this fact; hence the agreement to give back the tithe. Those who practice tithing testify that it leads them into an understanding
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