Genesis 28:18-22
As we begin looking at the Scripture listed above, it gives the impression of Jacob trying to con God in the same way as he had bargained with his twin brother over his birthright. “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, them the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.” Those verses remind me of my friend Tom Martin who own six sections of ranch land at 624 and Hwy 59, as you’re heading to Freer, Texas. Tom and Jean had registered Santa Gertrudis cattle and he had spent thousands on a young bull with great papers, but shortly after he got to the ranch Tom found out that his young bull was sterile. Tom tells how he began to make deals with God, and it began like this; God I will give you 15% of all the revenue from this bull’s calves, and when he got the next report back from the veterinarian it when up to 25% and as the story goes, when it got to 50% it was clear that God was not going to bargain with Tom.
At first glance, that seems to be what Jacob is doing and it would be in keeping with his learned behavior, but is that what is happening? Should we not first review what happened before this statement; Jacob has seen God in a dream and the Lord had spoken promises to him. The place is named Luz but Jacob changes the name to Bethel, “The house of God” and stated this is the gate to heaven. His very next action is to make an altar and worship the God of his fathers. (Note: up to this time it has been his father’s God, but now he has heard and seen in a dream the God of his father’s, and it is now his God.)
He is on a journey without the protection of others and he still has a long way to go through land that could have robbers and wild animals that could take his supplies and they might even kill him. We must remember, Jacob has just seen the Lord in his dream, it is the beginning of his faith walk, and in his prayer the “if” is no different than your faith or mine. “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God,” Personally I do not believe he is making a deal, It seems like he is telling the Lord, I hear what You have promised and though my faith is weak, I’m putting as much trust as I have in what you have said. He is also telling the Lord, that he wants peace with his brother, the brother I’ve tricked and with my father, who must have felt some anger in the way he was deceived.
Jacob is the son of promise, he should get two thirds of all that his father has, but he is on a donkey or camel going 500 miles away from his home to a land he has never been to, looking for his mother’s brother, to ask the hand of one of his daughters, and back home he has a brother who has promised to kill him. So he tells the Lord, “And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.” I do not see Jacob making a deal, I see a man who has come to understand that without God and God’s blessing, he has nothing. Often, I have been too quick to put a label on someone like Jacob, and it should be noted that God saw the heart of Jacob and we do not have that ability.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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