Then Jacob made a vow: “If God will be with me and watch over me during this journey I’m making, if he provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safely to my father’s family, then the LORD will be my God.”
Genesis 28:20-21
Jacob’s vow comes on the tail end of his dream we know as “Jacob’s Ladder” in which the Lord revealed to him a staircase coming from heaven to earth. It symbolized God’s grace toward this vulnerable man. He not only revealed His grace, but he also identified Himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac.
God went on to promise Jacob that he would give the land where he made this vow to his descendants, explicit assurance that He would “…watch over you wherever you go” (v. 15), safe passage back to this land, and would not leave him until he had fulfilled all His promises.
And yet, God’s promises are met with Jacob’s conditional love. “If… then the LORD will be my God.”
It would be easy for us to scoff at Jacob’s lack of faith (although some scholars see these verses as a reflection of Jacob’s faith), but are we any different at times?
The Bible is filled with God’s promises to us—His sovereign grace (Romans 3:23-24), His provision (Matthew 6:31-33), His presence (Isaiah 41:10), His hope and purpose for us (Romans 8:28), and above all, His forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ (John 3:16, Romans 8:1).
And yet, when things get a little dicey, our faith may waver.
The Bible is filled with people who, like Jacob, needed to be reminded of God’s infinite power when faced with difficult assignments. Moses, trusting only in his own abilities argued with God about his assignment to free the Israelites from Egypt. It took a staff-turned-snake to remind Him what an incredible God we serve (Exodus 4:4-10).
Gideon, faced with an assignment to send an army against the Midianites, was much like Moses. Claiming his family was the weakest in Midian, and he the least in his family, he balked. When the Angel of the Lord said He’d be with Gideon, he asked for a sign that the Lord was who He said He was. Then another sign. And another sign.
Would we be no different from Moses or Gideon if faced with a substantial task? Consider how we cower (spiritually) when asked to take a tiny step of faith and trust God with our health. Our finances. Our relationships.
How incredibly blessed we are to serve a God who loves us even when we fail. He knows our struggles before the trials come our way, and He’s there for us regardless—to hold us in our fears, to strengthen us when we’re weak, to wait for us when we stray.
As D.A. Carson writes in For the Love of God, “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.”
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39)
God’s love is unconditional, even when we dare to set the conditions. He loves us so much, He sent his Son to die for us. Oh, what a glorious Father we serve.
Prayer: We thank You Father for your infinite mercy and grace. How grateful we are that You love us at our best and at our worst. Help us to remember that the Heroes of Faith listed in Hebrews struggled as we do, and please give us the strength to face our “giants.” We can do all things through Christ if only we believe. Help our unbelief.
