Jacob Makes a Vow

Review

Last week we looked at the contrast between Esau and Jacob. Esau was a tough manly man- he was Isaac’s favorite, Jacob on the other hand was a Mamma’s boy, and a bit of a geek. What was important to God was not the same as what was important to Isaac. Jacob was a man of God that could live for the promise of God, whereas Esau was all about here and now. His out of control appetite got the best of him, just as it does us at times. The tragedy is that when we give in to our humanity we give up on the promise of God. Like Esau our appetite may cost us our birthright. Someday we will stand face to face with God and have to give account for our lack of faith, and sadly we may find that we have sacrificed the promises of God. What do I mean by sacrificing the promises? Well, God has promised us a life that is free for stress and worry. An abundant life full of God’s blessing. When we allow our appetites to take over, we despise that birthright and instead embrace what the world has to offer rather than what God has provided. Esau was hated by God because of that fleshy appetite.

Beloved we live under grace, and so we don’t have to fear being hated by God, THAT is our birthright, but that does not give us license to be carnal and fleshy and live by appetite. There is a natural consequence to an unbridled passion or lust for anything that is of the flesh. If we put our appetite before our love of God we run the risk of being just like Esau, in that we despise that birthright of grace that we’ve been given and fall headlong into a deep spiritual death.

An Encounter with God

Up until this point the only encounter that Jacob had with God was through the stories of his father. To him, his father was the representative – the mouthpiece of God. Jacob knew God because of this, but he didn’t really know God. You see, God has never been about just a bunch of laws and learning, He has always wanted to be about relationship.

When we looked at the story of Shavuot, we looked at the giving of the law. God’s intention was to meet with the entire nation of Israel on Mt. Moria, it was the people who rejected that intimacy with God.

Let’s read:

Exodus 19:3–6 NKJV

And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

He wanted an entire nation – a special treasure to call His own. How did He plan to do that?

Exodus 19:10–13 NKJV

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.”

God is a personal God. This passage of scripture tells of a God that wants a face to face relationship with EVERYONE. The Israelites were to be a NATION of Priests. But as we have discussed before, they missed out and instead became a Nation WITH PRIESTS!

Like Esau, they missed out on their birthright. Instead they had to receive all that God told them through the priests. And then, only the chief priest would minister to God face-to-face. At this point in the Torah or the first five books of the Bible, God’s desire was to meet them all face to face. This is the work that the Holy Spirit came to restore.

Acts 2:14–21 NKJV

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.’

It wasn’t enough for God that Jacob know about Him second hand, He wanted God to know Him from firsthand experience. And so we read:

Genesis 28:10–15 NKJV

Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

So here is Jacob in the barrenness of the dessert. He is all alone, or is he? Jesus would speak of this phenomenon regarding His believers.

John 16:32 NKJV

Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

Jacob didn’t even know that God was with Him, so God made sure to reveal Himself. Beloved, in those times in your life when you feel alone, never doubt that God is there with you! God is not hiding, in fact He desires to be found.

2 Chronicles 15:2 NKJV

And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

Remember Jacob is traveling and had some rather crude accommodations. He has a rock for a pillow and all the stars in heaven as a canopy. It was in this place of complete reliance on the divine goodness of God that He drifts off to sleep. You could very well hear Him singing the lyrics to the song we sing; “In the stars I see your majesty displayed. In the heavens all Your wonders are proclaimed.” And He drifts off to sleep secure in the knowledge that the God of His father will allow him to rest in safety – a God with whom He will soon become much more intimate.

He dreams a dream and hears the Words of God. God reaffirms the covenant He originally made with Abraham to be sure, but what Jacob sees in the dream transforms him. He saw a ladder going up to heaven and the angels ascending and descending. It’s as though Jacob saw the business of heaven being conducted, and what did he see? He saw that the focus of all the activity of heaven was with mankind.

Genesis 28:16–19 NKJV

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.

All of this hustle and bustle, its focus is on earth! Can you imagine what that means to him? Well, we don’t have to imagine, we can see the evidence of it in what Jacob says next.

Genesis 28:20–22 NKJV

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Jacob understood that God’s full provision and protection was upon him. So much so that He makes a vow. The vow is simple. He says “be with me during my journey, clothe me and feed me, bring me back to my father’s house in peace, then I will know that you are not just the God of my forefathers, but MY GOD as well!” He doesn’t ask for riches, he doesn’t ask for fine foods or the most stylish clothes. All he ask for is for God to be with him!

Oh saints, that we could have that kind of completely abandoned love for God! If we could only love him to the point that nothing else in our life mattered, can you imagine the life we could have? We would have no worries, why? Because we know that the Father’s business is all about us. That He cares for us with a laser focus. He is not some God who is “out there” and doesn’t hear the cry of our heart. He is a God who loves you with an all-consuming love.

What was in that caused this to overtake Jacob at precisely this time? Well, he had just tricked his brother out of the blessing and Esau vowed to kill him, and here he was all alone in this desolate desert. Isn’t it amazing how God visits us during the most trying times in our life. From this experience Jacob got what the great Bible commentator calls “Tokens of God’s special presence.”

These tokens are what God gives to satisfy the souls of those who are faithful to Him and who trust Him wholeheartedly with their lives. Such trust has Jacob, that right there and then he promises a tithe to God.

Beloved, the tithe is not just about providing for the ministry of the church, the tithe is an ultimate form of praise, for by it we are telling God that we trust Him enough to obey Him with every aspect of life including our livelihood.

Just as Paul told the Romans:

Romans 8:28 NKJV

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

You see beloved, up until this point, all Jacob had ever seen was scheming. The scheming of his forefathers, the scheming of his father, the scheming of his mother. It was so pervasive, that he was scheming and playing tricks even before he was born – as if somehow scheming was in his DNA. Now he understood that he didn’t have to push God to make things happen for him, God was already intent on doing that anyway. Once he knew this, he could have the peace he needed to trust God completely.

Was it a done process? Well let’s look, let’s actually skip forward a bit. God gets Jacob where he needs him to be and he meets Rachel and falls head over heels. Boy is snake bit! He has thrown in the towel because he really digs this gal.

Meets dear old dad who offers him a job and when they are discussing his wages, he says, “I’d like your daughter’s hand as a Christmas bonus”.

The boss agrees – but only after seven years. Jacob is so whipped, he doesn’t even notice the seven years go by. Well, the boss has some tricks up his sleeve and when the time comes to give over his daughter, he has her cover up as is the custom for that day and the wedding day comes and the honeymoon, and then by the light of day Jacob sees it! Aw man! I’ve been pranked! This is the wrong daughter! Daddy dearest says, “Sorry son, but we don’t give out our youngest before the oldest in these parts, so I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do. When you get done with your honeymoon week, you can marry the younger daughter too, but this is not a BOGO sale, you’re gonna have to work another 7 years for her.” The plan seems pretty good to Jacob so he agrees.

The two sisters start having kids- LOTS of kids and after the youngest is born – Joseph, Jacob decides it’s time to leave. Let’s pick it up there:

Genesis 30:25–28 NKJV

And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.” And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

So now Laban is confessing to Jacob that he knows that God is enriching him because of the blessing that is upon Jacob. Did you know that when you walk with God, He will bless your boss because of you? True story!

So here is Jacob at the hands of the man who tricked him the last time he was in this position, he remembers that he was promised Rachel and ended up with both ladies, working twice as long as he wanted to what does Jacob do? Does he trust in God?

Genesis 30:29–41 NKJV

So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?” So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages. So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.” And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” So he removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks. Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock. And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

So Jacob practices some creative husbandry and well the sheep reproduce – His sheep. Meanwhile the other sheep don’t grow as quickly as the ones manipulated by Jacob.

So what happened? God blessed Jacob. He continued to bless him, but to be honest, but was what Jacob had wrought by means of his old tricks?

The problem with making your own way is that you begin to really thing you did it all on your own. But this time it’s not Jacob’s doing. You see, Laban clearly knew that the deal that Jacob had made was a bad one for him. Laban knew that there was no way that Jacob could possibly have any success – at least not any known way. But when Jacob began to have success, Laban changed his wages. Laban was very fond of changing Jacob’s wages, and in fact, we know he did it ten times, but how do I know that Jacob was not using his own trickery to obtain the wealth that he now had? Would God honor deception and dishonesty, or was this just Jacob using the knowledge he had gained by keeping his father’s herds and was the use of this knowledge moral or right? We must always ask ourselves, are we obtaining success simply based on our old way of doing things, or are we truly inquiring of the Lord. Here is the answer to the question of Jacob’s motivation:

Genesis 31:4–13 NKJV

So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock, and said to them, “I see your father’s countenance, that it is not favorable toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me. And you know that with all my might I have served your father. Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me. If he said thus: ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore speckled. And if he said thus: ‘The streaked shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked. So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. “And it happened, at the time when the flocks conceived, that I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams which leaped upon the flocks were streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted. Then the Angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Here I am.’ And He said, ‘Lift your eyes now and see, all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.’ ”

Jacob’s inspiration was God. Jacob’s provision was God. You see, we say we are going to trust God, we come to those awesome God moments – a strong worship service, or a particularly powerful altar call. You know, those times with God that are tokens for us, those times that we make promises to God. For some it’s the foxhole in the midst of battle – wherever you manage to get your token you hold on to it until the trial passes. Then “normal life” comes up and you forget your vows you made before God. You go on living as if nothing had ever happened, you’re not truly changed. Rachel saw all that God had done for her husband yet inexplicably, she just had to have her father’s gods. She stole them from him to take with her on her journey. I’m not sure what she was thinking because those Gods had failed to provide for her father while God had provided for Jacob. But for whatever reason, she wanted her loser gods. Jacob remembered his vow that he made to God at Beth-El, but he also remembered that while there was an angry Laban behind him, there was an even angrier Esau before him! So what to do, what to do?

Jacob trusted God. It was God himself who restrained Laban so there he would be careful in how he spoke to Jacob. So God brokers peace between Jacob and Laban at Mizpah. That is one problem taken care of, but what about Esau? Jacob gets word that Esau is coming with an army to meet him. He becomes very afraid and he does the exactly correct thing he should be doing.

Go with me to Chapter 32.

Genesis 32:9–12 NKJV

Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. For You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”

Jacob was in a mess, he feared for his life and that of his family and all his servants. He did the most spectacular thing a person in that situation can do. He called upon the Lord and reminds God of the promise that God made to Him. And in so doing, he re-iterated his trust in God, and in so doing sets his own spirit at ease.

CONCLUSION

Beloved, it’s important that we get the lessons from the life of Jacob. First of all, it is important that we have a personal experience with God. It is not “good enough” to hitchhike on faith of our fathers or teacher or friends or even our pastors. We need to experience God face-to-face. We need to know Him personally. We need to have one of those deeply transforming experiences with Him and collect our own tokens.

Next we need to put that faith right into action. We need to come to the place where we desire nothing but God Himself, satisfying ourselves with just food and clothing, knowing that this is all that God guarantees. Beyond that we are dependent on His presence and His love and mercy for everything else.

Third, we need to set aside our own way of doing things – even when it seems like others are beating us at our own game, instead we need to keep the vows we made to God from the beginning.

Finally, when it comes time to faith our old demons, remember the vow that God made to you. Say it out loud, remind Him of it. Not because He’s forgetful, but because we need to be reminded of the faithfulness of God – both past and future.

Let us pray!

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26 NKJV

“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’