My God

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will ... then the Lord will be my God."

— Gen 28:20

Jacob, being on a great journey through various places, having just a received no small promise from God in the presence of God, desiring to be brought safely home, has made a vow which on the surface might appear to be a list of requirements for God to be his God. “God, if you, do X, Y, Z, then you get to be my God.” Maybe you have your own list - a set of qualifications of what it means for God to be your God.

Jacob's list of ifs went something like this,

• Be with me in all that I do and everywhere I go

• Give me a safe journey in life

• Provide for my physical needs

• Bring me home safely

But Jacob was not making a deal with God. He was not being presumptuous or saying, “God must be this to me or do this for me.” Remember, Jacob, who was soon to have his name changed to Israel, was in the lineage of promise - a benefactor of God's promise. And he knew it. He knew that God was the God of his father, and that God was the God of his grandfather. But to this point, Jacob had yet to embrace the faithful, covenant-making Yahweh as, "my God". His relationship to the God of his fathers wasn't yet "personal".

Jacob is NOT saying to God, "Give me what I want, and I'll complete the deal by calling you my God." No, he is humbly saying, "Ok, show yourself to be the God who provides, the God who you are, the God who is faithful and remembers his promise, the same God who called, provided for, and carried my father and his father - and when you do, you will also be my God. Make our relationship personal." Jacob waited in expectation of a covenant relationship with God.

We must take care that we do not embrace the philosophy that God exists simply to meet our needs. We exist for him, not he for us. Oh, that the heart of our prayers would mature to a place where we no longer ask for that which we spend on ourselves, but rather for that which brings us closer to him.

As this narrative of Jacob's journeying plays out, we indeed see God come through on his promise to bring Jacob safely to his homeland. But before this happens, on his way to his homeland, Jacob faces a challenge to the fulfillment of the promise of God in his life - namely, fear. Specifically, fear of his brother Esau. So, what does Jacob do during this part of his journey? Jacob prays and clings to the promise of God - the promise which had been given to Abraham, to Isaac, and now which he clings to as his own. ¹

We have a promise from God as well, that all who look to Jesus and believe in him shall have eternal life and be raised on the last day. ² Jesus never promised us immunity from the struggles of life. In our lives we will have trials, and our trials are varied and many. But we are promised the accompaniment of God through our storms - the presence of a faithful and loving Creator who goes with us on our journey and keeps our storm-tossed souls intact to the very end. ³

At the culmination of Jacob's journeying, he arrived home and set up an altar calling it, El Elohe Israel (the God of Israel). Jacob had been given a new name (Israel) and now embraced the God of his fathers as his own. Trials have a way of causing us to embrace God. It's what they're intended to do. Our God goes with us through the storm so that we can say, "My God has gone through the storm with me." My God. As Job experienced this depth may we also - "My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you." ⁴

The powerful words penned by John Newton (written so beautifully almost 250 years ago), express this well -

Thro' many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come;

'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

May this song be the song our lives sing before a world desperate for God.

Scripture References

¹ Gen 32:9-12

² John 6:40

³ Matthew 28:20, 1 Corinthians 1:8

⁴ Job 42:5