The Commitment

DEVOTION

GENESIS

THE COMMITMENT

Gen 28:16-22

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." 18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father's house, then the LORD  will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."

NIV

Jacob had lived in his father’s house all his life. His father Isaac whom knew the Lord God well and who must have demonstrated his faith in God before his sons and although we are not told of his speaking about God to them and how they needed to know God for themselves, it would seem this would be a natural thing for Isaac to do. Surely he would have relayed the story about his miraculous conception and birth to his parents in their old age or how his father Abraham took him up the mountain and how God provided the sacrifice instead of his being it. They both had been circumcised and surely understood this from the covenant God made with their grandfather Abraham.  Yet we have seen both Jacob and Esau act in a manner which would indicate they did not have this personal relationship with God as did their father or grandfather. Jacob had cheated his bother Esau out of his birthright and his blessing by deceiving their father, and Esau was so angry he vowed to kill his brother. These are certainly not behaviors or attitudes of men who have a personal relationship with God. This is just another example as to how dysfunctional this family must have been. Yet here we see Jacob on his way to Haran to seek a wife from his mother’s clan. He has a vision of heaven and of the Lord and hears directly from the Lord regarding this relationship. Jacob now makes this personal commitment that the Lord God will be his God and that he will give the Lord a tenth of all the Lord God gives him. As God blesses him with food and clothes, with the material needs of living, Jacob will return to the Lord a tenth of it. Where did he get this idea of giving a tenth? From his grandfather, his father yet he had not yet made that commitment until he had experienced God for himself. Either our parents can or we are parents can lead children to the Lord, but they cannot know him personally until they have that one on one experience with him. Other people can tell us about Jesus, or we can tell other people about Jesus, but it would seem we all need to have some personal experience, a vision, a miraculous healing, a physical or material miracle, some supernatural event revealing to us personally God is real and he cares about us. Maybe our witness for Christ is ineffective because we do not allow God to be a part of our witness. We do not pray for a persons need with them before the Lord so that he can prove to them he is real and does miraculous things. Maybe we do not expect him to answer, or to do something supernatural. Maybe we think intellectual knowledge of God is enough or that faith is all someone needs to believe, to make a commitment to the Lord. Although Jacob grew up in a family who believed in God, he needed this personal miraculous vision of his own to really truly know God. Should we expect anything less? This is how our beginning with God happened, a miracle proving he is real, then one after another, continually providing in miraculous ways all our life, including supernatural healing, material provisions over and over again. Why would we think he would not do the same for everyone else? He does not show favoritism and thus he will do for all others and he has and is doing for us. Yet others need to see God at work in their lives, so let us ask him for just that, for those who may be seeking, or have some knowledge of who he is, but have never made that personal commitment to him. God wants all men to know him, to come to him. We need to speak the words, but let God do what he does the best, the supernatural. Then the commitments will come.