Scripture Reading: Genesis 28:20-22a
“And Jacob vowed a vow, saying: ‘If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come back to my father’s home in peace, then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house;'” (Genesis 28:20-22a)
Jacob asked God for four special things:
- He asked God to keep him, i.e. to preserve and protect him.
We should always look to God as the One who protects and keeps us from all evil. Jesus taught us to pray, “Deliver us from evil.” The Lord is the only One Who has the power to protect us completely. Without His help we are in danger every moment of our lives, awake or asleep. He is the Guardian Angel of every journey. He drives with us in the car, boards the plane with us, and gives us traveling mercies.
- Jacob asked for bread to eat.
Jacob did not ask for a feast every day of his life. He only asked for bread. Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We can expect enough bread to sustain us day by day. He, Who provided manna in the wilderness ,can also put bread in the bread box.
- Jacob asked for “raiment to wear.”
We never need to go around in rags when our Father is our source of supply. In Matthew 6:28-30, Jesus said that He who dresses the lilies of the field, and adorns them in splendid colours will also clothe us. He told Moses to provide garments of glory and beauty (Exodus 28:2) with colours of gold, blue, purple and scarlet (Exodus 35:25) of the finest of linen for the royal priesthood.
- Jacob asked God to let him return to his home in peace.
He longed for the day when he could again live with his family in peace, and that there would be no more enmity and separation between him and his brother, or him and his father.
Although Jacob was not close to his father, like Esau was, He still loved and honoured his father by praying that he would be able to return to his father’s house. Jesus promised us, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2-3).
Jacob had not been perfect. He had committed some very great wrongs, but he had faith in God that God would be willing to hear his prayer because Jacob never doubted God’s love for him. He asked Him for four of the most important things in life.
And God honoured his faith and trust in him by giving him all these things and more.
In the Beginning by Gwen Shaw
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