Word of Encouragement (03/16/2022)
This is the vow Jacob made after the LORD appeared to him in a vision on his way to Paddan-aram. The LORD affirmed Isaac’s blessing on Jacob and promised to be with him and bring him back safely to the promised land. Oh, how he needed this assurance from God at that time! He was able to successfully take away Esau’s blessing with his deceitful scheme. But that put him in a precarious situation with Esau, to say the least, so much so that he had to flee home for safety. Was it worth it? He must have questioned himself in that lonely moment. At that time, the LORD assured him that he was the chosen heir to His covenant with Abraham and Isaac. And when he felt all alone, He promised to be with Him to protect him wherever he went! How wonderful and gracious God is!
This prayer of vow shows how desperate and humbled Jacob was at that time. See what he asks from God: “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace....” Compare this simple request with the magnitude of what God just promised in the vision: “The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (28:13-14). It couldn’t have been that these promises were new to Jacob. Isaac must have told his children what God promised to their family. But to have God visit him for the first time at the lowest moment of his life thus far and designate him as the heir of the covenant must have been overwhelming. Or, he was so concerned about the challenges of the coming days that he could only focus on his immediate needs—what to eat, what to wear, and going back home in peace. Even so, God would fulfill all His promises. How comforting and encouraging that God would do this despite our small and weak prayers!
But Jacob got the most important point right. Notice how he begins his request: “If God will be with me....” This was the core of God’s promise; all other promises were secondary, mere side benefits of God’s presence with His people. What does it profit us to have all that the world has to offer if God is not with us? But if God Almighty is with us, if He is for us and not against us, what shall we fear? Moses knew this, too. So, when God declared that He would send an angel to lead Israel into the promised land but His presence would not go with them, Moses said, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.... Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth” (Ex. 33:15-16)? He knew that the promised land was just a plot of land without the presence of God even as heaven is no heaven if God is not there with His people.
I hope we will all desire God’s presence more than anything. God’s presence is not a magic charm that wards off misfortune and adversity. As long as we live in this world, we will not be trouble-, problem-free. This is not simply because we live in a fallen world; this is also because God uses our difficulties to strengthen and deepen our faith. We trust that, if God is with us, we will be able to face anything without fear and despair because God is greater than all our troubles. May the Lord enable us to trust in God’s all-sufficient presence! We know that He will never leave us or forsake us because Jesus came as Immanuel (“God with us”) so that God can dwell with us forever.