Verse of the day:
Genesis 35:1 Then God said
to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to
God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
Jacob
had obviously forgotten the vow he made to the Lord when he was traveling to go
live with his uncle Laban. In Genesis 28:20-22 Jacob vowed a vow that if God be
with him, keep him safe, provide him with food and clothing; and bring him back
home in peace, he would give him a tenth of riches. He had now been in Canaan
about seven or so years since he departed his uncle’s home. However, he had yet
to fulfill his promise to the Lord. God not only protected Jacob, and provided
him with everything he needed, but he gave him more riches than could have
known he would receive when he made his vow. Our God is always better to us
than we deserve. He has given us eternal life when we deserved condemnation. He
has given us abundant love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness beyond what we can
ever imagine or comprehend; on top of that He has promised to meet all our
needs. With all He has given us, how often have we promised that we were going
to do something, or serve God in some way, if He “bailed us out” of some troubling
circumstance we were in? How often have we forgotten or disregarded our vows to
Him? God is more interested in our faith, trust, and faithfulness to Him, than
He is in our vows. However, if we promise that we are going to do something in
return for God’s favor in a situation, or we simply promise Him that we will
serve Him in some manner or give for some reason (missions, to help someone in
need, etc.) because He has moved us to do so, then we need to keep our word.
Jesus told us in Matthew 12:36, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they
will give account of it in the day of judgment.” Even though there is no
condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), as He has completely
paid the price for our sins; we will still stand before Him to give an account
for how we lived for Him, for the purpose of receiving rewards (2 Corinthians
5:10). Sadly, too many of us are in danger of losing rewards for our lack of
faithfulness in keeping our word in the things we promise we will do in serving
our Lord. There are times when we promise that we will give our tithes and
offerings if God will allow us to have a better job, then when He does, instead
of giving our tithes and offerings, we go out and buy things that we want, get
into debt, and use that as an excuse for not being able to give as we promised.
God allowed Jacob and his family to suffer a great trial when his daughter
Dinah was raped by Shechem. Jacob should have taken that occasion to be
reminded that he was not where he should have been, and taken the initiative to
go on to Bethel on his own, as he had vowed to the Lord. Yet, it took God
coming to Jacob directly and indirectly reminding him of what he promised. As
God’s children, sometimes God has to allow drastic events to enter our lives in
order to get our attention and get us moving in the direction He wants us to go
in. He may use them to remind us that we have become absent-minded in our
promise and service to Him. When we are moved by someone’s needs and promise to
give toward that need, but then put it off and never fulfill our word, God may
allow us to suffer financially to bring back to memory what we promised we
would do for someone else. The bottom line is that God has made it crystal
clear in His Word that when we vow a vow to God, we are to defer not to pay it;
for He has no pleasure in fools: pay that which we have vowed (Ecclesiastes
5:4). In all, God still showed Jacob much goodness and grace when Jacob finally
moves to Bethel, as He graciously provided him with supernatural protection
once again (v. 5). Let us be ever thankful that our forgetfulness and
unfaithfulness does not determine God’s goodness, because God is good all the
time, whether we deserve it or not.
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