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 again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
A recent comment: “Jacob’s prayer is a real shocker . . . It’s a selfish prayer.”
Considering prayer in Genesis, first of all, where is it?
Genesis 4:26 then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
– It’s implied that they prayed.
Genesis 5:24 And Enoch walked with God. Did he pray? No record.
Genesis 24:12 And he said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, . . . (repeated in vs 42-44.) Not until Genesis 24, hundreds of years since the creation, we read the words of what someone actually prayed. Here is the first recorded prayer in Scripture. After how many hundred years?
Then we have a few others:
Genesis 25:21 Isaac intreated the Lord.
Genesis 25:22 Rebekah enquired of the Lord. – These, too, are prayer events
When we come to 28:20-22 we are told that Jacob ‘vowed a vow’. This does not necessarily constitute a prayer. The text says it was a vow. This may well have been heard by others. To condemn Jacob’s “prayer” on the basis of verses 20 to 22 is unjust; especially when it may not necessarily constitute a prayer at all. It might be like reporting a car accident when in fact someone has reversed into a shopping trolley in the supermarket car park. The two are not the same
If we really must ‘analyse’ how Jacob prayed, for whatever reason, we would be better to look at Genesis 32:9-12. It is without doubt a prayer. O that more people would pray as Jacob did on that occasion.
If we are worried about the number of the words “I”, “me” or “my” in analysing whether a prayer is good or not, as some ill-advisedly accuse of verses 20 to 22, then surely we’d equally have difficulty with what Joshua, Job, Jonah, Hannah, David or many others prayed. And John 17 would, on the same basis, have to be frowned on – yet, that has to be the ultimate example, if prayed by the Saviour, surely. Clearly, there is something far more significant involved in considering someone’s prayer than this type of ill-founded lack of exegesis.
That Jacob vowed a vow actually tells us something about Jacob that is borne out in several places and on several occasions – he was ahead of his time. He had spiritual insights that others are not recorded as having. On this occasion he vowed a vow. When we get to verse 22 we read of him mentioning ‘the tenth’. It was considerably later on that God spoke to His people regarding tithes or vows, for that matter. The only other to have mentioned tithes was Abraham when he gave tithes to Melchizedek, Genesis 14:20.
What Jacob mentioned regarding “the tenth” in his vow is a reflection of the mind of God. Jacob’s heart was already in tune with his God that he loved and lived for. So much so that he spontaneously offers of his substance to the Lord, in a way that God will happen to later on reveal to His people, and require of them. At this time there was no requirement. Here, we have Jacob offering to God, out of his heart.
Does this also reveal the heart and mind of the man, Jacob? As the one who was spiritually-minded, he had been entrusted with carrying the genetic line of the Messiah; his “profane” twin having declared his utter disdain of the things of God. Spiritual elements were an integral part of the birthright, and Genesis 25:34 records, thus Esau despised his birthright.
This brings us to the next point about Jacob: verses 20 and 21 highlight Jacob’s absolute reverence for the purposes of God, as seen in the way Jacob reviews the Abrahamic Covenant that has been entrusted to him, as it was to Isaac, his father. It is fresh in his mind, especially seeing the Lord has just reiterated parts of it as recorded in verses 13 to 15.
In verses 20 & 21 Jacob is not questioning God’s ability to protect or provide – quite the opposite: he is affirming his absolute trust and dependency on God, and what God has just told him in the dream. He recounts several parts of the message from the dream (which is in substance Abrahamic Covenant) and so states it. His ‘vow’ is in essence an echo of what the Lord has just revealed to him, showing his humble acceptance of it and preparedness to be part of it. His attitude is similar to that of Mary when she said, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.’ (Luke 1:38)
It is unfortunate that there are a few who choose to twist what many see as a clear and widely accepted meaning of verse 20, probably in an effort to substantiate their speculative denigration of Jacob, whom they see as a villain for most of his life. How anyone could ever find reason to come to the defence of a profane Esau (when God says “Esau have I hated”) and denigrate Jacob on every occasion possible (when God says “Jacob have I loved”) seems totally contrary to Scripture. Alas there are a few, even within some conservative evangelical circles, that seem to glory in promulgating this deprecating line of irrational reason, calling evil good and good evil; which so doing is ill-spoken of in Isaiah 5:20; Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil. . .
What then did Jacob mean when he said If God will be with me, . . .?
Just because the verse reads “If . . .” it doesn’t necessarily mean that Jacob is doubting or questioning God. ‘If’ can often be used to mean ‘Since’ or ‘Seeing that’. In keeping with all that we know of Jacob and his total dependency on the Lord and his honouring of the Covent entrusted to him, it is most likely that he was meaning Since’ or ‘Seeing that’. .
Here is an example of how we might use ‘If’ in modern times:
A businessman stands looking out of his 2nd storey office window. He comments to his receptionist, “If it’s a blue car, and it’s around midday, and it comes north and turns left at the traffic lights, then the lady that comes to the door will be my wife.”
There is no doubt in the mind of the businessman that the person about to arrive is his wife. He is not questioning whether he wants her to be or not – he is saying that in view of all of those things being as they are, he knows assuredly who will be knocking at the door shortly. He is convinced already.
Jacob is no different. He basically says, “Seeing that You have promised me all of these things (and lists the very things that God has just showed him) then You will be my God . . . as you have promised me . . . what have I to fear?”
How did God think of Jacob? Pretty highly from what we read in verses 13 to 15. How many others in Scripture were afforded the kind of promises that God gave Jacob that day? There are good reasons why He did. This was not unexpected at all. We must remember that Jacob’s mother had been shown the future of Jacob before he was born. The one of whom questions might be asked, if ever one might, is Isaac. Rebekah knew what God’s perspective was for Jacob. She was under no delusion. So what happened to Isaac that he couldn’t go along with God’s pre-revealed plan of action?
God’s plan had always been to use Jacob. He never used profane people (like Esau) to bring about certain pieces of His spiritual plan. God may have chosen to use a heathen king to get His temple built – yet He never allowed His unique servant, Moses, to lead the people into Canaan.
Two other comments in relation to all of this:
1. Did Jacob ever pay his vow? Was that a problem with God? Does God ever say anything about that? There was, actually, no set-up within Jacob’s lifetime for a material payment to be made, so that Jacob never really had any opportunity to do so. Had Jacob lived several hundred years later, there would have been a system that could handle it. Many believe that Jacob did, in fact, fulfil his vow – through his descendants, once the time and set-up allowed for it; probably far more fully than he could ever have done himself.
2. The Abrahamic Covenant which God re-affirmed personally with Jacob, after Isaac had also passed it on, has a very sobering statement as part of it. When God first mentioned it to Abraham He said, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. . .” (Gen 12:3).
If that isn’t significant enough, we should note that Isaac, as part of his blessing to Jacob said, “Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” (Gen 27:29)
What was said concerning Abraham was also said concerning Jacob. As we see what has transpired in modern history, there is no doubt that God blesses those who bless modern day Israel, even. The converse is equally true; those who curse her are cursed by God.
If those who do not bless Israel as a nation incur the Lord’s displeasure, can the Lord’s people in the Body of Christ expect any different if they do not bless Jacob, the father of Israel, the nation? Those who would denigrate or condemn God’s clearly stated preferences of those in His Godly Messianic genetic line are at risk of being on the wrong side of the ledger. Is it possible that even conservative assemblies of God’s people might not always enjoy the ‘blessing’ of the Lord because of their denigration of Jacob? Can there be blessing where a conscious denigration of Jacob takes place? We cannot have it both ways – those who curse Jacob will suffer for it.
In closing, we should read the Scriptures as they are written and use only Scripture to commentate on Scripture. There is no place among God’s people for the [false] interpretation of verses generated by the puny attempts of some to manipulate wordings in verses so that they fit into a pre-conceived, man-made perception or mould of a particular Bible character. This is especially so when that perception is seen by many to not conform to the widely accepted view of numerous Biblical cross references.
Jacob is referred to in Scripture more frequently than virtually any other person; especially when his God-given name Israel is taken in to account also. God has left nothing on record in which He speaks in a negative way about Jacob. We should be very careful how we present this man of God too.