Then the Lord will be my God

And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. 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. –Genesis 28.18-22

I love history of the histories I like is seeing how all of this got started. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph were they at the very beginning. These guys didn’t have churches to go to. They didn’t have Bible college. They didn’t have seminars. The didn’t have the word of God. The didn’t even have God’s law.

All they had was faith.

So every time they met God they had to decide on the spot they hade decide how to respond. My guess is that they didn’t even know how this whole God concept was going to work. The faith itself was in a God they were only meeting.

So when God told him to and serve Him Jacob had to know it was real. ‘If God will go with me and keep me and give me food to eat and clothe me He will be my God.’

At first that sounds presumptive. How could Jacob make such a demand on God?

But remember we have seen a God who works. We have seen His working on the world and on mankind. We have seen what God does in the lives of others. We have seen a God who gave us His word and keeps.

So was it wrong to put God to the test?

I don’t know for sure – but God did what Jacob asked and Jacob followed Him.

God still does these things for us, and yet don’t we still have trouble trusting Him sometimes?