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Daily Reader for Day 389: Genesis 28 - 28


by Matt Carter

Imagine you’re just about to sit down, and the phone rings. Maybe it’s so sudden that you’re startled. Someone you haven’t heard from in a long time is calling. Maybe you smile, but you’re probably also a little unsure. Why are they calling? What’s going on? 

One of the recurring characteristics of God’s action as we see it unfold in many Bible stories is that God acts while we are unguarded. He catches us off guard. When we don’t expect it, He speaks. God often calls us unexpectedly.

For Jacob, it happened in a dream. God spoke the promise He had made to Jacob’s father and grandfather. His offspring will be as numerous as the dust, and all people will be blessed through them. God spoke His promise and commitment to Jacob in that nighttime vision, and He changed Jacob. Jacob responded with his own commitment.

An important part of Jacob’s commitment was his ongoing offering back to God of a tenth of what God gave to him. This tithe to God is more than a way of remembering Him from whom all blessings flow. Faithfully following through with this offering commits Jacob to a lifetime of service in that place that Jacob knew to be God’s own house. This is a way for Jacob to act out his relationship with his new Lord.

The gospel follows this pattern. God promises and commits to us. We respond in faith with our own allegiance back to Him. We act that allegiance out by returning a portion of what He has given us back to Him. As we wait for Him during Advent, it is good to ask ourselves whether He truly has our allegiance. Do we commit to a lifetime of service for His kingdom? Do we pledge and act out that commitment by offering back to Him? 

Genesis 28 - 28

Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, "You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father. Take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples, and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, that you may inherit the land where you travel, which God gave to Abraham." Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan Aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother. Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take him a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a command, saying, "You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;" and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Paddan Aram. Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan didn't please Isaac, his father. So Esau went to Ishmael, and took, in addition to the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife. Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. He dreamed and saw a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Behold, Jehovah stood above it, and said, "I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give the land you lie on to you and to your offspring. Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken of to you." Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, "Surely Jehovah is in this place, and I didn't know it." He was afraid, and said, "How awesome this place is! This is none other than God's house, and this is the gate of heaven." Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on its top. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 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 clothing to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, and Jehovah will be my God, then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God's house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give a tenth to you."

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