GOD'S COVENANT WITH JACOB

Gen. 28:15

Morning Meditation 11/17/14

"And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of."

Jacob is not an easy man to write about. He was as crooked as a dog's hind leg. Yet God confirmed His covenant with him. God is a God of grace. Jacob actually stole the blessing from his brother Esau. He is now doing some Olympic running from Esau for his very life. We are told the story in Genesis 28:10-14, "And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

This doesn't seem right. I am not charging God with wrong. I'm just admitting that I am not capable as a natural man to understanding the ways of God. I would have at least waited until Jacob repented of his theft. Surely he should do something to deserve this blessing from the Lord!

But God didn't ask me. He is not concerned with how I would have done it. The Scriptures declare, and I believe them, that God is a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."

Deuteronomy 32:4 says, "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."

Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

I believe that we can say that God's grace is in full swing here as He deals with Jacob. God says in Malachi 1:2-3, "I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness."

Someone asked Spurgeon, "I do not understand how God could have hated Esau." Spurgeon replied, "I do not understand how God could have loved Jacob."

Grace is something for faith. It is not something for rationalism. God's ways are not our ways. God's way is the way of faith in His grace. Our text, verse 15, is a covenant that God made with Jacob. Let's look at the benefits of this covenant.

THERE IS HIS PRESENCE IN LONELINESS

God says, "And, behold, I am with thee," What a great promise this is. I am with thee. This is a promise. If God is with us, what would we ever have to fear. This is comfort in the midst of trials.

Men who have walked with God have always been lonely men. Belonging to the Lord and walking with Him is to talk a different language and practice different ways. God's ways are not man's ways. Man does not feel comfortable around someone who refuses to cooperate with him in his worldly ways. Jacob got in trouble with Laban because of God's blessing upon him.

A Christian will be lonely when he obeys the Lord in the midst of a heathen society. Others will bow to idols, this the Christian cannot do.

The Scripture that puts this best is 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

1. Someone wants you to go in business with them but they are not Christians. When you tell them no, and they ask you why, and you tell them that the Lord will not allow you to be yoked with an unbeliever, the unbeliever is not too pleased with your answer. You will be lonely.

2. Some young man asks a Christian girl to marry him. She says, "I can't." He asks why? She answers, "The Lord won't let me marry an unbeliever." He is not too happy with that answer. So the news spreads and she finds herself isolated and lonely.

If the believer does not learn how to have fellowship with the unseen Lord, he will find the loneliness unbearable. However the Lord promises, "I am with thee."

But you say, "That was a promise to Jacob. That promise may not be to us." Let's look at the following verses:

John 14:16-18, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."

1. They were to receive a Comforter and that He would abide with them forever. Now if I understand "forever" He will not only be with us here on earth but will remain with us throughout eternity.

2. The Comforter is identified as the Holy Spirit. He is called the Spirit of truth. Every believer has the Holy Spirit within and He is the Spirit of truth; Eph.1:13. This is the reason a true believer cannot do wrong and not be convicted of it. There is only one thing a believer can do when he does wrong that will relieve him of the conviction by the Spirit of truth: repent. 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Do this and loneliness leaves.

3. This Spirit of truth cannot be received by the world because He cannot be seen. The world operates by sight, the believer operates by faith. By faith we can see the unseen. If God says its there, it is there whether it can be seen or not.

4. Jesus said, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."

Jesus knew the feeling of loneliness. He has provided for our loneliness. If a Christian is lonely it is because he is not in fellowship with the Lord. Then next,

THERE IS HIS PRESERVATION IN DANGER

The Lord told Jacob that He would "keep thee in all places whither thou goest." The word "keep" means, "to hedge about as with thorns," God says, "I'll be a watchman, I'll be Watchman over you." This is a good promise of preservation in danger.

The Lord does not keep bad things from happening to His children, but He is with them through all their problems.

Some mistake some of the promises of God to keep anything bad from happening to you. However, that is not true to life. God has allowed martyrdom to come to His people. However He has not lost a one of them. And they have not lost Him. He has always been there to go through the trials and give grace to bear all the burdens.

THE PROMISE OF HIS PROMISES BEING FULFILLED

God said to Jacob, "and will bring thee again into this land." God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the land of Canaan. It is called the Promised Land because God promised it to them and their decedents.

Satan will do everything in his power to prevent the will of God being done. It is God's will for Palestine to be the land of Israel. I understand that the Palestinians do not believe that promise. They are going to do everything they can to keep this from happening. But it will happen. Not because Israel is able to take the land and keep it. It is because God has given it to Israel and He has promised to see it accomplished.

God promises and He is no risk. When the time comes, He will take the land and give it to the Jews. After all, it is His land.. He made it. He owns it. It is His. And when the time comes, woe to the man or nation that gets in His way.

Now this characteristic of God is true of His children today just as it was then.

Hebrews 6:15-20, "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."

1. Verse 15 tells us that there was a time of patient waiting after God had made the promise. But he did obtain the promise with certainty. God is not a risk.

2. God uses the strongest language possible to assure us as finite beings that He can be trusted and that we are understanding what He is saying correctly. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us."

3. So that we can have strong consolation, He has sent a forerunner ahead of us. Hebrews 6:19-20, "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."

Spurgeon said, "Hold on, then, and trust believer! thou hast "an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, which entereth within the veil; the winds are bellowing, the tempests howling; should the cable slip, or thine anchor break, thou art lost. See those rocks, on which myriads are driving, and thou art wrecked there if grace leave thee; see those depths, in which the skeletons of sailors sleep, and thou art there, if that anchor fail thee. It would be impossible to moor thee again, if once that anchor broke, for other anchor there is none, other salvation there can be none, and if that one fail thee, it is impossible that thou ever shouldst be saved. Therefore thank God that thou hast an

anchor that cannot fail, and then loudly sing-

"How can I sink with such a prop,

As my eternal God

Who bears the earth's huge pillars up,

And spreads the heavens abroad?"

How can I die, when Jesus lives

Who rose and left the dead?

Pardon and grace my soul receives

From my exalted head."

God kept His covenant with Jacob. God keeps His covenant of grace with us. Our Forerunner has entered within the veil and I am fastened securely to that Anchor and am as safe as He.

May the Lord bless these worlds to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White