Bargaining with God

January 21, 2007

Have you ever felt like trying to make a deal with God? God if you will do X, Y and Z, then I will do A, B and C and follow you forever. Most of us who are Christian do not try to do that if we are in a healthy state of mind. Generally when we are trying to make deals with God is when we are going through some sort of grief and we want to say 'God, I never wanted this to happen, fix it and I will serve you.'

Generally when people read the story of Jacob they see him as trying to bargain with God. God had told him that God would provide for him just as he did for his grandfather and father. Yet Jacob still tries to bargain with him.

Genesis 28:20-22 MKJV
(20) 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 clothing to put on,
(21) and I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall Jehovah be my God.
(22) And this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that You shall give me, I will surely give the tenth to You.

Remember that I talked about normal people do not bargain with God, only those who are going through grief. Jacob was going through grief here. I can hear you say "What? The man just stole his brothers blessing and is running away so he does not get his butt kicked!" If you remember Esau had sold the birthright to his brother, the blessing should have gone with the birthright.

Jacob is now alone, with no family or friends. He knows he may never see his mother and father alive again, and he is running for his life. The loss of his parents and brother (even though they did not get along) has probably put him on the edge of grief if not smack dab in the middle of it. So he does what we all do as one of the steps of grief. We tell God what we want to happen and then try to cut a deal with Him.

Years later, when Jacob comes back to his home country, he will come back to this place and will remember his deal with God. He will then begin to honor his part of it.

Have you made any deals that you need to honor with God?


Read through the Bible in historical order in one year:
Today
Genesis 27:1-29:35
Tomorrow
Genesis 30:1-31:55