Christ's Promises are Certain

“Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.” Genesis 31:7

The setting for this verse is important. Jacob had cheated his brother from his birthright and had stolen his brother’s blessing. As a consequence he had been exiled from the presence of Isaac, from whom the promises of God would descend, and cast into a pagan land and married pagan wives from a pagan family. He was a lousy husband. There is not much to commend Jacob to anyone. What he does have in his favor is that he is a child of God’s promise. From an earthly perspective his abundant sins would seem to exclude him from God’s care.  But God never forgot Jacob.

Way back in Genesis 28, which is twenty years before Genesis 31, God had said to Jacob, “The land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.” At that point Jacob made a vow to God. From that occasion until Genesis 31 we never hear the name of God from Jacob’s lips. What Jacob forgot, however, God remembered. Notice that God did not pad Jacob’s life with joy and happiness for those twenty years, but He did protect him. More than that, God fulfilled the promise He had made to Jacob twenty years before. As it says in II Corinthians 2, “All the promises of God in Him are yea and amen.” “Him” in this verse is Jesus Christ who was the promised descendant of Jacob. In Christ all the promises of God to us are certain.

Dear Father, Help us not to forget You as Jacob did, but to also always remember that all Your promises are sure in Jesus Christ. Amen.

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