Genesis 28

What Jacob and his mother did to trick Isaac into blessing Jacob was wrong and deceitful, yet God uses it for good and Isaac asks God to bless Jacob in the way that He blessed Abraham. Now as Jacob goes on his journey to find a wife, he rests in a place between Beersheba and Haran. It is there that God meets Jacob in a dream. In Jacob’s dream, God addresses clearly that He is the Lord and lets Jacob know that the land he rests on will be his family’s land. God then promises Jacob numerous offspring. Jacob didn’t deserve God’s blessing, but despite sin and human error, God remained faithful in continuing his promise to Abraham through Jacob and his offspring. In verse 15, God says, “‘Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’” 

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen God promise to be with His people and it won’t be the last! In Deuteronomy we see God using Moses to remind His people of His promise saying, “‘For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that He swore to you’” (Deuteronomy 4:31). In Psalms 78, the Psalmist is reminding the coming generation to look to the past and see God’s faithfulness in holding to His promise of being with His people. And when Jesus is ascending to heaven, His last command and promise are, “‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I will be with you always, to the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:19-20). God is always with us and will never leave us! Even today we have this promise through the Holy Spirit. So let this be a reminder that God has never broken His promise to be with His people and He never will, even to the end of the age.