Acknowledge the Living God

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070819.cfm
Genesis 28:10-22
Matthew 9:18-26

Bargaining with God is an ancient, even habitual practice of men. Just a week ago in our Scripture readings we found Abraham trying to cajole God into sparing Sodom and Gomorrah if only 50 . . . 45 . . . 40 . . . 30 . . . no, make that 20 . . . or rather 10 good men could be found. God may have agreed to the final ‘terms,’ but Sodom and Gomorrah were still a lost cause.

The current reading from Genesis offers a variation on the practice. Just look at how Jacob responds to the vision with which he has been blessed.

If God remains with me,

If He protects me on this journey I am making

If He gives me enough bread to eat

And if He gives me clothing to wear,

And if I come back safe to my father's house . . .

Then the LORD shall be my God.

Jacob didn’t mess around. If God wanted to be his God then he was going to have to apply for the job by demonstrating that being in the position of God would be useful to Jacob. Now, admittedly, Jacob didn’t have the benefit of Jesus’ teaching; so he could not have known for sure that the fulfillment of his requirements were already in the works. (In fact, the fulfillment of those requirements were about to be recorded in Old Testament events; but since we’re more familiar with the New, let’s look there.) Consider the specifics:

*** If God remains with me. — “Behold, I am with you always, to the close of the ages.” (Matthew 28:20)

*** If He protects me on this journey I am making. — “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you.” (Luke 10:19)

*** If He gives me enough bread to eat. — “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26)

*** And if He gives me clothing to wear. — “And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:27)

*** And if I come back safe to my father's house . . . — “When I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:3)

So, it’s somewhat ironic that Jacob’s preconditions for God we’re already part of the divine plan. Moreover, it’s amusing to observe that God, for his part, has only one condition: Recognize me as God, placing nothing else before me. We may think that God has a whole list of do’s and don'ts, such as the Ten Commandments and all the extrapolations that have been deduced from them. Such is not the case. There is one and only one pre-requisite. Let’s say it again: Acknowledge the living God as the true God and place no person, place, thing, event, philosophy, religion, or experience in His place.

All that is right and good will follow in living our lives if we but accept this one condition in the fullness of our minds and hearts.