After that amazing and completely surprising speech, Jacob awakes, and exclaims, “Surely YHWH is in this place—and I did not know it” (vs 16)! “And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome (“ fearsome”—the root is “fear”) is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (“the sky”) (vs 17)! Both of those initial reactions to his dream sound religious enough; one could imagine that after such a dream a person’s life could well be seriously rearranged! And his initial words are matched by a religious action. He takes his little stone pillow, sets it up for a pillar, and pours oil on it, thus consecrating it for a religious purpose. He then calls the name of this sacred place Bethel, that is “house of God,” though its name was in fact Luz (vs 19).
And thus ends the lectionary’s passage, leaving us with the clear impression that Jacob has had an experience of God and has responded to it in a deeply traditionally religious way. But I fear that will not do. One cannot read this passage by excluding vss 20-22. Jacob’s response to his divine experience at Bethel is not quite what we might have hoped. Listen to it.
“Then Jacob made a vow, ‘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 wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then YHWH shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I shall surely give one-tenth to you.’” Well, thank you very much! After you, Jacob, have tricked and lied, and after YHWH has overlooked all of that and has given you the blessing and the promise, all you can say is “if?” If God will do this and if God will do that? Jacob is after all well named. He is “grabber,” the meaning of the name. In the very teeth of YHWH’s free gift, all the little jerk can do is bargain with YHWH! Yet, it will not be the last time that Jacob will act disgustingly in the presence of a great and surprising gift as the amazing chapter 33 will make plain.
Is Jacob the last would-be believer in God’s gifts to attempt to bargain with that God? Hardly. How often have we thought, “If only God will get me through this terrible problem, I will serve God!” “If God will show faithfulness to me, I will praise YHWH forever.” The Satan in the book of Job asks the question we all need to answer: “Does Job worship God for nothing” (Job 1:9)? Do we not expect some goodies from God if we give God our time, however small, however grudging? It is a question we need constantly to ask ourselves. Do we worship our God simply because we can do nothing else? Do we serve our God simply because we can do nothing else? Just how often are we bargaining Jacob? Good questions indeed.
John C. Holbert has been a local church pastor in Louisiana, professor of religion at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, and is now Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology, where he joined the faculty in 1979.
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