October 10 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Genesis 32:6–13

Devotional

This text reflects the true gratefulness the Lord asks of man in return for His faithfulness. But is Jacob so glad when he says this? Not really, because on the other side of Jordan his brother is waiting for him with two armies. Certainly that is no cause for gladness. We would actually say that for Jacob there is nothing to be grateful for. But gladness is something other than gratefulness. Gladness looks at the circumstances all around you, but gratefulness looks upward. It can be that you are in difficult circumstances like Jacob. There can be no cause for gladness in your life, but there should still be cause for gratefulness.

Jacob teaches us a lesson that should cause us to be ashamed. He first takes note of who he is by grace and then he considers who the Lord has been for him. Even if the future appears gloomy, and even if God would forsake him in the face of these two armies of Esau, he still would have to say, “The Lord has been good.”

We are more proficient in counting the calamities than the blessings we receive. We complain that we have lost this and that we have suffered that. We were disappointed here, and over there we did not get our way. But let us consider with Jacob where we began. “For with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands” (Gen. 32:10). The only thing he possessed was a staff, the staff of a wanderer, and even that was his own fault, because by his deceiving he had forfeited every blessing. But Jacob sees who he has been for God and who God has been for him. All that he has beyond a staff is grace. He started with nothing. Everything he now has is only because of God’s faithfulness. Therefore he could say nothing if the Lord would cease to be kind.

With what did you start off? Did you have more than Jacob, or did you deserve more than he did? No! We all start with guilt. We are conceived and born in sin. We have sinned against the goodness of God. Therefore, we are so mortally poor in ourselves that everything we receive is grace. That awareness leads to true gratefulness.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.