One, if not the most important, aspect of trusting someone is whether or not they “keep” their word. This is true in personal relationships as well as business dealings. Have you been misled or hurt by someone you trusted to be honest with you? Have you been “scammed” by a company selling a product that did not perform as advertised? This type of thing seems to happen way too often; I’m currently trying to recover money from a vendor that has misled me by promising their product could do something it cannot do. Have you been there?
Speaking of feeling misled, our national debt is almost thirty-seven trillion dollars ($37, 000,000, 000, 000). Where has the money gone? What Musk and DOGE are finding is astonishing. We have known for some time there was lots of wasteful spending in D.C., but what we are beginning to see is shocking and disgraceful. We pay our taxes and “hope” what we pay will be used wisely. This has been going on for a long time; it doesn’t do much to encourage trust does it?
If there’s someone in your life you can trust to look out for your best interest, count yourself fortunate. Hopefully, you have had that with your parents, spouse, family, and friends; I believe that to be true in my life.
Trusting others is important, but I want to take this issue further. Do you trust God? To explore this question, let’s return to the story of Jacob to see if we can trust God. Does God “keep” His word to us? Will He do what He has Promised?
We tend to forget what God has promised when things get tough. Remember this, when God tells us something (in His Word, through prayer, or other ways He may choose to reveal His will) He binds Himself to keep His word. God is Holy and cannot go against what He has said. Therefore, He must do what He has promised.
Jacob got “bent out of shape” when he heard Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men. God’s promise at Bethel in Genesis 28:13-15 that He would bless and take care of him didn’t seem to have much impact when he thought Esau might kill him. How was Esau going to kill him if God promised to take care of him? Jacob hadn’t thought this through and his faith in God needed to grow. How often do we panic, and take things into our hands when God has promised to help us?
God is patient. He continues to help us learn to trust Him through the trials and problems that come our way. How did He help Jacob grow in trusting His promises? Remember the all-night wrestling match Jacob had with God? Jacob’s fear of facing Esau created an emergency meeting with God, a wrestling match that lasted till the break of day. Jacob refused to let go of God until He blessed him. God asked Jacob to identify himself as the grasper and manipulator he was, and when that happened God blessed him.
What was that blessing? We are not told exactly what the blessing is, but we find the answer the next morning when the brothers meet after twenty years of a murderous threat hanging over Jacob’s head. As the Bible tells us, Jacob sent many gifts to try to win favor with Esau before they met, hoping to save his life. To his great relief, something has changed in Esau. Here is what Genesis 33:3-4 says about the encounter.
“He (Jacob) ….bowed down to the ground several times as he approached his brother. But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.”
What happened was not lost on Jacob! God had come through on the promise He made almost twenty years ago at Bethel. Notice how Jacob acknowledges God’s promise in what he says to Esay in Genesis 33:10 .“To see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably.” Remember, God may delay but He never forgets His promises to us. His timing is perfect.
Jacob and Esau part on friendly terms and go their separate ways. In Genesis 35:1 God tells Jacob to return to Bethel and build an altar as a monument to His faithfulness to Jacob. “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”
Can you imagine what it was like for Jacob to return to where God first confronted him and build that altar to honor God for how He had kept His promise to him? Do you sometimes go back to an important place to celebrate how faithful God has been to you? Do you make a habit of remembering times when God has shown up for you? What are some of God’s promises that are important to you?
Claim God’s promises. He will do what He tells you, He keeps His word.