“Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. They will receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their Saviour. Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob.”
Psalm 24:3-6 NLT
We pilgrims worship the “God of Jacob” don’t we? The God worshiped by David in Psalm 24 is the same God who sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins at Calvary man years later, and the same God who will come to live with us on the New Earth, as described in Revelation 21:3, “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them”. The Nicene Creed starts, “There is one God, the Father almighty, the Maker of Heaven and Earth …“. But the God of Jacob?
Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebekah, one of a twin, born just behind his brother Esau and appearing in this world with his hand clutching his brother’s heel. But right from the start he appears as a schemer who tricked his brother Esau out of his birthright as the first born son. The account in Genesis records, “But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob” (Genesis 25:33). In Genesis 27 we read the account of how Jacob, in league with his mother, Rebekah, fooled his father Isaac into thinking he was Esau, and consequently received the first born’s blessing. When the lies and deceit were exposed Jacob had to run for his life to Haran, to work for Rebekah’s brother Laban. But on the journey, Jacob had a vision of a stairway to Heaven, with angels going up and down, and we read, “At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants” (Genesis 28:13). But Jacob’s scheming didn’t end there. We read, “Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God“” (Genesis 28:20-21).
Jacob was the continuation of the promise God made to Abraham, his grandfather, and then to Isaac his father. But there was a line of sinful deceit in the family, with both Abraham and Isaac lying about their wives being their sisters rather than their wives. And Jacob was no better, with his scheming and deceit. It wasn’t until Jacob’s son Joseph that the sinful trait was finally erased. Three generations of flawed men who lied their ways out of trouble. And yet we read Jesus’ words in Matthew 22:31-32, “But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead”. God made a promise, a covenant even, with Abraham, and the promise has continued to this day. Once God made a promise he will never break it. But to have His name associated with Jacob?
There is much encouragement here for us pilgrims because we too are flawed human beings, corrupted by sin, but accepted by a God who loves sinners. He might not like what we have done, but He loves us anyway, and we read another promise in John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life“. That belief in God includes confession and repentance of our sins, as we align ourselves to the forgiveness that came through Calvary. We too are children of the promise as we, “receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God [our] Saviour”. We read about the “God of Jacob” but it could equally be the “the God of …” (put in your own name). He is the God who has pursued us with His “goodness and mercy” throughout our lives up until now and beyond into the future as we continue to believe in the One who has made eternal life possible. Jesus said, “ … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). And so we look ahead, perhaps seeing the glow of Glory starting to appear over the horizon of our lives, we worship the “God of Jacob”, so grateful that God will accept us just as He accepted Jacob all those years ago.
Dear Father God. We worship You today, the God of countless men and women who know You as their Saviour. Thank You for Jesus. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 