Genesis 28:20-22
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God:
And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
Jacob is not trying to strike a deal with God here.
He is not saying, “Lord, if You come through for me, then maybe I will let You be my God.” No. The sense is much more like, “If You would really have me, God, if You would really be with me and keep me and bring me back in peace, then You will be my God.” This is not bargaining. This is amazement.
Jacob is blown away that God would speak to him at all.
And that is often how grace first hits a person. Not with polished language. Not with deep maturity. Just with that stunned sense of, “You mean the Lord would really have me? Me?” Jacob is not standing there as a spiritual giant. He is a runaway. A schemer. A man with plenty of flaws still hanging on him. But grace met him anyway. And now his response is basically, “Lord, if this is really true, then I am Yours.”
That is the language of conversion.
When a man really encounters God, it starts showing up. We already saw that true conversion shows itself in worship. Jacob set up the stone, poured oil on it, and marked the place because when the Lord gets hold of a heart, that heart wants some way to express love, gratitude, and awe. But here we see something else. True conversion also shows itself in one’s work. In the practical stuff. In the everyday evidence that faith is not just talk.
Jacob says, “Of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” In other words, “Lord, what comes into my hand came from You, and the first part belongs to You.”
That is a big deal.
Because one of the clearest ways faith proves itself is in what a man does with what he has. Faith without works is dead. And one very practical work of faith is tithing. The first tenth is the Lord’s. If I keep it, I am robbing God, as Malachi 3:8 says. But if I release it, the Lord says in Malachi 3:10 that He will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing.
Now the point is not that giving is some gimmick. It is not some little religious trick to make God owe me something. The point is that God is doing a work in us. He is dealing with our selfishness. He is putting His finger on that tight fisted instinct in all of us that wants to cling, control, hoard, and protect. And every time we let go of the tithe, a little more selfishness goes with it.
That is one of the Lord’s jobs in my life and in yours.
To make us less selfish.
To teach us that He is our source.
To remind us that what we have is not ours by right, but ours by stewardship.
Jacob is beginning to learn that. The man who used to grab and scheme is now saying, “Lord, what You give me, I will honor You with.” That is real progress. Not perfection. But real progress.
So true conversion shows up in worship and in work.
It shows up in the heart lifting itself toward God, and it shows up in the hands opening what they once clutched.
Jacob is still early in the journey. The Lord still has a lot of work to do in him. But already there is evidence that grace is doing something real. That is always encouraging to me, because when God really begins a work in a man, it does not stay theoretical. It starts touching how he worships, how he works, how he gives, how he lives.
And that is what we see here.
Jacob is basically saying, “Lord, if You will have me, then all right. I am Yours. My future is Yours. My provision is Yours. My life is Yours. And what comes into my hand is Yours too.”
That is the right response to grace.