“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,”
Then Jacob made a vow, saying: if God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear. The vow begins with a conditional: if. The conditionality of Jacob's vow reflects his character — the schemer who extracts commitments and offers them conditionally. Commentators differ on whether this is genuine faith or a negotiation. The application: the if in Jacob's vow is the honest admission of uncertainty — he is not yet the man who will call this God my God without conditions. The journey to that unconditional trust takes twenty years.