Turning on over to the 28th chapter of Genesis we find another interesting story that throws some light on our question. Jacob had taken Esau’s blessing. Esau was angry. Jacob was afraid Esau would kill him. For refuge he went to Padanaram. On the way he spent the night at Bethel, and slept in the open, with a rock for a pillow. I don’t know why he chose such a hard pillow. People do some strange things. I have heard that in days gone by the Oriental people slept with their feet, instead of their heads, on the pillow, because the feet did the harder work. According to that rule I think I know some people who ought to change ends with the pillow. While Jacob was sleeping with a rock for a pillow he had a strange dream. He saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven and the angels of God going up and down (not down and up) on it. The Lord stood above it and promised to be with Jacob and to bless him. When Jacob arose early in the morning he 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” (Gen. 28: 20-22). With this vow in his heart Jacob continued his journey to Padanaram, where he spent twenty-two years and became very wealthy. As he was returning to Canaan we find him praying to God as follows: “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, ‘Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee’: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast showed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands ...” (Gen. 32:9-10). Please note that twenty-two years ago he had passed over this Jordan with nothing but a stick in his hand and in his heart a vow to give one tenth of all his increase to God. In the meantime he has become very wealthy.