We shall have occasion, again, to refer to some principles connected with Bethel; and shall now close our meditations upon this chapter with a brief notice of Jacob's bargain with God, so truly characteristic of him, and so demonstrative of the truth of the statement with respect to the shallowness of his knowledge of the divine character. "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." Observe, "_if_ God will be with me." Now, the Lord had just said, emphatically, "I _am_ with thee, and _will keep thee in all places_ whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land," &c. And yet poor Jacob's heart cannot get beyond an "_if_;" nor, in its thoughts of God's goodness, can it rise higher than "bread to eat, and raiment to put on." Such were the thoughts of one who had just seen the magnificent vision of the ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with the Lord standing above, and promising an innumerable seed and an everlasting possession. Jacob was evidently unable to enter into the reality and fulness of God's thoughts. He measured God by himself, and thus utterly failed to apprehend him. In short, Jacob had not yet really got to the end of himself; and hence he had not really begun with God. CHAPTERS XXIX.-XXXI. "Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east." As we have just seen, in Chap. xxviii., Jacob utterly fails in the apprehension of God's real character, and meets all the rich grace of Bethel with an "if," and a miserable bargain about food and raiment. We now follow him into a scene of thorough bargain-making. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." There is no possibility of escaping from this. Jacob had not yet found his true level in the presence of God; and therefore God uses circumstances to chasten and break him down.