Throughout the ages, G-d assured Abraham, and the prophets assured the Israelites, they would be protected, and in the end they would be redeemed from their exiles. We say at the Passover meal, “Blessed is He, who guards His promise (to guard and protect). and it is this (promise) that has stood up (for us) to guard our forefathers and ourselves…”
What did G-d say that strengthened Jacob for the journey? Where do we see any power, strength and motivation in G-ds promise for all of us?
When a regular person makes a promise, as sincere as he may be at that moment, he now needs to carry out the promise. There are two stages, the promise, and its manifestation, which isn’t always guaranteed.
When G-d created the world the Bible tells us he did it in ten statements. “Let there be light and there was light”. “Let the ground give forth grass….” and so it was. G-ds statements don’t need a second stage for them to be carried out and materialized. The moment G-d verbalizes a command, that energy itself becomes the substance of the thing created. There is nothing that will stand in the way of its formation. At the moment G-d puts into words, and articulates His thoughts, G-d is already there where he intends to be, with no time lapse or hindrance in the way.
And here is what G-d was telling Jacob. I will go down with you, I am already there with you, waiting for you in your descent. You have me, the entire way down, and you have me there even before you come down.
G-d is the essence of good, and all that G-d does if for the good, therefore, going down when it is meant to be, is always with G-d, and we are not alone. It is part of G-ds plan, and is therefore part of some positive and good purpose. We have His help and assistance, even in the falling so that we don’t crush and break ourselves in the process.
It goes further. In the same way that I am already there in the descent, I am already there in the ascent.
If the only thing after a fall is that we return back to where we where, why go through the experience? What gain is there in all the hardship and difficulty? Therefore G-d is telling Jacob a double expression,” and I will go up with you, go up”. Your descent, when things turn out that way, is so that you should be elevated doubly, as much as a double expression of going up, higher than where you where before having fallen. The experience of falling, if viewed properly, always has planted in it – in advance to the fall, the seeds and potential of something greater than we would be or reach without the descent.
This is our true source of solace and support. Knowing that it is G-d who promised to come down with us and take us higher than we where before. This thought, this reality, not only comforts us in the fall, it gives us the strength and reason to pull ourselves out of where we are, to reach even further than where we where.