Boys and Man are outside practicing T-ball. (I just heard Dan say, “Get your glove up. And if it hits you it don’t hurt that bad.” Hee hee. Boys are funny.)
Anyway, I’ve been told I can feel free to have some alone time.
Today is from Genesis 32 where Jacob wrestles with God. Most of this is from Beth Moore’s The Patriarchs: Encountering the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
After [Jacob] had sent [his wives, maidservants, and 11 sons] across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’
But Jacob replied, “I will not let go unless you bless me.”
The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
So Jacob called the place Peniel [the face of God], saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip…
(Genesis 32:23-31)
Some notes from the video session:
The basic idea behind ‘could not overpower him’ is that the man could not make him quit. God taught Jacob how to face up and fight honestly. Sometimes in our night seasons, we don’t know with whom we’re struggling until the light begins to dawn.
When God allows or even invites us to wrestle with Him, His constant goal is to make us overcomers. Even when God appears to be against us, He is for us.
Jacob wanted an honest blessing. The name Jacob means deceiver and cheater. He got a new name. In every struggle do not let go until the blessing comes!
Jacob got a new name. An honest name. Few things define us more than how we struggle. When we struggle through the crisis with God all the way to the blessing, we are gloriously redefined!
Now onto Genesis 33…
“Begin today’s lesson by visualizing the sun rising on a limping Jacob as he emerges from an all-night wrestling match with God.
Consider how carefully Jacob arranged his family as they prepared [fearfully] to meet Esau and his 400 men. In Genesis 32:22-23, Jacob sent his family ahead of him.
But then in Genesis 33:3, Jacob steps up to the front. After he wrestled with God, he had the courage to step ahead and take the lead, meeting his brother first.
Though he was still terrified, he knew his place. An intense encounter with God can give us the courage to do the necessary things we wish we didn’t have to do. We may still be afraid, but we’re more afraid of disobeying God than facing a mess we helped make…
Genesis 32 concludes with Jacob limping. The first thing Genesis 33:1 tells us is that he ‘looked up and there was Esau, coming.’
According to verse 4, Esau approached Jacob running. Do you find the contrast peculiar? Ironic? After all, Jacob was God’s chosen one, not Esau. God’s presence was with Jacob, yet He allowed His own child to limp while the other ran. What is wrong with this picture?
Beloved, sometimes God will wound His own child to make him walk differently while the profane and ungodly seem to run with endless confidence and vitality.
We are to walk as people who have encountered God, and some of the most transforming encounters are wrestling matches..
Please understand that our wounding and hurt are only temporal, yet they carry great eternal benefits: ‘For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all’ (2Cor4:17). So let the Esaus of this life run! This is the only chance they’ll get. And, yes, let the Jacobs limp. We have been with God! Though our humanity may be wounded, our souls are made whole by the One with whom we wrestle…
One of the most powerful quotes I’ve ever read is from the Talmud: ‘God says to man: ‘With thy very wounds I will heal thee.’
We should not be surprised that God planned a meeting between the brothers on Jacob’s way to the promised land. We too will have the opportunity to face our deepest conflicts and to resolve relational differences on the way. We’ll often have to return to our weakest state to those we want to see us at our strongest…our limps in full view.
Think again on the scene depicting Jacob bowing down to the ground seven times as he approached Esau. Imagine the grimace of pain on his weathered face as he took such a humble posture with his wounded hip. Like Jacob, our promised lands are practically under our noses when we’re closest to the ground.
Bowed down.”
Patriarchs, pages 149 – 153