Snapshots: Day 29

Snapshots: Day 29

The Snapshot: “a man wrestled with him till daybreak.”  We might think it is a rare thing to be commended by God for wrestling with Him, but when the man in question insists, “I will not let you go unless you bless me,” that pleases God, for that is exactly what is on His heart for mankind – that we cling to Him to be blessed, to be saved, to be redeemed, to receive the blessing that only He can impart. We will come out of the wrestling match changed, perhaps in a way we hadn’t envisaged and indeed don’t fully appreciate, but from then on we will never forget God and He will always be our first port of call in the struggles of life. No longer will we be plotting our own well-being for we will have His blessing and will never be the same again,.

Further Consideration: Wrestling with God? That needs some thinking about because Jacob was commended by God for wrestling with Him until He blessed him, but not all ‘wrestling’ is like that. Perhaps the greatest example of wrestling with God where the objective of the wrestler was seek to get victory over God for no other reason that pure self-centredness, is that of Pharaoh opposing Moses in Exodus. No of course it wasn’t a literal wrestling match of Pharaoh with God but Pharaoh’s attitude, his words and his actions, are clearly as much a struggle against God to get his own way, as if it has been a literal match.

God is seeking to get Pharaoh to submit to His will and we see it is a totally unbalanced contest because He is so infinitely more stronger than Pharaoh, but Pharaoh doesn’t believe that. But then that is why unbelievers wrestle with God, resist Him, and try and get their own way; they just don’t realize exactly who it is they are resisting. If they realized the truth they would give in instantly.

But when it comes to believers, they sense something and, I would suggest, it is something inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is that God can bless them, can answer a prayer – and wants to, if only they will ask and ask.

The problem is that very often we just don’t believe that God desires good for us; it is one of the offshoots of being a sinner, redeemed, yes, but still tainted with these things. And so it is that we catch the truth and pray it, and God coyishly holds back before answering. We pause but sense it is right, this thing, so we pray again, and again, and as we pray we come to see that this IS the truth, this IS what God wants and so we pray with more urgency. I will not let you go until you bless me!  Jesus taught, “Ask – and keep on asking (the verb tense)- and it will be given you.” (Mt 7:7) Why? For our benefit so we will come to realize the truth of what we are asking for.

5. Expectations Interrupted

Expectations & Hopes Meditations: 5. Expectations Interrupted

Gen 32:24   So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak

The Appearance of Jacob: We have already started to consider Jacob in the previous study but what I want to focus on was the expected destiny of this man and why it didn’t turn out as we might have expected. Everything about Jacob in his younger years said ‘grabber’ or ‘twister’. That had been the meaning of his name, simply because when he was born as the second twin, he was clutching at the heel of the first one born, Esau. From the outset he seemed to be clutching for something more, and that from his brother.

A Birth-right Taken:  Then there was the silly incident as the two boys started to grow up, when Esau came in, hot, sweaty and tired after a day’s hunting. Jacob clearly preferred the home life and was cooking (Gen 25:29). When Esau came in, “He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (v.30) and at this point Jacob first showed his real colours: “Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” (v.31) In response Esau showed his casual feeling about his family and inheritance: “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” (v.32) But Jacob pushed it: “But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.” (v.33) It concludes, “Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.” (v.34) We tend to remember Esau’s casual attitude, but it was provoked by Jacob’s conniving.

A Blessing Stolen: Then later there was the incident we have already previously referred to where I said Jacob conned Esau out of his father’s blessing. It is too long to recount (Gen 27:1-40) but by the help of his mother in an even more devious scheme he made his near blind father believe he was giving the blessing to the older son. Third indicator of a grabber!

Jacob with Laban: Jacob has to flee the wrath of his brother and is sent by his parents to look for a wife from the brother of his mother, i.e. from his uncle, Laban. It is there that Jacob seems to meet his match when he falls for Laban’s younger daughter but is palmed off with the older, uglier one and ends up having to work fourteen years for Laban to win the hands of both girls. (see Gen 29:16-30)

Jacob and the Lord: However, before we observe his dealings with Laban, we need to pick up on an incident that occurred on his way to Laban. He had a dream (Gen 28:11-22) about the gateway to heaven and the Lord met him and reiterated His promise to multiply his family and give him the land. When he awoke Jacob made a vow: “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 so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.” (Gen 28:20-22) But note the conditional almost bartering and almost condescending nature of it. IF God will look after me, He can become my God and I’ll make this place His house and I’ll even do what others do and give my deity a tenth of what I earn. It is still the words of an entrepreneur (who certainly doesn’t realise the magnitude of the LORD, the I AM.)

Jacob connives to be rich: Back in Laban’s service we see Jacob working to enlarge his flocks at the cost of Laban’s. It is a strange thing and somewhat unclear, but before we get to that we need to see it in context. God clearly blesses him as he works the years for Laban’s daughters and he also starts accumulating children by the dozen (literally!) and having done that decides he wants to leave (30:25,26). Laban knows he is on to a good thing and so bribes him to stay (30:28). Thus Jacob suggests he earn by taking every spotted or speckled sheep or goat to be his wages. Laban goes along with this but quietly removes all the male sheep or goats that were speckled or spotted (30:35). By a devious and somewhat strange way Jacob nevertheless gets the sheep and goats to breed with speckles or spots and accumulates great flocks. (30:37-43)

Jacob starts for home: Cutting a long story short Jacob eventually leaves, a very rich man. On his way back he hears that the word has got to his brother who is coming to meet him with a great crowd of men. He fears retribution for the past and so, schemer that he is, he divides up his great flocks into two (37:7,8) – and prays. Now again we need to briefly backtrack When Laban had realised Jacob was out-foxing him, he began to feel negative about him and at that point the Lord told him to return home (31:3). On the way home, after he had left Laban, he sees angels and “When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.” (32:1) which means “two camps” i.e. he still sees God as being off and distinct from him. It is then he splits his flocks to cope with Esau. He is still planning and scheming.

Jacob Changed? Now we have spent quite a while identifying the sort of person Jacob is, a twister and a schemer, but as I commented in the previous study, when you come to the end of his life we find a godly old man, full of wisdom and the Lord, prophesying amazingly over his large family. What changed him? We would have expected him to grow into an even more curmudgeonly old man out to rook everyone in sight – but he’s not.

Jacob’s Night Encounter: The answer has to be an encounter he now has with the Lord – not just a quiet word into his ear, but a full-on confrontational encounter where the two of them wrestle throughout the night (see Gen 32:24-30). He had just before this, prayed and asked the Lord to deal with Esau for him (32:9-12) but had then – still in scheming mode – plotted to send small groups ahead as gifts for Esau to turn his heart. Prayer and scheming.

So he wrestles with God throughout the night and the Lord’s intent is to make him give up and submit – but he won’t.  So God puts his hip out, so he limped for the rest of his life and could no longer wrestle. It was almost like the Lord was saying, “Look don’t you realise I can demolish you any time I want. I’ve just disabled you so that you can go on, but you will be limited – and I’ll rename you Israel as a constant reminder to you that you wrestled with me and wouldn’t give up – and that’s why you are like you are now!” From then on he is a changed man.

And Us? Look, here’s the lesson and it is a major one that can affect us or our children or our church. We can be set in our destiny it appears, set in our worldliness, set in our human thinking, our planning and our scheming, and it looks like the future is set – and then God steps in and intervenes and something devastating happens. We don’t realise it is from Him, but it is. Maybe He brings it, maybe He just lifts off His hand of protection for a moment – and we are humbled, and the future is changed. We are suddenly godly.  We are suddenly prayerful. It happens in a measure when we first came to Christ, but it has a habit of happening again – and maybe again, if the Lord sees we are failing to submit to His will that wants to bless us. Hold your future expectations lightly. Hold them in the face of God and remember, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,.”  is the wisest outlook to hold on to!

 

3. To Jacob

“God turned up” Meditations: 3 :  To Jacob

Gen 32:24-26 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 you go unless you bless me.”

We commented briefly in the previous meditation how God turned up to a nobody and made him a somebody. What was so amazing about Abram, which we take for granted, was that he actually heard God and responded to what he was hearing and this with virtually no prior revelation. When we come to Jacob we find a man who will know about his grandfather Abram’s encounters with God and also of his father, Isaac’s praying for many years before he and Esau had been conceived. But that knowledge hadn’t touched him.

Now this isn’t the first time that God has turned up for Jacob but it is a significant encounter. The previous time had been in a dream that he had while on the way to Haran where his uncle lived. In this dream (Gen 28:10-19) the Lord spoke to him and reiterated His plans for this family, declaring that He would give Jacob this land, even though he was leaving it for the moment, and would make him a mighty people. Now this is an amazing revelation because it says nothing about the sort of person Jacob was; it was all about God’s certain plans. It is remarkable because the Bible reveals to us a Holy God, but Jacob is far from holy. He is a cheat, a liar and a schemer and yet God says nothing about this. We might expect the Lord to tell him to clean up his life because he is, after all, the chosen family that God is going to use as a light to the rest of the world – but there is nothing of this! So that first time of God turning up for Jacob was pretty amazing.

But now we have God turning up in a completely different way. Jacob has not changed a great deal. Over the years he has accumulated two wives, two concubines and a big family and lots of flocks and herds. He has made himself a very wealthy man, all by cunning. Now he’s returning home and he’s been planning on how he can win his brother’s heart and be received back home. He has actually included prayer in the plan. He has prayed and asked God for help so that Esau will not attack him, but he’s putting most of his trust in his scheme to provide present after present to his brother.

And so night comes and a man turns up and attacks him. The two of them wrestle and wrestle, and carry on until dawn. It is a strange encounter and nothing is said; the two just wrestle in silence. The object is to make the other submit but neither will. Eventually the man touches Jacob’s hip and it is put out of joint but Jacob clings on to him. “Let me go,” the man demands. “Not unless you bless me,” retorts Jacob. Hullo, what is this? Already Jacob has a sense of who he has been wrestling with. It is God.

God wrestling with a man? How crazy is that? Surely God could just kill him if He wanted to? Yes, but He doesn’t want to. He just wants Jacob to submit to Him. He wants every man to submit to Him because He is the lord of all, the Creator of all things and He knows best how we should live our lives. Throughout his life so far Jacob has considered he knows best and in fact as he has used his guile and cunning, he’s done all right. He’s made himself rich. And now God comes along and wants him to submit, to give up all his striving and struggling, all his scheming and planning. This physical wrestling match is actually about wrestling in the sphere of the will. In all of this God is saying, “Jacob give up your will to me. Submit to me.”

Jacob is still a negotiator: “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” God had come to him in physical form and God had chosen to wrestle Jacob on equal physical terms, so if God wants to break off now and leave him, Jacob will only let Him go if He will decree good for him. How crazy you must be, Jacob; God could kill you with a word! I’m sure Jacob realised that by now. He has already been severely injured and yet he senses that God wants to play this out on these same terms, so he’ll make this demand and see where it goes.

Then comes the punch line as he waits for God to bless him: “What is your name?” That is unkind! He knows what his name is. It is Jacob and Jacob means twister and schemer. It was what his parents thought of him from the moment he was born. “I’m a schemer,” is what he almost screams out. Done! The truth has been faced! It’s as if the man then says, “Excellent, you’ve faced the truth; now I can change you,” and He then gives him a new name, Israel, which means ‘struggles with God’.

Jacob wants one more thing. He wants confirmation of who it is that he’s been wrestling with. Is it to boast about later? We don’t know, but the man won’t give him that satisfaction. Oh yes, Jacob knows who He is (see v.30) and he’ll have to rest with that inner knowledge. He’s a changed man. He has wrestled with God but at the cost of a disablement that he’s now got to live with, and of having to face the truth about himself. He knows what he’s really like and he knows that God knows what he’s really like. That will make any ongoing relationship with the Lord even more wonderful.

God loves this crook! And He loves you and me and He knows exactly what we’re like. Do we?  That’s why God turned up on this occasion; that’s why He turns up for us. Facing the truth about ourselves is the first step to submitting to God and let Him rule over our lives.