An Encounter with God

Genesis 32:24-30 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.  And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. 

And he said, let me go, for the day breaketh.  And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.  And he said unto him, what is thy name?  And he said, Jacob.  And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. 

And Jacob asked him, and said, tell me, I pray thee, thy name.  And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?  And he blessed him there.  And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel:  for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

This story tells of an encounter Jacob had with God one night while he was all alone.  God loved Jacob, but he saw the inward struggle that had went on in his life for quite some time now, and He wanted to do something about it.  When God looks at us, He looks on the inward part of us, He looks at our heart. 

To tell this story, I must go back to the beginning when Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife Rebekah, because she was barren.  Genesis 25:24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold there were twins in her womb.   And the children struggled within her and she went to inquire of the Lord why this was.  And the Lord said, two nations are in the womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels.  The elder shall serve the younger.  And the first was delivered and they called his name Esau.  And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:  

One day Jacob was preparing bread and pottage of lentiles, and Esau came in from hunting in the field and was hungry.  And he asked Jacob to feed him for he was faint, But Jacob answered and said, sell me this day thy birthright.  And it came to pass when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son to come into him so that he could bless him before his death.  But Rebekah spoke to Jacob to go to his father and deceive him by pretending to be Esau, by dressing in goats skins and putting on his brothers clothes so that He might receive his fathers blessings.

Now when Esau heard the words of his father over Jacob, he cried with a great bitter cry and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also my father!  But Isaac said thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.  Is not he rightly named Jacob?  For he hath supplanted me these two times; he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing.

Because of this Esau hated his brother Jacob, and planned in his heart to kill him, and when Rebekah heard of these plans, she sent her son Jacob to flee away for safety.

Supplanter means...One who uses deceit and treachery to supersede another.

Jacob received the blessing by trickery and deceit. From his mother's womb, he took hold of his twin brothers heel at birth, and according to scriptures he continued taking hold of others blessings.  He stole his brother's birthright, his father's blessings, and his father in laws flocks and herds.

And this was the reason for the struggle in Jacob's life.  He lived with himself knowing the things, which he had done.  He grew up with the name Jacob, "Supplanter", and all that he had received was gotten by force and by deceit, and now he was on his way back to meet his brother Esau once again.

And the man touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh and dislocated it out of its joint, and said unto Jacob, What is thy name?  This is the whole reasoning behind Gods encounter with Jacob that night.  He lied, cheated, deceived, and stole.  He obtained his blessings by taking them from others. 

God wrestled with Jacob, He fought against his will and his strength, he pressed out the old Jacob until the only thing left in him was the strength just to cling and to hold on.  He fell into the arms of God, and new life was born in him.  He arose from an earthly man to a spiritual man, the human to the divine, the natural to the supernatural. 

As he left there that morning he was a weak and broken man, but God was there instead; and the angel proclaimed, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."

As I ponder over this story of Jacob, and God wrestling with him, I cannot help but wonder what are some of the things in our life, that God may be wrestling with us over?  It may be something in our past that has caused us guilt and shame, even as it was for Jacob.  Or it may be something that we are doing now, and just cannot get the victory over. 

Take heart my friend, for in the midst of your struggle, God is there.  Often times He contends with us through the darkest hours, wrestling with us against our will and our strength, and pressing and forcing out the old nature in us.  For some of us, God has wrestled with us over certain things in our life for quite some time now, but the nighttime is just about over and the morning is coming. 

Hold on dear child, weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.  When we come to the end of our struggle, when we die to our own will and desires and yield Him control, when there is nothing left in us except to fall into the arms of Jesus and to take hold of Him and of His Grace, then...we are free! 

Free from the guilt and the shame of the past, free from the shackles that have held us captive.  The Blessing of the Lord is upon us.  And He gives unto us a new name, "Righteous", a new title, "The Redeemed", and a new life, "Jesus Christ", worth living for.

Rev. James A. Lewis

Word of Life Ministries

Email: wordoflife@ourchurch.com

http://www.wordoflifeministry.us

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