GENESIS 32:1-35:27
Scripture Focus
“O LORD, you told me…” (Genesis 32:9 NLT) “You promised me…” (Genesis 32:12 NTL)
Observation
Today’s reading includes one of the most poignant passages in all of Scripture—Jacob’s night of “wrestling with God”. I’m convinced it was a night of Jacob coming to terms with himself—coming face-to-face with the “deceiver” he had been throughout his life—and then a night of letting go of that, and embracing the person God was calling him to be. This wrestling match with God, then, became the culmination of every battle Jacob had ever fought, and the consummation of God’s invitation, to Jacob, to let God “be God” in full over Jacob.
The verses highlighted above (Genesis 32:9,12) quote bits of Jacob’s prayer just before the night of wrestling with God. They are the prayers of a desperate man. Jacob fears Esau’s retribution. Jacob is fairly sure that the years have done nothing to lessen the offense he had committed against Esau. Jacob has legitimate reason to believe that his life and the lives of his wives, children, and servants are all in grave danger.
And so—desperately—Jacob prays. And one of the things he does is to passionately remind God of promises God has made. “O LORD, you told me, ‘Return to your own land and to your relatives.’ And you promised me, ‘I will treat you kindly’” (Genesis 32:9 NLT). “But you promised me, ‘I will surely treat you kindly, and I will multiply your descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore—too many to count.’” (Genesis 32:12 NLT)
Because—for the last few years—I have found “praying the Scriptures”…using what I discover in God’s Word as a basis for much of my prayer time…I love the thought that Jacob, here, does essentially the same thing. In spite of how bleak the situation seems, Jacob—though it perhaps was only out of desperation—…Jacob reminds God, passionately, fervently, insistently…of what God had said He would do.
And what do you know? God did just what He’d promised.
Would God have done it anyway, had Jacob not prayed? Perhaps. But would Jacob have been the same man for it? Or was Jacob better off—did it grow Jacob any—to have cried out to God in a season of great need, to have reminded God of what God had already promised, and then, to have see God come through—exactly as He had said He would? I think Jacob was better for the experience…and I think we will be, too.
6 comments:
Jacob is wrestling with God. Is this a way of saying he was wrestling with his faith and belief in God because he thought his brother was coming after him and God said that he would be safe? in desperation he prays as many of us do. in the scripture he is really in fear of what his brother will do to him. If God promised you something why would you question it?
I think Jacob probably felt fear but also would feel unworthy. God's promises were his only hope - yes desperation. We all seem to seek our Lord and His promises in times of need and desperation. This is often a time of greatest growth in our spiritual walk. My goal has been to seek Him earnestly at all times and to understand in my heart that I can do NOTHING without my Lord. All my times are desperate without Him no matter what my circumstances are. I need Jesus to be my Lord every moment of every day.
I'm also encouraged by God's grace in keeping His promises to Jacob even when it seems he and his children are undeserving. Their actions do not change God's word.
I find it intriguing that Jacob in his comments of Genesis 32:30 and 33:10 recognizes the face of God in his brother Esau! The exact experience of wrestling with God brought him to a point of a realized faith which would bring him unmerited favor with Esau, his aggressor. That is a lesson learned for conflict of any kind… to see God in the face of our enemies (and one I need to practice!). Romans 12:17-21
"to see God in the face of our enemies" So that we see our own faults and yet see God in ALL we do. Wretched people made holy only by his precious spilled out blood not at the alter in the dessert but on a a rugged cross on a hill that all might see and remember. (Tears down to the chin again) Beautiful tears.
Gen. 32:28, Gen. 35:9 Why does god repeat himself with Jacob(Isreal). I think I know why I was just wondering if anyone else has a thought on it???
How comforting it is to know that God does what He promises.
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