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| Wrestling With God |
| Monday, May 28, 2007 |
 When I pastored my first church in the 1980s I used to go for long walks at night up a stretch of stark prairie road that meandered its way past the local cemetary. The town I was serving had 55 people living in it; the cemetary was home to more than that. Arching over the wind-blown cemetary was a big tree like the one you see on the left. It stood at the top of a hill in majestic relief to the flat, barren gopher runs that made up the crippled farmers' fields nearby.
It was at this point that I would often stop in my walk to stare at the tree silhoutted against the black night sky. As thousands of stars sparkled and danced across heaven's pallet (occasionally peeking at me through the tree branches) I felt dwarfed. In my office or in a parishioner's home I was a big fish in a little pond. But out here I was a speck of dust, and it had a powerful way of putting everything back into perspective for me very quickly.
Jacob must have felt like that the night that he wrestled with Almighty God. Jacob was like me -- by nature a liar and a cheat, a schemer, a conniver, a man full of disguises and self-reliance. And God knew that He must break Jacob of that sin.
All alone on the other side of the river, Jacob was left to deal with the consequences of his unending sin. He had cheated his brother Esau, and now he would face him this week in what he feared would be a bloody battle. The world had been his oyster, but here, all alone on the banks of the Jabbok River, Jacob would have stared up into the night sky and realized that he wasn't so big after all.
The night before his encounter with God had been spent in desperate prayer. Like the scoundrel that he was, Jacob even tried to flatter and manipulate God:
"O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac......I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau....(blah, blah, blah)." (Genesis 32:9-12) He was so good at this sort of thing -- all the double-talk and smooth as silk verbal flattery. But Jacob was Jacob, and even when he talked to God he had a clever plan up his sleeve. "I'll just sweep Esau away in a flood tide of gifts and groveling."
"For he thought, 'I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me'. So Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp. That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone...." (32:20-24) Enter God! 'And he wrestled with a man until daybreak.'
As it turned out, it was God Himself. "I saw the face of God, and yet my life was spared." (32:30) But it wasn't without a price. God left this stubborn man with a life-changing limp -- a sign and reminder from his Creator that a real man of God must forever be dependent on Him from day to day.
Has God given you a limp? Perhaps you've wrestled with Him for years about your vanity, and now your face is scarred. Or, you've pleaded with Him to teach you patience, and He's given you a wayward child or a stubborn illness. Or maybe your limp is a faithless husband, or a house fire, or a humiliating dismissal from your job. God knows your need, and as you wrestle with Him to be more like Jesus, He will know just where to wound you so that you can share in the sufferings of His beloved Son and grow to be like Him: "For although he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered..." (Hebrews 5:8).
Jacob wrestled with God just like you and I do. And complete with his defeat and wound, Jacob rose the next day to meet the dreaded giant. But God blessed him by softening Esau's heart, and Jacob learned a lesson that he would never forget: "When I am weak my God is strong."
After these things, the Bible says, he set up an altar of remembrance and worship: "And there he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel" (33:20), which means Mighty One is the God of Israel.
My friends, your limp is a gift from God. Don't curse it. Learn to embrace it, for what son is not disciplined by his father?
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:7-11) Labels: humility, strength |
posted by Alan @ 1:01 PM   |
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Name: Alan
Home: Canada
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