Good Morning Friends,
“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.’ 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, 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 32:24-31)
Jacob, his wives and children, with all of
his flocks and possessions was headed back to his home land, the land of
Canaan. When he had left Canaan over 20 years earlier it had been in a hurry, running
from his brother Esau whom he had schemed out of his birthright and father’s
blessing. Now he was going home and he was afraid to face his brother. He was
afraid of his brother’s anger and his brother’s retribution. As Jacob and his
company approached Canaan, he sent his wives, children, servants, flocks and
possessions across the river and Jacob stayed behind alone. It was there – while
Jacob was alone that God met him and Jacob came away from that encounter a
changed man.
Jacob was changed physically by the
encounter. God struck Jacob’s hip as they wrestled and Jacob walked with a limp
from that day to the end of his life.
Jacob was changed in name. God changed his
name on that very spot. He would no longer be called Jacob. From then on his
name would be Israel – the name he would pass on to the people who descended
from him. Abraham had descendants who
would not be a part of the people of Israel – the descendants of Ishmael and
all the descendants of sons of Abraham’s old age with his second wife. Isaac
would also have descendants who were not a part of the people of Israel – the descendants
of Esau would become the nation of Edom and not a part of Israel. But all of
Jacob’s descendants would become the people of Israel – taking their name from
this ancestor.
Jacob was changed spiritually. Jacob knew
that he had come face to face with God. Jacob knew that he had wrestled with
God and been touched by God. Jacob knew that he had been blessed by God.
The encounters of men with God are rarely as
dramatic as Jacob’s encounter was – but when a man encounters God he never
comes away without being changed in some way.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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