“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.” -Genesis 32: 27-28
When
we read through the Word of God we are looking back with 20-20 vision. We know how the stories will unfold and know
the outcome. The stressors and anxiety
that exists in our circumstances, our stories, exists largely in the
unknown. This is not always the case,
but it often is. Think back in your own
life: how many mountains look like molehills now that they are in the rear view
mirror? The circumstances that exists in
the present, and manifest themselves in the world of tomorrow; draw our concern
and attention. Most often, these are the
ones we want God to change. However, God
doesn’t always change the outcome, so much as he changes us. Sometimes, he changes both.
Jacob
was rightly named, his name means “to supplant”. Esau was the firstborn and had the birthright,
but Jacob made some seriously questionable moves to replace his brother in this
position. At first, he was in the right
place at the right time and drove a hard bargain (to say the least), and Esau
sold is birthright. Now that he had the
birthright, all he needed the blessing from his dad, Isaac. That goes to the firstborn. So Jacob, at the urging of his Mother, dressed
up to feel hairy like Esau and influenced his blind father to think he was Esau,
so he would bless him. Now, with the
birthright and the blessing, he obtained all the rights and privileges of the
firstborn. Fast forward many decades
later, now we find Jacob on a crash course to meet with his brother Esau. He did not know the outcome of this meeting,
but have every right to expect it would not end well for him. All his life he was able to supplant (by various
means) those above him, and now it looks like it has caught up to him. Esau was going to kill him (so he thought), Jacob
was sure of it, and he proceeded to use every trick in the bag to try to soften
the blow. Jacob did everything he could
within himself to change his circumstance and the expected outcome. After he had exhausted himself, out of ideas,
the night before the meeting with Esau, while Jacob was alone; a man/angel came
and wrestled with Jacob. There they
tussled all night, and early into the morning.
Finally, with Jacob tired, hungry, leg out of joint from the angels
touch, the angel said let me go; to which Jacob replied “I won’t let you go until you bless me.” Jacob had spent all his life wrestling with
his circumstances (as was foreordained), and this night he spent wrestling with
God. God honored his dedication, blessed him, and changed his name to
Israel. There are so many circumstances
in life, and they are always changing. The
circumstances, especially the ones we cannot control, seem to be the ones that
invoke the most stress on our lives.
Like Jacob, we exhaust every bit of our resources to try to fix them, or
at least soften the blow. Trusting
becomes an option when we are all out of options. The devil loves to get us focused on the
external, because that is where we have the least influence even though he has
us convinced we have the greatest. A
phone call, a doctor’s visit, a change in the weather even, can totally destroy
everything you or I have built. Right
now by some internet hacker half way across the world could be cleaning out our
life savings. This world is a hostile
place, and we can wrestle with it perhaps to prevail (only in our own mind) or
we can take it to God and not let go until he blesses.
Israel
prevailed with God. He wrestled not
because he wanted to test his strength, but because (I believe) he knew that
unless he got a hold of some strength other than himself he was doomed. God doesn’t
always change the circumstance, but he changes you. The blessing from God isn’t always external,
but internal. There will always be
situations in our lives that we cannot control, where the outcome is
unknown. Likewise, there will always be
those times when we meet God to wrestle for a blessing. When we do, we come away a different person, and
with him we can prevail.
