(Wednesday 16th October 2019 Issue)
Is
there any reason you would want to wrestle with God? After all, this is the God
who said; “I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will
find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives;
he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke
11:10) If it involves a struggle of some effort, then it must be because you
want -- whatever it is that warranted the struggle with God -- very badly.
It
is true that God is a gracious and generous God. All that there is in the world
belongs to Him. Besides, He gives freely when we ask. However, some things
would have to be birthed through persistent prayer. When we never give up, it
is a sign of desperation. It is something that we need at all cost.
Jacob,
Esau’s twin brother -- both sons of Isaac -- had a chequered history. At his
birth, he held firmly to the feet of his brother came along with him Esau, the
eldest. This was quite a strange occurrence, but the oracle had said that the
eldest would serve the youngest. As if that was not already a mouthful, Jacob
duped his brother by trading his birthright for a bowl of soup. This earned him
the title of deceiver. Esau swore to kill him, and his mother had to smuggle
him out of his sight to his uncle in Haran.
Again
at his uncle’s place he had to work fourteen years before he could marry the
wife of his dreams. His first seven years earned him a wife that was imposed on
him. In fact, his uncle was not gentle with him. Jacob struck a deal with his
uncle but when it was overbearing he left unceremoniously. His life had been
miserable. On his way back home - after he had a vision asking him to return to
his hometown - he met with his twin brother whom he had swindled. He was scared
to death that Esau would take his revenge. But it did not happen that way.
Jacob
was now rich with livestock, but ripped to pieces by repeated unfortunate
circumstances.
That
night Jacob decided to dispatch his family along with his possessions across
the Jobbok stream in order to be on his own. That night a man wrestled with him
till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he touched
the socket of his hip and it became 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.’ ”
(Genesis 32:22-26)
In
life, we tend to take for granted most things we get without a struggle; we
behave as if It is a right. We fail to treasure its real value. On the
contrary, anything that we have fought for, we resolve to keep dearly – very
close to our hearts. We do not toy with it. We are ready to showcase it.
This
occasion was a rare occurrence. It was an opportune moment for Jacob that he
did not let slip through his fingers. Twenty years ago, on the way to his
uncle’s place, as he fled from the wrath of his twin brother at dusk, he
stopped at a point named Bethel where he spent the night. That night he had a
dream. “He saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to
heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
There
above it stood the Lord, and He said: ‘I am the Lord the God of your father
Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on
which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and
you will spread to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All
the peoples will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and
will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I
will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.” (Genesis
28:12-15)
God
is not a man to lie nor would He say something and not accomplish it. That
second encounter with Jacob would set in motion God’s promise made to His
servant Jacob ... that He would bring him back home, and that He would never
leave him until He had made good His promises to him.
At
that very encounter, Jacob was to receive his breakthrough. God would change
his name from Jacob, the deceiver to Israel. “Your name will no longer be
Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have
overcome.” (Genesis 32:28)
It
is not always that our struggles end in defeat and discouragement. Sometimes
they are intended to build us up and bring the good in us to the surface. The
prelude to childbirth is very often the pangs of pain, but what comes out of it
is immeasurable joy; the gift of life that makes all those nine months of
waiting worth the trouble. Jacob, it seemed, was in a haste to accede to his
breakthrough – all on his own terms. Therefore in the process he only met with
frustrations. But in the fullness of time, according to God’s calendar, his
accession to the throne of God’s promise was glorious.
Someone
commented that ‘Jacob emerged at last on the plane of triumphant faith. In
spite of all his shortcomings and weaknesses, he was a chosen vessel of God.’
What are you running after from that God has already laid down for you? What do
you worry about that is causing you sleepless nights that God has already
decreed would happen in your life? Wait, there is a time for everything ...
“For
the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not
prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not
delay.” (Habakkuk 2:3)
