jacob on his way back to his native land is thinking about something all the way there. there’s one thought in his mind. it’s not the mountains he used to climb on. it’s not the food that he might have missed of his native land. it’s the person who’s there. it’s the person he’s going to have to face, face to face – his brother esau.
when last he left, it was like the western where they’re standing at high noon ready to draw and jacob turned around and ran away. he’s feeling like esau’s going to still be standing there with his gun drawn… or his sword. and the fear and the tension was mounting. jacob prepares to meet esau. he’s got some schemes and some plans of his own but GOD has an entirely different plan.
genesis 32.22-30 (niv), that night jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the brook jabbok. after he had sent them across the stream… 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 [one of the strongest muscles of our body] so that the hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the MAN. then the man said, “let me go for it is daybreak.” jacob replied, “i won’t let YOU go unless you bless me.” the MAN said, “what’s 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.” HE replied, “why do you ask my name?” [the thought was if you get somebody’s name you had a power over them. GOD laughed at him and said, “why do you ask my name?”] and then HE blessed him. so jacob called the place peniel saying, “it is because i saw GOD face to face and yet my life was spared.”
he had a wrestling match. perfect! for a schemer, for someone who ran from every problem, a wrestling match. he couldn’t run. he was wrestling. and who was he wrestling with? he knew. it was GOD.
this is what we learned was called a theophany, an appearance of GOD in human form. it’s not all of GOD but an appearance of GOD in human form. HIM showing himself to us. most theologians believe these appearances of GOD in the old testament the person of the GODhead that appeared was not the FATHER or the SPIRIT. it was the SON, JESUS, before HIS birth on earth. it’s not JESUS becoming a man before HIS birth in bethlehem. it’s JESUS appearing as a man in order to deal in human lives.
so jacob wrestles with GOD.
just a thought from the front porch…
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