|
Hungry For God
When we are passionately pursuing God, when we are seriously hungry for Him, we are going to face some painful challenges. God desires to grow and strengthen the faith of His followers, and the road to mature faith will not always be easy. We can cower at the crises we face and simply hope for the best, or we can face these challenges with purpose and seek to understand what God wants to teach us. Jacob is a wonderful biblical example of an individual who encounters a crisis with purpose. Jacob is one of the founders of our faith, the father of the Israelite nation. The name "Jacob" actually means deceiver, or trickster. As a young man, he tricked his father Isaac into granting him the birthright blessing rather than giving it to his older brother Esau (Genesis 27:27-29). Jacob receives the coveted birthright, but he must pay the consequences. Esau bears a grudge against his brother and plans to kill him (Genesis 27:41). Several years later, Esau is still looking for Jacob, desiring revenge. Jacob fears for his life, and he sends messengers to Esau to request a meeting and a peace treaty. In Genesis 32:6, the messengers return to Jacob and tell him, "We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you and four hundred men are with him." These messengers tell Jacob, "Esau is coming to meet you alright, and he's bringing 400 warriors with him!" We can sympathize with Jacob's initial response: "Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed" (v. 7). Jacob's next move is very interesting; he cries out, "O God my father, the father of Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord." In the midst of this frightening crisis, Jacob prays. He calls upon the name of the Lord with an honest, earnest plea for help. Jacob has been commanded by the Lord to go to his family, including Esau, and reconcile with them, but he didn't expect his family reunion to be so dangerous! Jacob continues, "I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which Thou hast shown to Thy servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies" (v.10). Jacob demonstrates that he is humbled in his frightening circumstances; he realizes how much God has provided for him. When he first came to his land he had only his staff, but God in His goodness multiplied Jacob's family and possessions. Then Jacob cries out in verses 11-12, "Deliver me I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me, the mothers and the children. For Thou didst say, 'I will surely prosper you, make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'" Jacob is clearly in a crisis situation, and he is a broken man. In The Struggle, God Sustains Brokenness is when you are backed up against a wall and your only hope is to trust in God. Brokenness is being unable to help yourself. Jacob realizes his insufficiency and inadequacy to deal with this situation, and he prays asking God for a miracle. He then meets with the unexpected: "Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak" (v.24). This verse tells us that Jacob is alone, and it is nighttime. This is not exactly the ideal environment for someone in crisis; it is frightening to be isolated and in the dark. Then, a man seems to come out of nowhere and begins to physically grapple with Jacob. Jacob has cried out to God for things to get better, but it appears that things have only gotten worse. When you are experiencing a crisis and you ask for mercy and a miracle, things might get worse before they get better so that God will bring you to brokenness. The struggle continues in verse 25: "And when he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him." The man saw that Jacob was going to put up a fight, and he touched Jacob's hip and dislocated it, presumably causing Jacob great pain. Things just seem to be getting worse and worse for Jacob. He's depressed, he's afraid, he's alone, he's in the darkness, he has some man messing with him, and now he's in pain. Even though Jacob prayed, God did not instantly relieve him of his situation, because God had something greater to teach him. How many times have you prayed in the middle of a crisis, then your situation didn't improve or it got even worse, and you wondered what God was doing? He was teaching you something through those circumstances; no situation is useless or hopeless in the kingdom of God. God may allow more pain to visit upon you-He may dislocate something-so that you will be humbled and learn to depend upon Him. Jacob continued in his struggle; he wrestled against the situation facing him and he didn't give up. Then we have a transition in verse 26: "Then he said, 'Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.' But he said, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.'" The man asks Jacob to let him go, and Jacob refuses. Jacob is fighting for his life, and when daybreak comes, the man says, "Let me go." The sun is rising with the dawn, illuminating the landscape, and Jacob is able to see with a proper perspective. Jacob perceives that this is no ordinary man, and this is no simple wrestling match. In fact, it becomes apparent to Jacob that he is wrestling with a blessing. His thinking has changed from wanting to be freed from this man to not letting this man go. Why? Because daybreak has come. Many of us going through dark times want to give up in the middle of the night. We can't see how we're going to make it through, and everything in our lives seems to be moving from bad to worse. But if we can just wrestle until daybreak when the sun comes up, we may see that the battle we are going through is not designed to hurt us but to bless us. Why would this man ask permission to be let go? Obviously he is a powerful man; he was able to dislocate Jacob's hip with just a touch. If he was so powerful, why did he need to ask for permission to leave? The reason must be to see how badly Jacob wanted to receive a blessing from this situation, to see if he would give up or keep fighting. The Value of a Name The man then asked Jacob, "What is your name?" (v. 27). What an unusual question! Yet it is consistent with the biblical value placed on the meaning of a name. The man wasn't going to let Jacob go, and Jacob wasn't going to receive a blessing, until both the man and Jacob understood the value of his name. Many of us don't know our names, so we can't see our blessings. God can't give us a breakthrough in our character until we know our true character. If Jacob's character is still that of a deceiver, or trickster, as his name indicates, why should God bless him? The man is asking Jacob to analyze who he really is. Instead of blaming God for his crisis, Jacob needed to use this time to examine his own character. I was recently talking with a friend who told me a funny story that illustrates this point. My friend was talking with an elderly woman on the street outside his office, and he began to smell a very strong, unpleasant odor. My friend assumed the smell was coming from this woman he was talking to. The scent kept getting stronger, finally to the point where my friend decided to end the conversation and walk away. As he got into his car, the smell remained with him, and continued to grow stronger. He thought, "Whew, that woman smelled so bad that her smell caught onto me! I can't shake it!" Then he looked down, and discovered that he had stepped in some dog "leftovers." He was the source of the smell the whole time. Instead of blaming someone else, all he had to do was examine himself to find the source of the problem. Jacob looks at himself and comes face to face with who he is. He answers the man's question simply: "Jacob." He admits that he is "Jacob," deceiver of his father, thief of his brother's birthright. God has backed him up against a wall in this crisis, and he must face the truth of his identity. God wants to reveal Jacob's heart and change his character. Jacob's physical crisis leads to a spiritual insight. In the same way, God is sovereign over the crises in your life, and He will use them to change who you are. The man responds to Jacob powerfully: "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed" (v.28). God gave Jacob the chance to wrestle with a crisis, to struggle with Him, and to breakthrough to a new level of intimacy so that he might gain a new name. Israel means "God strives"-what a change from deceiver and trickster! Jacob prevailed with God in this victory, and he also prevailed with man in his physical struggle. God changed his name and restored Jacob to the person he was meant to be. Receiving God's Blessing Now pay attention to the next event: "Then Jacob asked him and said, 'Please tell me your name.' But he said, 'Why is it that you ask my name?' And he blessed him there" (v. 29). Jacob told the man his name, now he wants to know the man's name. But instead of answering, the man gives him a blessing. Sometimes when we go through crises, God doesn't answer all of our questions; He doesn't tell us everything we want to know, like why we have to endure troubles, or how long we will have to endure. But then when He gives us His blessing, we realize that the answers to those questions don't matter; we just need to know that He was there with us and His purposes have been accomplished. After this, Jacob names the place where they wrestled Peniel, meaning "the face of God." He said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved." Now wait a minute . . . according to verse 24, Jacob wrestled with a man all night long. But when he makes his stone of remembrance he says, "I have seen God face to face." The man who wrestled him was the God who blessed him! The problem knocking him down was also the Person picking him up. This explains why we simply can't give up in the midst of our trials: The one you think is hurting you is actually the God who will be there at daybreak to bless you. Don't turn on God, don't leave Him in a crisis. I know it gets tough, and I know you get tired, but God is with you. When your life is falling apart, God is there. When you are alone, God is there. When it is dark, God is there. When you are hurting, God is there. So stay where you are until God moves you because He is there with you. He promises in His Word, "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20). Jacob didn't give up, and God was with him through the night and revealed Himself in the morning. When the morning comes, Jacob is a different man. "Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh" (v. 31). Jacob limped as a result of his dislocated hip, and it demonstrates that God touched Jacob in a physical and spiritual sense. God's touch reveals His ultimate power. Jacob limped because he came in direct contact with God's power; God met him in his crisis and led him through. Jacob's limp is a reminder that it was the grace of God that gave him a blessing and changed his name, and he is helpless without Him. When you experience a crisis, you may walk away with some scars-maybe a limp, a wounded heart, or a weary mind. But those scars are symbols of the transition from where you once were to where God has brought you now. They are reminders that God reached out to you in your need, and He never wants you to forget that it is His grace that saves you. So praise Him when He leads you through those tough times; His grace will never fail you.
|