Genesis 32
Jacob had taken a leap of Faith, maybe it was in desperation but never the less it was a leap of Faith. He had finally taken control of his own life, moved on the promises of the God of his fathers and begun to experience that this God was now his God. In chapter Genesis 31:42 as part of his rebuke to Laban he recognises and acknowledges that God had seen his affliction and the labours of his hands and had come to his aid. God always comes to our aid, He did the same when His chosen people were in bondage and slavery in Egypt (Exodus 3:7-8). He says to Moses from the burning bush "I have seen their affliction, I have heard their cry, I know their sorrows and I am coming down".
God knows our need He hears our cry and He is coming down, what a fantastic promise.
This is exactly what Jacob was experiencing, God had been watching over him, He knew his troubles and He had heard his cry and He comes down and meets Jacob who is on the way to his fathers house. Jacob immediately recognises that these angels that meet him in Genesis 32:1 represent some kind of security, a reassurance that everything will be all right and he calls the place Mahanaim meaning two hosts or two camps, a joining of God and man and ultimately a place of refuge and security. God has come down and provided that place for each and every one of us in the person of Jesus. When we meet Him we are in a place of safety.
Jacob was on a mission from God, he was returning home, back to the place from where he had fled, back to the place of conflict that had been bought about by his own selfish making. He was going there because God had told him too (Genesis 31:3). God always brings us back to the place where we went wrong, the place where we disobeyed and disappointed God so that we can put right the wrongs. The great news is that God has come down and gone before us.
Jacob is destined to meet up with his brother who he has not seen for 20 years. The last time he saw Esau was when he was so mad that he was all set to kill him. As far as Jacob knew this was still the case. Sometimes we have to confront our situations with fear and trembling, yet with the knowledge that we are in God's will and that we are participating in His great plan for us. Jacob knew that God had spoken and told him to return to his own country where he might be killed.
God always steps in to our situations and provides the refuge, but this place is a lonely place, it takes place when we are left alone with God.
Jacob sends messengers ahead of his company to try to prepare the way. A cunning plan, a plan that Jacob thought might protect him from the wrath of his brother. There is still some of this cunning old self life left in him, even after 20 years since his 'God Encounter'. There is always some of this old cunning self life left in all of us. This cunning self life that God wants to release us from and the only place He can do that is in the lonely place of solitude. A place that Jacob would later find himself.
The messengers return with scary news, Esau is coming to meet you and he has 400 men with him. Jacob's immediate reaction is one of fear, so he divides his family, servants and flocks into two groups with the sole aim of at least retaining some of his acquired wealth. He then does something quite amazing, he calls on Almighty God and confesses his weaknesses and reminds God of His promise. Jacob has begun to recognise his weakness, his flaws. He has now come to a place where he understands that he cannot go through this ordeal alone (Genesis 32:9-12). It is in this weakness where Jacob finds strength and a God given answer of pure genius, the dividing of the company into two groups. The dividing of the company would not be the easiest of decisions as he would have had to decide who of his family would go into which group, who should he split up, who should he place in a position of responsibility etc etc. Jacob was able to do this because he had learnt the secret, "Those that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up on wings of eagles,they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" Isaiah 40:31
Jacob sends droves of presents in the form of livestock to go before him and his family with the specific instruction that they are to say "they are a present from your servant Jacob and behold he is behind us". Jacob is no longer seeking to be master but is prepared to be a servant. If we want to be great in God's kingdom then we must first learn to be a servant.
Jacob sends all that he has on before him over the brook Jabok and he is left alone, a place where God wrestles with him. Jacob is a very tenacious man he fights back and wrestles, he agonises with God and comes to terms with the fact that this could be the end, and in some ways it is. It is the end of the old man Jacob and the beginning of the new man Israel. All that he has he has placed in God's hands. The 'God Experience' that happened so many years ago is now finally beginning to become a reality. Instead of the 10% Jacob promised to God he has placed all he has into God's hands, his family, his wealth, his livelihood and above all himself. God wants all of us. He wrestles and wrestles till the break of day and utters words that some of us might find quite challenging "I will not let you go until you tell me your name". Do you want to know God like that. Charles Wesley the great poet and hymn writer supposes God's answer to Jacob's question and pens "My nature and my name is love". God deals with us on this ground of loneliness and wrestles with us through a nature and a name that is love.
Do we wrestle with God like that, have we got that kind of tenacity that demands to know who God is and are we prepared to hold on to Him until He reveals to us personally who He is?
This is when it all changed for Jacob, he had finally come to an end of himself and accepted that God knows best. Just like Abram to Abraham Jacob became Israel, his nature and his name had been changed by the Grace of God but Israel bore in his body the living proof that he had wrestled with God and prevailed. What a legacy, what a testimony to have this proof that God had touched him and he had prevailed. What is it that God has done for us in response to the wrestling that we have done with Him?
Oh God move on us so that we may bear the testimony of your loving Grace so all may see how great thou art.
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