Our church is organizing a mega-Garage sale for this Saturday. I stopped by to see the whole operation being set up. We have many wonderful workers and laborers who serve the Lord with so much joy and self-abandon. There are so many things. . . and some beautiful rare finds. I wanted to buy few things but my wife threatened me not buy any because we are moving. Alice and I walked In the evening, gazing out over the hills and the valleys as we walked. There was another spectacular evening displaying the glory of the Lord. We saw the sun was shedding light in the western sky, brightly shining on the hills and meadows to the east and south. We looked at a watch, only to discover that it was 8:30 PM and still there was sunshine. No wonder we love New York. Wish you were here.
When I was in India last year I was surprised to find out that many people even in small towns have access to Dish Net work and Direct TV. Some of my family members were watching WWF. I believe the first WWF took place in the Book of Genesis in an open-air arena beside the Jabbok river. It's a rather odd place for a wrestling match, but this was no ordinary event. In one corner of the ring stood Jacob, the master of deception. In the other corner, of all the people we would expect to see, is God himself. It was the match of historical proportions as Jacob took on God! A closer, more serious look, reveals that Jacob was actually wrestling with God because he was wrestling with life. It wasn't by accident that Jacob ended up in a wrestling match with God. Everything that had happened, everything that was happening in his life, had been leading to this one crucial encounter.
As we read this of this classic encounter, we are not merely spectators; we, too, are in the ring. Like Jacob, we're wrestling with our problems, our decisions, our doubts, our fears. It could be that we're engaged in a struggle with God. At some time or another we all wrestle with life and along the way we usually wrestle with God. One of the things in particular that Jacob was wrestling with was family problems. For many years he hadn't spoken to or even seen his brother Esau. Ever since Jacob had tricked his brother out of his inheritance, family relations had been strained, to say the least. In fact, if Jacob hadn't left the country Esau probably would have killed him. But now, after all those bitter years, Jacob was wrestling with the idea of reconciliation.
It's not unusual for us to wrestle with family problems. Strained and broken relationships between husbands and wives, children and parents, brothers and sisters aren't uncommon. There's no question that Jacob was wrestling with some real family problems. He was also struggling with some decisions that he had to make about the future. At this point in Jacob's life he wanted to make things right in his relationship with his brother, Esau, and, even more important, he wanted to make things right with God.
Jacob had been trying to do things his way for a long time; now he was ready to be serious about his relationship with God. Yet, at the same time, he felt a degree of uncertainty. Jacob wrestled with some fears about the future. He couldn't know for sure how his brother Esau would react to their meeting. There was a possibility that Esau might kill him. He couldn't know what the next day would bring, but neither do we. We constantly struggle with our fears and our uncertainty over what tomorrow may bring. As we wrestle with life we're never quite sure how things are going to turn out. When we're serious about following Christ there's almost always a struggle involved.
Jesus' encounter with the rich young man is an example of someone who wrestled with a decision and chose not to follow Jesus. Jacob decided however, in spite of his fears, to tough it out with God. In Genesis we read, "And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day." Two things stick out in these words. First, there is the statement that "Jacob was left alone." There comes a time when we each must accept responsibility for our situation. No matter whose fault it is, or who caused our struggle, we ultimately have to decide what we're going to do about our situation. This is especially true in our relationship to God. No one else can accept our responsibility to God.
In this critical time in Jacob's life he left his family on the other side of the river. His was a private encounter between himself and God. No one else could take his place. We also notice that Jacob's wrestling match with God was held in the dark of night. Most of us wrestle with God in the darkness of our souls. As we wrestle with life and wrestle with God there is not only much that we don't know, but there is an immeasurable amount that we cannot know! To use Paul's phrase, "we see through a glass darkly". In other words we only "know in part."
Jacob wrestled alone in the dark of the night and he experienced, as we do, that wrestling can be painful. As he wrestled with God, "Jacob's thigh was put out of joint." As we try to come to grips with our problems, our circumstances, even with God, it can be painful.
In his autobiography, The Struggle to be Free, Wayne Oates, a prominent Southern Baptist Professor of Psychology and author, tells of an experience he had as he was growing up. Oates grew up in poverty, but a turning point in his life came when he was given the opportunity to be a page in the United States Congress. Young Oates was ridiculed by the other pages in Washington. They abused him and intimidated him and put him down at every opportunity. Finally Wayne decided to fight back. He gave all of his opponents a sound beating, but in the last of these fights he was wrestling and the fellow he was wrestling with fell on his arm and broke it. Even until his death, Dr. Oates had a bent right arm as a reminder that wrestling can be painful!
Maybe we're hurting as we struggle with our situation, but the good news for us to hear is that there is blessing in wrestling! Though Jacob's encounter with God had been a long, dark struggle, Jacob refused to give up. He was persistent. He was patient. In his determination Jacob said to his wrestling partner, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." Jacob was willing to wrestle with God even unto death!
`When we wrestle with life and wrestling with God there is always the temptation for us to give up and give in to our problems and doubts and fears. The Christian musician David Crowder sings, "I am holding on to you". Jacob had come to the point that he had decided that he would never let go of God. No matter what happened in his life, he had decided to hang on to his faith in God. As a result Jacob became a new and stronger person. He was even given a new name: Israel.
The psalmist wrote, "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning."
Our great statement of faith in the middle of our struggles is, "We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him." In the wrestling match the Lord won. (of course!) He broke the hip of Jacob. This tells us that from that point on Jacob had to walk leaning on the Lord. His sufficiency, his self esteem, and his self centeredness were crushed. He had to walk the rest of his life leaning on the Lord. . . standing on His promises and holding on to Him. This is the invitation to all of us learning to lean upon Him.
In Christ,
Brown
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