Losing to Win

Lessons drawn from Genesis 32:22-30 Jacob wrestles with God • verse 24a "And Jacob was left alone." God is personal. He will providentially set you in a place where He can commune with you and put His message across. Whether that's in your room, kitchen, toilet, car or even in a crowded place, He will make sure to get your attention and have you to Himself. • verse 24b "And a man [came and] wrestled with him until the breaking of the day." It is God, in His mercy, who initiates the confrontation. And the purpose is for us to realize and submit what He demands should be surrendered to His Lordship. The reality is, even after being a follower of Christ for a long time, we still have areas in our lives the LORD wants to sanctify. • verse 25 "When the man [God the Son; it was a Christophany] saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him." Do you think Almighty God can be overpowered by man physically? Of course not. So Jacob prevailing here isn't physical but spiritual. Now hear me out, I believe there are two ways he prevailed with God. First, in the negative. The prolonged wrestling insinuates stubbornness in Jacob's heart. His unsanctified stiff-necked will was unbending to how God wanted to re-shape him. In a sense, his defiance prevailed from the night the struggle began until the sun was almost up. So when Christ saw Jacob wasn't yielding to His sovereign will, He gave him his version of a thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:9); a dislocated hip. The Bible commands believers not to quench (extinguish, stifle, restrain, turn away) the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). If you think about this, we mere creatures – like Jacob – have the potentiality to resist our Creator. However let us be forewarned that when confronted by God, may we not wait till He allows affliction to fall upon us before we surrender to Him. • verse 26 Then he [Christ] said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Remember Mary Magdalene? She too clung onto Christ on the day of His resurrection. "Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”" (John 20:17) Hence secondly, in the positive, we can say that Jacob prevailed because of his perseverance to cling onto the LORD as he struggled to give up his self-will while pleading God to bless him. After like more than six hours of contending with his Redeemer, he finally yielded and received the blessing he was asking for; a new life. Christened with a new name to mark his conversion, he was set free from the stigma in his soul of being "Jacob, the cheater" but moving forward was to live his new life as Israel, the one who strives with God. In our struggles to win over our flesh and sin, we first have to lose in order to win. Jesus in Luke 9:24 said; "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." We therefore must lay down our will to be ruled by the LORD to conform to His, allowing His pruning to produce in us God-glorifying fruitfulness. + jourNics 2022-Nov-24