God of mercy and peace, bless and protect the life and needs of this dear reader; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Our text for today comes from Genesis 32: 22 But during the night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions. 24 But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he couldn't get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob's hip out of joint. 26 The man said, "Let me go; it's daybreak." Jacob said, "I'm not letting you go 'til you bless me." 27 The man said, "What's your name?" He answered, "Jacob." 28 The man said, "But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it's Israel (God-Wrestler); you've wrestled with God and you've come through." 29 Jacob asked, "And what's your name?" The man said, "Why do you want to know my name?" And then, right then and there, he blessed him. 30 Jacob named the place Peniel (God's Face) because, he said, "I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!" 31 The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip. (The Message)
The Bible is a book with interesting characters. There is not a perfect one in the bunch, except Jesus. But the Old Testament is interesting and sometimes funny in a sad way, of the way we people live. Jacob was the prime example of dishonesty and greed. Born as the second twin, he grabbed his brother's heel as he was born so that he would be right behind his brother. And given the custom of the first-born getting everything, his brother was the heir of all things. But that didn't stop Jacob, he bought his brother's birthright for a bowl of beans. Later, with the help of his mother, tricked his aging dad from giving his blessing to the right son and got it for himself. And later when he met the girl of his dreams, his father-in-law tricked him into working for free for 14 years so that he could have the girl of his dreams and her older sister (yes, it was allowed in those days). Then the same man was tricking him into more years of service with the arrangement they made regarding livestock. And all this while Jacob's older brother he thought, fumed about his having been cheated out of everything rightfully his. Did you get that? Should I diagram it? No wonder he fled a lot and had trouble sleeping!
In today's passage he had an interesting dream where he wrestled with "a man" who threw Jacob's hip out of joint to get the match to end. Jacob did not want to let the man go because he knew something was going on. The man changed Jacob's name to Israel, which means "One who wrestles with God." The name would become the name of a nation made up of people who wrestled and still wrestle with God. This story is about you and me. It is the basis of why we need God and God's love. We are a people given in to following things that benefit us rather than bless God. It is in our nature to watch out always for ourselves and our families, seldom do we truly care about others. We "limp" through life until we surrender completely to God's love and mercy. Until we do we too, will have sleepless nights where it will seem we are wrestling with God.
PRAYER: Loving God, let me completely surrender to You today. Let me seek to be all about blessing You and Yours rather than just me and mine. I pray this in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord.
Eradio Valverde
