When we accuse one another, we do not see our brother’s faces (division separates us) or GOD IN THEIR FACES. Kjell Sjoberg, on Crete, 1993
… I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan but now I have become two groups. Genesis 32:10
Jacob fled Canaan alone and God met with him and spoke to him in his dream at Bethel. He made a Covenant with God there, that he would give God a tenth if God would bless him and bring him back to his own land. He’d also fled from his uncle Laban, whom God warned not to ‘say anything to him, good or bad’. Now he’s ready to cross back into the Land of Promise, but he has to FACE something from his past!
God had prospered Jacob and given him livestock and servants and also his large family – it wasn’t easy for him to be alone now. But Genesis 32:23 records that Jacob sent all he had across the stream at Jabbok (the Hebrew can mean ‘to empty itself’, a prophetic name!)
So Jacob was left alone and wrestled with a man until daybreak. Genesis 32:24
Jacob left the Land alone and came back and met God alone, both times. The first time in the dream with the Promise and again at the ford of the river. This time he wrestled with the man, much closer and more personal. The man eventually touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it, but Jacob still demanded a blessing. ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but ‘Israel’, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome’. He received a New Identity before he went back into the Land and he became a Patriarch for the whole nation of God’s people.
Jacob’s natural strength had been greatly weakened (‘poured out’, like Jabbok) in the confrontation and he still had to face his brother, whom he’d robbed twenty years before. OUR PAST LIFE HAS A WAY OF CATCHING UP WITH US, especially when God’s hand is upon our lives. Jacob still devised a plan to meet with Esau and appease his anger, but he was once again totally vulnerable. When he met Esau he bowed 7 times to the ground as he approached his brother. Genesis 33:3 God defended Jacob and Esau received his brother after the long separation. Unity was restored.
Jacob had to MEET ALONE WITH GOD to receive the personal things that God had for him and as we’ve seen this week, they involved many struggles in the natural and spiritual. He also HAD TO FACE THE THINGS OF THE PAST to have reconciliation with his brother and continue with God’s plans and purposes for his life.
We too may have to deal with outstanding issues from our past, asking forgiveness, to allow us to move on with our futures in God.
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