8-10-2024

 Good Morning All,

            Genesis 32:24; “And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.”

    This is a passage from one of those stories in Genesis that many people remember.  This is where Jacob wrestled with God.  As daylight began to break, God touched Jacob’s hip, and the socket popped out.  Jacob holds on for a blessing and then also receives the name of Israel which means “striven with God and men and prevailed.”  This is always one of those interesting stories, imagine wrestling with God, all night, and then winning.  This goes against what most of us think.  God is this all powerful being that would never lose to a mere man in anything.  But here we have it. 

    So, we have Jacob wrestling with God, all night.  This is kind of amazing, but I would guess that most of us have at one time, or another wrestled with God all night.  Have you ever sat up all night while a loved one was in the emergency room or even having emergency surgery?  Have you ever felt that total loss of control in a situation and just sat there helplessly?  Have you ever looked out on the crops that you were growing and watch them wilt to nothing over a few days?  Have you ever had the job that you loved eliminated in a “restructuring” of the company?  Most of us have spent a night wrestling with God.

    What form that wrestling takes is always interesting.  It often has at some level, our bargaining with God.  Just as we think that there is no way Jacob could actually wrestle with the all-powerful Creator, we do the same thing.  We think we can offer God something that he doesn’t have, but we do, and then he must want it, so we offer it up.  We can do this all night.  We struggle and wrestle with God all night.  If we struggle hard enough, we will be emotionally, physically, and spiritually drained.

    The amazing thing is that God allows us to do this.  He does this so we will see that, in the end, we are not really struggling with God, but we are struggling with ourselves.  It is our sinful nature that leads us to think we have a better alternative to offer God.  It is often at these times that we experience what Paul speaks of when we see that God’s strength is revealed in our weakness.  In our time of greatest weakness, we see that we can only rely on God’s mercy to survive.

    That is what Jacob really received; he received God’s mercy.  We do as well.  God shows us his mercy even when we choose to wrestle with him and try to convince him that somehow, we know better.  He lets us wrestle until we see that he is our only hope.  So, as you find yourself wrestling with God know that his mercy will sustain you and will bring to you the comfort that you seek.

Father of all mercy, there are so many times that I struggle with you, but your grace keeps me in your arms.  Continue to protect me from the devil’s arrows.  Be with those who are especially struggling at this time and lead them to know your love.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret