Gen 25:27<\/a>\u00a0says Jacob spent most of his time at home. So Rebekah takes over his life and arranges everything for him. She teaches him how to cook. She arranges for him to get the blessing, she arranges for his deliverance from Esau by sending him to her brother Laban, telling him everything will work out fine.<\/p>\nSo I think we can see that Jacob came from a fairly typical family. His mother had a tendency to want to take control. The father let her. His brother was just a natural man concerned with the things of this world.<\/p>\n
I do think we can assume that Jacob knew that he was supposed to end up with the birthright eventually. I\u2019m sure his mother told him what the Lord had told her. (The older will serve the younger). What this event shows us is that Jacob was not willing to wait on the Lord.<\/p>\n
It is ironic but that Jacob left the promised land which was part of his blessing. It ought to be obvious to Jacob that there is something wrong with this picture. It ought to indicate that the way Jacob got the blessing was not what God would have planned.<\/p>\n
However, we see that in spite of Jacob\u2019s deceitful way of obtaining the blessing, God is going to honor it.<\/p>\n
But that night God, who is still trying to get through to Jacob, meets with Jacob in a wrestling match!\u00a0 Verse 24 says, \u201cJacob was left alone.\u201d It is such a little phrase, but I think it is very, very important. He had run out of resources. Jacob has finally been broken. Jacob is at the end of his rope. His life is a mess. He is all alone, he has exhausted his own resources and has to face Esau alone. I think Jacob is finally broken to the point where he will now trust in God.<\/p>\n
As soon as we see that Jacob is alone, it says that \u201ca man wrestled with him.\u201d That man is God. We know that because Jacob is given a new name, \u201cIsrael\u201d which means \u201che fights with God.\u201d<\/p>\n
What did God do to Jacob when He wanted to get hold of Jacob\u2019s life?<\/p>\n
He revealed Himself to him.<\/p>\n
God says \u201clet me go\u201d!\u00a0 But Jacob wouldn\u2019t let go. He says, \u201cI won\u2019t let you go unless you bless me.\u201d Jacob has finally come to the point where he would rather die than live without God\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n
Jacob\u2019s name was changed to Israel when he finally began to trust in God. Israel was God\u2019s covenant name for the new nation. The name \u201cJacob\u201d represents independence from God and \u201cIsrael\u201d represents dependence on God. It is not a hard and fast rule, but it seems to me that there are certain places in the OT where God calls the nation, \u201cJacob,\u201d instead of, \u201cIsrael,\u201d and it is because they are acting independently.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, after he meets with God, we see that although he left the people divided into two groups, instead of hiding behind them, he now goes out in front of them to face Esau alone. He now is depending on God and not his own resources. Esau receives him openly and it seems that there are no hard feelings, forgiveness and reconciliation happens. God has paved the way for Jacob to return to the promised land.<\/p>\n
Jacob\u2019s problem?\u00a0<\/b>He wanted to control his life, so he manipulated people. Jacob thought he could make it on his own without God, yet only with his “new name” did reconciliation happen and he was able to return to the “terrain” of blessing.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on our lives – yes this is a problem, a challenge, a promise and blessing as we go from independence to dependency on God.<\/p>\n
Wishing a blessed week!<\/p>\n
Philemon<\/p>\n
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Good Monday Morning to this week 25 of 2019 Then Jacob said, \u201cO God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, \u2018Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you\u2019:\u00a0 I am not worthy of the least of all the … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Independence or Dependence”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warapunga.ch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}