For forty years I led you through the desert … yet your sandals did not wear out." Duet. 29:5
Jacob wrestled with a “man” – an angel of God -all night long, and prevailed. In so doing, his name was changed to Israel.
Who started the fight? Jacob had prayed earnestly earlier that day, appealing to God’s faithfulness and his promises to him and to his father and grandfather before him. Apparently, Jacob’s appeals became more fervent as the day wore on.
Perhaps earnest, life-changing prayer is a lot like a wrestling match.
“For twenty years I have been with you, caring for your flocks.”
Jacob spent twenty years working for his uncle Laban, who changed his wages ten times! God used a deceitful relative to teach Jacob a lesson; Jacob himself had deceived his father Isaac in order to receive the blessing belonging to the firstborn.
And yet the plan of God – this “fearsome God of Isaac” – is fulfilled, even through men and women whose hearts are deceitful.
Perhaps Jacob knew something about genetics or epigenetics when he placed the peeled limbs in the watering troughs. Perhaps the LORD instructed Jacob to do it (even though it’s not mentioned) as an act of obedience preceding a miracle. The bottom line is this: that the LORD was determined to bless Jacob.
The bottom line is often all that we can (or really need to) understand this side of eternity.
“When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, he enabled her to have children.”
He is the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, but not exclusively. He had compassion on Leah in her loneliness.
Esau and Cain faced somewhat similar circumstances. Both were firstborn sons. Both were “passed over” by the LORD in favor of the younger brother. Both became enraged and sought revenge.
The LORD’s words to Cain would also be appropriate for Esau: “Why are you so angry? Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you.”
Cain refused to do what was right, and murdered his brother. It was his choice. And now Esau, despite the “blessing” just received from his father, must choose.
The God of Cain and Abel, the God of Esau and the God of Jacob is the same God.
Abimelech, king of the Philistines, was an upright man. He rebuked both Isaac and his father Abraham for lying in the same way.
Nevertheless, the Lord was with Isaac and blessed him. Abimelech acknowledged the same, and sought a treaty of peace with Isaac.
God’s design is to bless the world through his people. As He promised Abraham, “All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife Rebekah, who was barren. For twenty years they were unable to have children.
God did not withhold from them the joy of children because he wanted to make their lives miserable. We are not sure why twenty years passed before Rebekah became pregnant with twins.
But surely God was pleased with Isaac when he pleaded with him — as He was pleased with Abraham when he pleaded for the safety of his nephew in Sodom, or Job when he wrestled with God over his circumstances.
“But God heard the boy crying.”
God is not deaf. He is not unconcerned; even the cry of a poor servant girl over her son did not go unnoticed.
“Abram… built the altar, and there he worshiped the Lord.”
He worshiped . Abram is the first man of whom it is written that he worshiped the Lord.
As he stood before the altar and the burning sacrifice in this strange, new land, what thoughts must have flooded his mind…
The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I will make you into a great nation… I will give this land [of Canaan] to your descendants.”
But then a famine struck the land; Abram journeyed down to Egypt to find food. Fearing that Pharoah’s coveteousness might lead to violence, he directed his wife to lie and say, “I am his sister. I am not his wife”.
Why was this necessary? Had he forgotten what the Lord had promised? “I will give this land [of Caanan]to your descendants “.
God’s sovereign will might mean suffering and hardship for a time – Job learned that – but it might mean blessing and protection even in very dangerous circumstances.
Suffering may be a means to an end, but blessing
is the end.
