Once upon a time, long ago and in the book of Genesis, there was a man named Jacob. Jacob was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham. (Or as I refer to him in my earlier post, Abramaham.)
Jacob was born a grasping little fellow. When his twin brother Esau was born, Jacob followed him out holding onto his brother's heel. He sneaked his way into receiving his brother's birthright when they were older by convincing Esau to sell it to him in exchange for a bowl of soup. And, listening to his mother, he even tricked his blind dad into giving him the blessing that rightfully belonged to his firstborn brother by wearing a disguise.
After reading in Genesis about how he'd wronged his brother, I was at first a little less-than-impressed by Jacob. As I continued reading about Jacob (who God later called "Israel"), I started to have a change of heart. And here's why.
When Jacob convinced Esau to sell his birthright for a bowl of soup, Esau did it. Esau could have made his own stinkin' soup, but he didn't. He was essentially saying that the birthright wasn't that important to him. And when Jacob put on that furry disguise and liked to his dad, he was proving his desperation and motivation to receive that blessing. And then in Genesis 32, Jacob changes for me. He goes from being just a deceptive man, to being a man who demonstrates a quality that I myself would like to have. Let's take a look...
In Genesis 32:24-32 Jacob has a wrestling match...with God. Well, not with "God", but with God the form of a man. (We know God's capable of doing that, not only is he GOD after all, but He did it in the form of Jesus, too).
The portion of scripture goes like this: "Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak...then he (the man) said, 'Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.' but he (Jacob) said, 'I will not let you go until you bless me'."
Now, before this wrestling match, there is no mention as to how the two of them started to wrestle. But, we do know a little bit about aggressive, sneaky, grasping Jacob. For my own personal enjoyment, I'm going to imagine it went something like this:
Jacob gets ready for bed.
Jacob spots a man he recognized as an angel or God.
Jacob hides behind some bushes.
God, in the form of this man, walks by.
Jacob jumps out and puts GOD in a half nelson.
They wrestle all night.
Jacob has been practicing his half nelson moves, and won't let go of this "man".
The man asks Jacob to let him go.
Jacob, like he did with his brother's birthright, says he will in exchange for something...a blessing from God.
From grasping baby, to grasping man. What a sneaky fellow that Jacob was! And how I want to be more like him, in this one area at least. He saw an opportunity to be blessed by God...and he went after it with aggression! Even though during this wrestling match, God "cheated" by using a tiny bit of His power to dislocate Jacob's hip, Jacob held on. He held on through the pain and left with a limp...but he also left with a blessing.
In life, there are times we really have to fight to hold on to God. Trials come up, things go wrong, we get hurt. And so, we let go. We put God on a back burner, and try to focus on getting our lives back together. We stop paying tithes so we can "focus on our finances". We stop serving others because we "don't have the time". We stop spending time with God because we want to "spend time with our families". I put all of those excuses in quotation marks, because they are things we say, but aren't necessarily true. Your finances don't improve by neglecting your tithes, your day won't magically be filled with more time by ignoring the God who is capable of making the sun stand still in the sky (yes, He did that), and you won't be a better parent by ignoring your heavenly Father. What you DO get, is to leave with a limp. In worse shape than when you started. However, when you cling to God...you leave with a limp and a blessing.
Life happens. It always will. I, personally, would rather encounter those problems in life while actively and aggressively going after the things of GOD. It's only by holding firmly onto Him that I will not only get through it, but will live a life that God will bless because of my faithfulness and obedience to Him. I want to be a person that will run toward God without a second thought, and grab onto Him for dear life and never let go. That sneaky Jacob...he got something right. No matter what happens...hold on to Him.
And because I feel like sharing random information today, here's a YouTube link on how to do an actual Half Nelson wrestling move...Half Nelson Wrestling
You're right. Jacob actually is a great person. He is the person that wanted the blessing and valued the blessing and this is what made him great. There is a deep world we can learn from him. And that is that our heart and desire matters. The blessing isn't forced on us. Esau was actually suppose to receive it. It was his right. But that was changed because he despised it and Jacob regarded it preciously. Esau went out while Jacob stayed home. Imagine all the wonderful stories of faith he heard while he was there. He stayed close to the source of faith (his parents) and probably learned so much. In the end even their mother wanted him to have the blessing. But what is great is even greater than this is that with the blessing he didn't simply use it for himself. He was rich and everything went well but all that he had he used it to serve his brother. He used the blessing to reconcile and that is the mark of the greatest man. He lived the Gospel before there was even the Gospel. And so it is recorded now forever: God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob :)
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