Jacob was first a man of the flesh—he was Jacob the deceiver. He is now a man fighting and struggling within himself, and he sends everyone across the stream and is left alone. Soon he will encounter God in a way he never has before.

 

Jacob had encountered God at Bethel. At this encounter, Jacob responded to God by giving him a test: “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God” (Genesis 28:20–21).

 

Jacob then encountered God at Mahanaim in Genesis 32:1–12, and he called on Him to get him out of the mess he was in with Esau.

 

Now Jacob will encounter God again, and this time Jacob will encounter God with his heart. I believe God has been waiting for Jacob’s heart to finally call upon Him.

 

We all are first born of the flesh. We are all also born with God evident within us and around us (Romans 1:19). God blesses us all with encounters of His truth and with the reality of His presence (Psalm 19:1). We all have struggled in some way, wrestling with the idea of God.

 

Jacob now is alone with God. Here across the ford of Jabbok he goes toe to toe with a man, a man that I believe to be an angel, possibly even the pre-incarnate Christ. He wrestles with this angel. The angel allows Jacob to keep struggling with him, but he reaches out and dislocates Jacob’s thigh with just a touch of his hand. I believe he did this just to remind Jacob that he was in control the whole time.

 

Jacob did not let go after the touch. He held on tight. Jacob had finally come to realize that he needed God. He now understood that he could go no farther without God. He knew that he did not just want what God had to offer him; he did not just want God to get him out of trouble. He just wanted God.

 

Know, precious one, that if you are wrestling with God, He wrestles you as a lifeguard wrestles someone drowning in the water. Oftentimes when a person is drowning, he fights the one who is trying to save him as much as he fights the water that he is drowning in.

 

A lifeguard is trained to knock out a drowning victim if he continues to fight him so that he may safely bring him out of the water. God wrestles with us to bring us life and save us from this body of death. Sometimes God has to knock us out to save us. Sometimes He has to dislocate our thigh so that we remember that He is in control.

 

Ultimately we have to choose to either submit to Him and honor Him as God, or to keep fighting and become harder in heart and die without Him, eternally separated.

 

There comes a time in every person’s life when he or she is left alone, alone with God. The time will come in all our lives when the wrestling match will go toe-to-toe, no holds barred.

 

Have you been in the wrestling match?

Are you struggling with the reality of God?

Are you struggling with understanding that God desires all of you?

Are you fighting and struggling within yourself?

Have you realized that you agree with the law of God in your inner man but see that the members of your body do not want to obey His law?

Do you see that evil is present within you?

Is there a wrestling match going on between the law of your mind that knows what is right and this body of flesh that wants to do wrong?

 

Oh, precious one, have you cried out as Paul cried out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death” (Romans 7:24)?

Have you cried out as Jacob did, “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Genesis 32:26)?

 

This war, this wrestling match, does not end at salvation. While we remain here in this body of flesh, we will wage war. When we submit and hold on to God just as Jacob did, we too will become men and women obedient to the faith (Romans 16:25–27).

 

Have you been toe-to-toe with God?

 

Remember this, my friend: “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).

 

 

 

How I love You. You are my God. Oh Father, thank You that Your relationship with me is intimate and personal. Oh, thank You for Your Word, so that I may speak to You face-to-face. I can go toe-to-toe with You through Your Word. Then I must choose to either submit to You and Your Word and order my life accordingly or suffer the consequences of disobedience and unbelief. Oh Father, when times come that I wrestle with You, help me to tap out quickly. Oh Father, I believe in You and I trust in Your every word. Continue to transform me into the image of You from glory to glory
(2 Corinthians 3:18).

 

 

How do we face someone we have wronged or angered?

We must face them in humility.

And according to Genesis 32:5, bringing along a gift appears to help.

 

Jacob is in the process of learning that if we are to be in a right relationship with God, we must also be in a right relationship with our fellow man. In Luke 2:52 we read that Jesus increased in favor with God and with man.

 

Christ came to be our Savior and to be our standard.

 

The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36–40). God simply will not allow us to go on unreconciled. God came in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ so that we could be reconciled to the fellowship that we lost with Him in the garden. He died for us and gave us the gift of the shed blood of His only begotten Son.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Genesis 32 we discover the first time that Jacob calls upon the name of the Lord. He is about to have to encounter his brother, Esau. Jacob has found himself between a rock and a hard place. He has Laban behind him, and he has Esau before him, who the last time he saw him, was ready to kill him. So with nowhere to run and fear gripping him, Jacob turns to God.

 

Jacob cries out, asking for God’s deliverance. He doesn’t ask out of his own merit or out of his own right, for Jacob has come face-to-face with his own unworthiness. Jacob appeals to God from the promise that God Himself had made him. He appeals to God according to the covenant and according to the word of God.

 

We are beginning to see evidence of the work that God has been doing on Jacob’s heart. He is finally coming to the realization that all that he has is because of the God of his fathers. He has come to know that God has kept the words that he spoke to him at Bethel(Genesis 28:13–15). He now comes before God and reminds God of these words, of this promise, again. He knows that he does not deserve God’s help, but he knows that God honors His word.

 

Jacob’s deliverance was not based on his righteous acts but on the covenant of God. “For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4:13). God had promised Jacob that He would see him safely home. He had promised him that his descendants would inherit the land. He had promised him that He would not leave him until He had done all that He had promised him. This promise was made to Jacob, the deceiver. This promise was made before Jacob claimed the God of his fathers as his own.

 

This is the same confidence we have today. The promises of God are never first made to the saint. They are made to the sinner. When the sinner hears the promise, he then comes before God and appeals to Him according to His word. The sinner comes knowing he does not deserve God’s deliverance, but still he comes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacob takes his wives, his children, and his livestock and leaves without saying good-bye. Laban then follows in hot pursuit. When Laban finally catches up to Jacob, God appears to him in a dream and warns him not to speak to Jacob either good or bad. God knew the wrong that Laban had done Jacob, and God also knew the wrong that Jacob had done by secretly fleeing.

 

Laban chooses to obey God because he is not ignorant of His power.

 

Laban shares his dream with Jacob, and Jacob is reminded once again, as are we, that God is El-Roi, a God who sees. Jacob and Laban make a covenant, and they build a memorial to this covenant so that their sons and daughters would know to honor it.

 

The memorial was named Galeed, which means “heap of witness,” and Mizpah, which means “watchtower.” Laban says, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from another.” It is the Lord himself who watches over covenants.

 

Whether the covenant be between God and man or between man and man, the Lord watches over it. When a covenant is made, God is the one who holds us accountable.

 

In 1 Peter 4:11 we read, “Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God.”

 

In James 5:12 we are told, “Do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.”

 

As Christians we should live our lives in such a way that when we give our word, people can count on it, because it is not to them we give our word, but to God. In turn, as Christians, we should not live our lives consumed with making sure others keep their word. We don’t have to. God is who all have to give an account to, so ultimately, they have not broken their word to us; but to God.

 

Amen.

 

Uncle Laban has been using his authority and position to manipulate and change the rules on Jacob since Jacob moved to town. Jacob has discovered that God’s continual blessing of him, no matter what Laban does, has brewed some jealousies among Laban and Laban’s sons.

 

Depending on the condition of the heart, sometimes others respond to God’s blessings upon us with bitterness and hardness. This has been seen all through history; nations have enjoyed the presence of the blessing of God on His people. They have loved how it grew their kingdom, built their wealth, and provided them with their needs and luxuries. They have enjoyed the products developed and the hand of help in times of need, yet somehow, so many of their hearts have been moved to the jealousy of Laban and his sons.

 

In my opinion, this has never been more greatly seen in our time than in WWII through the Nazi regime. How easily Hitler stirred his people to hatred of the Jews still astounds me today.

 

The enemy of our souls knows hate, he knows lies, and he knows evil jealousy. Those who turn a deaf ear to the Word of God are easily stirred by the lies of the serpent of old. He stirs hate against the people of God, both Jew and Christian.

 

The Lord appears to Jacob and tells him to return home and He would be with him. Jacob is beginning to understand the power of his God for himself. He will learn more and more throughout his years, just as his fathers did. Jacob is getting a glimpse at the sovereignty of God; this God that promised he would be with him.

 

Jacob knows the power and might of the God of his fathers. He also knows that it is only by the hand of God that he has been protected from Laban and his sons. If God so protected Jacob, He will also protect us.

 

In Genesis 15:1, God told Abraham, “I am a shield to you”—a shield protects. We can know without any doubts that if God has called us to a place, He will protect us. “As for God, His way is blameless; the word of the Lord is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him” (Psalm 18:30).

 

No one can touch us unless God has allowed it for the sake of His perfect will.

 

In John 7:30 we read, “So they were seeking to seize Him; and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.” How many times those who hated Jesus tried to kill Him, but they could not touch Him because it was not His time.

 

We see this truth illustrated again and again through the pages of the New Testament. We read in the book of Acts about the sufferings of Paul. How many times were attempts made on his life but they would not succeed because God was protecting him? We read of a time on the sea when a great storm arose but the whole crew was saved as they entered under the shield of God with Paul, His servant (Acts 27:24).

 

My precious one, God has not changed. Let us never forget that His name is a strong tower and when the righteous run in, they are safe (Proverbs 18:10).

 

You are my God! You are with me wherever I go. Oh, that I would always be in the center of Your will. Help me, Father, to stay on the path that You have laid out for me. Forgive me for my lack of faith. I have no reason to fear and no reason to doubt, for I have You, the Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe, dwelling within me. For what reason should I ever fear? “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).
In You, my Jesus, there is even no fear of death. For You have given me victory over this enemy called death (1 Corinthians 15:57), and all things short of death You will give me the strength to endure. For You are my God and Your grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9).

 

 

After Rachel bore Joseph, her first son, Jacob came to Laban and asked for his blessing and permission to take his wives and children and return to his own country. Laban had come to realize that the presence of Jacob had been good to him. Laban knew that the God of Abraham and Isaac had been blessing him because of Jacob.

 

Jacob carried with him the Abrahamic Covenant, which promised that God would bless those who blessed him and curse those who cursed him. God is true to His word. This covenant is not conditional to the obedience or character of man; it is solely based on God.

 

Today we can still know that those who bless Israelwill be blessed, and those who curse Israelwill be cursed. Oh precious one, do not think for one minute that God has forgotten His Israel, nor His covenant with them. “Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant, O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me” (Isaiah 44:21).

 

In Micah 7:20 we read that God will give truth to Jacob and unchanging love to Abraham. We become a part of this unchanging love when we enter into the new covenant in Christ. We who are Gentiles must remember that when we were separate from Christ we were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. It is only in Christ that we have been brought near (Ephesians 2:12–13).

 

God uses His people to be a blessing to those in the faith and to those outside the faith.

 

To those in the faith the Word declares, “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24). In Philippians 4:18, Paul writes, “I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.”

 

To those outside the faith the Word declares, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:44–45).

 

He saved us that we might become a blessing (Zechariah 8:13). Let us live our lives in such a way that others, especially those outside the faith, see that they are blessed by the Lord on our account. May we always give all glory to God.

 

 

 

 

Jacob responds to Rachel’s cry with anger instead of prayer, which leads to what I like to call the “wife wars.” God has placed the husband as head of the household, and his choices and his actions affect the course of the family. We should never forget the importance of the role of husbands.

 

In Leah’s and Rachel’s desperation to be number one in the heart of Jacob, they force their two maids, Bilhah and Zilpah, to allow Jacob to go into them and bear sons for them.

 

I can’t help but wonder if the history of the nation of Israel might have been a little different had Jacob learned from the choices of his fathers; if he had learned from Abraham, who listened to the voice of his wife and went into her maid and refused to do so himself. If he instead had prayed for his beloved Rachel as Isaac had Rebekah, maybe things would be different.

 

However, I know that God is sovereign, and I know that from Leah came Judah, the father of David, the father of Mary, through whom Christ would enter this world in the flesh.

 

Jacob has such a long road ahead of him, and behind him lays the path of havoc wreaked by his choices. He has yet to place his faith in God. He has yet to seek righteousness. He is still just going through life, living according to his own strength, making choices according to his own flesh. He has yet to learn that he needs to trust in the Lord with all his heart and lean not on his own understanding, but acknowledge God in all his ways and God will make his path straight (Proverbs 3:5–6).

 

The good news is that one day he will learn.

 

Jacob also will learn that even in the mistakes of life—even in the sin, the rebellion, and iniquity—God’s purpose will not be thwarted. In our God there is always hope. He reigns supreme. God not only makes our path straight, but He also clears the way.

 

 

 

 

Jacob awakes the morning after his wedding to discover that it is Leah beside him and not his beloved Rachel. He goes to Laban and confronts him about this deception.

 

Laban offers Rachel for another seven years of labor. Jacob chooses to work seven more years in order to take Rachel as his second bride. Laban allows Jacob to marry Rachel after the completed wedding week of Leah.

 

Leah is immediately shoved to the wayside because Jacob’s heart always belonged to Rachel. The Lord, however, saw the hurt of Leah—after all, He is El-Roi.

 

The Lord opens Leah’s womb, and she conceives a son. Leah hopes against hope that this will win the affections of her husband, but it does not. She conceives and bears Jacob three more sons, and still her husband does not love her as he does Rachel. By the time she reaches the birth of baby number four, Leah says, “This time I will praise the Lord” (Genesis 29:35).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” Jacob practiced in deceit and trickery. Both Esau and Isaac had experienced Jacob’s ways of deception, which it seems he might have gotten from his mother’s side of the family.

 

Jacob had served his uncle Laban, his mother’s brother, for seven years for his beloved Rachel. The day of the wedding had finally arrived, and a huge ceremony was taking place. The dancing and food and, of course, the wine were in abundance. The time had come for Jacob to go into his bride, and he did, but when he awoke the next morning it was not Rachel beside him, but her sister, Leah.

 

If you look back just through the past twenty-eight chapters of Genesis, you can see time after time where drunkenness has led to huge, life-altering issues.

 

In Genesis 9:20–27, Noah’s drunkenness leads to his uncovering his nakedness in his tent, and his son Ham sees and ridicules him before Shem and Japheth, and he and his descendants are cursed for it.

 

In Genesis 19:30–38, the daughters ofLot make their father drunk and they allow him to go into them in order to get pregnant.Lot was so drunk that he did not realize he was going into his daughters. Jacob was so intoxicated that he did not realize that he was not consummating his marriage with the woman he had loved enough to work seven years to have.

 

Is there any wonder why Proverbs 20:1 says, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise”? Can you even imagine the humiliation that flooded these men of Scripture?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I read this verse, I am reminded of my service to Christ. No matter the years of service devoted to my Savior, they seem only but a few days because I love Him so much.

 

This verse, even more so, leads me to think of Christ as He stands at the right hand of God the Father, interceding on behalf of the church and serving her to the point of death on a cross. Romans 5:8 tells us that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” God laid aside His glory, He laid aside His throne, and He came to this world in the form of man that He might reconcile us to Himself through the cross of Christ (Colossians 1:20).

 

Jacob left his home and went out to seek his bride. Jesus left his throne and came to not only seek His bride but to bring life to His bride. He serves for His bride. He has served her for over two thousand years, and yet He says, “Beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” (2 Peter 3:8).

 

Christ’s days of service for His bride are many years, yet they are only as a few days because He loves her so much. He still waits for His wedding day.

 

Christ made Himself ready; He has done all He needs to do. He stands at the end of the aisle by His Father, and He waits for His bride to enter through the narrow door and walk the path to Him.

 

True love is worth waiting for. True love is worth dying for—dying not just physically, but dying to our own self, our own wants, our own dreams, our own desires. True union begins in our commitment to one another, and the covenant binds that commitment.

 

A marriage is formed because two have committed their lives to each another before the ceremony. The ceremony is only an outward display of what has already inwardly taken place. It is a demonstration before witnesses, and it binds the commitment.

 

Jacob loved Rachel and demonstrated his love to her by his service. He willingly served Laban seven years for her. Jacob waited to be with the one he loved.

 

In this day, waiting is not popular. Many of us have believed the lie of the enemy and have allowed ourselves to be convinced that love does not wait. How often do we hear, “If we love each other, why wait?” How many have jumped into a marriage that was not God’s plan because they simply were tired of waiting? How many have become sexually involved before they were married because they were not willing to wait?