"I Will Not Let You Go Unless You Bless Me"
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Genesis 32:26, which says:
"Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
For some, this might be considered as the most selfish verse in the Bible. This is an exchange between Jacob and God (or the Son of God, or an Angel of God) while they were wrestling at the time when Jacob feared for his life and the lives of his wives and children. It is as if Jacob was "coercing" God to bless him, OR ELSE. But the truth is far from that.
Given my present circumstances, I believe that I know exactly how Jacob felt at that time. I have no job security (thus, no financial security). I am plagued with health issues. Yes, I have family and friends who comfort, encourage, and pray for me. But it seems as if everything they tell me are words I have heard before, and I cannot find comfort in them. I cannot even hold on to my dreams because the enemy is working to take them all away from me. It seems as if I am at the end of my rope.
And then, I encountered Genesis 32:26 once again during my personal devotion this morning (June 12). I wish I am eloquent enough to express what I mean, but since I am no Bible scholar, I will let someone else do it for me. The devotional guide that we are following and studying everyday is "Climbing the Heights", a devotional compilation by Al Bryant. E.W. Moore brings new life to Genesis 32:26. He said:
"What were the results of this wrestling? First, trust. Jacob was a broken man, and what could a broken man do? How could a man with a limb disjoined wrestle? No, he must give up wrestling. There was but one thing he could do - cling to his adversary. It is to this that God must bring us. This is the end of all His wrestling with us. It is that you may cling round Him; it is that you may "cease to doubt", and "cease to resist" Him; it is that you may be content to live, what as yet you have perhaps little understood - a life of faith, a life of dependence on the Son of God..."
"And what beside trust? Why, triumph. ...His strength was gone, and yet in that hour, he conquered. He conquered in a power which was not his own."
"And then one thing more. Transformation. Jacob, now triumphant, must be transformed, and so the angel asks him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob". Crafty, cunning, defeated Jacob - is that your name? Thanks be to God, your name shall be no more called Jacob, you shall have another name. You shall rise above your old self, you shall be called Israel, a prince with God."
"...You must be willing to be broken, for then in that very inward death, your shall find the life of God."
"Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
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| Image from http://crossandcutlass.blogspot.com/2010/09/wrestling-with-god.html |
Given my present circumstances, I believe that I know exactly how Jacob felt at that time. I have no job security (thus, no financial security). I am plagued with health issues. Yes, I have family and friends who comfort, encourage, and pray for me. But it seems as if everything they tell me are words I have heard before, and I cannot find comfort in them. I cannot even hold on to my dreams because the enemy is working to take them all away from me. It seems as if I am at the end of my rope.
And then, I encountered Genesis 32:26 once again during my personal devotion this morning (June 12). I wish I am eloquent enough to express what I mean, but since I am no Bible scholar, I will let someone else do it for me. The devotional guide that we are following and studying everyday is "Climbing the Heights", a devotional compilation by Al Bryant. E.W. Moore brings new life to Genesis 32:26. He said:
"What were the results of this wrestling? First, trust. Jacob was a broken man, and what could a broken man do? How could a man with a limb disjoined wrestle? No, he must give up wrestling. There was but one thing he could do - cling to his adversary. It is to this that God must bring us. This is the end of all His wrestling with us. It is that you may cling round Him; it is that you may "cease to doubt", and "cease to resist" Him; it is that you may be content to live, what as yet you have perhaps little understood - a life of faith, a life of dependence on the Son of God..."
"And what beside trust? Why, triumph. ...His strength was gone, and yet in that hour, he conquered. He conquered in a power which was not his own."
"And then one thing more. Transformation. Jacob, now triumphant, must be transformed, and so the angel asks him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob". Crafty, cunning, defeated Jacob - is that your name? Thanks be to God, your name shall be no more called Jacob, you shall have another name. You shall rise above your old self, you shall be called Israel, a prince with God."
"...You must be willing to be broken, for then in that very inward death, your shall find the life of God."
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