World Wrestling

Sometimes we get impatient with God. We wrestle with our place in this world, get impatient, then seek a shortcut to obtaining God’s blessing. Yet what we acquire on our own is never the same as waiting on God to provide his blessing, and sometimes our tactics have repercussions.

We see this play out with Jacob in the Bible. In Genesis 27 we see how Jacob, with the help of his mother, deceived his father into blessing him instead of his first born son Esau. When Esau learns of this, he vows to kill Jacob. Jacob flees for his life with his brother’s grudge hanging over him. He now wrestled with the guilt of his deception.

Years later when Jacob is about to face Esau, he sends gifts ahead of him to try to appease him (Genesis 32:20-21). He pleads with God, “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children (11, NASB).” That night, alone, he wrestled with God. It’s interesting that Jacob clings to God, refusing to let go, unless God blessed him (26). Even though Jacob received the blessing from his father, the deception he used to obtain it made him feel remorseful. He craved a blessing from God.

It’s a good reminder that when we get ahead of God and try to use our own means to obtain blessings we desire, it comes with a cost. It can cause us to use deceptive means that create regret and guilt. It feels empty, leaving us wrestling with this world and God, still craving a blessing from God.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” – Genesis 32:28 (NASB)