![]() He named the place where they wrestled Peniel, which means “face” in Hebrew. In this moment, he is recognizing not only who he is but who he is in YHWH’s eyes, demanding blessing as he resolves to submit himself too YHWH. I see this akin to stepping up to the plate. Jacob has matured, he has faced YHWH face to face, struggled with Him, and figuratively prevailed in beginning the transformation into the man he is to be. ![]() Israel means “to wrestle or struggle with God”. He has behaved tempestuously more often than not.īut at this moment, a new man is born. Up until this point we have seen Jacob both rise and fall to the occasion before him. Israel has wrestled with YHWH, and this amazing story is just getting started. “Hear, O Israel! YHWH is our God, YHWH is one! “You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” ~Deuteronomy 6:4-5 You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart. Seek Him EARNESTLY, with ALL your heart, with every fiber of your being. Don’t give up until you see it, until you know, until you find shalom, the peace that only He can give. Wrestling with YHWH – meeting Him head on and not letting go until he was blessed through the encounter- changed Jacob’s identity. He can take it.Īnd when you are done, you will be blessed for it and your faith strengthened as a result, just as Jacob/Israel was. When you’re wrestling with something, wrestle it out with YHWH. We, as believers, have got to train ourselves not to treat YHWH as a last resort if we want Him to be our first line of defense. But instead I wasted precious years working on it of my own accord until I finally came down to the last straw and that is when I turned to Him. So often, I’ve found, when I had a problem or issue, YHWH was patiently waiting on me to come to Him with it. I’m not saying be disrespectful or irreverent in any way, just honest. So here is what I want to encourage you to do today: We are acting as if we can pull one over on the almighty, as if He isn’t God enough to know what is really happening within us.ĭo you see the ridiculousness in all of that? So what are we doing when we come to Him and pretend we aren’t doing any of these things? He knows when we are questioning His actions or a decision or a purpose. He knows when we are hurt or confused with Him. I didn’t question Him openly (outside of my own private thoughts), I pretended to be cool with all the circumstances that befell me when bad times hit, and I was a master at hiding my frustration when I felt like His word didn’t make sense.Īnd then, some years ago, the whole concept of wrestling with God really hit home with me. I don’t know about y’all but I spent a good bit of my life as a Christian thinking I was hiding things from the Father. Other places we’ve seen the Father appear in human form so far: I have much more to say about this in my private notes but this one passage steps on the toes of a lot of doctrine so I’ll keep my public notes simple: The text is clear this was YHWH and the Father has always always always remained so very near to us. There is just a lot to wrap your head around. This is not the first time we have seen YHWH declare Himself in Human form and the text is clear in these cases we’re reading that it is YHWH Himself. I mean, can you imagine hearing that said to you? This piece of Biblical history is extremely important to know. Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have wrestled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Genesis 32:28 Later on in that chapter we see Jacob wrestling with a man but this verse is huge: But we see in Genesis 32:12 that Jacob chose to go to the Father with his concerns and more importantly, remind himself of the promises of YHWH. Genesis 32 shows Jacob fearful that his brother, Esau, would attack him and his family. Today, I’m excited so forgive me if I hyper focus on a particular portion of our passage because it is a GAME CHANGER if we just open our eyes to it.įirst, I’ll point out a few other things before I get into what I’m so excited about. Good Morning, Siblings! Today’s readings are Genesis 32-34Ĭlick here to read today’s passages on BibleGateway. Quick note: If you’d like, you can follow me on Youtube and my personal Facebook. Audio listeners, there is additional content highlighted at the end of this post that is not included in the audio.
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