In a certain pond, there were two ducks and a frog who were neighbours and the best of friends. They played together all day long during the summer time. But as the cold drew near and the water dried up, the ducks realized they would have to move. This would be easy for them, but what about their friend the frog? Finally it was decided that they would put a stick in the bill of each duck, and then the frog would hang onto the stick with his mouth and they would fly him to another pond. And so they did. Just then, a farmer looked up and said to his wife, "What a great idea! I wonder who thought of that?" Proudly, the frog said, "I did!" Thus illustrating: "Pride goes before a fall!"
Jacob the resourceful and aggressive planner and schemer who thought he was the author of his destiny seemed to be losing grip. Genesis 32 tells the story of a Jacob who comes face to face with God and finds himself wrestling with Him. Until that point, things were working out somewhat fine. The life with his father in law at Haran (Paddan Aram) was place of learning the hard knocks of life. Even there, He found God was on his side blessing him. He went to his mother’s brother Laban there and wanted to marry his daughter Rachel. Laban offered Rachel for seven years of service to him after which Laban gave Leah, the older, less attractive one. Later on Laban made him work for another seven years for Rachel, and six more years for his sheep - a total of twenty years of hard work.
We see that Jacob seemed to delight in trickery and deceit. He thought he would succeed in life by deceiving others including his father. But life turns around sometimes. He thought he was smarter than his brother and father when he tricked them. Now he finds out that there are people smarter than him. He is to deal with Laban, his father in law who is smarter and more astute. The one who cheated his own father now gets cheated by his father-in-law; not once, not twice, but ten times!!! (Genesis 31:7). Jacob and Laban are portrayed as two shrewd business men than relatives. The Bible tells (Proverbs 20:17) us, "Food gained by fraud tastes sweet to a person, but he ends up with a mouth full of gravel"
The trickster gets tricked, the cheater gets cheated and he had no choice but to run again. But where can he go? He couldn't go home because Esau was there waiting to kill him. Jacob was between a rock and a hard place.
In Genesis 31:40, Jacob says, "This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes." Jacob decided to flee from Laban to his father's home. One time Laban had to go away fromhome for a few days. Jacob took his wives and servants, all his cattle and ran away from Laban. He was not left alone, but with two wives and two other women and a bunch of children. Talk about life's curve balls, that get thrown by ourselves many times. Jacob decided to move on with life, but he collected a lot of baggage. He takes all of them and goes back to his father and mother and also his brother.
Laban is no more mentioned anywhere in the Bible, and he disappears from history. On the way back home, Jacob was very worried that his brother Esau would not forgive him and would kill him. He prayed to God for protection. He stayed the night in the place alone at the ford of the Jabok, where they had to cross a stream. There, he spent the night wrestling with a man who was in fact God. It was the wrestling of an ambitious, energetic, sometimes deceitful young man against a God who is omnipotent. In that struggle, God decided to end the fight by touching Jacob's hip. This was not the touch that healed - as we usually expect the touch of God to be - this was a touch of God which crippled. He became handicapped for the rest of his life.
But along with his new body, God gave him a new name, Israel. God asked Jacob, "what is your name?" Jacob was pretending to be his older brother to achieve the successes he wanted. Jacob stole the blessing of Esau from his blind father Issacc pretending that he was Easau. (Gen 27:19). Now the very first time, he acknowledges before God that he is truly Jacob, the schemer, the trickster and the deceitful. Jacob had to let go his self and let his God be the 'God of Jacob'. When he met Esau, Esau accepted him in love, something which all his ingenuity and plotting could not accomplish. Nothing but a divine force could work that change in Esau.
God intervenes when we struggle with our identity. In Chapter 35, we read that his name was changed by God to “Israel” meaning “he struggles with God” (Genesis 35: 10) to reflect this experience and he called that place Peniel, that means the face of God. On his way to Paddan Aram, he had an experience of God at Bethel, and on his return he experienced God at Peniel. Our places of Bethel and Peniels in life are meant to make us new and fresh. They give us a fresh perspective of who we are and who God is.
Very good presentation. God bless.
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