Greg Laurie -- Do You Want Change?
Posted 05-30-2009 at 09:36:56 AM by meggers
It's interesting to look through the pages of Scripture and note how God came to various people in the way they needed Him to come.
To Abraham the pilgrim, God came as a traveler. Remember those three visitors who came to his tent before the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah? One of them was the Lord himself.
To Joshua the general, Jesus came as the Commander of the Lord's army, telling him to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground.
Jacob, in turn, was a wrestler. Figuratively speaking, he was always wrestling with people: he wrestled with his father Isaac . . . he wrestled with his brother Esau . . . he wrestled with his father-in-law Laban.
So the Lord came to Jacob as a wrestler. Psalm 18:26 says of God, "With the pure You will show Yourself pure; and with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd" (NKJV).
Therefore, the Lord shrewdly came to Jacob. Genesis 32:24 tells us, "Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day" (NKJV).
Jacob had been left alone with God. He was always conniving, always scheming, always plotting, and always had an idea. So the Lord stripped everything away and said, "OK, I want you alone with Me."
As the commentator C. H. McIntosh said, "To be left alone with God is the only true way of arriving at a just knowledge of ourselves and our ways."
The conniving, plotting, scheming Jacob was all alone with God, and they began to wrestle.
What God wanted from Jacob was his surrender. But that wasn't going to happen until Jacob came to the end of his strength. So on it went throughout the night.
Then a life-changing moment transpired for the scheming Jacob. Instead of fighting with God, He was clinging to Him. The Lord said, "Let Me go, for the day breaks" (Genesis 32:26 NKJV).
Jacob responded, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!" (verse 26 NKJV). It was a valid response on Jacob's part in asking for this blessing, because in surrender to God's plan, he would find what he always wanted.
To Abraham the pilgrim, God came as a traveler. Remember those three visitors who came to his tent before the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah? One of them was the Lord himself.
To Joshua the general, Jesus came as the Commander of the Lord's army, telling him to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground.
Jacob, in turn, was a wrestler. Figuratively speaking, he was always wrestling with people: he wrestled with his father Isaac . . . he wrestled with his brother Esau . . . he wrestled with his father-in-law Laban.
So the Lord came to Jacob as a wrestler. Psalm 18:26 says of God, "With the pure You will show Yourself pure; and with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd" (NKJV).
Therefore, the Lord shrewdly came to Jacob. Genesis 32:24 tells us, "Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day" (NKJV).
Jacob had been left alone with God. He was always conniving, always scheming, always plotting, and always had an idea. So the Lord stripped everything away and said, "OK, I want you alone with Me."
As the commentator C. H. McIntosh said, "To be left alone with God is the only true way of arriving at a just knowledge of ourselves and our ways."
The conniving, plotting, scheming Jacob was all alone with God, and they began to wrestle.
What God wanted from Jacob was his surrender. But that wasn't going to happen until Jacob came to the end of his strength. So on it went throughout the night.
Then a life-changing moment transpired for the scheming Jacob. Instead of fighting with God, He was clinging to Him. The Lord said, "Let Me go, for the day breaks" (Genesis 32:26 NKJV).
Jacob responded, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!" (verse 26 NKJV). It was a valid response on Jacob's part in asking for this blessing, because in surrender to God's plan, he would find what he always wanted.
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