This past Sunday, our Pastor taught on the story in Genesis 32 where Jacob wrestles with God all night. It was an excellent sermon, and very thought provoking.
For the first time, I wondered what God intended to do with or for Jacob that evening. He showed up with a plan. A good plan. A plan to help Jacob and not to harm him. The very best plan available.
Jacob, however, decided to fight.
Apparently, it wasn’t what God was expecting from him, because it says in 32:25 that God saw He wasn’t going to prevail against Jacob and changed his plan. He touched Jacob’s hip and the muscle shrank so that it was out of joint, but STILL Jacob chose to wrestle and strive. Why? What could Jacob possibly have thought was a good reason not only to wrestle in the first place, but to continue to fight after he was injured?
Why do WE fight against God? Why do we continue to wrestle even after we are hurt?
Has He ever let us down? No. He hasn’t. Why would He now? He won’t.
What plan could He possibly have for us that is NOT better than our own plan? When will we learn?
If Jacob had just met with God that night with faith and an open mind. If he had accepted whatever it was that God was intending when He showed up on the scene, would Jacob have lived a better, more productive, more pain-free life? You know that injury had to affect every single thing he ever did from that moment on – no more single-handedly working with the animals or carrying his children or helping with many chores etc… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll remember to ask God someday when I meet Him face to face.
In the meantime, I’m going to work much harder to accept God’s will the FIRST time He offers it to me. I’m intentionally going to be on guard against fighting, striving, arguing, and wrestling with Him by thinking (foolishly) that MY plans are better than His. Lame. I do it more often than I’d like to admit.
Isaiah 55: 8-9 clearly tells us that his thoughts and plans (‘ways’) are higher (better) than our own.
I think we could all learn something valuable from the little story that takes up only 10 verses in the book of Genesis. I know I did. Now, to put it into practice the next time God brings along something that I want to argue with Him about …