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There are three points that really stick out to me in this chapter.
Separation from the world will often allow us to become aware of God’s greater revelation.
In Genesis 31, we learn that Laban was holding Jacob back. It does not seem coincidental that right after Jacob leaves the presence of Laban, he gains a deeper knowledge of God’s presence. Angels were revealed to Jacob on his journey. The question I have wondered is whether or not these angels had been with him the whole time, or if they just cropped up on the journey? It is quite possible that being under Laban’s influence had blinded Jacob to this spiritual reality, and that they had been there the entire time.
Jacob trusted God’s promise with Laban but immediately feared Esau.
This happens all the time. God takes us through something and reveals his faithfulness, and soon after, we fall right back into the insanity of stress and anxiety when the next situation arises. Jacob knew that God was with him. This has been demonstrated vividly throughout these chapters in Genesis. However, God’s faithfulness did not automatically make Jacob immune to the “what-if” scenarios.
Sometimes we feel like we are on a roller coaster with God. We wrestle through fear and doubt despite knowing in our hearts that God is faithful and sovereign. We say, like the man with the demon-possessed son, “I do believe, help my unbelief.” Jacob was wrestling with God mentally and emotionally and God was about to take it to the physical.
Jacob didn’t want anything from God, but God decided to ambush the sin that was holding him back.
It is interesting when we consider that Jacob didn’t pick a fight with God. The Man came and found him and wrestled him until daybreak. Jacob’s pride and self-reliant attitude had to go. His patterns of sneaky, manipulative scheming were not of God.
“How did Jacob ever manage to keep up his struggle throughout the entire night? I do not know. But I do know that his determination to hang in there was no greater than our frequent determination to have our own way and eventually win out over God.”
James Montgomery Boice
I love this story so much because it shows just how serious God is about helping us get through our hurts, habits, and hang-ups. God met Jacob in his mess and on his own turf. He was patient with him, wrestling him all night long. In the end, Jacob had to come to a place where God would conquer him. He had to come to a place where all he could do is hold on. He had to come to a place of brokenness… literally.
Jacob (Israel) would never be the same.