Tuesday, 1/13/2015

Never, never, never give up! ~ Winston Churchill

GENESIS 31, 32

Here again we find Jacob, manipulating and in fear.  God tells him to go, instead of facing Laban, he convinces Rachel and Leah to all leave without telling Laban.  Laban is angry and chases after him.  God intervenes in a dream so that Laban will not do harm to them.  They end up forming a covenant and Jacob gets to keep all his wealth.  

Jacob then sends a message to Esau, trying to win his favor.  However it seems to backfire in that Esau begins to pursue him with 400 men.  Jacob is terrified and prays to God.  He devises a plan to appease Esau and also protect himself by dividing up his possessions into two camps.  That night God wrestles with Jacob as a man.  God lets him overpower him and then touches his hip and wrenches it.  Jacob asks to be blessed by him and God gives him the name Israel, which means, "he fights and persists with God".

MATTHEW 10:24-42

Jesus continues to give his disciples instruction and warnings about the path they will follow.

• Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. (28)
• Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father...So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (31)
• Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (37-38)
• Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (39)

JOURNAL

God's grace is truly amazing!  Jacob is anything but a great leader.  He is manipulative, fearful, cowardly...definitely not the characteristics that I would seek as the man whom an entire nation will be named after.  He is a complete and total mess!  And God takes a mess of a man and builds a great nation.  

It is also fascinating to me this interaction between God and Jacob as they wrestle in the dark.  God lets him overcome.  He actually lets Jacob...this questionable mama's boy pin him.  It is continually here, over and over in scripture.  It is never by man's righteousness, but always God's grace in spite of man's weakness.  It is almost as if man's weakness is required before God will intervene...wait, no kidding...this is scripture, this is the point of it all.  

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)