So
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man
saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so
that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let
me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless
you bless me." The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he
answered. -- Genesis 32: 24-27 (NIV)
God knew what his name was beloved but he wanted to see if Jacob knew who he was. Did he know he was a deceiver? Did he know and understand his past? Was he ready to wrestle out of who he was and move into who God wanted him to be? God will always need to change who we think we are in order for us to be used by Him. He may need to change our name and what the world tells us it means. Or what our parents told us we would become. Or what our teachers spoke over our lives. Or how our sin and behavior had started to define us. Maybe you were Bob the drinker. Mary the adulteress. Joe the ex-felon. Suzy the woman who was raped. We all know these people. They sit next to us each and every Sunday in church. They are free in Christ except for that thing in their past that they still let define them. They are still filled with the dross of their past and desperately need God to purify it out of them. The sad thing is they have allowed it to define them for decades in some cases. The pain, the hurt, the addiction, the shame. All the things the devil will use against us as we try and advance in our walk with God. But for every Bob the drinker there also was Saul the persecutor. There was Jacob the deceiver. And the good news today is that God has a whole new name for you if you would just wrestle with him and refuse to let go:
Then
the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but
And thus the nation of
Lastly, while it important to not allow our past failures to
define our future in Christ it is equally important to not allow our failures
while following Christ deter us either. The Bible teaches us that we all have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The reality is that no matter how
spiritual someone may appear, it is only an appearance. We all will sin as long
as we reside in this flesh. The difference should be a conviction for that sin
from the Holy Spirit. Do you think Jacob was perfect after he became
So
the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is
with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don't really understand
myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I
hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that
the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that
does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful
nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but
I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what
I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me
that does it. I have discovered this principle of life--that when I want
to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. -- Romans 7: 14-21 (NLT)
Paul and Jacob were not plaster saints; they were human beings. Well after King David was considered a man after God's own heart he became an adulterer and a murderer. After three years of following Jesus and learning from Him and seeing all of the miracles first hand -- Peter still denied Christ three times. After being told he would! Being saved is not an end to sin but a beginning of recognizing it for what it is and minimizing the long term damage from it by repenting right away. King David would recover because he repented. There were still consequences from his actions -- sin always has consequences. But God restored him. Peter too would be restored by Jesus and would go on to preach the Pentecost sermon that saw God save 3000 and start the church we now are a part of.
The key verse today reminds us that when we allow our past
to define us we are actually looking at our life through human terms. Through
our human lens of failure and unforgiveness. We actually reduce Christ in our
lives to human terms when we allow the world to dictate the definition of who we
are. We strip Him of the power and victory that He appropriated for us on
Reverend Anthony Wade -- January 25, 2012
