Genesis 32:1-12 "Jacob Fears Esau"
As Jacob started on his way again, angels of God came to meet him. When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, "This is God's camp!" So he named the place Mahanaim.
Then Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother, Esau, who was living in the region of Seir in the land of Edom. He told them, "Give this message to my master Esau: 'Humble greetings from your servant Jacob. Until now I have been living with Uncle Laban, and now I own cattle, donkeys, flocks of sheep and goats, and many servants, both men and women. I have sent these messengers to inform my lord of my coming, hoping that you will be friendly to me.' "
After delivering the message, the messengers returned to Jacob and reported, "We met your brother, Esau, and he is already on his way to meet you ~ with an army of 400 men!" Jacob was terrified at the news. He divided his household, along with the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups. He thought, "If Esau meets one group and attacks it, perhaps the other group can escape.
Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my grandfather Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac ~ O Lord, you told me, "Return to your own land and to your relatives.' And You promised me, 'I will treat you kindly.' I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps! O Lord, please rescue me from the hand of my brother, Esau. I am afraid that he is coming to attack me, along with my wives and children. But You promised me, 'I will surely treat you kindly, and I will multiply your descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore ~ too many to count,' "
...verses 22-32 "Jacob Wrestles With God"
During the night Jacob got up and took is two wives, his two servant wives, and his eleven sons and crossed the Jabbok River with them. After taking them to the other side, he went over all his possessions.
This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob's hip and wrentched it out of its socket. Then the man said, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!"
But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me.'
"What is your name?" the man asked.
He replied, "Jacob."
"Your name will no longer be Jacob," the man told him. "From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and men and have won."
"Please tell me your name," Jacob said.
"Why do you want to know my name?" the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.
Jacob named the place Peniel (which means "face of God"), for he said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared." The sun was rising as Jacob left Peniel, and he was limping because of his injury to his hip.
(Even today the people of Israel don't eat the tendon near the hip socket because of what happened that night when the man strained the tendon of Jacob's hip. (end)
GOD'S PURPOSE AND PLAN THROUGH OUR CIRCUMSTANCES
God is a God of circumstances. I am so glad He is, for life is made up of circumstances.
Many of the circumstances that we face are God-ordained and often may be completely independant of who we are and even whether or not we are serving God.
I have discovered that many, many, MANY of the circumstances facing people are those which have been allowed into their lives to disrupt and disturb them because of their lack of understanding of what the circumstances of life are all aout.
Often when circumstances seem to be against us the most, the way is paved for God to do such a great work of deliverance in our lives that we know 'beyond a shadow of a doubt" that it was His great arm that saved us.
One purpose of circumstance then, is that God might prove His power and His glory to a world that needs to see His majesty. Another very needful purpose is that He might prove Himself to us in such a way that we learn to trust Him with utter coonfidence no matter what the circumstances look like around us...(Robin is on my heart...
...)...We can
know that He will meet the circumstances of today and tomorrow...for He already has proved Himself in the circumstances of yesterday,
For a tremendous biblical example of a man whose life was caught up in a web of adverse circumstances that seemed completely overwhelming, read chapter 32 of Genesis.
Then God told Jacob to return, and in this chapter we find him doing that...in great fear...because he expected that Esau would still be angry and would hunt him down and kill him. This was a torment that Jacob lived under, hindering him from seeing the
good circumstances which also surrounded him. All the time the good circumstances outweighed the bad, but he didn't recognize that.
In his journey
"...the angels of God met him" (verse 1). Jacob saw the angels, yet he still continued in absolute fear. Jacob knew what God had promised him (verse 12):
""...I will surely do thee good..." and still Jacob feared.
Jacob had some deep soul searching to do, so he sent his wives and children and servants over the ford called Jabbok, which means "an emptying or pouring out."
What tormented Jacob?...and hindered the flow of God's power in his life?Two things...One, Jacob never realized the actual truth about his situation; and two, he did not understand his position.
I believe that if we, as Christians, knew the truth of our situations and understood our own positions, we would be spared much of the turmoil and uncertainty and fear to be found in our lives today.
Jacob was looking at his circumstances in the natural...from the standpoint of what he deserved, and what he had heard, and what he believed...not on the basis of what God had pomised him, or what God had done in the heart of his brother during his absence.
If we could just learn to see things as God sees them, if we just had His point of view, how different our lives would be!
Fear, as illustrated so well in this story, is a product of ignorance. Most of the time we are afraid of the unknown. For every fearful or overwhelming circumstance, God has the right viewpoint and is able to turn any circumstance completely around and give victory...THANK YOU JESUS!!! That is why it is important to know what our situation really is in the sight of God! If we are in Him, we can trust His understanding and just walk step by step with Him into victory.
The thief is Satan, and one of the things he seeks to steal is our positon or standing before God. And one of the main things he seeks to destroy is our self-image..<<(OH YES HE DOES TRY
!!)..Jacob did not understand his true position before God.
When your mind is conditioned to the extent that you see yourself as weak, you see yourself under failure, when that image of self is negative and incorrect, it blocks the power of God from flowing in your life to help you meet the circumstances that you face from day to day.
In verse 24, Jacob meets an angelic being in his wilderness. The angel reminds Jacob that he has power with God and with man and has prevailed (verse 28). Jacob needed to realize that he not only had this power, but that he was not acting like he had it...he was not using it. In other words,
Jacob was struggling to get what he already possessed!!! he was not partaking of the provisions that already had been given him!!!
FAITH IS A FACT...BUT FAITH IS AN ACT!!! What Jacob needed to do was realize who he was and act on that knowledge and authority. Because he didn't realize the truth of his circumstances, he struggled.
This is the condition in the lives of most Christians today. When the angel asked Jacob, "What is your name?" Jacob said,, "It is Jacob." The angel replied, "You are mistaken. I know you better than you know yourself. Your name is Israel" (verse 27-28).
The angel was saying: "One day up there in the heavens God changed your name from Jacob, the supplanter and deceiver, and He renamed you Israel. He made you a prince because of a promise that God gave to you, and you have power with God and with men. You do not know it...you are running and hiding and whimpering and crying...but you have POWER!!!
"But as many as receive Him, to them gave He POWER" (John 1;12).
"Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you"...(Luke 10:19).
Jacob's name was changed. As Jacob he had nothing...but as a prince of God he entered into a relationship with his heavenly Father that gave him power to meet the circumstances of life...the same power that now belongs to us through Christ Jesus. Amen!
I love you,
Verna.
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...you have TOTALLY misinterpreted what I posted! What is it REALLY that I've posted, that you are rejecting here?
...clueless...
