It Was God All Along

Genesis 32:24 and 30 (NLT) —

‘This left Jacob all alone in the camp and a man came and wrestled with him until dawn... Jacob named the place Penial – ‘Face of God' – for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face.''

 I used to love watching wrestling. It’s not the most wholesome sport, but it is exhilarating – especially when a chair is smashed over someone’s head. Put like that, no wonder my Mum didn’t approve! I loved wrestling but never intended to become a wrestler. Yet here I am. I don’t don spandex and hit people with chairs, but I regularly wrestle with doubt, discouragement, and disappointment.

 Do you too know what it is to wrestle?

 Jacob did. You may be familiar with the story where he famously ‘wrestled with God’, but as I've reread this story recently something has stuck out. In vs 24, we are told a man came and wrestled with Jacob; only in vs 30 does he declare it was God. Here's an important principle – sometimes you don’t know until after the event that it was God all along.

 Jacob must have thought this man was a foe out to harm in; then he realised it was God out to bless him. Is it possible that some of the areas we are wrestling in right now are areas in which God has taken a hold of us, intending to bless us?

 Do you wrestle with rejection? Perhaps God has something better for you. Do you wrestle with unanswered prayer? Maybe God is instilling in you greater patience. Or do you have a hard time believing the things God says about you? What if God is developing confidence that only comes from having gone to the depths of doubt.

 As the story unfolds God remarks ‘Let me go’ and Jacob refuses ‘I will not let go until you bless me’. Jacob emerged from the wrestle blessed - would that be true if he had exited early?

 For wrestlers the encouragement is simple; remain in the wrestle until you receive the blessing, and soon enough you will realise it was God all along.

 Prayer: Lord, I won’t let go until you bless me.