February 6, 2014 Wrestling Into New Life

Wrestling into New Life

 Genesis 32

Gen 32:28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

 
“BORN AGAIN” is a phrase in today’s Christian language for a person who has asked God to forgive his or her sins, and he or she has welcomed Jesus as the Lord of their lives. “Born again” is new life released from sin’s condemnation into salvation’s promise.

      Jacob’s wrestling match with God is a physical picture of the spiritual battle between our sin nature and God’s holiness. Jacob’s story to this point has been one of sin and deceit against Esau, his wives and Laban. God had world-changing plans for Jacob’s family, and he came to re-create Jacob into a man who would turn his trust completely to God.

      Through the wrestling match, God gave to Jacob a new name and a new life with his family. “Born again” Jacob repented of his past and began to seek forgiveness from his brother Esau. No longer could he live in the shadow of guilt.

      Yes, wrestling with God sounds really weird, but we, too, wrestle with God, don’t we? We hear and read his Word. Yet we say, “Who me? I’ll do that later, God.” Or we say, “I’m all for following you, Jesus, but this sacrificial living is too much for me.” Our sin nature wrestles with his will to a point. But if God has chosen you to be born again, one day he will come to “touch your hip”. He will turn your resolve against him into humility and worship before him. His will is what will be done in you. You will stop wrestling with God and start embracing his strength.

      Are you wrestling with God? Pray for his Spirit to touch you and weaken you that he will give to you a new strong life of trust in Jesus.

LIFE Link: Wrestling ends with a loving embrace.

February 5, 2014 God's Work

God's Work

Read Genesis 31

Genesis 31:53-55 So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac. 54 He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there. 55 Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.

CHAPTERS 30 & 31 of Genesis are a long account of Jacob going to find a wife, marrying Leah (against his will) and Rachel. He then has through these women and their two servants Bilhah and Zilpah the sons that would eventually become the fathers of the 12 Tribes of Israel.

      It is a difficult account to read. Jacob fathers his children through Leah, Rachel’s maidservant Leah’s maidservant, and finally Rachel. But one born to Rachel is Joseph, and God has prepared the next act of the drama that will eventually form the people Israel.

      For his own reasons, God has set the stage in a way we wouldn’t expect. Why not have Jacob take one wife and have his children through her? It would seem to be more pure, and there possibly would be less contention in Jacob’s household.

      With the rivalries that would develop among his sons and in the issues Jacob had with his father-in-law, Jacob had a difficult life. And before this, Jacob had been deceitful to his father Isaac. The story makes no sense until we remember: God is at work here.

      How God accomplishes his will is his business. It is his way. We can be surprised, but we can’t say “This will never work.” God will often take people into difficult times or new places to strengthen them into a deeper trust relationship with him.

LIFE Link: It is comforting to know that God works with sinners.

February 4, 2014 What's True

What’s True

Genesis 30

Gen 30:1- 2 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I'll die!” 2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”

NOTICE the title of this meditation is not “What’s true?” I’m not asking a question because I know what’s true, and I pray you do, too.

      What’s true is that God is Lord of all creation, and we are not. You might think that’s an obvious statement. But it’s not our nature to know that. It wasn’t true to Rachel some 3,000 years ago when she blamed her husband for her barren womb. AS Jacob cried out, “Am I in the place of God?” he certainly recognized he was not God, but we think we are.

      What’s true is that we live in a world constantly questioning God’s Word with no desire to find what’s true in God’s Word. Yes, it’s good to question, “What is true God?” But tragically we really don’t want to know. Our desire is to be our own god as we say, “Let us define what is true about God.”

      Jacob’s life of unrelenting conflict stems from this self-glorifying truth. His mother Rebekah’s truth was to have Jacob illegitimately receive Isaac’s blessing. Esau’s truth was to try to kill Jacob. Laban’s truth was to get Leah married first. Rachel’s truth was to get pregnant in “her way’. Leah and Rachel’s truth was to see which household could have more children. Jacob’s truth was to plot to form the new lambs to be his.

      What does God to with our self-seeking “truth”? The truth is, He uses it to bring glory to his name. He redeems the mess with his power, in his grace and by his love to pull people to be true in Him.

LIFE Link: Give up your own truth and be true to God’s loving words for your life.  

February 3, 2014 Life's Water

Life’s Water 

Genesis 29

Gen 29:10 When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.

A long, long time after Jacob watered Laban’s thirsty sheep, a watering action that was part of the process in which God was forming his people, there was another stone rolled away. You know the story—it’s told every Easter. But the stone rolled away on Easter didn’t provide temporary water for sheep. It offered the eternal thirst-quenching water for our dry, thirsty souls.

      During his ministry Jesus declared in John 7:38 “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” And thus when God rolled the stone away from Jesus’ tomb, he sent forth the Living Water into a world spiritually dieing of thirst for the truth. As scattered sheep stranded in a desert, God’s people were in need of the life-giving water that would renew and refresh them and give them life.
      Yes, God provided the renewing, refreshing water of life—his resurrected son, Jesus Christ. Jesus’ rising from the tomb would be the final step in the centuries-long process that is marked with Jacob’s life-giving act here. Celebrate and rejoice that the Living Water has burst forth for you for all eternity!

       Laban’s sheep eagerly responded to the water Jacob provided. Do you eagerly respond to the Living Water the Good Shepherd pours out to you?

LIFE Link: Drink daily of Jesus.

February 2, 2014 Ordinary to Extraordinary

Ordinary to Extraordinary

Genesis 28

Gen 28:16-17 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

GOD amazes me. Jacob is far from perfect. One of his sins is lying. Now his life is in jeopardy because of this deceit. Yet God enters into Jacob’s life and chooses him!

      Through the rest of Genesis, there will scarcely be a time when Jacob is not involved either directly or “on the side” in the story. Jacob is a big deal. God will name him “Israel”. God’s people will take on his name. And a name is a very, very big deal to the Hebrews. It is who you are. The Hebrews would be “Israel”.

      Why would God create Jacob with this kind of character?

      I’m thinking of people I know who have been transformed from a life of deceit into a life of promise and peace, just as Jacob would be. Seeing these transformations assures me God is at work. And, I look at my own life and know how different I am because I have decided to follow God.

      That is the story of Genesis, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These three men, the foundational generations of Israel from whom our Savior would come, are ordinary sinful men whom God chose to change in extraordinary ways in order to form a nation to fulfill his Kingdom purposes.

      You and I are the same: ordinary in the world, extraordinary in the Kingdom of God. See the changes in Jacob and trust God to take you to the gate of Heaven.

LIFE Link: To be chosen by God is an extraordinary calling. How does that change you?