Faith.In.Life

Wrestling With God

Our brotherly feud continues as Jacob reveals his location to his brother.  Even though Jacob tries to give a love offering for Esau, he very quickly finds out that Esau is out for blood with quite the army at his reserve.  Jacob Is now facing quite the challenge and his very life is at stake.

Since this writing or video reaches the public, I have to phrase this next section in generalities.  If you are reading this and a part of Faith Church and would like to know specifically who I am talking about, just let me know and I will communicate so in private.  I have started coaching a missionary as their ordination advisor.  We started meeting last week and our conversation is very much at the for front of my mind.  

I asked the missionary how they were doing and they started to share just how difficult their situation is.  In this particularly missionaries context what effectively sounds like a political uprising has taken place to which a person has come to power and is ruling as a dictator.  In doing so, the leader has added an insane taxation to every good making day to day items extremely expensive.  In response, the militant tribes have began holding these good hostage and asking for even more of a ransom for them.  Even at times the militant groups will have imports sent into the country under other people’s names only then to essentially frame the other person to have to pay a ransom in order for the imports to be released of amount that they don’t have.  The missionary was fearful of if the militant tribes will try to use their name and put them in a very precarious position.  Truly this missionary is facing extreme persecution in a very difficult environment.  

Sometimes I will hear that situations in the Bible are outdated and somehow do not speak to us today.  One might think that truly in times of war people like Jacob in the Old Testament faced things that hopefully none of us ever will.  Or to think of how each one of the Apostles are martyred for their faith in the New Testament while many of us in the west live fairly uneventful and comfortable lives.  We do not have to really worry about what other’s will think if they found out we are Christians.  Whatever persecution we may face is pretty minimal, and as I often say we may be facing a persecution of words in the West, but whatever worry I have about identity theft is largely based in scams that carry little to no threat what-so-ever.  Even recently our church was giving funds to a different mission in which being scammed was a concern, but even then if it was in fact a scam the amount of money we sent really was inconsequential at best.  The reality is we could very well eat the loss if it was in fact a scam.  So we chose to move forward with the gift, and I am hopeful it has gone to help that particular mission of focus.  

Yet, in the situation I have described and the persecution the missionary finds themselves in, what we find in Scripture is truly our daily bread.  A missionary could easily give into fear and wonder where there help would come from.  Certainly it would be easy to pack up and leave the mission field entirely.  In the midst of it, this missionary in particular wrestles with their own difficulties.  I spoke to them and in the midst of the persecution they was facing I referenced Elijah’s own state of mind when he went to the mount.  In doing so, the missionary then thought of how Elijah’s call is passed onto Elisha, and then begged the question:  Is it possible for my call to somehow be revoked?

And I realized that they were facing quite the uphill battle, and wanted to make sure that I validated their call to ministry - and that no, while the calling may evolve, God calls and choses us to set us apart to be God’s people.  I think of Jacob wrestling with the angel in order that he would receive the blessing, and in doing so God changes Jacob’s name to Israel.  We read in Genesis 32:16-29 that:

26 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.” 

27 “What is your name?” the man asked. 

He replied, “Jacob.” 

28 “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 with men and have won.” 

29 “Please tell me your name,” Jacob said. 

“Why do you want to know my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. 

I then think about how that in Christ Jesus we are a called and chosen race, a new Israel of sorts where we equally are called to give up our own names for the sake of Christ’.  Through Christ there is nothing we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.  It is only through Christ Jesus that we can do anything at all, and what is more, it is further through Christ that we can do more than we can possibly imagined.  I really think the missionary may have been wrestling with her demons in some ways, but I wonder that if in other ways she wasn’t wrestling with an angel.  What I mean by this is that sometimes when God wants to do the most through my ministry I will struggle the most the night before.  While we might view this as spiritual warfare, I wonder what type of warfare is going on here.  That is, while we might certainly be wrestling with demons, I wonder how much more God is wrestling with us to remind us of our call and our equipping to know that the blessing is ours - and God is able and willing to equip us with the task that is front of us.

So, now I must pause.  For while I was encouraging the missionary, I so also encourage myself (and hopefully you).  We were in Fargo this past weekend visiting family and Monday when we drove home we were all tired and my daughters were all whining out of exhaustion.   I woke up this morning feeling groggy, and in the recesses of my mind I thought to myself, “I don’t want to get up this morning.  There is so much to do with my day.”  Sure, I had some idea just how long today would be, but different events and relationships came up through out the day that I couldn’t have possibly expected.  I hope that whatever wrestling I experienced this morning was actually a match with an angel, and I pray that when I was finished I received a blessing.  I then equally pray that everything I have done today has been a way to shine the light of God’s blessing much like how Moses’ face shined when he himself encountered God on the mount.  What is amazing, is God told Moses he dare not look at Him face to face, or surely he will die; to what comes next that Jacob claims that he saw God “face to face, yet my life has been spared.”  Only to then think that anyone who has seen Jesus has seen God and are empowered by the Holy Spirit.  Let that empower us to go into all the world and shine the light of His glory and grace.