12/23/2023
TRUE STRENGTH
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. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." - Genesis 32:25-28
This is a passage not easy to understand. How could one lose when He had the power to maim with a touch? How could Jacob "not let go" when He was already outpowered and outwrestled? And while we're at it, how in whatever sense did Jacob "struggle with God and overcome?" The answer lies in what God wanted for His man, Jacob. He had long wanted to change him and use him but he was simply too cunning, too strong, too Jacob.
God has no use for them who are strong in themselves but weak in the Lord. The work of the flesh, no matter how good and good-looking, is not of much use to the Spirit. He will not really use those He cannot own. And God will exhaust all until He gets His man. He will wrestle and maim, as necessary, to get us to surrender to Him. Jacob's cry "I will not let you go...until you bless me" is not a yell of a victor but a cry of the desperate. He was in no position to hold on. He was weak, lame, and humbled. He was ready to be blessed. And bless God did him. He would no longer be Jacob but Yisrael. The Deceiver has given way to the Prince.
Everyone who sincerely loves God will realize this sooner or later. God has no room for the selfish and the proud and the self-strong. He will not stop until we despair like Jacob; until we see and say we have nothing else; until we learn to hold on to God only, because without Him, there really is nothing.
"Lord, teach us to renounce the self and the selfish, to hold to you and to not let go until you bless us."