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Last week we read about Jacob preparing to reunite with his brother Esau. In fear, Jacob started making plans but we see an interesting shift between verses 8 and 9 of chapter 32 that shows that God has been working in Jacob’s life since he last saw his brother. When Jacob receives the troubling news that his brother is coming to meet him with a multitude of men, Jacob panics and starts devising a plan, but then Jacob takes a step back.
In verse 9 we see Jacob turn to God. “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord,” Jacob is recognizing God as Lord. He acknowledges that he is surrendering to God’s plan in returning, when he says “O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred.” Yet the greatest change in Jacob is seen in his next statement.
“I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed the Jordan, and now I have become two camps.” Jacob has been humbled in his time away from home. When Jacob encountered God on his way out of Canaan 21+ years ago, Jacob was haughty and laid out conditions upon which he would allow God to be his God (Gen 28:20-22). Now he sees his unworthiness and is in awe of all God has done.
But not only that, Jacob trusts that God is God and that God will do as He promised. Jacob is reminded that God is the one that told him to return to Canaan. In that knowledge Jacob is able to lean into God in this time of fear and surrender the situation to the Lord. “O Lord who said to me ‘Return to our country’ … Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him … But you [God] said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.”
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Although afraid, Jacob now trusts God. He now has a proper perspective on his own character and a healthy recognition for who God is. Instead of challenging God and taking things into his own hands like he has done his entire life, Jacob is now taking his problems to God and trusting God will provide.
There is nothing more incredible than seeing a life transformed, but the beauty of the Bible is that we not only get to see the great pillars of the faith, but we also get to see how God worked in their lives. Jacob is still struggling to surrender his will to Gods, but he is. He is learning to walk in God’s ways instead of his own. To be sure that path of sanctification (the process of becoming more like Christ) is not an easy one and at times we stumble, but the awesome thing is that God does not leave us there and we have many examples of those that have walked this road before us in the Bible, like Jacob. How incredible is it that God took the haughty Jacob and brought him to the point of humility and reconciliation so that God could bring His promises to fruition in the life of the patriarch. Where are you on this journey? Are you the haughty Jacob telling God under what conditions you will allow Him to be your God? Or the humbled Jacob eager to see where the Lord will take him, while resting in God’s provision and protection?
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Text By: Kristen Davis
Photo from: http://www.francescolejones.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/thinking.jpg
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