Touched by God

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

TOUCHED BY GOD

Gen 32:22-32

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 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. 26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 27 The man asked him, "What is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. 28 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." 29 Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." 31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.

NIV

This is one of those great moments in the history of man confronted by God. All we are told is that a man wrestled with Jacob. Some think it was the pre-incarnate Jesus who took the form of man to encounter Jacob both on a physical and spiritual level. Some think it was merely an angel of the Lord. Yet what occurs makes us believe this person that Jacob wrestled with was the omnipresent one in the form of a man who looks as if he was defeated notably. Jacob would not let him go, he hung onto him, but as this holy one saw he could not overpower Jacob he touched his hip and it was wrenched. What do we learn here? Of course, we see this man tell Jacob his name will now be Israel. It has to have some spiritual significance because we know names mean or carry the meaning of the character of a man. Jacob, meant supplanter because he replaced Esau in getting the blessing. But now this man, this omnipresent one who can strike pain in a man’s body renames him. Jacob would not release this man unless he blessed him. Perhaps that is another lesson for us. Jacob is turning to God rather than to himself for his success. He wants this blessing before he will let him go. This asking from the holy one as to what Jacob’s name was, and then changing it has meaning. Let us consider what our names once were. For me, it was the sinner, the unbelieving one, the refuser of the truth, the self-dependent, self-reliant one. But I too wrestled with God asking him to prove himself. He did and blessed me changing my name to son, his child, the one who believes and he gave me life, and life eternal. Is this not all our story at some time in our lives? Jacob may have had a lip from there forward, but he also knew he saw God face to face and his life was spared. God not only can cause a thorn in our flesh, as he did to Jacob, but God can also heal that thorn or cause us to move forward bearing it when we place all our faith in him. Jacob changed from being the self-reliant one or the supplanter to being Isreal, the prince of God. Hosea recounts Jacob's struggle with God, yet we know that God Almighty is always greater. Jacob, who is now Isreal has a new development of spiritual life and perhaps a new capacity in his physical actions. Here again, is our story as we encountered God, he has changed everything about us, our name, our new spiritual life, our new physical capacity, everything is different. We can never be the same. We can not go back, for God has touched us, and oh, the joy that floods our soul, something happened and now we know, he touched us and made us whole. We, like Jacob, have been touched by God.