Read Genesis 32:22-31
22 That
same night Jacob got up, took his two wives, his two concubines, and his eleven
children, and crossed the River Jabbok. 23After he had sent them
across, he also sent across all that he owned, 24but he stayed behind,
alone.
Then a
man came and wrestled with him until just before daybreak. 25When
the man saw that he was not winning the struggle, he struck Jacob on the hip,
and it was thrown out of joint. 26The man said, “Let me go;
daylight is coming.”
“I won’t,
unless you bless me,” Jacob answered.
27 “What
is your name?” the man asked.
“Jacob,”
he answered.
28 The
man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob. You have struggled with God and
with men, and you have won; so your name will be Israel.”j
But he
answered, “Why do you want to know my name?” Then he blessed Jacob.
30 Jacob
said, “I have seen God face to face, and I am still alive”; so he named the
place Peniel.k 31The sun rose as Jacob was leaving
Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32Even today the
descendants of Israel do not eat the muscle which is on the hip joint, because
it was on this muscle that Jacob was struck.
Think
Jacob tricked his father
Isaac into blessing him instead of Esau after Esau had ceded it to Jacob. Esau was angry and Jacob fled; at this point
he is about to return to the land from which he fled and face his brother and
take hold of the promised inheritance.
Jacob spends the night before
he enters the land wrestling with the angel at Peniel - as he wrestles he asks
God to bless what he is about to do.
Pray
Jacob wrestled with you as he
demanded the blessing that had been promised to him. Today I wrestle with you God as I ask you to
bless me. Bless me with the assurance
that I am your child - adopted into your family.
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