He had not lived a life one could be proud of. He got what he had by hook or by crook... he scrapped, he cheated, he tricked, he lied.
And though after twenty years of dogged persistence and unyielding determination, his perseverance had earned him success; he was still lost.
He was separated from his family. He had betrayed his brother and taken advantage of his father's frailty.
He had lost his mother. When she had helped him pack his bags and whisked him out the back door to escape his brother's fury ...
... he didn't know that it was the last time he would ever see her.
Now this man of great wealth, this father of numerous children, was heading home - and he was frightened. Life had hemmed him in and to return seemed his only alternative.
So certain was he that his brother was still angry after all these years, that he divided up all his goods and his family so that if the brother lashed out against one group, the other could flee to safety.
What a miserable spot.
That night a strange Being showed up and wrestled with him.
The man in this story is Jacob, who would later be called Israel. And this "strange Being" that wrestled with him was a heavenly visitor. Some call Jacob's opponent a "man" ... but I believe it was none other than Jesus Christ.
You see that Midnight Wrestler changed Jacob's name to Israel, which means God-wrestler.
Jacob wrestled with God!
Now that is somewhat my opinion and if you doubt it - I don't believe it is essential that you believe it. However, I will tell you that thinking that way reminds me that the Unchangeable, Eternal Christ still shows up in our miserable spots and He turns them into pivotal moments.
If you read the story in Genesis 32, you will find that Jacob was often called God-wrestler after that and his walk was different - he was different!
There are other instances when - I believe - true to His nature, Jesus faded into the scene and then faded out again at important junctures in the lives of people.
In Genesis 14, He arrived on a field of victory. But the victor was not feeling so good.
Abraham had just mustered his trained servants and they had gone into battle on behalf of some wicked kings. He wouldn't have had to be involved had his nephew, Lot, not gotten mixed up with this bunch. Anyway, Abraham and his militia had saved the unworthy necks of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their ilk and had rescued Lot and his family. What's more, his integrity wouldn't allow him to accept any gifts from these sinful men. So his efforts had seemingly allowed evil to continue to flourish in those cities of the plain and he was none the richer for it.
So this victory was bittersweet, he had saved his nephew - only to have him return to the wicked cities and learn nothing from the incident; he did what he had to do but the experience had to be disappointing.
Then, I believe it was Jesus that showed up in the form of a priest named, Melchizedek. Like Jesus, Melchizedek had no beginning or end, he was a priest but from a different order, and he was both Prince and Priest. And like Jesus, Melchizedek showed up at a pivotal moment.
For Abraham, when there was just nothing good to show for his Herculean efforts... Jesus -er- Melchizedek arrived with joyful wine and bread that would strengthen him and Melchizedek blessed him.
Desperate times, disappointing times, times of confusion - even today these are times in which Jesus will often arrive on the scene.
Sometimes His presence is foreboding and we struggle with Him in solitude. In those moments He might just wrestle us down to the point of realizing who we truly are on the inside.
Sometimes His presence may be strange and gregarious like that mysterious Priest who appeared in Abraham's moment of disillusion and brought joy and strength and blessings.
He's the "friend that sticks closer than a brother" and He, Himself said He "would never leave" us so we can trust in the fact that He is always near. But beyond that, in those times of inner conflict, He will sometimes reveal Himself in strange, unexpected ways.
And it is His presence that transforms those times into pivotal moments.
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