Jehovah Shammah: The Lord is present.

Wake up, O sleeper. He will give you light.

That moment when you “wake up” and realize that God has just answered a prayer or worked something out or blessed you in some specific way, and you had been clueless, maybe even annoyed that He had not done anything for you in recent memory. I had such a moment today. Jacob had such a moment: “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.'” Genesis 28:6

The Face of Grace

The Face of the God who blesses the unworthy. Rembrandt’s version.

The night before Jacob is to meet his brother Esau, he is afraid. He thinks that Esau will likely kill him because many years earlier he had stolen his brother’s birthright by lying, and then he had fled to a far country. That night, Jacob struggles with the Angel of the Lord, seeking a blessing from Him. After He blesses him, Jacob says, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” Gen. 32.

Forgiveness = the Face of God

Then, on the heels of seeing God face-to-face, he meets up with Esau and offers to be his slave and offers him all his possessions, which Esau refuses. He hugs Jacob, falls on his neck and kisses him. Jacob tells him to receive his gifts, “inasmuch as I have see your face, as though I had seen the face of God.” Gen. 33.

Two accurate glimpses of the face of God: the blessing God, the forgiving God.

God the Wrestler?

Going after God!

Genesis 32:22-32. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 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.”

God the wrestler? OK, but give me a break! No one can beat God at wrestling. Just like no 6-year-old ever beat his or her dad in wrestling. Maybe dad allowed it? Maybe God allowed it? Jacob’s match with the Angel of the Lord is a long one, maybe several hours of huffing and puffing, grunting and groaning on Jacob’s part. The Angel of the Lord supernaturally reached into his hip (through skin and muscle?) and wrenched it.

To Jacob’s credit, he held onto God and would not let go until he received His blessing. God honored his persistence. God still does. Epaphras was “wrestling in prayer.” Paul tells us that we are also wrestling with the devil. Sounds pretty intense. Sound like your prayer life?

Not letting go!