Transformation through Courage: Jacob

The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans,and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle. 
Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.~ Genesis 32:22-33:4


Jacob was a lot of things. He was a cheater. A manipulator. A scoundrel.

 But he was also persistent, trusting, and courageous.

 It takes a lot of courage to go toe to toe with God, demand a blessing, and live to tell about it.

 And it takes a lot of courage to go back to the brother you cheated and beg for forgiveness, willing to take whatever punishment is coming your way.

 What was it that transformed Jacob? Was it the wrestling match with God, or was the seed already planted when he had the vision of angels going up and down a ladder to God and God's blessing on him?

 Transformation comes with disruption in our lives, and Jacob had lots of that. Some caused by his circumstance, and some by his own hand.

 But in all of it, he saw and felt the hand of God as well.

 So by the time he came to Esau again, he was able to bow, able to hope, able to trust...

 And able to be forgiven.
Prayer: God grant me the courage to change the things I can and must. Amen


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