Genesis 32:28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
Jacob was a wrestler. He wrestled in the womb with his twin brother Esau. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the LORD (Genesis 25:22). Jacob wrestled for his birthright and blessings with his brother. He wrestled to marry the ‘love of his life’, Rachel. Getting his fair share of income from his cunning father-in-law Laban was another struggle. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times (Genesis 31:41). After running from one wrestling match to another, Jacob’s last struggle was with God to bless him. 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 (Genesis 32:24-25). Jacob wrestled to be blessed but the angel of the Lord touched his body, bones and behaviour. Jacob the canny, conniving cheater had a complete makeover after the Angel of the Lord touched his hip. Jacob walked with a limp for the rest of his life. This is why he needed a staff to lean on even to bless his children before he died. Through faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and, leaning on the top of his staff, worshipped God (Hebrews 11:21). The divine encounter transformed the wretched wrestler into a worshipper.
The name Jacob means ‘deceiver’ but God renamed him ‘Israel’ which means ‘Prince of God’. Our encounters with the Saviour make us more like Him. Our slyness will turn into sincerity; succumb into success and slothfulness into servitude. Our encounter with Jesus will change us inside out.
Our encounters with God give us a complete makeover:
1. Label: The label over the life of Jacob changed. He was no more addressed as the ‘cunning cheat’. He became the ‘Prince of God’ and his generation was chosen to be God’s treasured possessions. Our label changes after our encounter with God. Don’t worry or wrestle with the slanderers on FaceBook or instagram who talk about your soiled past. God has changed your label so the defamers will be proved wrong.
2. Latitude: After the wrestle Jacob was set free from the chains of deception. He enjoyed freedom from his own convoluted self! Jacob walked with a limp but he leaped onto higher plateau and latitude. God encounters enlarge our latitude.
3. Leverage: Jacob was wrestling for the blessings throughout his life but one touch from God leveraged his thinking, talk and trajectory. After this angelic touch, we don’t see him as a greedy gloat but a generous good father. God encounters will leverage us into our divine calling.
One divine encounter changed a wrestler into a worshipper and changed his label to ‘made-in heaven’.
Genesis 32:29b Then he blessed him there.
Prayer: Father God, May my encounters with you transform me inside out. May the label only and always read “made-in-heaven” for a divine purpose. Amen
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