Suppose you have lived most of your life under the Old Covenant and now only in later years you have discovered the New. You can glean some encouragement from Jacob.
His family gave him the terrible name of “Supplanter” at his birth, the name he had to go by. He lived up to it when he tricked his brother Esau into selling him the birthright for a meal of his tasty stew; then he had to flee for his life. At Bethel the Lord gave him a wonderful New Covenant promise (Gen. 28:13-15). Jacob spent decades doubting that the Lord could bless him that much. His future father-in-law, Laban, in turn tricked him in his heart-felt love for Rachel (you can love someone truly while still under the Old Covenant!), giving him Leah instead on the wedding night after his seven years of hard labor; now seven years more to have Rachel, the one he truly loved. Endless heartaches.
Finally, in later life, Jacob finds himself wrestling with an Angel in the dark, struggling, he thought, for his life. When dawn began to break, the Angel (Christ) said “Let Me go!” but Jacob, quick to seize what he saw as his initiative, said, “I will not let You go, except You bless me” (meaning, deliver me from this Old Covenant soul-bondage). The Angel was caught; He couldn’t wriggle free from Jacob’s grasp. Whereupon He changed Jacob’s name: “Your name [is] Israel [Prince with God], for you have struggled with God ... and have prevailed”! (32:26-28).
There’s no way to get that name of Israel except by fighting that same battle of faith--believing God’s promise “in Christ” in spite of doubts you think are from God! One thoughtful writer suggests that while they were wrestling, the Angel asked him how could He bless him? Wasn’t he too unworthy? We say it reverently, we have to “overcome” what even appears to be God’s will against us! To secure the name “Israel,” we must triumph over Him! Remember, the elite Israel Club is limited only by unbelief.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
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