Embrace the Struggle

Jacob was a man of great destiny yet his struggles began right in his mother’s womb. The Bible says that their mother, Rebekah, was childless and Isaac prayed to the Lord on her behalf. The Lord answered his prayer and she became pregnant with twins, but before they were born, they struggled against each other in her womb. When she inquired of the Lord, she got this answer;

“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” Genesis 25:23 NIV

Hosea took note of it when he said;

In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel; as a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. ~ Hosea 12:3-4a NIV

He was his mother’s favorite son. Through trickery, he took his brother’s birthright and by deceit, stole his blessings. Esau was the firstborn son and had rights, but we all know how they ended up in Jacob’s hands. Before they were born, God had already decided who would be the carrier of the blessing and a partaker of the covenant He had made to Abraham. It can be mind boggling for someone to wonder why things happened the way they did in the lives of Esau and Jacob. Wouldn’t it have been easier if God just allowed Jacob to become the firstborn? Yet in His own wisdom, He allowed things to happen upside down. It means that by God’s design there are people who are carriers of greatness and are marked to do and accomplish great things, but God has decided that it will not happen by default. They must fight for it. They must push themselves and pay the price to become all that God created them to become.

There are many who are down yet they are created to be up there, shaking the nations and accomplishing great and wonderful things for God. They were not meant to stay down forever. What they need is to realize who they are, what they carry and go for it. In the case of Jacob, he was always second. He was his mother’s second born, and his father didn’t love him that much. This, I believe, is one of the reasons why he manipulated events and circumstances through the help of his mother, just to get ahead. Of course, he wasn’t going to do all these and live like nothing has happened. His life was threatened and on his mother’s advice, he fled to his uncle’s home.

Isn’t it amazing how some of the great people in the bible had, at some point in their lives, to run away and hide because they were threatened by death? Moses, for example, had to run away to Midian because Pharaoh wanted to kill him. David was on the run most of his life as long as Saul was alive because he was hunting him day and night just to kill him; God advised Joseph to go hide in Egypt because Herod was looking for the young child Jesus to kill him; Elijah was also on the run because Jezebel threatened to kill him. All these people and many others were on the verge of death because of what they carried within them. It shouldn’t be a surprise to you as well if the enemy unleashes all hell on you and tries to kill you just because of what you carry. He knows how to target God’s own seed; people who carry a seed of greatness within them and who have the potential to bring damage to his kingdom and dominate the world for God’s glory. Yet in all these struggles and hardships, we shouldn’t give up. Even though sometimes it can become very overwhelming and we begin to think that God has abandoned us or that He doesn’t care, we should think of His promise to Jacob;

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Genesis 28:15 NIV

One of the most important things for us to keep in mind especially when we feel threatened by the enemy is that no matter how much effort king Saul made to kill David, God never gave David into his hands; no matter how much the devil made Job suffer, he did not go beyond the boundaries that He had set for him. This means that no matter how close the enemy is going to come, God has put a hedge of protection around you and in His own faithfulness, will not deliver you to his hands.

He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me ~ Psalms 18:16-19 NIV

Jacob continued on his way after his encounter with God at Bethel and he ended up in his uncle’s home. It’s here where another unexpected drama of his life began to unfold. He fell in love with one of his cousins, Rachael, and he wanted to marry her. He agreed to work for seven years as payment for her dowry and Laban accepted. Because he loved her so much, seven years were just like a few days to him and they were soon over, but on the wedding day, he was given Leah for a wife. What a disappointment? He only realized the next morning that he had the wrong woman for a wife. As expected he confronted his uncle who gave an answer;

Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.” ~ Genesis 29:26-27 NIV

Since he had not gotten what his heart desired and Laban wasn’t taking it easy with him, he made him pay the price for it, and he agreed. I love his fighting spirit and his never ending determination to achieve his goals. For the next twenty years of his life, it was drama after drama, as his two wives struggled to get his attention and fought to be loved more by him and he, on the other hand, working harder to disentangle himself from all these troubles. It’s also after this period that he decided to go back to his father’s land. Gods plan for his life was beginning to unfold as He was the one who told Jacob to go back home. Although his life was already a mess and nothing to write home about, God’s hand was still with him. During this time, another unexpected thing happened and this time, it involved his wages. Laban admitted to Jacob that he had learnt by divination that God had blessed him (Laban) because of him (Jacob) and he told him to name his wages, and he would pay them. This is what happened;

“What shall I give you?” he asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.” “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks ~ Genesis 30:31-36 NIV

Laban decided to play around with Jacob’s intelligence and guess what? He succeeded, but only in his eyes. God was already involved and when He saw how Jacob was treated unfairly by his uncle, he intervened and gave him a strategy that worked wonders. Through this strategy, Jacob was able to gather so much for himself. He became very wealthy and had many flocks, slaves, camels and donkeys. The sons of Laban began to complain about his wealth and he himself noticed that things were changing between him and Laban. It was time to go. The Lord spoke to him and instructed him to leave and go back to the land of his fathers and He promised to be with him.

As he went home, Jacob knew too well that trouble awaited him through his brother Esau. He had vowed to kill him once he saw him and it wasn’t settled yet even after so many years. As a man, he was afraid of what his brother might do to him and he tried as much as he could to manipulate the situation. All this while, his brother was advancing, coming to meet him. Even though God had already promised him that He would be with him, it seemed that he had forgotten about it and was now trying to take control of the whole situation. He tried to pray with great anxiety and I guess that the more he prayed, the more tensed he became. Instead of waiting on God and trusting him to deliver him, he went ahead and invented his own strategies, but it was all in vain. He did not have the guts or the courage to face Esau and that’s why he kept sending gifts to him to test the waters.

For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.” Genesis 32:20b NIV

He must have realized that he was too surrounded and crowded to think straight. So he took his two wives, two concubines and his eleven children, and sent them across the river. After he sent them across, he also sent across all that he owned, but he himself stayed behind, alone. It’s at this particular time that a man came and wrestled with him until just before daybreak. When the man saw that he was not winning the struggle, he struck Jacob on the hip, and it was thrown out of joint.

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.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”~ Genesis 32:25-28 NIV

The struggle paid off as it marked a new beginning for him, and a new name.

… for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes. ~ Proverbs 24:16 NIV

To be continued …