"Let me go, for the day breaks ... I will not let you go unless you bless me!" (Genesis 32:26). George Philip describes this "incident" as "a parable of the whole of Jacob's life" - "On the one hand he wanted to hold on to God and yet he struggled against God."
We see ourselves in this. There is, within us, a constant turmoil of confused and confusing emotions. The Lord is drawing us to Himself. We draw back from Him. This is the battle of which Paul spoke in Romans 7:22-23 - "I delight in the law of God according to the inner man. But I see another law ... bringing me into captivity to the law of sin" - and Galatians 5:17 - "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." The 'wrestling with God', spoken of in Genesis 32, can also be described in terms of another kind of 'wrestling': "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood ... Therefore take up the whole armour of God ... " (Ephesians 6:12-13). Satan doessn't want us to hear God's words of encouragement - You are "no longer" what you were before you met with the Lord. You "have prevailed." You have been "blessed" by the Lord. He doesn't want us to have a spiritual testimony - " I have seen God ... " (Genesis 32:28-30). May the Lord deliver us from the sadness and shame of the "double-minded man" who is "unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8). In our 'wrestling', let us remember Jesus' 'wrestling' in the Garden of Gethsemane, and let us pray, with Him, " Father ... not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:39).
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More notes from George Philip:
We see ourselves in this. There is, within us, a constant turmoil of confused and confusing emotions. The Lord is drawing us to Himself. We draw back from Him. This is the battle of which Paul spoke in Romans 7:22-23 - "I delight in the law of God according to the inner man. But I see another law ... bringing me into captivity to the law of sin" - and Galatians 5:17 - "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." The 'wrestling with God', spoken of in Genesis 32, can also be described in terms of another kind of 'wrestling': "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood ... Therefore take up the whole armour of God ... " (Ephesians 6:12-13). Satan doessn't want us to hear God's words of encouragement - You are "no longer" what you were before you met with the Lord. You "have prevailed." You have been "blessed" by the Lord. He doesn't want us to have a spiritual testimony - " I have seen God ... " (Genesis 32:28-30). May the Lord deliver us from the sadness and shame of the "double-minded man" who is "unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8). In our 'wrestling', let us remember Jesus' 'wrestling' in the Garden of Gethsemane, and let us pray, with Him, " Father ... not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:39).
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More notes from George Philip:
