Wednesday 13 January 2010

Genesis 32-36

10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies. 11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.

Practical humility: if you don't recognise the source, you won't be able to sustain the supply.

24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.

Wrestling with God? What do we expect in our pursuit of God? What does an "encounter" look like? Is there a normative experience of God?

10 And Jacob said, “No, please, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present from my hand, inasmuch as I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me.

Having wrestled God, Jacob meets Esau expecting a struggle, but instead finds "the face of God". Battles wrought in the Spirit impose the face of God on our circumstances.

5 And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

Have we any idea how the world really perceives us?

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