God created humans in His own image, and because we are created in His image, we have an innate desire for subject-object relationships. We have a massive desire for interaction with God;1 but, sin (self-indulgence) demands that we exalt our own individuality. This errant, illogical, humanistic thought corrupts and even at times inhibits reception of God’s revelation to mankind. When we are buried in our thoughts of self, we tend to think myopically when searching for the fulfillment of “spiritual” matters. Psychologically we know the answer to most spiritual problems is not self, but others. What is lost is the truth that there is only “One” other that can fulfill the spirit’s desires.
God delivers man from sin; through obedience to Christ2 mankind is delivered from individuality. This means offering our natural life to God as a living sacrifice to Him,3 giving over “self” to the interests of another, so that He may transform the spirit, and from the spirit, bring about a life that conforms to the life of Christ.4 This begins a life of spiritual warfare where the Holy Spirit placed in residence in the heart of man by Christ wars against the body of flesh. To those who are in the flesh, what I just wrote will prompt a red flag. It will sound like I’m proposing that one subject themselves to brain washing; and, in a sense, they would be right. The real question is, is what Christ offers the best for you as a person; does He have your best interests at heart, is God a loving, caring father who wants the best for you, or is this just another sophistic practice, bent on your subjugation for some nefarious design.
There is a “picture” or “type” of this warfare that appears in the life of Jacob, twin brother to Essau, sons of Isaac, whose father was Abraham:5
“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaks. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.” (Genesis 32: 24-29)
This event took place as Jacob was in flight from the wrath of Laban. He was returning toward the wrath of Essau his brother. Jacob wrestled with the Angel of God. Jacob was alone in the wilderness and no doubt in a quandary as well. He was between two angry adversaries wondering what was to become of him and his entire entourage. Either or both of his adversaries could have slaughtered his wives and children and took his herds and divided them between themselves. Who knows what might have taken place but for the divine providence and promise of God?
The dialogue suggests he knew with whom he wrestled. He knew “the man” was able to grant him a “boon,” if you will. When he was unable to master his opponent he demanded a favor (blessing).
While Jacob was God’s chosen vessel for Messiah’s line he was less than an honorable man. The word “jacob” in Hebrew is interpreted supplanter (one who supersedes or replaces by guile). He knew that and traded on God’s promise to him at the stairway (KJV “ladder”) where the Lord met him as he fled from Essau some twenty years before.
Of course we will never know what might have been the blessing from God since he had already promised Jacob; “I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed; And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places whither you go, and will bring you again into this land; for I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken to you of. (Genesis 28: 13-15)
Jacob was crippled in the wrestling match. He walked with a limp for the rest of his life. Jacob wrestled with God about his situation between Essau and Laban. If Jacob had submitted himself to God and wrestled with his sin “in the presence of” God, instead of wrestling with God about his sin who knows how different the result might have been? The same is true of us today; the God Christians follow today is the same God Jacob wrestled with in the desert.
Having been given the promised blessing of eternal life through Christ, the Christian would do well to “wait upon the Lord.” For “eye has not seen nor ear heard neither has it entered into the heart” what God had prepared for his children. When we choose to wrestle with God instead of wrestling with sin in the presence of God the result is usually a spiritually crippled for life. Whether or not God is ultimately a loving, gracious and good God is second to the fact that God is God. The greatest temptation of man is that we can be equal to God. The created can never be equal to the creator. To deny this principle one must deny the creator, but denying the creator does not delete, or in any way deprecate that creator’s existence.
It just so happens that God is love, and God is grace. Without the unconditional love of God the Father, there never would have been the Son, who was given to us in exchange for our sin. The Son of God offered the perfect sacrifice for sin, and the Son then tells the Holy Spirit to indwell the Christian not only to teach, guide and direct the Christian, but to fulfill the spiritual desires of the human nature, and through this fulfillment, provide a way to overcome the falsity of selfishness, and through this relationship, a way to overcome sin, Satan and the world.6 The Christian is called to wrestle with his individuality, wherein lies his sin nature, before God in order to be transformed7 because God is the only person who has the ability to remove sin from us. The example of this sinless nature was given to us by the Christ, who’s very existence comes from God to show us that we can be free from sin and conformed to the image of Christ. Instead, many choose to wrestle with God about the freedom of his individuality wherein he is prone to take pride in the attempt of overcoming his own sin. Unfortunately what we see all too often is that the person who wrestles with God about sin is usually consumed and damaged by that sin.
1 The ancient creeds carry the “seed” of the reason for our creation proclaim we are created to be the direct object of God’s unconditional love, to worship (through prayer offer thanks and praise) and enjoy him for all eternity.
2 Romans 10: 9-10
3 Mortify the flesh; Romans 8: 13; 12: 1-2; Colossians 3: 5
4 John 3: 16-17
5 The entire story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Essau appear in Genesis, Chapters 12-32
6 John 15: 5
7 “by the renewing of the mind” Romans 12: 2