Wrestling with God

There isn’t a person on earth that doesn’t face personal challenges. In reading the Bible and its stories, the technical aspects have changed but the emotional responses remain the same.

Jacob did not know what the future held and lived moment by moment. He was your everyday man. In seeking to remake him, God wanted Jacob to learn that the supernatural is more important than the physical world we live in. Jacob needed to know that reconciliation with Esau was mandatory, even if his brother was not walking with God.

The problems he faced must be solved in the spiritual world even if it led to a grueling prayer meeting that ended with a wrestling match that lasted all night. Jacob came back to the land of Canaan and settled down, but that was not good enough for God, because Jacob also needed to be the spiritual leader and compel his family to give up their idols. All the pressures of life increased Jacob’s time in prayer so that he could become the man that would lead his family into a relationship with God.