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DEPENDENCY -
GOD’S WORK OF DEATH TO OUR OWN STRUGGLE
by Richard
Arillotta
“Then
Jacob was left alone: and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of
day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the
socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob’s hip 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 You go, unless You bless me! So He said unto him,
What is your name? He said, Jacob. And He said, Your name shall be
called no longer be called Jacob, but Israel (Prince of God); for you have
struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.
Then Jacob asked, saying, Tell me Your name, I pray. And He said, “Why is
it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there. So Jacob
called the name of the place Penuel: for I have seen God face to face, and
my life is preserved. Just as he crossed over Penuel the sun rose on him,
and he limped on his hip. Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle
that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of
Jacob’s hip in the muscle that shrank.”
(Genesis 32:24-32 N.K.J.V.)
God would have us to
grow in dependence upon Him. He is a Father to His children, as a child
is dependent upon his Father for his provision and care. Our Lord would
have us depend upon Him, with the faith of a child. So I decided to use
Jacob’s scenario of him wrestling with the Angel of the Lord.
In Gen. 32: 24 Jacob was left alone, and God was about to
make a drastic change in him. Often God puts a situation or circumstance
in our life to get us alone. In times of solitude, we are refreshed from
the Lord. Sometimes by revelation, and sometimes by wrestling, in either
case, we come away changed. There are many times when I’m alone, and God
is speaking and working within me. Without His presence, the loneliness
is not very pleasurable. But being alone with God is a wonderful
experience and also life changing. We sometimes try to replace our
loneliness by watching movies, videos, going out, and so forth. We won’t
find lasting rest and lasting peace in those things. God commands us in
Hebrew 4 to enter His rest. God is longsuffering toward us and lets us go
for a short time until we come to the end of ourselves. But in His time,
He will direct our steps to be alone with Him. God does the best work in
us when we experience solitude in Him, and it becomes more personal and
more meaningful. This brings a deeper intimacy into our relationship with
Him.
In verses 25 and 26, He wrestled with Jacob. Our flesh or
self-life is against God, and resists the truth. The work of the Cross
delivers us from the power of the flesh. The death of the flesh or death
to self-life is sometimes a long process. God began to do a work on Jacob
by touching his hip and putting him in a disabled position. It is in the
disabling (whatever it may be) that we learn to lean on Him. We then
have to rely on Him to enable us. And the Lord said, “Let me go,
and Jacob said, “No I will not let you go until you bless me.”
This verse (26) means that the flesh is something that God has to do a
work of death upon. Jacob thought that he would get blessings by hanging
onto God on his terms (his own agenda). Remember Jacob stole his
brother’s blessing from his father by being a conniver, with the help of
his mother, and by means of fleshly endeavor. Also he made his brother
(Esau) give up his birthright for food, and he didn’t even consult the
Lord concerning these incidents. Therefore, the Lord pulled his hip out
of its socket so that Jacob could no longer trust in his fleshly ability.
Notice, at the birth of the twins (Jacob and Esau), “his
(Jacob’s) hand took hold of Esau’s
heel” (Gen. 25:26). Esau came out first, and then Jacob – that
mean the blessing of the birthright goes to Esau. Jacob’s name means “supplanter”
(“heel-grabber”) one who wants to take over or to be superior over. Here
is a picture of sin – “And in sin my mother
conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). And it is also a picture of pride.
Sin wants “to take over.” Jacob “took hold of” the
possessions of others - his brother’s birthright (Gen. 25:29-34), his
father’s blessing (Gen. 27:1-29). Here is an indication that Jacob steals
the blessings out of envy. And again when the Lord wrestles with Jacob,
he said, “I will not let You go,”
symbolic of a heel-grabber, to take over something by fleshly means!
But Jacob’s affliction became a blessing when he needed to learn
dependence upon the Lord on His terms. In Hosea 12:2-5, we
read, “The Lord also brings a charge against
Judah.
And will punish Jacob according to his ways. According to his deeds He
will recompense him. He took his brother by the heel in the womb. And in
his strength he struggled with God. Yes, he struggled with the Angel and
prevailed. He wept, and sought favor from Him. He found Him in Bethel.
And there He spoke to us- that is, the Lord of hosts, the Lord is His
memorable name.” God will judge Jacob according to what he had done
in his body (I Cor. 3:2-5). God wanted Jacob to rely upon His strength,
His power, His Spirit, His blessing, His agenda, and not upon his own
flesh, nor his deceitful ways of obtaining blessing. Just like in my
life, God allowed me to have cerebral palsy to be dependent upon Him for
His plan to be fulfilled. Jesus will not do anything without the Father
(John 5). He submitted to total dependence upon the Father. He came to
do the will of the Father. Jesus is our example that we are to follow.
The next paragraph talked about God changing Jacob’s name to
Israel (prince of God). It is a name that foreshadows thing
to come - Jesus Christ is the real Prince of God. He submits to
total dependence upon the Father. That is what God wants to do in Israel/ Jacob. Notice in
verses 27, 28 of Genesis 32, God changed Jacob’s name to “Israel”
(Prince of God) who “struggled
with God and with men, and have prevailed” (NKJV). How can anyone
depend upon God without having any weakness or any difficulty or struggle
and be an overcomer and prevail? We can’t! In our weakness, difficulty
and struggle, we have a tendency to see God more clearly and our need of
Him. Our struggle leads to dependency upon God. God was making Jacob to
be a leader (prince of God). One important observation; God asked him
what is your name? He said, “Jacob!” It
means “supplanter” – to take over by the means of deceiving, scheming,
cunning, or conniving. Jacob had to be changed because Israel (Jacob) had
to rely on God’s ways. God shows Himself to Jacob in a vision in Chapter
28 (God gave him the vision of his seed of the blessing go forth from
him), and again here – (Penuel) face to face in verse 30 of chapter 32.
In verse 32 of chapter 32, Jacob was left with a disability, and to show
the children of God (Israelites) that God uses anything including our
disability, and that disability is a reminder to depend upon God. The
children of Israel were not to eat the thigh (muscle) of an animal for a
memorial. The blessing of God is not in our own idea of blessing, but
what God WANTS for us. The last part of verse 29 said, “He
blessed him there.” The blessing was that he no longer has to rely
on his fleshly endeavors or his conniving ways, but to rely upon Him on
His terms by faith. The evidence that God did change Jacob to walk by
faith is in Hebrew 11:21 “By faith Jacob, when
he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning
on the top of his staff” (Gen. 48).
Remember God had already promised him the blessing in chapter
28. But Jacob struggled to obtain God’s promises by fleshly endeavors
rather than by faith. After God wrestled with Jacob, God gave him the
name “Israel.”
An inner spiritual change was taking place. As a result, Jacob was ready
now to meet Esau and make peace with him (chapter 33). In chapter 33
verses 10, Jacob met Esau - 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.”
To receive the present was to physically signal forgiveness and
restoration. When he met God, he knew and experienced that God is the God
of grace and forgiveness.
Jacob/Israel walked with
a limp every day for the rest of his life. Meeting with God did not lead
to some “victory statement or to some miraculous healing” - it resulted in
a crippling of his body. The marks on Israel were a limp and a new name -
evidence of a broken body, and a new position (prince of God) with God.
And the new name could not
be separated from the new crippling, for the crippling could not be
separated from the name. I am not saying that God cannot heal, but I am
saying that God has a different purpose for all of us. Actually, God is
always healing us – by conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ (Rom.
8:28,29). “Our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day”
(2 Cor. 4:16).
God uses our infirmities for an inward change. God had a purpose for
Jacob to be crippled. I have a nickname called, “The
Puppet Man!” A college teacher once said that I moved like a real
“live” marionette puppet. It was because of my erratic movement caused by
my cerebral palsy. My new name associates that, as “a broken vessel” I
can be used by God.
Jacob/Israel gained a
victory. Yes, he had seen the face of God and lived, and he would never
be the same. God touched Jacob/ Israel, and corrected him with an
affliction – affirming that only God is God, and Jacob needed to be
dependent upon Him. In Psalm 119:67 David said, “Before
I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep thy Word.” And verse
71 said, “It is good for me that I have been
afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.”
King David had to learn to be dependent upon God by affliction. His
affliction caused him to turn toward Him. God may give us affliction to
teach us to turn toward Him that He may get His purpose done in and
through our lives.
Jacob’s limp hints at a
concept developed more fully again in the New Testament in 1 Cor. 1:25-31
and 2 Cor 12:7-10 – that God has chosen what is foolish, and weak, and
things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are, so there is
no place for pride in the presence of God. Jacob was a cripple with a
blessing. His blessing was to no longer rely upon his flesh, but to rely
upon God. Before God pulled his hip out of socket, Jacob was led by pride
(conniving, cunning, or by fleshly endeavor).
Another important aspect
of Jacob’s life was that he was a man of pleading before God and wrestling
in prayer - “I will not let You go, unless You
bless me!” God did answer his prayer, but not on his
terms. Prayer takes massive labor. Prayer takes all of our heart.
Prayer is the most unearthly act on this side of heaven. Only prayer
changed Jacob, and he would never be the same.
Although our lives may be
different, God does not change His purpose for our lives (Job 42:2).
Struggling is an indication that we need to rely upon Him. He is our
Father, and we ought to depend upon Him with a child-like faith. He will
teach us through everything that comes into our lives to depend upon Him.
The
sufferings of life are there to show us how fragile we are. But the love
of Christ is there to secure the weak. It is like the thorn below the
rose that protects the petals of our heart!
Written
by “The Puppet Man”
Richard Arillotta * Oct. 1993
Richard Arillotta, our guest speaker for
today, has the VICTORY in Christ Jesus. You can reach him at:
puppetman52@yahoo.com or through
letters@fridaystudy.org
Ron Beckham, Pastor
Friday Study Ministries
www.FridayStudy.org
www.FirstChurchontheNet.org
E-mail:
Ron@FridayStudy.org
Tel: (562) 688-5559
PO
Box 92131
Long Beach, CA 90809-2131
"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8)
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