Genesis chapter 32

When Jacob last saw Esau, he had just robbed Esau of his father's blessing and was basically running to Laban to get away from Esau and save his skin.  Now, many years later, he returns and is very worried about how Esau will treat him.  So the first thing he does is pray to God, which kind of makes my cynicism in the last chapter look misplaced!

It is such an example as well, because how often do problems arise in life and we try and sort them out ourselves, without even mentioning them to God, let alone praying about them?  And yes, I know God knows about them anyway since He knows everything about us, but that isn't the point.  In any relationship there has to be two way conversation for the relationship to work.  You can't be married to someone and not talk to them, you can't have children and not speak to them (imagine the chaos if you did that and let the children do what they wanted, when they wanted!!!) and in the same way, you can't have a relationship with God and not pray.

Prayer should be the first thing we do in an situation, not the one thing we do only after we have exhausted all other options and not come up with a solution ourselves. I have a habit of doing this, trying to sort everything out myself, getting all stressed and anxious, feeling like the weight of the world is on my shoulders and that no one else cares or is bothered, when all I  have to do is pray, take it to God and ask Him to handle it.  I have learned that God can be trusted, no matter what the problem.  I now He always answers my prayers, maybe not the way I want, maybe not at the time I want, but each one is answered, and when I have doubts, I just remember the 1,000 year rule (a 1,000 years is as a day to the Lord and a day is as a 1,000 years therefore if 1 day = 1,000 years, 14.4 minutes = 10 years!) and try to have patience.

Here, Jacob is reminding God of his promises, of how He said that Jacob would have descendants as numerous as the sand, because after all, if Esau killed Jacob, then Jacob would have no more children so would potentially never be the father of many descendants.  After all, Jacob has for many years been used to fending for himself, sorting things out his way, on his terms but now he knows he cannot sort out the problem of Esau on his own.  He needs the help of God to put things right between himself and his brother whom he wronged all those years ago. 

However, to help smooth the way, Jacob prepares gifts of herds of sheep, goats, cows, bulls  and camels.  The night before he is due to meet Esau, he takes his wives and children to a place of safety, splits his herds into two so if one is lost, he will still have the other, and spends the night on his own where he wrestles with a man until daybreak. This man was an angel of the Lord and he was sent by God at a time when Jacob had nowhere else to turn.  There was absolutely nothing Jacob could do about Esau.  Esau's reaction to the return of Jacob, his gifts, his wives and family was  a huge unknown.   Jacob might try to do all he could to ensure a warm welcome (or at least a safe one where Esau did not try to kill him in revenge for stealing his birth right) but he could not control Esau's reaction in any way.  It was completely out of his hands and all he could do was ask God.

So God sends his angel and the angel demonstrates by wrestling with Jacob that God is in control, that He is the stronger of the two, that you have to grab onto God with both hands and not let go, no matter what happens, and keep tight hold to receive the blessing of God.   Jacob wrestles with the angel all night and in the morning, the angel touches Jacob's hip and leaves him with a permanent limp.  This is a reminder to Jacob of his relationship with God and that he can do nothing on his own, his strength coming from God alone.  Then God also gives Jacob a new name, Israel, which means "he struggles with God".  Just compare that with Jacob, which means "he grasps the heel" or, in other words, trickster or deceiver.