What an amazing time we have had in Genesis these last couple of months! The record following Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their spouses has been remarkable, as the Spirit of Elohim (God) has weekly imparted fresh, powerfully convicting and life-transforming themes surrounding God's activity in and through their lives.
A most recent gleaning from Genesis 32:
Like Jacob, we may find ourselves expending much needless emotional and physical energy in futile efforts to resolve a conflict or deal with a dilemma, rather than first going to the Lord in earnest prayer on the basis of His promises. Like Jacob, our response is to scheme and to strategize, and then to ask for the Lord's help.
"The spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual" (I Cor.15:46).
We defer to the "practical solution" first, and only later to the supernatural one. Well, no wonder the Lord has to put our hip out of joint (Gen.32:25)!
Better to end up limping in permanent reliance upon God, than confidently striding in self-deceptive success without Him!
"Cursed in the man who trusts in self, and makes flesh his arm (strength), whose heart turns aside from the Lord. . . Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose security is the Lord" (Jer.17:5-8).
A shrub in the desert, or a green tree by the water – which do you prefer to be?
As one scholar notes, "It was not Jacob's plan that succeeded, but his prayer." Planning is fine, but let us first go to God and remind Him (and ourselves) of His promise, then do what we ought to prepare. Jacob's gifts did not change Esau's heart – God's Spirit did, in answer to prayer and promise. Fear and distress (external or internal pressure) eclipsed God's faithfulness from Jacob's view and catapulted him into hours of unnecessary frantic activity. He "forgot the Lord" and became controlled by a scenario that was unreal (Is.51:12-13).
The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace (Rom.8:6). May we live as "Israels" with a limp and a blessing, rather than "Jacobs" without one.