Valuable Lessons in Jacob's Experience

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

Valuable Lessons in Jacob's Experience

Today's Text: And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Genesis 32:26

The Message:      To tell tempted souls of their guilt in no way inspires them with a determination to do better.... Hold up before them the possibilities that are theirs. Point them to the heights to which they may attain. Help them to take hold upon the mercy of the Lord, to trust in His forgiving power. Jesus is waiting to clasp them by the hand, waiting to give them power to live a noble, virtuous life.      God often brings people to a crisis to show them their own weakness and to point them to the Source of strength. If they pray and watch unto prayer, fighting bravely, their weak points will become their strong points. Jacob's experience contains many valuable lessons for us. God taught Jacob that in his own strength he could never gain the victory, that he must wrestle with God for strength from above.      All night Jacob wrestled with the Angel. Finally the strong wrestler was weakened by a touch on his thigh. He was now disabled and suffering the keenest pain, but he would not loose his hold. All penitent and broken, he clung to the Angel, ... pleading for a blessing. He must have the assurance that his sin was pardoned. His determination grew stronger, his faith more earnest and persevering, until the very last. The Angel tried to release Himself; He urged, "Let me go, for the day breaketh," but Jacob answered, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me."      Had this been a boastful, presumptuous confidence, Jacob would have been instantly destroyed; but his was the assurance of one who confesses his own unworthiness, yet trusts to the faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God.... Through humiliation, repentance, and self-surrender this sinful, erring mortal prevailed with the Majesty of heaven. He had fastened his trembling grasp on the promises of God, and the heart of infinite love could not turn away the sinner's plea.      As an evidence that Jacob had been forgiven, his name was changed from one that was a reminder of his sin to one that commemorated his victory. "Thy name," said the Angel, "shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."      Shall we obtain strength from God, and win victory after victory, or shall we try in our own strength, and at last fall back defeated, worn out by vain efforts? Let us, by unreserved surrender to God, obtain the power that everyone must have who conquers in the battle against evil.-Manuscript 2, 1903.

Commentary: My friend, it is only by the power of the Son of God that we may have power to overcome sin in our lives.  Jesus said that all power and authority was given to Him from above, and He promised that this power may be ours if we would surrender our lives to Him.  The authority that the Son of God has is the very fact that He is the Son of God.  Not a Son by creation, nor a Son by redemption, but a Son by birth.  He is the Son of God because He came forth from the Father and therefore is the divine Son of God.  Because He is the Son, He has been given this authority from the Father. It is God's will that we overcome sin in our lives.  While this is impossible through our own strength and will, it is possible if we like Jacob, confess our sins, recognize our unworthiness, and cling to the Son of God as Jacob did.  The blessing that Jacob sought was not worldly or selfish, it was victory over sin, and the promise to us is that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9). In the last days we will need to have a faith in God that will see us through trial and tribulation, when the whole world will be united in their hatred of us.  The problem that many in the church have today is that they have accepted a counterfeit god in place of the One true God of the Bible, and as such are clinging to a false god that cannot save them.  The trinity teaches that there is three gods in one, that Jesus is not really the Son of God but is only a divine being playing the role of a son.  It teaches that the Holy Spirit is a person, separate from the Father and the Son, and it is by him that we are connected to Jesus, and as such has introduced another mediator between God and man. The triune god is not the God of the Bible for it declares in Deuteronomy 6:4, 5 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."  And Jesus declared in John 17:3 "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." My friend, eternal life comes from the Father to us through the Son.  If we are to be saved we must cling to Jesus, confessing our sins, and clinging to His promise to save us.  Only as we cling to the true Son of God can we be saved. May you cling to the One True God through Jesus today. God bless,

Video of the Week God the Father - Allen Davis Dr. Allen Davis shows from the Bible who the Father is and His true relation to His Son.