The Strange Case Of Grabber

By John Stallings


He was named as he emerged from his mother’s womb because he was grabbing his twin brother’s foot trying to reposition himself to be born first. This would have given him an advantage. You might call him “the evil twin.”


He spent the first part of his life cheating & conniving. Today he’d be like a Vegas card shark among other things. The bottom line is; you wouldn’t want to do business with him.

As time passed he lived up to his name. He grabbed his brother’s birthright in exchange for a bowl of stew. He was his mother’s favorite so she later helped him grab his brother’s blessing belonging to the firstborn. This could sometimes mean as much as two thirds of an estate.

JACOB

Of whom do I speak? Of course we’re talking about Jacob. He grabbed women, money, birthrights & property.

Grabbers are among us even today. You have to watch them closely because they will try to grab what they want with no thought of who gets hurt in the process. Sad to say you’ll meet many of these grabbers in church.

Jacob’s lying & cheating ways finally caught up with him & he had to leave the country because his brother Esau has threatened to kill him. He’s in his early forties, homeless & penniless. Jacob flees to his uncle Laban's house in upper Mesopotamia.

“Follow the money” is a term we became familiar with back during the Watergate era. If you look at fights, especially family fights, you’ll find that money is somehow always at the root of the contention. So it is with the case of Jacob & his brother. I’ve heard pastors say the times when they most felt like leaving the ministry were when they witnessed families fighting, sometimes over the very caskets of their deceased relatives over family estate matters. The love of money is the root of all evil…1 Tim.6:10

So let’s join Jacob as he makes his way back to the Promised Land after a 20 year absence. He’s foot-sore from the long roads he’s traveled. He knows his twin brother who he cheated 20 years earlier still has a burr under his saddle & waits in the land so he sends an envoy to greet Esau. But the news isn’t good. Esau & an army of 400 men are coming. Immediately he divides his family & assets into two camps & sends out gifts to his brother to hopefully slake his thirst for revenge.

Soon the Sun goes down starting the darkest, most stressful, & at once blessed night of Jacob’s life. He is alone & is visited by someone & they wrestle. Why is this night so bizarre? Jacob had prayed for deliverance from his brother & his answer comes in the form of a fight with someone bigger, stronger & maybe meaner than his brother Esau.

In God’s dealings with us He has, -- Tender love,--Tactical love, -- Tough love-&--- Transforming love. Right now God has maneuvered Jacob into His Tactical love.Transforming love is coming soon.

What an answer to Jacob’s prayer; he wants to avoid a fight but gets a fight, however not the type he was expecting. An angel has come & picked a fight with him. But God is at work. As usual Jacob is only interested in his outward circumstances but God is more interested in the inner reality of who Jacob is.

Oh yes -God is going to help him but He’s going to do things His way. So Jacob & this “guy” wrestle. Now we know Jacob was a big strong man but whoever this mysterious figure is he’s wrestling with is able to dislocate his thigh with just a touch. The thigh is the strongest part of the body & God was going to break him at the point of his strength. But as we’ll see, God will never overpower a broken spirit.

Let’s pitch our mental tents here for a while. God can’t use a person until they’re crushed, wounded & broken. Does that sound like the God you serve? Well it is. Now I’m not referring to being physically broken, while that sometimes happens, but I speak of brokenness of spirit.

In Isaiah’s day the same mentality prevailed that is still very much entrenched in the minds of many Christians today; that being if you’re really pleasing God you’ll have smooth sailing, but if God isn’t pleased with you He’ll swat you with his big heavenly fly-swatter. Folk who believe that aren’t acquainted with the breaking nature of God.

In Isaiah 53, Isaiah looked through the telescope of time & wrote, - “It pleased the Lord to crush Him,” speaking of Jesus. But Isaiah himself was so full of this idea of God coddling His special ones that he opened this chapter with—“Who will believe this? I’m going to write the truth, the truth that –it pleased God to crush His Son- but who’s going to believe this report?

Then Isaiah goes on to describe the pain & suffering Jesus endured. When you & I receive the elements of the Lord’s Supper, we are affirming the awful crushing Jesus experienced on the cross. The bread represents His broken body & the cup represents His spilt blood at Calvary. No person God has ever used has escaped a crushing & bruising experience in their life for it will come in some form & at some point. The objective God has in this is to break the outer shell of flesh & cut through our soulish man so that the spirit man will become strong. You might call this process “God’s boot camp.” When we graduate from this course we’re usable to God because we’re no longer being led by our fleshly desires but by our strengthened spirit man.

A special fragrance comes from a crushed human spirit, if God has done the crushing, just as it does from a crushed rose.

Once it was clear that this heavenly messenger was going to leave his imprint on Jacob, he resolves somehow that the refining process will benefit him. Jacob holds to the angel & tells him he won’t turn loose without a blessing.

Then the angel who was wrestling with Jacob made a request that in a way is strange. He said; ---let me go for the day breaketh. Genesis 32:26. Why would this heavenly visitor be so anxious to get away? Heaven often operates this way.

In Matthew fifteen there’s the story of the woman from Canaan who came to Jesus & requested that her daughter be healed. At first the disciples tried to get rid of her & then they turned to Jesus asking Him to tell her to leave. Jesus had the famous conversation with her & ended up comparing her to a dog. Undaunted, she came right back saying, “I’m fine with that. It’s O.K if I’m a dog if I can be your dog.” Of course her persistence paid off & her daughter was healed. But when you read the story it seems that Jesus was trying to do exactly what this angel was trying to do; & that is not to be bothered, to be let alone; to be turned loose & allowed to leave. What’s the dynamic here & what’s the deal with God wanting get away, discouraging the seeker?

The answer is; God has a desire to be wanted & hungered for by man, his highest creation. He said…. You’ll find me when you seek me with all your heart. The angel Jacob was wrestling with was trying to pull away to see how much Jacob was going to fight for what he wanted. The same was true of the Canaanite woman. Jesus wanted to see how determined she was.
….. the violent take it by force. Matt.11:12.


Jacob survives this run-in with God so its certain he’ll be able to survive his run-in with his brother. If he can survive a face-to-face encounter with God surely he can survive his circumstances & even Esau.

During this wrestling match the angel asked Jacob his name. A few years back he had lied to his blind & dying old father & told him his name was Esau so he could steal his birthright blessing. Now Jacob was coming clean & told the visitor what his real name was; Grabber & deceiver. There’s no guile in Jacob now so God gives him a new name; from now on his name would be Israel---God strives.

God told him he’d be a patriarch but there would be a refining of Jacob & the refining would not be painless. Jacob called the place he met God Peniel, the face of God. His prayer had been to survive Esau but now he’d seen one greater than Esau & his life had been preserved.

Jacob like us, wanted to point to his circumstances but God wanted to change him inside. How often do we say to God; “Look God, the problem isn’t me it’s these terrible circumstances?” How often do we pray, “God change my spouse” when we should be praying, “God break my pride?” How often do we pray, “God give me the victory,” when we should be praying, “God defeat me here. Break me. Re-orient my thinking about who I am until I become who you want me to be?”

God met Jacob because He loved him & had a dream of Israel. God saved us because He has a dream of who we will be. And if He has to hurt us to make it happen, so be it.

Friend don’t let this next statement throw you but you’ve gotten yourself involved with a dangerous God. God isn’t “tame,” He’s dangerous. He will hurt you to heal you & He’ll expose the fraud of superficial covering if He has to. He has said that every hidden thing is coming out.

Several years ago when several great ministries fell, someone made the statement - “They’re all coming down sooner or later.” I didn’t know then & I still don’t know if the individual was a worthy commentator about anything, & I certainly don’t believe the “all” is appropriate. However I believe he was right with one caveat; the ones who’re not clean & upright will crumble. We’ll live to see God continue to clean up His house. It’s an abomination to take money from widows & people giving sacrificial offerings & spend it like they were richer than Solomon & these ego-driven ministries are going to be exposed.

Every ministry whether it be a church, evangelistic organization, T.V ministry etc. should keep in mind that when they misuse the people of God in any way they’re messing with Christ’s Bride. As I write this there’s a mammoth ministry under intense scrutiny out west & if they’re guilty of the charges against them, which I hope & pray they’re not, they’re going down & maybe to jail. It gives me no satisfaction to say that because when one Christian errs we’re all hurt & the cause of Christ is hindered.

Our God is good but He loves truth & light & when we play games with Him He’ll set fires to put us through to refine us. The fight we think we’re fighting probably isn’t the one in the forefront of God’s mind. Like Jacob we want Him to change the circumstances & relieve the pressure but His priority is to change us at our core.

Jacob learned God doesn’t do makeovers. That was never His plan. God doesn’t want us to exchange a headache for an upset stomach. That’s not how He rolls. God is a transformer, and transformation from what we are to who He sees is never painless. His goal for us is sanctification, to make us more like Christ & this is never accomplished by mere makeovers.

What happened between Jacob & Esau & the big clash that looked inevitable between them? Talk about much ado about nothing. Jacob had divided his people & possessions & sent (bribes) excuse me, gifts ahead to try to pacify Esau. (I’ll bet he got an earful from Leah about that) When they finally met, God had been at work on both ends of the line. Doesn’t that sound like the God you & I serve?

Esau wasn’t angry at Jacob but seemed genuinely glad to see his brother. Jacob shows contriteness & Esau is the model of forgiveness. It was a necessary encounter because it brought reconciliation which was badly needed by these estranged brothers. Neither of the men needs anything the other one has. Esau seems to expect that Jacob is going to come back & live at least near him in Seir but Jacob tells him to go on ahead because he & his brood need to travel slower.

Jacob knows he has an important destiny now & soon settles in Shechem & sets up housekeeping. He sets his flag down there, claiming this territory as Israel. This new nation will be founded on his new name & new found faith in God. He’s finally back where he belongs, back in the Promised Land.

What can we learn from Jacob? For one thing we can learn never to act out of fear because fear takes us away from God’s promises. Jacob’s actions caused him not only to run from his destiny but to do so without provisions which meant that things would be more difficult.

Our promised land isn’t spatial but spiritual. When we’re living our lives confidently & obediently we are in the place where God’s blessings can flow unimpeded & we can experience it most fully, making it possible for us to receive maximum blessings from God.

We can also learn that departure from the promised land, God’s will for us, always delays blessings. God was faithful & Jacob was still part of the line of promise & he will live in the land. When he left, Jacob only anticipated a few days absence but his little road trip lasted 20 years. He dealt with cantankerous old Laban for 20 years & never saw his mother again. It’s true he still saw God’s hand of blessing & mercy in his life but he paid dearly & had to face obstacles he’d have never seen had he not left.

We should take note; our faithless shortcuts will also result in fearful living outside our promised land. But returning to the promised land & God’s will for our lives is always an option. Jacob could have stayed with his father-in-law Laban. He could also have gotten his nose out of joint when God knocked his thigh out of joint. He could have gotten mad & given up on going back to his promised land but he made a conscious choice to go.

We all have wandered off the reservation. All of us have let our desires & fears get the best of us. That is at the very least unfortunate & at the worst tragic. The question is will we come back & when. Sometimes we can get so weary it feels better to just give up on God’s perfect will for our lives. But God is always waiting. Jacob was never disqualified. Jacob never quit & God never quit. The promised land is always there.

God knew He was dealing with an imperfect guy with Jacob as He is with us. We’re prone to wander from His perfect will. I have invested my whole life expounding in sermon & song the following truth; God’s Word assures us again & again that no matter how bad we’ve blown it, He will take us back. The choice is ours, His acceptance is assured.

Towards the end of his life we see Jacob again as a prophet, giving prophesies concerning the future of his descendants. (Gen.49) He was a man who knew the secret councils of God & was truly a prince of God.

Then we see him once again in a somewhat unlikely place. In Hebrews 11:21, we read, “By faith Jacob when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, & worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff.

If you think about it in one way, to have Jacob’s name mentioned in this chapter of great faith exploits seems a bit incongruous. Why include a man who’s leaning on a staff & worshipping in the great Hall of Fame of believers? What Jacob is doing doesn’t look like a miracle of faith.

Why was Jacob leaning? Well, the angel knocked his thigh out of joint in that wrestling match. They tell me a man has a problem walking or even standing if his thigh is out of its socket. God allowed that impediment to remain with Jacob for life. To put it bluntly, after Jacob’s encounter with the angel, he was a cripple. The story of Jacob’s life after the night he wrestled with the angel was “I’m learning to lean on God.” The staff symbolized his helplessness & reminds him of the night God broke him of his stubbornness & self-will.

Jacob wanted to change his circumstances but God wanted to change him & He did. Boy, did he ever? God’s priority isn’t what happens in our lives. His priority is what happens in us. Jacob could not continue to be a grabber after God changed his heart.

Have you noticed that in His Word God calls Himself “the God of Abraham, Isaac & ---not Israel---but Jacob?” Yes God linked Himself with the grabber, the grabber transformed. It’s a marvelous thing how God allows an imperfect man to leave the past behind, grow in character & become an integral part of His plans & purposes.

Psalm 46:11 says …The God of Jacob is our refuge.

As with Jacob, more than anything else God is interested in who we are becoming. May He write this lesson deep in our hearts?

Praise His name!!


Blessings,


John