Genesis 32:22-32, “But during the night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions. But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he could not get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob’s hip out of joint. The man said, “Let me go; it’s daybreak.” Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go ’til you bless me.” The man said, “What’s your name?” He answered, “Jacob. “The man said, “But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on its Israel (God-Wrestler); you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.” Jacob asked, “And what’s your name?” The man said, “Why do you want to know my name?” And then, right then and there, he blessed him. Jacob named the place Peniel (God’s Face) because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!” The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip. (This is why Israelites to this day don’t eat the hip muscle; because Jacob’s hip was thrown out of joint.)” (MSG)
You See When You Have An Experience With God, God Never Leaves You With A Strut, But He Leaves You With A Limp. When Your Life Has Had an Encounter With God, When You See The Holy You Are Left With A Limp. When you see God in His perfection and His Holiness, no matter how good you thought you were, you begin to say, “Woe Is Me”. You do not strut in His presence, there is no flesh that has the audacity to strut in the presence of God. When God comes, you don’t say Lord look at this, check this out, no, no, no, when you walk with God, you walk with a Limp, and God leaves us all with a Limp to let us know you haven’t always been right, you’ve wrestled with something in your life, and I’ve decided to touch you in the hollow of your hip to draw something up to let you know that you are not perfect and you have never been perfect, but you behold the One Who Is Perfect.
You will find me at Genesis 32, beginning at verse 24. Jacob has been having a wrestling match with someone who turns out to be divine. And verse 24 says, “So Jacob was left alone, and a Man [came and] wrestled with him until daybreak.” (AMP). Finally, the fight ends when that Man touches the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
Later, Jacob knows Who he met there. He called the place Peniel (the face of God), saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life has not been snatched away.” Now the sun rose on him as he passed Penuel (Peniel), and he was limping because of his hip” (vss. 30-31 AMP) Jacob struggled with God. He had wrestled with Him his whole life. But at this brook he goes for God’s full blessing. God changes him from Jacob, the cheat, and He changes his name to Israel, Prince with God. In fact, the whole nation will be named after him! God forgave Jacob. God transformed Jacob, and He is still doing that with “Jacobs” today. Thank You Jesus!
But note this: Even though the struggle with God was over, Jacob carried a life-long reminder of his struggle – the limp! Past sins were forgiven, the man was changed, but as happens so often, he had struggled with God and that left a mark on him the rest of his life!
Even though the sin is long behind us, long forgiven, often the consequences, the marks of our sin are there for years to come. Truth is that sin is cruel. And you and I were once its slave, and we are free now, but we still carry some of the scars of how our slave master treated us! And we always will…yet believe it or not, sometimes, that is not a completely bad thing.
We need to remember what sin does, because often it is those scars, those lasting consequences that will deter us from leaving God’s way again! Now, forgiveness comes quickly when we bring our sin to the cross of Jesus, but it does not come cheaply; it cost Him His life! But the ready availability of forgiveness should not make us forget the sometimes-continuing consequences of sin; the limp that is there long after our struggle with God is behind us.
And that is just like sin! It loves to remind us of what we did, when, where, why, with who, and how often. And it does it to keep us living under a dark cloud as though we no longer deserve the Sun or the Son.
And that makes me think of four R’s that explain some of the lasting scars/marks of sin that we need to be daily mindful of:
- REPUTATION – the damage to your reputation can last a long time. Sometimes it feels like it will take forever to redeem yourself. And it certainly does not help when you have people who know about your sin and how badly you messed up. They will revisit your past on your behalf, just so you do not forget. It is hard when you have tarnished your own name, and now have the responsibility to polish it again. Remember this, it takes but a moment to tear apart your own reputation, but it often takes many a year to rebuild and reestablish it again.
- REGRETS – which are often there for years. You go through the grueling process of thoughts such as “I should’ve; I could’ve; I didn’t; but; why; if only I could just go back; if only I could do it all over again” Regret is a tough word to get out of your vocabulary. In fact, it means “to feel or express sorrow, repentance, or disappointment over.” It’s Old French Origin “regreter” literally means “lament the dead.” And isn’t that often what we find ourselves doing? Regretting old (and even dead things). Long after they have been done, with no way to un-do them, we still hold years, decades and sometimes a lifetime of regret.
- RELATIONSHIPS – that were damaged that are hard to repair. Like it or not, but “I’m sorry” does not remove the pain or the memory of the hurt we have inflicted in our sin. No, you should not be in bondage to your sin, and once you repent and change and ask for forgiveness, you are indeed fully restored. And no one can ever take that away from you. Especially when God Himself moves your transgressions from you as far as the East is from the West. However, truth is, we often rip apart relationships due to our sin. And sometimes that damage simply cannot be mended or repaired.
- RECOLLECTION – the memories that just keep coming back! It is a sobering reminder to seriously count the cost before we take any spiritual detour. At times It is a painful reminder of a deliberate choice we make for my own lives. And the “what if’s” never go away fully.
That Is The Danger Of Sin. You Must Deal With The Damage To Your Reputation; The Regrets For Your Choices; The Beyond Repair Relationships That You Have Damaged; And The Painful Recollection Of Memories Of Your Transgressions. However, hold on, for as bad as this may sound, there is still some good news!
I know you may find this hard to believe or receive, but the scars of our past are not all bad! Especially, if they remind us to stay away from sin because of its’ price tag. And it is wonderful to know that God has forever erased those sins from His book. In fact, my scars remind me of His scars for me! He has got the scars of the nail prints in His hands and feet from having been nailed to a cross to pay the penalty and take the hell for our sin. So even though we must deal with many of the consequences from our bad choices, we can still rejoice in reconciliation and redemption!
You see, Jacob was blessed, changed, and received covenant promises, at the same place where he received his limp! And even after he received all these wonderful blessings, his limp never left him!
And as much as you and I would love to pretend that our mistakes and deliberate sin, never happened, it did. And we hurt ourselves and others. But in honesty, when we look at the consequences of our bad choices, our limp if you will, should remind us of the struggle, it reminds us of the painful past, it reminds us that we hurt ourselves and a lot of others. It reminds us that we do not want to repeat such a bad performance. It reminds us to do better. It reminds us that WE CAN be better. It reminds us that our change was costly, but more important it reminds us that just because we walked away before, does not mean we will walk away again! Which is why it also reminds me not to take the grace, mercy, favor, and forgiveness of God for granted!
Jacob was blessed indeed, but his limp never left him! God has blessed me indeed over the years, but my ‘limp’ has never left me either, or the more I mature in God, the more excited I am for the limp that straightened my walk!
In addition, the limping ones receive a blessing according to Scripture: Zephaniah 3:19, “Behold, at that time I will deal with all those who afflict you; I will save the limping [ones] and gather the outcasts and will make them a praise and a name in every land of their shame.” (AMPC)
Thank God He still saves the limping ones! He has not forgotten us. Even when we have forgotten Him.
Listen, if you are anything like me, you have messed up, not once or twice but sometimes often! And not all our consequences have escaped us. You still have the marks, scars, limps, and memories of how terribly you failed God and others. Well, instead of beating yourself over the head with your ‘limp’, let it be your reminder to walk right! Let your ‘limp’ remind you that “If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also WALK by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward WALKING IN LINE, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.]” (Galatians 5:25 AMPC)
Let Your ‘Limp’ In The Flesh Remind You To Walk By The Spirit! Let Your Consequences Remind You To Make Better Choices In Life!
The word “consequence” is defined as “a result or effect.” It’s Latin Origin, “consequential”, from “consequi” literally means “follow closely.” Do not despise your ‘limp’ or the consequences because of it, instead let your limp and consequences follow you closely, they will remind you of the pain you do not want to repeat! In a nutshell: It was my ‘limp’ that taught me how to straighten out my walk with God. My ‘limp’ taught me that I wanted to walk with Him (but that He would not entertain my sin along the journey). It taught me to think better, to speak better, to do better, to live better, and to be better.
No, we cannot go back and re-do or un-do, but we can go forward doing better. Some stuff you may just have to live with, but that is not a bad thing when you learn with it.
Today, remember that Jacob wrestled with God and received a limp, but he was also blessed, changed, and received covenant promises at the place where he received that limp. Please understand, your ‘limp’ is not there to limit you, it is there to remind you when the next opportunity to sin walks up, you should without question walk away. Your limp is to remind you to trust God, rely and depend on God, to hear and heed God.
Lastly, there are no wrestlers that enter a match and walk away without hurt, pain, bruising, sweat and blood! In other words, there is a blessing that comes with your limp that is for your good, but it will not feel good! Listen to the Bible: “And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.” (vs. 25) Look at a few translations:
“…He touched his hip joint; and Jacob’s hip was DISLOCATED…” (AMP);
“…he grabbed Jacob’s thigh and TORE A MUSCLE in Jacob’s thigh…” (CEB);
“…he STRUCK Jacob on the hip and THREW IT OUT OF JOINT…” (CEV);
“… he STRUCK Jacob’s hip and KNOCKED IT OUT OF JOINT AT THE SOCKET…” (TLB);
“…he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was WRENCHED as he wrestled with the man..” (NIV)
It is in Jacob’s story we can easily recognize our own elements of struggle: fears, darkness, loneliness, vulnerabilities, empty feelings of powerlessness, exhaustion, and relentless pain. Even the apostle Paul experienced similar discouragements and fears: “We were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within” 2 Corinthians 7:5 (But, in truth, God does not want to leave us with our trials, our fears, our battles in life. In the end, Jacob does what we all must do. He confronts his failures, his weaknesses, his sins, all the things that are hurting him . . . and faces God. Jacob wrestled with God all night. It was an exhausting struggle that left him crippled. It was only after he came to grips with God and ceased his struggling, realizing that he could not go on without Him, that he received God’s blessing (Genesis 32:29.)
What we learn from this remarkable incident in the life of Jacob is that our lives are never meant to be easy. This is especially true when we take it upon ourselves to wrestle with God and His will for our lives. We also learn that as Christians, despite our trials and tribulations, our strivings in this life are never devoid of God’s presence, and His blessing inevitably follows the struggle, which can sometimes be messy and chaotic. Real growth experiences always involve struggle and pain. Jacob’s wrestling with God at the Jabbok that dark night reminds us of this truth: though we may fight God and His will for us, in truth, God is so very good. As believers in Christ, we may well struggle with Him through the loneliness of night, but by daybreak His blessing will come.
I reiterate, the limp is for your good, but it will not feel good! You see that word ‘wrench’ in the last translation is defined as, “to pull or twist suddenly and violently.” So yes, you will wrestle and prevail and receive the blessing, but man is it going to hurt, and the effects of it will stay with you for life! And still I say, today, let your Limp Straighten Out Your Walk With God! The Lesson Learned and the Blessing Received From the Limp is Worth the Wrestle!
FATHER help us to Love You Like We loved You When We First Came to Know You. DON'T let us take the Miracle of Our Salvation for Granted. IF We Come to A place Where we have begun to Forget Our First Love, Remind Us OF Where We Were When You Found Us. AMEN.
Blessings
J.P. Olson
www.thewordwithjpolson.org
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