Place of pain and Glory

Sometimes I write in this space for myself. Sometimes for my Beloved, and sometimes for my three little treasures. My friends, I have to say, usually get the shaft, but on the rarest of occasions, I can write to all groups involved.

I have been reflecting on Genesis 32, which describes the situation that Isaac's son Jacob finds himself in years after having tricked his older brother Esau out of his birthright and blessing. Jacob is on the run after some business chicanery with Laban, and now he's coming into the land of Edom, a place where his angry brother resides.

Naturally, Jacob is terrified, because the last time he saw his big brother, Esau wanted to kill him. Jacob prepares for the encounter, mostly by planning to simultaneously bribe Esau while planning his own escape from the slaughter that he thinks is coming. Jacob sends ahead massive amounts of tribute toward Esau, hoping and praying that Esau won't come and kill him.

I'll let theologian and pastor Tommy Nelson take it from here:

It's payday. I'm a dead man. He comes to God and he prays, 'God, you gotta do something.' 

And rather than trust God, he sends big waves of all of his possessions to placate Esau. He bows down to him and calls him 'lord of the land.' 

And while he's alone that night with all of his goods, possessions, daughters, grandchildren going out to Esau to placate his wrath, he's all alone. And right then, somebody comes into the camp and somebody wrestles with him. 

Somebody comes to rob him. But rob him of what? He has sent everything ahead of him. But a man comes into the camp to rob him. It's God! What's he come to rob him of? Himself 

All that's left is you, and I've got you down to the bare wood, and we're going to fight. And he understood what that fight meant. 'I'm looking for your heart, and you resist me?'
And he fought with him all night long. I don't think it was much of a fight. I think God took Jacob and tossed him around, and the sun is coming up and Jacob knows who it is, and just like in life, he had resisted God. And God did something. God brought an end to the fight. He cheated 

When God wants the conflict to end, when God wants to bring you to your knees, He will. This fight will go on as long as I want it to until you're weary. And then before you die and look upon the presence of God, I will take my finger and touch your hip and I will rip it out of place, and you're going to limp the rest of your life. 

I truly believe that God can't use a man until He hurts them. I think women, he woos to Himself. I think with men though, He has to break them. And He broke Jacob. And now, he's not fighting with the Lord anymore, now, he wept and he sought His favor.
You know why he wept? Because dislocated hips are painful. And now he wasn't fighting with God, he's hanging onto Him. And he says, "I will not turn you loose until you bless me." He sought His favor. We're not going to do usury, we're not going to do deceit, we're not going to be smart guys, we're going to learn how to pray, and how to trust God. How long did it take him to get to this point? Two decades.  Problems with his daddy, and his mamma, and Esau, and Rachel, and Leah, and all these problems. But now God has him hurt, and there is a guy coming with 300 pals. 

'I will not turn you loose. God, I need your word.' It's what God had said at least 20 years earlier, but Jacob wouldn't trust Him. 

But now, Jacob found Him. He sought His favor, and he found Him. "For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Heb 11:6) You don't find God by rubbing Aladdin's lamp and showing up in church. You seek Him in pain, and you will find him. 

And Jacob found Him at Bethel. 

Now, before all of this happened, when Esau said he would kill him and Jacob fled, Jacob went to a place called Ai and Bethel. He spent the night on a windswept plain and used a stone for a pillow. And all of a sudden he had a dream. And he saw a ladder coming from heaven down to earth. And coming up  and down the ladder were the angelic realm to take care of him. Angels and servants to minister for the sake of those who will inherit salvation. And he saw, 'this is the place of God! God is with me!' And God says, 'I made a promise to Abraham and Isaac and I will keep it with you. I will give you land, seed, and blessing. And then God quoted scripture - "I made a covenant, you can trust me." 

Jacob gets up and says, "God is in this place, and I didn't even know it. How awesome is this place." 

Whenever God breaks you, the place of pain becomes the place of glory.