Moses has come full circle. He has come back to Sinai, where he met God in a fiery bush.
For the first time, the Hebrews are referred to as the "House of Jacob - the people of Israel".
Jacob, Joseph's father whose family landed in Egypt four Centuries earlier, was known in Genesis as the schemer. Jacob was someone who liked to take matters of his life into his own hands, despite the promises God had made to him. He liked things to make sense to him. He liked insurances policies of his own crafting.
One night, God came to bless Jacob. Only Jacob wouldn't stay still, and God wrestled him for a night, eventually dislocated his hip to immolbilize him in order to bless him. And then God renamed him "Israel" - meaning one who wrestles with God.
Jacob the scheme wrestles in life without God. Israel wrestles in life with God. And the Hebrews now have a choice - to make a life as a people without God, or with God.
And the people said, "whatever God wants, we will do."
"We want God," they agreed.
Write
Think about your faith story: think about how you have struggled in your life? When have your wrestled life alone, and when have you wrestled life with God?
in your life presently, how are your wrestling with God on your side? In what ways you sometimes wrestle alone without God? Why?
Who do you know is wrestling life alone?
Pray
What
is God saying to you today? What's Good News to you?
Talk to God about your experience wrestling in life. Thank God for the way he will wrestle you to the ground to bless you when you won't be still before him.
Pray about the struggles you face presently. Ask God for the help you need, the reassureance of his presence, and the courage to do what God instructs..
Pray for your friend who wrestles in life alone. Ask God to give you the wisdom and opportunity to come along side your friend..
Pray for an experience of God's love, grace and mercy in the way he instructs you for life, the way he allows you to wrestle with him, and the way he wrestles alongside with you.