He shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Thy face...(vs. 5-6)
Want blessings? Want God to look at you and smile? Want all the things you have done wrong in the past to disappear into oblivion so that you can have a blank slate and a new start? Think these things to be impossible?
Then seek His face. I know some will say they don't even know what this means. How does one seek the face of a being she cannot see in the first place? But we have been given a look at not only His face, but also His heart. Jesus is the exact representation of Yahweh. We know what God is like because Christ showed us. We can know the heart of God. And we can seek it.
The story of Jacob in Genesis could be the story of many of us. Jacob had a twin. Esau. The father's favorite and the firstborn. Isaac, the father, was prepared in his old age to bless his elder son when Jacob and his mother, Rebecca, conspired to lie to the old man and steal the birthright from the brother. Jacob, a less manly man than Esau, who loved to hunt and apparently eat greasy meat just off the grill, had to run for his life afterward because he had pretended to be his brother, lying to Isaac.
Here is the irony of our God. Years later, Jacob, who is now a wealthy man, seeks reconciliation with Esau. The lies of his youth still a yoke about his neck, Jacob sends men to Esau to test the waters. They return with the message that Esau is coming after him with four hundred men. Of course, this puts Jacob on his face before God in fear and trembling. His prayer goes something like this: "Dear God, I am an unworthy scoundrel. I have not deserved all the wonderful blessings you have given me. But deliver me, I pray, from my brother Esau because I fear he is coming to attack me and my family. Please keep Your promise to me that you will bless my family and make their offspring as many as the sands on the seashore."
He then sent his family ahead of him and was left alone in the darkness of night. The angel of the Lord then came and wrestled with Jacob all that night. Jacob was wiry and persistent, so much so that the angel touched his thigh, throwing his hip out of joint. Jacob was desperate for blessing. Hanging onto the words of God to him, fighting for his life.
"Let me go!" demanded the angel.
"Not until you bless me!" cried Jacob.
"What is your name?" inquired the angel.
An odd question. Fighting man to man all night. Wouldn't you think the angel would already know his name was Jacob? But wasn't this what the struggle was about all along? Pretending to be someone he was not. The last time of any consequence that someone had asked his name, Jacob had lied. Called himself Esau. So why wouldn't God, in this theophany, call this prevarication into question to be dealt with once and for all before Jacob was to see his brother again. What is your name? Who are you? I know your heart.
Lord All-Powerful, you test good people. You look deeply into the heart and mind of a person. Jeremiah 20.
You know what happened to Jacob? He got a new name!!! One that was untarnished because he wanted to be blessed and made right. A brand new start. He had a limp for the rest of his life from the battle....just to make sure he never forgot the goodness of the Lord or where he came from to this newness of life. Esau greeted Jacob the next day with miraculous love and forgiveness. Only God could have done that. Jacob looked into His face and lived to tell about it. To create an altar to the experience. God cared enough about this wayward son to duke it out with the boy and let him win.
Want a new start? Be a part of the generation who seeks His face. Press through if it takes all night. Trust me, there is joy in the morning.
Want blessings? Want God to look at you and smile? Want all the things you have done wrong in the past to disappear into oblivion so that you can have a blank slate and a new start? Think these things to be impossible?
Then seek His face. I know some will say they don't even know what this means. How does one seek the face of a being she cannot see in the first place? But we have been given a look at not only His face, but also His heart. Jesus is the exact representation of Yahweh. We know what God is like because Christ showed us. We can know the heart of God. And we can seek it.
The story of Jacob in Genesis could be the story of many of us. Jacob had a twin. Esau. The father's favorite and the firstborn. Isaac, the father, was prepared in his old age to bless his elder son when Jacob and his mother, Rebecca, conspired to lie to the old man and steal the birthright from the brother. Jacob, a less manly man than Esau, who loved to hunt and apparently eat greasy meat just off the grill, had to run for his life afterward because he had pretended to be his brother, lying to Isaac.
Here is the irony of our God. Years later, Jacob, who is now a wealthy man, seeks reconciliation with Esau. The lies of his youth still a yoke about his neck, Jacob sends men to Esau to test the waters. They return with the message that Esau is coming after him with four hundred men. Of course, this puts Jacob on his face before God in fear and trembling. His prayer goes something like this: "Dear God, I am an unworthy scoundrel. I have not deserved all the wonderful blessings you have given me. But deliver me, I pray, from my brother Esau because I fear he is coming to attack me and my family. Please keep Your promise to me that you will bless my family and make their offspring as many as the sands on the seashore."
He then sent his family ahead of him and was left alone in the darkness of night. The angel of the Lord then came and wrestled with Jacob all that night. Jacob was wiry and persistent, so much so that the angel touched his thigh, throwing his hip out of joint. Jacob was desperate for blessing. Hanging onto the words of God to him, fighting for his life.
"Let me go!" demanded the angel.
"Not until you bless me!" cried Jacob.
"What is your name?" inquired the angel.
An odd question. Fighting man to man all night. Wouldn't you think the angel would already know his name was Jacob? But wasn't this what the struggle was about all along? Pretending to be someone he was not. The last time of any consequence that someone had asked his name, Jacob had lied. Called himself Esau. So why wouldn't God, in this theophany, call this prevarication into question to be dealt with once and for all before Jacob was to see his brother again. What is your name? Who are you? I know your heart.
Lord All-Powerful, you test good people. You look deeply into the heart and mind of a person. Jeremiah 20.
You know what happened to Jacob? He got a new name!!! One that was untarnished because he wanted to be blessed and made right. A brand new start. He had a limp for the rest of his life from the battle....just to make sure he never forgot the goodness of the Lord or where he came from to this newness of life. Esau greeted Jacob the next day with miraculous love and forgiveness. Only God could have done that. Jacob looked into His face and lived to tell about it. To create an altar to the experience. God cared enough about this wayward son to duke it out with the boy and let him win.
Want a new start? Be a part of the generation who seeks His face. Press through if it takes all night. Trust me, there is joy in the morning.
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