THE BLESSINGS IN BODILY AFFLICTIONS

“That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ The man asked him, ‘What is your name?’ ‘Jacob,’ he answered. Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.’ Jacob said, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he replied, ‘Why do you ask my name?’ Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared’” (Genesis 32:22-31 NIV).

The story of Jacob is truly amazing and tells us so much about the way God works in our lives and in our bodies. How many times have you been unable to sleep at night because you have been overwhelmed or stressed or worried or scared? Or how many nights have you woken up having a bad dream because something has been laying so heavily upon your mind and heart that you can’t stop thinking about it? Or what about those things that we have seemingly forgotten that tend to reappear in our dreams and leave us in a panic for the rest of the day? If you think about it, a lot of the emotional strains and situations that you, voluntarily or involuntarily, put off or can’t resolve during the day, rear their ugly heads at night. The overwhelm of these spiritual burdens is at the start of this story.

In this particular scene, Jacob is getting ready to meet his brother, Esau, after about 70 years. The last time he saw Esau, Jacob had just slyly stolen Esau’s birthright which left him (Jacob) terrified for his life. Because of this, he spent the next few decades running from Esau because he feared Esau wanted to kill him. In preparation for this meeting, Jacob sends all he has to Esau prior to his face to face encounter, somewhat as a sign of truce. He was also trying, in a way, to “feel him out” and see how Esau would respond. 

However, in his hesitation to personally approach his brother, Jacob stays behind a little longer which causes him to “wrestle with a man till daybreak.” Jacob continues to wrestle this man to the point where the man has to injure Jacob’s hip in order to “overpower” Jacob. In the end, not only does Jacob get a new name (Israel which means “struggles with God”) and a blessing but he also gets a realization that this was a meeting with God… simply indicating God is with him.

So, what does this all mean? Well, quite simply, Jacob was not giving his worries and internal struggles (his fear that his brother Esau wanted to kill him) to God. Instead of trusting that God was going to handle it, he suffered from it and lived in perpetual fear and worry. Jacob just could not let these thoughts/heart postures go. These thoughts/heart postures were tormenting to Jacob and, therefore, at night, he could not sleep. 

However, we soon find out, that his struggle was not just with his thoughts but, actually, with his trust in God to handle them.  This is who/what “wrestling with the man” indicates. He was struggling with his thoughts/heart postures because he was actually struggling with his ability to trust God.

Earlier in this chapter, God had actually  commanded Jacob to return to his father Isaac’s home. In doing so, God had already promised Jacob that He would be with him on his journey back which would also cause him to pass Esau. So, Jacob even though he has God’s promise, His Word, he is still struggling with the fear about the facts of the situation. 

However, this results in God doing something very peculiar to Jacob. He “wretches his hip.” He literally leaves Jacob with a change in the function of his body, an injury, an impairment. But why?

The answer may surprise you but the reason God does this is to get Jacob’s attention. Jacob was stuck in a damaging thought pattern and God knew that if He did this to Jacob, He (God) could snap Jacob out of his perseveration over his paralyzing thoughts/heart postures. Once God achieves this, Jacob is refocused and in a right mental space with God. And because of this, God blesses him. But, remember, God didn’t bless Jacob UNTIL God could get His attention and redirect His focus towards Him, and this was only accomplished by God literally causing an affliction to Jacob’s body.

For those of you dealing with health changes, I want you to start thinking how God is using them to get your attention. How have you strayed from living away from God and His Word that has left you suffering spiritually and physically?  As with its influence on Jacob’s sleep, could this spiritual strain be weighing so heavily on your heart/mind that it is affecting the way you live in certain areas of your life? Do you believe that, based on your current situation or current diagnosis that there is no hope, that God is not with you nor can He help you? Well, if you answered “yes” to these questions, then I have GREAT NEWS FOR YOU!! 

No matter how you have lived spiritually or what affects you physically, you must understand that all this time you still have been enveloped by God’s loving hands safeguarding you from failing to fulfill His purpose for your life. You see, because He is a master Creator, God has illustrated in this story how spiritual pain can cause physical afflictions to the body based on His REDEEMING, SCULPTING TOUCH. When God demonstrates His “touching” of Jacob’s hip socket causing its impairment, He is exemplifying the very way He designed our bodies to work.

By His “touching,” God is showing how He specifically created the body that, when we live away from His Word and, therefore, living by thoughts/heart postures far from His Will, our physical body changes because His hands have created our bodies to work this way.  

His design elaborately and complexly formed the connections between our spiritual self and our physical self that, when we live for prolonged periods in those spiritual states contrasting His Word, then our physical bodies function different. It is His safeguard to get our attention (to stop living as prisoners in these spiritual states) by impacting the thing most intimate to us, our body.  

Jesus is with us all the time and He died so we can live in His freedoms not just in heaven but NOW!! Unfortunately, most of us live so far from His teaching of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control, that we not only live in spiritual distress from it but, now we know, physical distress too (even scientific research has shown this). Therefore, in order to avoid this, we must turn to God and give Him our thoughts/heart postures that are not in alignment with His Spirit. We must read His Word and rely on what it says to comfort us. We must believe what the Bible says to trust in the Lord with all your heart and “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 NIV).

But, there is also another very important message in this part of Jacob’s story. It is a reminder that many of the struggles we go through in our lives are truly blessings in disguise, designed by God to move us from old patterns of thinking and living to new patterns of freedom! And, contrary to the way you might be approaching them now, you have to embrace the adversities in your life and THANK GOD for them! Even in those concerning moments! Even when nothing seems to be going right! Even when you feel so much uncertainty and fear! Even when there seems to be no way out! It may be hard at first, but we must know that the God who never sleeps nor slumbers is working “all things together for the good of those who love Him” (Romans 8:28 NIV) and, therefore, we must trust Him in our trying times.

God designs these areas of uncertainty in our lives so that we may seek the TRUTH about ourselves and our lives from Him because the TRUTH can only be found in Him! Jesus is, after all, “the truth, the way, and the life” (John 14:6 NIV). We may believe in Jesus and have faith in Him but it must be ACTIVE not passive! Don’t just read or hear His message but live His Word!! Choose to live in love when all you see and feel is anger! Choose to live in peace when all you see and feel is worry! Choose to live in joy when all you see and feel is dread! And, when you choose His Way, you live your most joyful, most fulfilling, and most healthiest life!

God is waiting for you and will never stop calling you. Don’t let the pains you hold in your heart, living away from His Word, affect your body. And if it already has, thank God for getting your attention to turn your life back towards Him! These physical changes are not a curse but a gift to remind you He is still calling you and will never stop! He wants you to step into the beautiful things He has planned for you! Even though He may have to “wrestle” you till you physically hurt, He has a blessing awaiting you on the other side of it just as He did with Jacob! 

Remember, God is with you… Right where you are! Right in this moment! No matter what the situation! No matter what the health change! Give God your spiritual burdens now and take hold of His blessing or, as with Jacob, accept the physical change and take hold of His blessing!  Either way, as long as you turn to Him, you will be blessed! Place your hope in God’s faithfulness towards you and remember these words from our Lord, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity‘“ (Jeremiah 29:11-12, 14 NIV).

Live by His Words and allow your body to heal in the way His hands designed it to! This is how you will be Medicated by Faith! Amen! It Is So!! God is blessing you!