The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.”
Genesis 32:24-30
STORY
The story is true.
Angelo Siciliano was a 97-pound weakling from Brooklyn.
When he was 14 and on a date at the beach, a couple of adolescent tough guys came along and stated kicking sand on his Sunday suit. When his girl aske if he was going to defend his honor, Angelo feebly protested that he was too frail and skinny to be a champion. At that point she got up and left him.
Angelo went home and prayed. He besought Jesus to make him big and strong. Fervently, Angelo continued to petition his Savior for strength. Then, one Saturday morning, a kindly man, Mr. Davenport, took the lad to the Brooklyn Museum. There the youth saw a gigantic statue of a man with bulging muscles. He inquired if there were men really like that, and Mr. Davenport replied that there really were men like that. Angelo then asked if he could ever have such a physique, and his mentor instructed, “If you try hard, if you love the Lord, you can do anything with yourself.”
Angelo returned home and prayed even more fervently than ever before. His answer came one morning as he observed a cat. When the cat got up and stretched, then arched his back, bringing one muscle to bear against another, creating tension, Angelo realized he could build his muscles by doing the same thing with his body.
In time Angelo became the “Strongest Man in the World,” and changed his name to Charles Atlas. Soon children everywhere were writing Mr. Atlas, asking how they could become like him. In response he developed a course for muscle building; he also told children that they must have Jesus as their Savior.
DEVOTION
All of us have special needs and unique problems that we frantically bring before the Lord in prayer. Beseeching Jesus to hear and answer our desperate plea, we impatiently wait for a solution to our personal crisis. If one is willing to have forbearance, Jesus will reply, though often the answer will require involvement and effort on our part.
Jacob, on his journey to his homeland, feared his brother Esau, for Jacob had stolen his birthright. Jacob brought gifts, thinking such an offering would appease his brother’s anger. Traveling, Jacob separated his family into groups, hoping some would be spared Esau’s sword. Also, Jacob lifted up a prayer for protection, “Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and slay us all, the mothers with their children. But thou didst say, ‘I will do you good, and make your decedents as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”
That night, on the bank of the river Jabbok, he encountered a man who “wrestled with him until the breaking day.” When the man realized that he could not triumph over Jacob, he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh, putting it out of joint. Before Jacob would release the man, he demanded from him a blessing. The man responded by declaring, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
The angel gave Jacob a new name and a new calling in life, for “Israel” means “let God rule.” Jacob’s twelve sons would form the Patriarch, they would be the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Encountering difficulties in life, we can upon the blessing and promises of God; though, we must realize that the sanctity of God demands a response on our part, that being, dedication and obedience to the mandates of the scriptures.
In the movie Angel in My Pocket, released in April 1969, Andy Griffith portrayed Rev. Samuel Whitehead who accepted the call to serve a church in Wood Falls, Kansas. When he arrived in town, he discovered a parochialism that made it impossible to impart new ideas. In additional to this, not all of the townspeople were as honest as one would expect. Frustrated that Mayor Will Sinclair wasn’t properly distributing public funds for education, the reverend removed his three children from school in protest. When the sheriff came to his home, the pastor, in disgust, yelled from the window, “All this town needs is a little shove. That’s all. A little shove.” So, Rev. Whitehead shoved here and pushed there, and finally the man with an angle in his pocket was able to let God rule over Wood Falls, bringing reform and restoring harmony.
We should not be afraid of any danger materializing before us if we believe in the power of God. Protected by God and His angelic forces we take comfort. We dare not leave the Jabbok River without first receiving a blessing.