KEY TEXT: Genesis 32:28 (NKJV) – “And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
The Bible says that Jacob struggled both with God and men and won. He became victorious in his battles with God and man. The battles fought were spiritual, not physical, because the common denominator in those battles was the acquisition of blessings. Jacob sought blessings with all his heart, and he was able to get them. Like the shepherd who lost one sheep out of a total of one hundred and went to look for it in the wilderness until he found it (Luke 15:4-7), and like the woman who lost one coin and swept the house until she found it (Luke 15:8-10), Jacob did his best to get the blessings. As a result, he was able to find them. God loves maximum effort. He esteems people who don’t give in to their weaknesses and challenges and He blesses them.
Matthew 24:12-13 (NKJV) – “12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” Lawlessness will make many turn away from Christ because they seek to repay evil for evil and feel their kindness is being taken for granted. Matthew 24:13 says, “he who will endure to the end.” It doesn’t say, “he who endures near the end.”
Like Jacob, we have to endure till the last stop. Let us not stop until we arrive at the terminus because next to the destination is not the destination. The country of Kenya is near Tanzania, but Kenya and Tanzania are not the same. China neighbors Mongolia but Mongolia and China are different countries. The borough of Brooklyn in New York City borders Queens, but they are two distinct and separate boroughs. Your neighbor’s house is not yours, and your house is not your neighbor’s.
If you pay a bus or a train to take you to a destination, you expect it to take you to that very destination, not to the town that borders the place you are going to. You always alight at the bus stop of the area you are going to, not the bus stop that is next to the bus stop of the place you are going to. When you are in an airplane, and you hear the announcer saying you have reached the destination, you don’t get off the plane while it is in the air even though you are in the airspace of that destination. You wait for it to land so that you can get off.
Why am I saying all this?
Genesis 32:25-26 (KJV) – “25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. 26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.”
When fighting with an angel of God, Jacob endured till the very end. He did not stop despite the Angel being stronger than he was. Even after the Angel dislocated the joint of Jacob’s thigh, he held on tightly to the Angel and said, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.”
Jacob’s determination made God pleased that he was left with no option but to bless him. If Jacob had let the Angel go after his thigh joint got dislocated, he would not have received the blessing, despite him nearing the end. And so many have done their best to live a righteous life but messed up towards the end of their lives and would be lost if they didn’t repent. Jacob endured till the very end.
Jacob fought till he got the blessing that he wanted. A common phrase says, “Nothing good comes easily.” To be a master in any field, you need to have discipline and endurance. Amidst the countless tough trials, people misunderstanding, demeaning, and fighting you; you should not stop until you find what you seek.
“Satan had accused Jacob before the angels of God, claiming the right to destroy him because of his sin; he had moved upon Esau to march against him; and during the patriarch’s long night of wrestling, Satan endeavored to force upon him a sense of his guilt, in order to discourage him, and break his hold upon God. When in his distress Jacob laid hold of the Angel, and made supplication with tears, the heavenly Messenger, in order to try his faith, also reminded him of his sin, and endeavored to escape from him. But Jacob would not be turned away. He had learned that God is merciful, and he cast himself upon His mercy. He pointed back to his repentance for his sin, and pleaded for deliverance. As he reviewed his life, he was driven almost to despair; but he held fast the Angel, and with earnest, agonizing cries urged his petition until he prevailed.” – Patriarchs and Prophets, Page 201.3, Ellen G. White.
“Such will be the experience of God’s people in their final struggle with the powers of evil. God will test their faith, their perseverance, their confidence in His power to deliver them. Satan will endeavor to terrify them with the thought that their cases are hopeless; that their sins have been too great to receive pardon. They will have a deep sense of their shortcomings, and as they review their lives, their hopes will sink. But remembering the greatness of God’s mercy, and their own sincere repentance, they will plead His promises made through Christ to helpless, repenting sinners. Their faith will not fail because their prayers are not immediately answered. They will lay hold of the strength of God, as Jacob laid hold of the Angel, and the language of their souls will be, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.” – Patriarchs and Prophets, Page 202.1, Ellen G. White.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:13 (KJV) – “And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.” Hebrews 11:6 (KJV) says, “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”
God wants us to seek Him diligently. By doing that, He is going to reward us. He wants us to seek Him diligently (wholeheartedly) because He is highly interested in our growth. When we seek Him halfheartedly, we won’t grow much. We will never reach the heights that He wants us to. He wants all our faculties to develop so we may fully reflect His image. He yearns that people will see Him in us in everything we do.
Our personality, character, and physical appearance should reflect God. God created us in His image, but sin tampered with that image. The work of salvation is also a work of restoration, and Christ aims to restore us to our original image. That is why He wants us to seek Him diligently.
Diligently seeking God shows that we are genuinely interested in God. It shows that we love Him wholeheartedly. Not seeking Him diligently indicates that we have placed our affections on other things. Exodus 20:5 says that God is a jealous God and that God is not willing to share His position and His glory with anyone else. He wants when He blesses you to take full credit, so when you try to mingle righteousness and evil, God cannot take credit. Instead, the Devil takes full credit.
So how do you struggle with God? Is it by building a tower like the People of Babel to reach Heaven so that you can fight God? Some may say that it is impossible to struggle with God because we can’t see God, and like Jacob, we may have never encountered God in a dream. Some may also think that struggling with God means opposing God. For example, when God says that the Seventh day is the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 20:8-11), you keep the first day as the Sabbath so that you can struggle with Him. When you attempt to struggle with God that way, you will lose since righteousness will always prevail over evil.
Error may seem to win in this life, but one day error will surely come to an end. The people who tried building the tower struggled with God in the context of opposing Him but ended up losing (Genesis 11). The evil antediluvians struggled with God through their wicked ways but lost when they all perished in the flood.
Jonah tried to deny God’s call by refusing to go to Nineveh, but he ended up losing when he got swallowed by a fish while attempting to run away from God. God is omnipotent. The power of His word created all powers that are resident in the universe except evil. His divine law is so unbreakable that when we attempt to break it, it ends up harming us. We cannot break it and live harmoniously with creation. Breaking God’s law attracts struggle.
“Under the curse of sin all nature was to witness to man of the character and results of rebellion against God. When God made man He made him rule over the earth and all living creatures. So long as Adam remained loyal to Heaven, all nature was in subjection to him. But when he rebelled against the divine law, the inferior creatures were in rebellion against his rule. Thus the Lord, in His great mercy, would show men the sacredness of His law, and lead them, by their own experience, to see the danger of setting it aside, even in the slightest degree.” – Patriarchs and Prophets, Page 59.4, Ellen G. White.
To struggle with God as Jacob did is to worship and serve Him wholeheartedly without giving up. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (KJV) says, “Pray without ceasing.” We need to pray all the time without stopping. James 4:2 (KJV) – “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.” The Bible says the reason why we do not have is that we do not ask. God wants us to ask Him. He wants us to persist in prayer because He wants to develop a relationship with us. That is why sometimes it seems He has delayed giving us what we have been asking from Him.
If God always gave us what we asked from Him immediately, then our spiritual lives would not grow much. Faith, hope, patience, and other spiritual fruits and gifts are learned and developed during the hardest circumstances. The more we ask God and seek His face, the closer we get to Him, and the more He sharpens our spiritual lives. The infinite God is revealed to our finite minds through constant prayer, diligent Bible study, and continuous service to Him. Struggling with God, as Jacob did, is diligently obeying His commands. The blessings mentioned in Deuteronomy 28:1-13 are real and relevant. We will obtain them if we diligently listen to His voice and obey all His commands.
Luke 18:1-8 (KJV) – “1 And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? 8 I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?”
Here we see a proud judge who neither fears God nor man avenging a widow who has been persistent in asking him for help. With no respect for God’s law and no honor for the law of the land, he helped the widow because the widow continued persisting. God is not this proud judge. God is the most humble being in the universe. If this judge avenged the widow because she was persistent to him, how much more shall God do when we persist to Him in prayer and humble obedience?
Deuteronomy 6:4-11 (KJV) – “4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: 5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. 10 And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, 11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full.”
The Bible says that God is one. God is not divided. He is one. The Lord God is complete. God is exclusive in everything He gives us; He provides us blessings with no partiality. His love is not divided. It is complete. His grace is not separated. His mercy and blessings are whole and widespread. His attention to us is unbroken. God watches over every individual as if no one else is on earth. He cares for you as if you are the only created being.
Ellen G. White says that God cares for us more than a mother does for an afflicted child. Therefore, giving divided or broken attention to a God who gives you undivided attention will be unfair. It would be extremely cruel not to love God wholeheartedly because He has loved us wholeheartedly. In our sinful nature, we may make mistakes, but as soon as we make a mistake, we should be quick to repent and get back to God. Even while we are at our lowest and feel we have fallen so far from Him, like Jacob, we should get back and hold on tightly to God and tell Him, “I will not let you go.”
The Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 6 how we should diligently obey and teach God’s Word. It says we should talk about it when we are sitting in the house. When we are walking on the way, we should talk about it. We should talk about it when we go to sleep and when we wake up. Our houses and all we own should declare that this is the house or property of God’s child. Doing that will display our diligence in seeking Him. It will portray our love for Him. The way Jacob fought with God until He blessed him is the same way we should consistently obey and serve God. Our ultimate blessing is entering through the pearly gates of Heaven and accessing the tree of life. Therefore, in our earthly lives, we must be obedient to God until the very end.
Philippians 2:8 (KJV) – “And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Jesus was obedient to the very end of His life here on earth. He was obedient to death, not just death but the most painful death he encountered on the cross. As a result, what happened? Philippians 2:9-11 (KJV) – “9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
God exalted Jesus Christ, that every knee shall bow in the name of Jesus. Some may not have turned to Jesus now, but they will eventually bow down to Him. God will always reward diligent obedience.
We have seen how Jacob struggled with God. The Bible tells us that Jacob struggled both with God and with man (Genesis 32:28). Let us look at how he struggled with man: Jacob struggled with man when he took the birthright (Genesis 25:30-34) and the blessing (Genesis 27), which were not rightfully his. The birthright and the blessing were supposed to be Esau’s since he was the firstborn. However, Esau esteemed them lightly, so he sold his birthright for a soup plate. His lack of self-control when he faced one-time hunger made him forfeit something of such priceless value. He was meant to be the leader, but his wrong choice made him a servant.
Erroneous decisions will always enslave you in a way, no matter how little or insignificant the decision may seem. God wants us to be masters. That is why He constantly bids us in His word to obey Him. Deuteronomy 5:15 (KJV) – “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.” In Deuteronomy 5:15, God tells the Israelites and us, by extension, to remember that we were once enslaved. He uses the past tense by saying, “You were a servant in the land of Egypt.” In other words, He is saying that we were once enslaved, but by His power, He has made us masters, and to retain that mastery, we need to keep the Sabbath day and obey all His commandments.
Jacob successfully struggled with God the way he successfully struggled with man. By highly valuing spiritual gifts, he did his best to attain them. Some people are born into families with severe generational curses for the sins they have committed but have been able to dispel those curses through diligently seeking God. Some have been born into families that practice witchcraft or other forms of dark magic but by the power of God, they have been lifted from that slave state and have become genuinely spirit-filled, and truth-preaching pastors.
King Josiah in the Bible is a good example. His father and his grandfather did not walk in the ways of God, but he made a solemn decision to walk in God’s ways. Josiah did not practice the idolatry that his parents practiced. He repented and made great reforms in Judah that had never been made and, as a result, reversed the curse that might have befallen him had he walked in the ways of his father.
In the second commandment (Exodus 20:4-6). God warns that He will curse disobedient people to the third and fourth generations. God is a merciful God. He will forgive you and remove any punishment ordained to befall you, as He did on King Josiah. When the people of Nineveh repented, God turned away from His wrath and did not punish them as He had planned (Jonah 3). Jacob was not meant to get the birthright and the blessing because he was not the firstborn, but he got them because he sought them.
You will access God’s blessings if you diligently seek them as Jacob did. You don’t have to be born into a rich family to end up rich, and you don’t have to be born into a family that is thriving in health for you to be healthy. Decision-making is a mutual determinant for everyone’s success or failure. The people whom Christ healed decided to ask Christ to heal them, like the man who was sick for thirty-eight years or the man who was born blind. Such understood that their destinies were not bound and carved in stone, and Jesus being all-powerful, could change their current state that had them suffering for a long time. Like Esau and King Manasseh (King Hezekiah’s son), many are born into God-fearing families but become thieves. They do not appreciate the privilege they have to be born into such families, so they end up as opposites of their parents. They despise their birthright.
“Esau had lightly valued the blessing while it seemed within his reach, but he desired to possess it now that it was gone from him forever. All the strength of his impulsive, passionate nature was aroused, and his grief and rage were terrible. He cried with an exceeding bitter cry, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” “Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?” But the promise given was not to be recalled. The birthright which he had so carelessly bartered he could not now regain. “For one morsel of meat,” for a momentary gratification of appetite that had never been restrained, Esau sold his inheritance; but when he saw his folly, it was too late to recover the blessing. “He found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” Hebrews 12:16, 17. Esau was not shut out from the privilege of seeking God’s favor by repentance, but he could find no means of recovering the birthright. His grief did not spring from conviction of sin; he did not desire to be reconciled to God. He sorrowed because of the results of his sin, but not for the sin itself.” – Patriarchs and Prophets, Page 181.2, Ellen G. White.
Let us behave like Jacob and not Esau. We should not be sly as Jacob was by gaining good things through deception. We should diligently do the right things, which will always give us blessings. Let us strive to go for more than others think is meant for us. You don’t have to be the son or daughter of a pastor for you to preach God’s Word. Prove wrong the people who expect you to do the same sins your parents did.
Not all great musicians came from families where their parents were great musicians, and not all great leaders came from families where their parents were great leaders. Like how Jacob went against all odds, they did their best to get what others did not think belonged to them. If your parents practice tribalism and racism, you don’t have to be the same as them. You can be different through the power of Christ. Some evil inherited traits may be hard to stop, but by the power of God, we can easily stop them. My prayer is for God to help us overcome them.
John 15:12 (KJV) – “This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” Another way to successfully struggle with man is by loving one another. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NKJV) – “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Love can soften and change the heart of the most hard-hearted sinner. Love is the greatest gift of all. Therefore, love is the best way to win the battle with human beings.
Whatever company or organization you lead, show love to the employees, even the most defiant and the slowest learners. You will be surprised when they change their ways and become the best in the organization. Have a genuine love for the clients by having their greatest interests at heart. Please don’t sell them a product or service to merely get money. If you are a grocery store owner, carefully select your clients’ best and most ripe groceries. Don’t give them rotten vegetables to make money. If you are a baker don’t use the lowest quality ingredients in order to make a high-profit margin. If you own a taxicab, always ensure it is clean and conducive for your customers.
“Selfishness and pride hinder the pure love that unites us in spirit with Jesus Christ. If this love is truly cultivated, finite will blend with finite, and all will center in the Infinite. Humanity will unite with humanity, and all will be bound up with the heart of Infinite Love. Sanctified love for one another is sacred. In this great work Christian love for one another—far higher, more constant, more courteous, more unselfish, than has been seen—preserves Christian tenderness, Christian benevolence, and politeness, and enfolds the human brotherhood in the embrace of God, acknowledging the dignity with which God has invested the rights of man.” – Our High Calling, Page 173.3, Ellen G. White.
“The golden chain of love, binding the hearts of the believers in unity, in bonds of fellowship and love, and in oneness with Christ and the Father, makes the connection perfect and bears to the world a testimony of the power of Christianity that cannot be controverted…. Then will selfishness be uprooted and unfaithfulness will not exist. There will not be strife and divisions. There will not be stubbornness in anyone who is bound up with Christ. Not one will act out the stubborn independence of the wayward, impulsive child who drops the hand that is leading him and chooses to stumble on alone and walk in his own ways.” – Our High Calling, Page 173.4, Ellen G. White.
You may have a marketing agency or any other service offering agency that caters for Business-to-Business clients. Ensure you give them the best service to get their business the best results. Do not overprice your products or services to get profit. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and give them the price you will be willing to pay.
When writing a book, don’t write a book to make money. Write to have a righteous impact and to transform lives. When speaking, your greatest concern should not be how eloquent you are or how intellectual or scholarly you sound, it should be to encourage someone or to transform someone. You may struggle at first when you do all these, but in the end, you will surely prevail like Jacob.
Proverbs 23:4 (KJV) says, “Labour not to be rich.” If you make money your main goal in your business, you may get quick profits, but you would not be able to build a sustainable business. Customers will always bring back your products and sometimes ask for a refund; in the long run, you will lose them. Mistreated employees will leave and go to places where they are treated well. If they won’t leave, they will work just to get money and will not work out of love. Therefore, the results will be poor to average but not excellent.
“Thus our business or calling is a part of God’s great plan, and, so long as it is conducted in accordance with His will, He Himself is responsible for the results.” – Education, Page 138.2, Ellen G. White.
Proverbs 25:21-22 (NKJV) – “21 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; 22 For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, And the Lord will reward you.”
Another way of struggling with man and prevailing is by loving your enemies. You will never win over your enemies when you hate them or when you repay evil for evil. You will triumph over your enemies by loving them and repaying evil for good.
Matthew 5:43-46 (KJV) – “43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?”
If you only love the people who love you, you are not different from the unbelievers; if you are the same, you cannot win over them.
“Love is a tender plant, and it must be cultivated and cherished, and the roots of bitterness all have to be plucked up around it in order for it to have room to circulate, and then it will bring in under its influence all the powers of the mind, all the heart, so that we shall love God supremely, and our neighbor as ourselves.” – Our High Calling, Page 173.5, Ellen G. White.
God wants to give us better than we want to give ourselves. He will provide us with more than we have asked for or imagined. Ephesians 3:20 (KJV) – “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” God calls us to get out of our comfort zone, like Jacob when he wrestled with the Angel to get the blessing because He wants to give us more than we want.
2 Samuel 12:7-8 (NKJV) – “7 Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!”
God gave David great gifts that any human being would desire to have. He gave him a family, the highest leadership position (authority), great wealth, and much more. God says that if David thought what was given to him was too little, He would have given him more. What more could David have asked for? But God, the Creator of the universe, could give him more than that which he already had.
God wants to give you more than your highest ambition. He will do that if you diligently seek Him like Jacob.
GOD BLESS YOU!
Prayer
Lord God, I want Your Word to guide both my thoughts and actions. Help me to keep Your commandments in my heart, to carry them in my hands, and to see life through the lens of Your truth. May my thoughts be clean, my actions be pure, and my love for You be wholehearted. Teach me to persist in love like Jesus Christ. In Jesus name, Amen.
Activity
- Write a short Bible verse on a piece of paper. Example:
“I will not let You go unless You bless me.” – Genesis 32:26
or
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart…” – Deuteronomy 6:5 - Wrap it around your wrist (or keep it somewhere visible, like on your desk or forehead area of your mirror).
- Each time you see it, pray briefly:
“Lord, help me live this today.”
Optional bonus: Teach this to your children or a friend. You can encourage them to make one too.
Author: Mark Alex
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