Magdy Samuel

Serialized Articles From:
"Whom shall I fear"

Last Published Devotions


Chapter 3: 7

Example from the Bible
Jacob, the Chased Brother (Genesis 32)


“When the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” Then the Bible says, “So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. Then Jacob cried out to the Lord saying, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’:  I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant… Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children.”  Then the Bible says, “And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. Then Jacob was left alone.”

That crucial night, Jacob felt terribly alone, incredibly weak, and fearful of an unknown tomorrow.
He was without his father or mother, he was a fugitive from his uncle Laban, and pursued by his brother Esau, and he doesn’t know what to do! 

So what was the divine cure for Jacob, the chased one?
Jacob didn’t spend that night alone.  The Lord Himself came and wrestled with him until the dawn.  Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He struck the socket of his hip (Jacob’s reliance on his human strength).  Then He blessed Jacob, and changed his name to Israel (Prince with God).  And that night, Jacob enjoyed divine containment and divine annexation! So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”

When we contemplate Jacob’s prayer and his request of God to keep him and rescue him, he does not depend on his human merit; rather he is counting on God’s promises to him.  He said, “For you said, “’I will surely treat you well’” (Gen.32:12). For the Lord’s help is dependent on the Lord’s faithfulness to His promises, and not on our human merit.  As he says, “For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob” (Malachi 6:3).

Beloved, when you feel like you are weak, forsaken, or like a hunted fugitive, when you are all alone, trust that God is with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you. 

Perhaps the Lord may break your self-will, and remove your source of power.  But He will take away your human strength, and give you Divine strength. 
And so Jacob now limped, he “carried his leg” in order to walk, but he now enjoyed the Lord who struck him, and who now carried him all the way. He became attached to his Lord, and enjoyed His containment and control. 

For it is He who said, “Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high because he has known my name.” (Ps 91:14). 

Just as He was with Jacob, we will be with you, for He said, “Blessed is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” (Psalms 146:5).

 

Magdy Samuel