ALONE WITH GOD
Genesis 32:22-30
Without doubt, you are familiar with the story of Jacob and his brother, Esau. Early in their lives, Jacob and his mother had formed a plan to secure the blessing that Isaac was going to give Esau. How inglorious was the fulfilling of this carnal plan! It resulted in Esau’s hating Jacob and saying in his heart, “When my father is dead, then will I slay my brother Jacob” (See Genesis 27:41.) Our own plans frequently lead us into disaster.
Jacob had to flee from the land, but how good the Lord was to the fugitive. He gave him a vision of a ladder and angels ascending and descending it (Gen. 28:12). How gracious is our God! He refused to have His plans of grace frustrated by the carnal workings of Jacob’s mind, and that night He revealed Himself to Jacob saying, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you” (v.15). it is the goodness of the Lord penting that night as he was made aware of his own sinfulness.
From the time Jacob had the revelation of the ladder and the angels, he had twenty-one years of testing and trial. But God was faithful to His promise all through these years. Jacob could say to his his father-in-law, “Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labour of my hands”. (Gen. 31:42).
Now that Jacob was returning to the land of his birth, his heart was filled with fear. If he ever needed the Lord, it was then. And he wanted to be alone with God. His wives, his children his sheep, his cattle, his camels, and his donkeys had gone on, and “Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day” (Gen. 32:24). The Lord saw Jacob’s need and came down to meet him. It was He who wrestled with the supplanter, breaking him, changing him, transforming him.
Jacob knew that his brother Esau had power to execute vengeance upon him. He knew that no one could deliver him but God. And there alone, lean in soul and impoverished in spirit, he met with God. Oh, how we need to get alone with God, to be broken, to be changed, to be transformed! And when we do meet with Him, He interposes, and all care and strife are brought to an end.
TO DO: Get alone with God, and receive the revelation of His infinite grace and of His wonderful purposes and plans for your life.
