Wrestling in the arena of life!

Readings & Notes from 2nd August 2020 

Galatians 5:13-26 

[13]  You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. [14] For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” [15] If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. [16] So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. [17] For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. [18] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. [19] The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; [20] idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions [21] and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. [22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. [24] Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [25] Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. [26] Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. 

2 Peter 1:1-15

 [2Pe 1:1] Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: [2] Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. [3] His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. [4] Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. [5] For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; [6] and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; [7] and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. [8] For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] But whoever does not have them is near-sighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. [10] Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, [11] and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. [12] So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. [13] I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, [14] because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. [15] And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

 Genesis 32:22-32

 [22] 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. [23] After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. [24] So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. [25] 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. [26] Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” [27] The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. [28] 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.” [29] Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. [30] So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” [31] The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. [32] Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon. 

Talk 

Wrestling in the Arena of Life 

- Genesis 32:22-31

 Introduction

 Jacob's night of wrestling may not be the easiest concept especially when we consider that the one he is wrestling with (who?) can't overpower him! If you follow the Scripture Union readings then, as you know, we read this last Wednesday and might have a few ideas. 

The first thing I want to do is put some verses from Romans into our thoughts which we have seen before and not least last Sunday, 

Romans 8:26-39, and the opening bit today

[26]  In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. [27] And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. Paul wrote this 2000 years after Jacob but it is close to what was happening and may help us understand it better.

 1. Running

Jacob is Abraham's grandson and twin of Esau who was the elder twin.

 In the schemes of family life, Esau sold his birth right and lost his blessing because mother Rebecka helped Jacob deceive his father Isaac. He then fled to his relative's home on the advice of mother to find a wife - he got two, he was conned by Uncle Laban and the process two mistresses. Through the four women he now has 11 sons and one daughter! He has yet to have his 12th son, Joseph who will help land the whole family in Egypt for 400 or so years. At this point Jacob is fleeing from Laban because life has gone a little sour with ongoing changes to working conditions and complaints about Jacob and his rearing techniques! He went, Laban caught up, not happy, and they parted amicably because of plain talk and an agreement. Where was he heading, back to his home country and is about to meet and have to face Esau who when he left, some twenty years earlier, was breathing death threats. As he fled from home to Laban, he had his first encounter with God (Genesis 28:10ff) who reaffirmed the covenant he made with Abraham and had ratified it with Isaac and Jacobs response was positive. 

Just before our passage (32:1) he encounters angels and then sends the family ahead with all his flocks and a host of gifts for Esau - placation offerings? 

2. Wrestling 

So, what is he wrestling with? I think we can see - the complexities of life and the promises of God. Do they clash? Maybe, but perhaps better to say they intertwine. 

It becomes clear that he is wrestling with God, he gets a blessing from him, but he is also wrestling with himself and his life - past and, about to come! The question is, 'why can't God overpower him?' He is all powerful. Perhaps he didn't want to! I found this part of Wednesday's notes helpful: It is interesting that the name ‘Israel’, which God gave to Jacob and then became the name of the nation, means ‘he struggles with God’. Does this indicate that God approves of us wrestling and struggling with him? Physically, the more a muscle is exercised, the stronger it becomes. Is this passage a challenge to exercise our spiritual muscles by wrestling with God? Our trust in God is often a tension between what we know about God, and the questions and unresolved issues which we are struggling to understand. This can be painful, as Jacob discovered – but perhaps this story gives us hope. (Esther Bailey writing for SU) 

The other writer, Andy Bathgate said this, again, helpful 

Our experiences may not approach this level of drama, but similar principles apply. God needs to bring us to a place where desire for him eclipses every other; where we long for his work in our lives, knowing there is no one else and nowhere else to turn. 

I think, again, all this resonates with Romans 8:26-27, and, going back again to the Lord's prayer - Your will be done . . . 

I also note - What God doesn't do is force Himself or His will on us. Jacob encountered God, was blessed by him and started changing and as the account continues, we start to see a different man but he is not perfect and shows his old ways a bit as well. I think many of us may be thinking, as we consider Jacob, I can relate to this. We may be running, looking, frightened (he was of his brother Esau), saddened by aspects of life etc. God was at work, and we start to see that, oh, and he still is with you and me and we have other material we can take heart from and be challenged by. 

3. Realising - 

Galatians 5:13-26 

We turn to Paul who, in writing about living life in the Spirt - a holy life, mentions a whole load of thigs that belong to the 'desires of the flesh' that we leave behind to walk in the Spirit [22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. [24] Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. [25] Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. [26] Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. First, note - fruit not fruits! There is only one fruit of the Spirit which is . . . . And in context', saying we have crucified the flesh and keep in step with the Spirit which means a life that looks like Jesus and is kingdom living. When I look into of myself, I see a lot I really don't like! This is not self-deprecation but realising reality! Being a minister doesn't make it easier, maybe, harder! So, I find a constant wrestle in prayer because I want to keep in step with the Spirit! You may feel similar to that. 

Paul gives us a light though: Romans 7:15-21 [15] I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. [16] And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. [17] As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. [18] For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. [19] For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. [20] Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. [21] So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 

Hence, in Romans 8 and here in Galatians 5 Paul is saying we should not walk in the way of our desires but of those of the Spirit - wrestling and seeking and praying deep within, in the power of the Spirit. A lifelong job! 

4. Reaffirming - 2 Peter 1:15

 I think Peter is saying 'keep at it, keep going, keep wrestling' - bit the same as Paul! Let’s reaffirm two things. 

1. It is a gift from God to walk in his ways because we have responded to his call - Jacob was doing that! [3] His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. [4] Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. The emphasis is on what we have from God to enable us. It is what Paul says but from a different perspective.

 2. Because is a gift of God, that is why we keep at it [5] For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; [6] and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; [7] and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 

3. This constant reaffirmation of the outworking of our call and commitment produces fruit [8] For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] But whoever does not have them is near-sighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. This is not being 'holier than thou' / pious / self-righteous or the like but holy to share the nature of God. 

Conclusion 

I am going to finish by quoting just one verse from Jesus, John 15:5 [5] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 

Biblically, the vine is the people of God who flow from the promise to Abram, Isaac and Jacob - a people that can't be counted. 

The children of Israel who went into Egypt were 12.

 Thousands came out 400 + years later and three and a half thousand years or so later, flowing through and from the cross, millions who confess Jesus is Lord and Saviour. 

A massive vine trailing, right round the world. It, the vine, the people of God, the Church, struggles with all sort of problems: divisions / hardships / persecution / arguing and so many more things. Oh, and if you look at Jacob's children before and as they end up in Egypt, what do you see? 

Similar things. They wrestled with all sorts. We wrestle with all sorts but need to keep deeply into Jesus and bear fruit, fruit that endures allowing him to prune the dead and unproductive bit o more fruit is born in us - individually and corporately; locally and worldwide.