Expansive Blessing
From Genesis 32 – 24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the [g]breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He [h]touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”
But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
Charles Spurgeon insists in Morning and Evening, "The only reason why anything virtuous or lovely survives in us is this, "The Lord is there."
Shall I dare accuse Spurgeon, my Reformed version of a patron saint who once said God's promises need to be applied to the broadest possible extent, of applying this principle too narrowly? I think the wrestler Jacob in Genesis 32 might tag in with me in the wrestling match.
Jacob was not, in general, the contemplative sort. He maneuvered for the advantage, often to his detriment. He had seen blessings come and blessings go, eluding that grasp which he now fixed on the Angel of the Lord in his insistence on being blessed. At home, he had been in a place to receive blessings as a runoff. He had to flee. Working for Laban, he was in the right place at the right time to be blessed. He had to leave immediately before the scene in Genesis 32. Now, having sent his family on ahead, he is literally alone and is probably sensing the fragility of human existence in any particular situation.
Jacob might have expanded Spurgeon to say The only reason why anything virtuous or lovely survives AT ALL is this, "The Lord is there." True, Jacob does not have the Christian's view from the other side of the cross. More than he could grasp, there is blessing in suffering, in poverty, in absolute, day-to-day dependence on the Lord. There is a blessing Jacob knew not of when he asked, when he insisted, in Genesis 32.
And yet, we need revisit his notion of blessing as well. On the other side of the cross, I believe we default too quickly, Lord, bless me in the spiritual sense. It's okay, Lord, if Your Presence with me makes no tangible difference. The counter Jacob with such a sense of the vulnerability of himself and what was his would have had none of this, which might amount to excusing God and calling it faith.
As David Brooks wrote in the New York Times on January 27, 2018 that trust is built by persistence through failure, the disciple who has walked, or wrestled, along with Christ begins to recognize that no aspect of blessing, spiritual or physical, will last long without Christ's active and vigilant preservation. We have had, brothers and sisters, and we have lost. Yet Christ goes with us and can give again, beginning with our sense of Himself but not ending there unless we fail to ask that His glory be demonstrated in tangible stuff. "Faith is our walk," says Spurgeon, again in Morning and Evening, "but fellowship SENSIBLY FELT (my emphasis) is our rest."
Would that a more expansive sense of His blessing would be ours. With Paul, when we know what it is to have plenty as well as to be in need, and to cling to His sovereign, present grace, overall, in all.
But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
Charles Spurgeon insists in Morning and Evening, "The only reason why anything virtuous or lovely survives in us is this, "The Lord is there."
Shall I dare accuse Spurgeon, my Reformed version of a patron saint who once said God's promises need to be applied to the broadest possible extent, of applying this principle too narrowly? I think the wrestler Jacob in Genesis 32 might tag in with me in the wrestling match.
Jacob was not, in general, the contemplative sort. He maneuvered for the advantage, often to his detriment. He had seen blessings come and blessings go, eluding that grasp which he now fixed on the Angel of the Lord in his insistence on being blessed. At home, he had been in a place to receive blessings as a runoff. He had to flee. Working for Laban, he was in the right place at the right time to be blessed. He had to leave immediately before the scene in Genesis 32. Now, having sent his family on ahead, he is literally alone and is probably sensing the fragility of human existence in any particular situation.
Jacob might have expanded Spurgeon to say The only reason why anything virtuous or lovely survives AT ALL is this, "The Lord is there." True, Jacob does not have the Christian's view from the other side of the cross. More than he could grasp, there is blessing in suffering, in poverty, in absolute, day-to-day dependence on the Lord. There is a blessing Jacob knew not of when he asked, when he insisted, in Genesis 32.
And yet, we need revisit his notion of blessing as well. On the other side of the cross, I believe we default too quickly, Lord, bless me in the spiritual sense. It's okay, Lord, if Your Presence with me makes no tangible difference. The counter Jacob with such a sense of the vulnerability of himself and what was his would have had none of this, which might amount to excusing God and calling it faith.
As David Brooks wrote in the New York Times on January 27, 2018 that trust is built by persistence through failure, the disciple who has walked, or wrestled, along with Christ begins to recognize that no aspect of blessing, spiritual or physical, will last long without Christ's active and vigilant preservation. We have had, brothers and sisters, and we have lost. Yet Christ goes with us and can give again, beginning with our sense of Himself but not ending there unless we fail to ask that His glory be demonstrated in tangible stuff. "Faith is our walk," says Spurgeon, again in Morning and Evening, "but fellowship SENSIBLY FELT (my emphasis) is our rest."
Would that a more expansive sense of His blessing would be ours. With Paul, when we know what it is to have plenty as well as to be in need, and to cling to His sovereign, present grace, overall, in all.
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