Persistence with God: A Meditation on Genesis 32:22-31

“I think he just wanted it more than I did,” the young man said to his coach after the match.

And he was probably right.

DESIRE.

True, gut-grabbing, put-it-all-on-the-line desire.

It’s what can turn a middle of the road shoot-fighter into a UFC champion.  That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about mixed martial arts.  On any given Sunday, it really is ANYONE’S game.  And sometimes, just sometimes, something happens where a low-ranked fighter rises up and takes it all.  If the spark of inspirational desire can pull something off like that (basically, a UFC championship) in one night, just think what the fire of inspirational desire can achieve over a long period of time.  Look at the likes of say a Frank Shamrock (my grandpa in MMA) or a Royce Gracie or, even, an Anderson Silva.  These gentlemen, time and time again, would just show up and take the whole thing.  They had and still have the fire of inspirational desire.  THAT, my friends is what makes a champion a capital “C” Champion.

How’bout you?  Do you want to be a Champion?  (Heck, yeah!!)

Me, too, man.  I’m right there with ya.  :o)

If you want to be a Champion, then you’re going to need to become a champion in heart first.  And that, my friends, comes through time + training.  For it is in attacking a self-and-other/coach-directed training regimen day-in and day-out where you begin to get to know yourself, to discover the real you, and to learn what it is you really want in life.  It’s where you begin to approach the genuine spark of true desire to achieve or become that for which you are destined but haven't—YET!

Over time, as you continue to romance the spark of desire within, the kindling of lesser things and wants in life will ignite and slowly disappear in the flame of that desire.  And It’s that very flame, my friends, that inspired William Wallace to take aim at the whole of England’s armies with no thought to the physical consequences to himself.  And it’s that same flame that charged the heroes of September 11th up the stairs of Tower 1 at 0846 that fateful morning.

And it was that same desire that surfaced as Jacob wrestled with God at Peniel (see Genesis 32:22-31).

Jacob (who became Israel), the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham...

For most of his life, Jacob catered to the lesser desires of life…pursuing an easy life among the tents, gaining and acquiring (through all manner of trickery) what didn't really belong to him until, finally, tricking his father into giving him the blessing promised his elder twin brother Esau.  Yeah, he got the blessing (by tripping up Esau and by deceiving Isaac), but it cost him dearly.  In fact, Jacob basically ran for his life for the next many years, all the while continuing to “trick and cheat his way” toward whatever ends he wanted in the moment.

That is until he encountered God “face to face.”

For it was there that he fought for his life and then acquired the blessing (as opposed to stealing the blessing and then running for his life afterward).  And this time, it was no ordinary blessing, either, was it?  No.  For it was THE blessing…the TRUE blessing…of a Father to His son:  The bestowing of a new name.  The Fathers name.  For, you see, a man’s identity, character, and destiny are wrapped up inextricably in his name, for it is his name that defines WHO HE  IS.

Throughout the scriptures, names are decreed and, with such decrees, destinies are bestowed.  At birth, Jacob was named Jacob, which means he who grasps the heel.  And that is EXACTLY who he was and what he did for most of his life:  grabbed the heels of others.  Seeking, almost without fail, to pull others back, to keep others down, so that he alone could win the prize—whatever the prize might be.  And living such a life, put him in close contact with tricksters just like himself.  If you ever find yourself interested in a little biblical entertainment, go read a little about Jacob’s time with Laban (Genesis 27:41-31:55).  It's quite fascinating...and a bit humorous, as well.  :o)

Anyway…

Trying to grasp the heel of another is such a wimpy way to fight for what you want, wouldn’t you agree?  To get what you want, go after IT and face IT head on.  No more of this namby-pamby “I’ll-just-make-things-hard-for-you-in-the-hopes-that-you’ll-fall-on-your-face-and-then-all-I’ll-need-to-do-is-just-waltz-in-and-take-what’s-mine” kind of crap.  This is what God wanted Jacob to see…wanted him to absorb…wanted him to become….wanted him to begin to live-in to.

Read Genesis 32:22-31 through one more time.

Do you see it?  Do you see that in wrestling with God Jacob becomes Israel?  He fought God, and he was blessed for it.  In it, in fact.  Yes, there was the official blessing after the fight, but do you see the substance of the blessing that occurred during the fight?  The place where Jacob changed into something that he was not previously?

After it was over, when Jacob persisted in asking God for a blessing, can you see that God Himself seemed to be a little befuddled, if not slightly flummoxed, by it?

“Why do you ask Me My Name?” God asks (italics mine).  Reading between the lines, isn’t God really asking, “Why do you ask Me My Name, Jacob?  Shouldn’t you be asking Me what yours really is?  Is that not the point of our struggle here together?  There's really no need to grab at my heel, Jacob.  For the blessing is yours already.”

God’s pronouncement was not about how Jacob would someday become Israel.  No!  It was who he was...who he had become already (and prior to God’s pronouncement, btw).  “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

And Jacob got it.  In wrestling with God, he discovered what he really wanted in life, and that was to be Israel, he who struggles with God, and no longer he who grasps the heel.

But he got more than that, though.  Did you see it?  For how does the story conclude?  It ends with Israel saying, “I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”  He saw God face to face.  He faced the scariest, most terrible force imaginable, and he didn’t just grasp at a heel.  Way to go Israel.

The greatest blessing you could ever receive from God, my friends, is to discover your name…the name (identity, character, and destiny) God has ordained for you.

Pursue God, my friends.  Wrestle with Him, because He wants to give you that for which you’ve longed your entire life:  His name for you.

Okay, Dave…and how does all of this relate to persistence in prayer?  Ah, what an excellent question.  I guess you’re just going to have to wait until next time!!

Until then…God’s peace, y’all,

Dave