Radio Antioch

Shepherd Boys in Northern Ethiopia

This teaching is part 3 of Radio Antioch Podcast Episode 7.
Click above to watch a short video of this teaching. The full
video of Podcast 7 is available Here.

Continuing in our study of the lessons found in Luke chapter two, we now come to the fourth lesson: 

Luke 2:12  And this will be a sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger."

   So look what is happening here- The angelic messenger, representing heaven, is speaking to the shepherds, saying “This is a sign that is being given FOR YOU, the poorest of the poor, the downtrodden, the people society has no use for. As a sign to you I am sending the King of Kings to be born in a cave and laid in a horse trough, just like you might have to do if you found yourself in this situation”. Poor travelers would have to do what Joseph and Mary did, make due with whatever shelter was available. Rest assured, a more wealthy traveler would get a bed! Just flash a little gold around in the marketplace and some poor farmer will put a kid or two out in the manger overnight and the rich man has a bed to sleep in!

    But no, God went out of his way to give a sign to the least of society, even announcing it with angels lest some future generation forget it or try and put them “back in their place”. No! there can be no doubt that the message of Christ if for all. Man is always looking for ways to impress others, God sent His Son to be born in a cave to send a message straight to the heart of the downtrodden, as if to say, “I understand you, I love you, and I will be here with you”.

Now we see who God was really trying to impress: The Shepherds! The social outcasts, bottom of the social ladder, the dirty, smelly, camp-out-in-the fields shepherds! You know, Jesus was to be often criticized for that. The self-righteous religious crowd gave  him trouble for hanging out with prostitutes, and tax collectors. The accused him of being a drunkard and a glutton because he would be around people who would eat and drink. They even thought things like "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is–that she is a sinner." (Luke 7:39) Sure, Jesus knew who she was. But He also understood that "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick”. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners. (Mark 2:17)

   This is a consistent theme in the gospels. And yet sometimes our churches have become exclusionary, where someone with a lot of piercings and tattoos might not be welcome in our churches. Thank God that is not true in the churches I hang out in, but there are plenty that would not welcome them. The same churches might not welcome you if you were had the “wrong” color of skin, or spoke the “wrong” language. But those who do this are ignoring the clear, universal message of the scriptures.

   Speaking of this, I am sometimes asked if I feel anything like this when I preach in Africa.  The short answer is no- I am aware of cultural differences, but don’t feel the racial tension you can feel in America.  In America, we will have to learn to get over the whole race thing, and there is a lot thinking that has to change and a lot of reconciliation that has to go on before that will happen.

     The Lord sent Jesus to be born among the poor and the social outcasts, as a sign to them. Notice that it was the poor shepherds who were the first to visit Jesus, before the wise men found him. These men were likely nobles or of the priest-class  in their country, and brought rich, kingly gifts.  The shepherds came that night and found Jesus laying in the cave, bedded down in the manger, or horse trough. In Matthew 2, the magi found Jesus in a house. Obviously they arrived a little later, when a nicer place to stay had been found. Look at what you see here: The Lord was making signs to the lower class that He is among them, and the rich Magi came to see Him. That is totally upside down from how our society would do things!

   The fifth lesson is huge, Look again at verse 14:

Luke 2:14  "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

   One of the messages of the Gospel is that God Loves you and wants to restore you into relationship with Himself. He says “My favor is with you”. Now, God does not like sin. He is not always happy about how we act. Anyone who has kids understands this. When your kid pitches a fit in the Walmart because you won’t buy them a chocolate bar, you are NOT happy about their behavior. Now, when my kids were little it was sometime tempting to think “If I just walk away, no one will know this is my kid”! I had to repent! But seriously, no matter how displeased I am when their behavior is bad, they are my kids, and I love them, and they have my favor. That what the Lord is saying here- He has favor toward Men. Tonight He is announcing that the Messiah is here, and all you have to do is believe and be saved.

     Now, the sin part can be cleaned up later.  God does not like sin. I am not preaching an easy gospel here. Sin is sin, and needs to be dealt with. But because of the blood of Jesus that has redeemed my life, when the Lord looks at me He does not see the drug addict I was but rather the redeemed man of God that I am in Christ. He sees what Christ has done in me, and furthermore sees what Christ IS GOING to do in me and through me! Look at the shepherds- Not only were they the first to hear the message, they were also the first to share the good news! When Herod heard, he wanted to kill Jesus because He was a threat. But the shepherds told others because it was good news for all.

    I think that one reason there is not a lot of power in the American church is that we are “fat, dumb and happy” thinking that we need nothing. When you go to places where there is persecution, people live by faith. In a lot of third world households, if God does not heal the sick, then nobody does. The Chinese Christians have said that they pity us, because since we have no persecution, we have no strength. So the rich people might not have been too impressed with this baby born in the cave, but to the poor the message of favor and restoration was a Godsend.

   In the Garden of Eden, Mankind had rebelled against God. The Lord loved His children, but the Sin and rebellion they had entered into put distance between man and his creator.  But here, in a simple cave below the stars of heaven, with the least of society as witnesses, the Lord reveals His Favor toward men. No more will mankind be separated from their God. Jesus was to pay for the sin of man upon the cross, restoring man into relationship and favor with the Lord. This is available to all of mankind…only believe.

Credits

This teaching is from the Radio Antioch Podcast Episode Six.

To watch a short video of this teaching, click the player above.

The next lesson from the desert is that of the provision of the Lord:  Each had enough, but none had too much. Why this supernatural intervention? Perhaps to teach them the concept that the Lord will provide for their needs, but not their greeds.

Concerning those who gathered much, I wonder if some wanted to sell to others so that they did not have to go out of the camp into the desert. I wonder if this was the beginning of Microwave Manna? We have your frozen Manna tacos here, just put these in your freezer and you don’t have to go out in the sun. Give us a few shekels and you can stay home! But seriously, the Lord did not allow them to collect too much, or have enough to sell, beyond the omer for each person in the family.

Lesson number four: You cannot have someone else do your interaction with God for you.

The Lord was showing these people that they had to depend upon Him daily for nourishment. The Lord had said that no one was to keep any until morning. But some paid no attention, and by morning the manna was full of maggots and began to smell. Moses was angry with them. I can hear him now: “Whoa what are you guys doing? You’ve stunk up the place!” Imagine the conversation between a man with a jar of rotting manna in his tent, trying to play it cool…His wife says “what’s that smell?” He answers “ Why, I don’t know, must be an evil wind from our that tent over there!” Soon everyone knew who had been disobedient. At first they probably tolerated it well enough, but after a while you can bet they let their feelings be known! “ Dude! Will you Pleeeease get rid of that stuff! Don’t you know it’s going to stink!
It probably took about a week for the people to come to understand, or at least for the women to get it: “what are you thinking! Get that stuff out of the tent!” If your wife did not give you an earful, then surely your neighbor did.

Lesson Number five:  Each person had to learn to depend upon the Lord daily for nourishment.
This is still true today. I believe that part of the reason that each family had to gather each day was so that they would learn to go to the Lord each day to be sustained. If they did not go out every day, they did not have what they needed. And you could not let somebody else gather for your family.
One of the biggest lies in history is the idea of clergy and laity. The whole idea that the Man of God is supposed to hear God for you, and that you are only supposed to receive from the preacher or priest is a lie from the pit of hell. Sure, the Lord has always used people like Moses, the Apostles and Prophets, Pastors and Teachers to speak to the people. But frequently these people are needed when the people are going astray, not listening to God, or totally oblivious to His leading. Remember in the Garden of Eden, where the Lord would walk with Man during the cool time of the day. He wanted to commune with Man day by day. The Apostles and the Prophets would have a whole lot less to do if the People would simply listen to God and obey. Think about it- How many of the messages from the prophets in the Old Testament were to people who were going astray? And half of the things that the Apostle Paul wrote about was correcting people’s stinking thinking. If people were listening to God, the church would need a whole lot less work.
But there is a mentality that the Holy man is supposed to hear God for you. Some groups even de-emphasize or discourage bible reading. Now, don’t misunderstand me- there is room for the Apostles and Prophets to build into the church, and there is room for a teacher to prepare a sermon to teach the saints. But think about how much more effective they would be if the church spent some time getting fed by God every day.
If you are not getting daily feeding from the Lord, through prayer, scripture or worship, you are undernourished. How many of you take vitamin pills? If you just take vitamin pills, but don’t eat any green stuff, are you getting all that you need? If you tried to live on cheeseburgers and vitamin pills, what would you look like? How healthy would you be? The vitamin pill helps to make sure you get things that you might be missing in your diet, but in no way is intended to be your entire nutrition. So you can enjoy this teaching, and then go to church on Sunday morning and get another serving, but if you never “eat” any of the things of God in between you are undernourished. Each believer should know how to hear God for themselves.
How do you do that? Reading the scriptures is a great way. A daily dose of Bible will help keep spiritual “flab” away. Don’t forget prayer. It is those times when you are quietly communing with God that He can drop revelation and understanding into your life. Personal worship is my favorite way of washing away the “slime” that a hard day leaves on you. Just put on some worship music, maybe at home, or in the car, and begin to worship. The troubles of the day, money, job, family will all fall into perspective as the presence of the Lord begins to permeate your mind, will and emotions.
If you are not getting your spiritual “manna” fresh each day, then it is not as nourishing. What happened after it was a day old? It started to go bad. If all you have to feed you spiritually is something you got a year ago, how fresh is your “manna”? It’s not. It might have some bugs in it….
This is a part of your life that you have to cultivate for yourself. You have to decide to get fresh manna from God each day, even if it is only ten minutes at a time. Ten minutes in the word, or ten minutes in prayer. Of course, some of you are much more mature than that, and are fully spiritually nourished. You can even convert the time you spend doing other things to spiritual time. I like to spend the first half of my commute to the office in worship, listening to the car stereo. When my spirit man is soft and teachable, I can turn it off and pray: “Lord, how am I doing today? Is there anything we need to talk about before I get to the office? How is my attitude? How is my heart? What would you have me do?” It is amazing how this will transform your day. At the end of a day, I may be exhausted. But just a chapter in the Bible can help put things in perspective. I end up saying “Thank you Lord, I know that you were with me today.”
One of the marks of a truly mature believer in Christ is the consistency of their time with God. Not everyone is called to serve in church, or be a missionary. But all believers should know their God and spend daily time with Him.

Credits

This teaching is an excerpt from our Podcast Episode 6, Lessons from the Desert.
You can click on the player above to watch this short segment or you can view the full teaching HERE.

How many of you remember how immature in the Lord you were when you were first saved? I sure do. And yet, as time went by, and you were discipled and taught, and you grew in faith and knowledge.
Your identity began to be molded from sinner to saint. How many of you have started to understand your new identity- Who you are in Christ? To do this we have to get rid of our “Stinking Thinking” where the thoughts we have about ourselves or our situation do not line up with what God has said about our lives. Sometimes we just have to stop and say “wait a minute! That’s not what God says! That’s not the truth over my life, that’s not what the scripture says”….and our thoughts and expectations began to change.
When the Lord delivered the people in Egypt, they rejoiced. But their mentality was that of a slave. As soon as they had some adversity, they began to grumble. In exodus 15, they grumbled when they had no water. And here they grumble because there is not enough food to be found out in the desert. I believe that in this time in the desert, the lord wanted to change their mentality from that of a slave to that of a child of the king. And the first step in this training is learning to follow instructions.
How many know that if you have a king, that the king expects to be obeyed. But some subjects go beyond mere obedience and serve the king out of love, respect and honor. The slaves in Egypt understood obedience, because all they knew is the whip. And that is how the devil treats those in this world, with a whip of sickness, disease, lies and deception. But our God and King wants us to know Him not only as the awesome ruler, but also as that loving King who deserves love, respect and honor.
I believe that one of the transformations that had to happen during this desert time is the transition from a slave who is driven only by the whip to a people who are beginning to know their God and to follow him in love.

Exodus Chapter 16:

[6] So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, [7] and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” [8] Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.”

Moses is reminding them- “Don’t accuse me because you are upset- It is the Lord who is leading you, and you will know this when he provides meat for you to eat in the evening and bread for you in the morning.

[9] Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’ ”
[10] While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.

This was to become the pattern, to follow the pillar of fire, and the cloud, so that the people would remember Who it was that brought them out of Egypt. The people blame Moses and Aaron, but the Lord here defends them, saying that through these signs they would know that it was the Lord who brought them out of Egypt, and who would provide for them. They were getting their eyes on the wrong thing. Moses and Aaron NEITHER brought them out of Egypt, nor was it their responsibility, and it was certainly not within their ability, to feed that huge crowd, probably numbering almost two million people.

Lesson Number two- We often look to man for our provision, and look to man to assign blame for our circumstances. While sometime man may be part of the picture, we need to learn that it is the Lord that shapes our lives and is ultimately responsible to provide for us.

[11] The Lord said to Moses, [12] “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”

The Lord shows His mercy here, meeting them at their point of need. If hunger was the big issue in their lives that causes them to stumble, then food is where He would meet them. He would provide for them in a way that was miraculous, incredible, in such a way that they would have no doubt that it was the lord who fed them. Not only were they provided for in their hunger, they were also being taught to look to the Lord with their problems, and not to man.

[13] That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. [14] When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. [15] When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. [16] This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’ ”
[17] The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. [18] And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.

Notice that it literally says that the man who gathered much did not have too much, and that the man who gathered a little had enough. If you believe this scripture as being literally what happened, this means that there were thousands of “little” miracles that happened, impacting thousands of people. In the “economy” of heaven, it probably would have been more efficient to do one big miracle. But I believe that the Lord was performing individual miracles to teach them that it is His intention that they look to him for provision, on an individual, and very personal, basis, Each had just enough.
One thing that we often forget as Christians is the Intentionality of God. The whole universe was created to fulfill God’s intention. We forget how much God intends for us to be his children, and to know him as the loving father, to know how much He intends to reveal His glory, and how much He wants to show Himself to those who want to know Him. Do you know how much He intends for you to reach your destiny in Christ? He is the most intentional being in the universe. God knows what He is doing, Do you?

A Scene from the waterfront in Trondheim, Norway

Greetings Friends.

I am writing this post from Trondheim, Norway, and I must say, It is an absolutely beautiful city. This is my first visit to Norway, and I am enjoying it very much, although it feels unusual being this close to the Arctic circle. The sun has been coming up each day about 9 am, and setting about 2 pm, which I find vaguely disorienting…

Our teaching today is from our Video Podcast 6, Lessons from the Desert.

You can watch a short video with this section of the teaching by clicking on the player above.

How many of you at some point in your life have felt as if you were going through a desert?
A Desert is a hard and difficult place….but have you ever seen a desert sunset? There are colors in the desert sunset that are seldom found on the earth. Look at the awesome colors in the photo used for the Radio Antioch Logo, taken in Utah. And sometimes when we are in the desert it is easy for the Lord to get our attention.
Some would say that there is no value in the desert, but sometimes the Lord can meet you in the desert and change your thinking. He’s got you alone, away from “Egypt”, away from the TV set. He has you away from whatever is distracting you and can get your attention. This is what is going on here in scripture:

Exodus 16:1-35
The whole Israelite community set out from Elim ( ay-leem)
and came to the Desert of (Seen) Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. [2] In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. [3] The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

We join the Israelite community here during their second month after leaving Egypt. And they are really grumbling. If they really wanted to die, why complain? No, they were frustrated, immature and did not know Who it was who was taking them through the desert. Have you ever prayed anything like this? When you look at it, we sound pretty silly when we get like this.
How many of you think that the Israelites, while slaves in Egypt, really sat around pots of meat and ate all they wanted? Like any slave culture in history lived so well! No, but they were very much outside what they knew, and outside their comfort zone. You may have spent all your life as a slave, but if it is all you have ever known, it is familiar. You may have a man with a whip telling you to make bricks without straw, but if that is all you have know, perhaps it is “home”. About six weeks into their journey, their first trials have come upon them. First, there was a lack of water, and now food is scarce.
Only a month ago, as found in Exodus 15, we have them singing that the Lord is their strength and salvation:

Exodus 15:2
The Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

But here we have them grumbling that they were brought out to the desert to starve to death. At the first sign of adversity, their newfound faith crumbles and bad attitudes follow. They accuse Moses and Aaron of bringing them out into the desert to starve. Really! When I read it is clear that the Lord took them out to be free of the whip! To be free of the gods of Egypt….to be transformed from slaves to free men! Quite a difference, don’t you think? And yet that is our nature. We happily rejoice when the Lord mightily delivers us. We are full of faith and joy, and we are confident in God’s providence and provision for our lives. But at the first adversity it is easy to show a real lack of maturity, whining things just as ridiculous as the Israelites.
The problem is that the people did not really know their own identity. They had received their identity from their captors, having been told all their lives that they were good for nothing except as slaves. And while they have seen a few miracles, they clearly do not yet know the God that has delivered them. Perhaps they had heard of the God of their fathers, but they did not know Him, and clearly they did not trusting Him for provision. But God was merciful to them:

[4] Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. [5] On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

So the Lord tells them that he himself will miraculously provide for them.
Have you ever wondered why the Lord took them through the desert? Why not drive the Egyptians out instead, and let God’s children inherit the condos? You get a glimpse of what is going on here in verse 4, where God says “In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.” So here is a thought- I think that the time in the desert was to give the people a new identity- No longer slaves, but rather children of God. I think that the Lord was using this experience to draw a people to Himself.
If they had stayed put, then they would have been just like the Egyptians…all the “gods” of Egypt were there, all of the occult worship. If you stay where you have been in bondage, have you really become free? Sometimes you just have to make a clean break. Egypt was the only home they had ever known. There was food, and it was familiar, but without leaving they never would have changed. They had been told all their lives that they were slaves. They had been told all of their lives that the gods of Egypt were god. If they stayed in Egypt, they would remain slaves forever. But the only way to the promised land was through the desert. Sometimes you have to go through the desert to get to where God wants to take you. And, perhaps sometimes you have to go through the desert to become who God wants you to become.

Lesson Number One from the Desert: When we first encounter the Lord, we neither know Him or his ways, and it takes time to come to know both.

I think the time in the desert so that they could be changed from a rabble of slaves to a people of God. In the desert they became a nation. In the desert they got a new identity that came from the Lord, not the slave identity given from birth by an evil taskmaster with a whip. Forty years later when they came to Jericho, the whole city was shut up in fear of them. They were not the whining people you see here, but a force to be reckoned with. But to receive the transformation they had to make the journey through the desert.
Sometimes it seems that we too are on our own journey. And maybe it seems to you like you are going through the desert right now. There is a God who walks beside the children in the desert. Do you know Him? He is only a whispered prayer away. And sometimes when we face trials in our desert journey, the Lord can change our thinking. If we listen to Him, and let Him guide us on our journey, we can grow from being a slave of this world to a child of the Almighty King.

Credits

Rembrandt’s Jacob’s struggle with the Angel, 1659

This teaching is an excerpt from our Radio Antioch Podcast Episode 5.

Returning to our study of the life of Jacob, we find that he has reached his own “teachable moment”. Jacob is now ready to receive from God. He has spent twenty years doing his own thing away from his promised inheritance. Now, those who know me well will say that I am pretty stubborn at times, but I hope that I would wake up and get a clue faster than twenty years. Jacob finally figured out that he is not as smart as he thought. Instead of putting one over on his relatives, he has been deceived and cheated by them. He has now come to the end of his own strength and is teachable, and it is here that God begins to intervene to transform his destiny.

Genesis 32:1-2     Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. [2] When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim. (ma-ha-nah´yim;  which means two camps)

You almost never hear this verse preached on! But just as there were angels at the border of the promised land when Jacob left, there were Angels at the border when he returned. (I wonder if it was the same angels? Did Jacob give them a knowing nod as he met them, twenty years older but wiser and ready to follow the Lord? ) Jacob could have easily despised his inheritance like his brother did, and stayed in Haran. But God was watching over Jacob’s destiny and protecting his inheritance. So it is with Us. We frequently rebel against God’s best for us, but in His mercy he preserves a way for us in spite of ourselves.
But now that he is coming back to God’s destiny, he has to deal with the flesh and the sins in his life. Jacob sent servants to meet with his brother Esau. They came back very excited: Esau was marching to meet Jacob, with 400 men! Now, you don’t take 400 men with you to meet your brother if you just want to have a hug and a handshake! No, as they say in New Jersey, Esau and “the boys’ wanted to “have a word” with Jacob.
Genesis 32:9-12

[9] Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ [10] I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. [11] Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. [12] But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”

This is one of the earliest examples of prayer in the Bible, and it was not one of those half-hearted “thanks for the burger” prayers. No, this was one of those “oh, Lord, ooooh Loooord”  kind of prayers. Jacob is toast if God does not save him, and he knows it. Jacob cries out to the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, fully acknowledging the covenant with his family. Jacob finally acknowledges that it is God alone who has blessed him, it is God alone who can deliver him from his past, and it is God alone who can carry him into his destiny. He acknowledges that he is unworthy of the kindness and faithfulness God has shown him. But now he claims the promise in the midst of his trial:  “ Lord, Esau is coming to kill me, but you said that you would prosper me.”

Jacob now prepares for the worst- He sends great gifts to Esau to try and turn aside his anger. He then sent his wives and children over the ford of the Jabbok River, which was the boundary of his promised land, and waits alone to hear from God.

Genesis 32:24-29
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 men 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.

The Lord does not let Jacob enter the promised land without confronting his past. He cannot walk into God’s destiny in his life without coming face to face with God. He begins to wrestle with God, and during the fight, his flesh is broken, and he walked with a limp the rest of his life. Even so, it was not enough to leave behind his wanderings. It was not enough to return to God’s destiny for his life. It was not enough to throw himself solely on the mercy of  God in his troubles. No! he had come this far, and would not let go until he received a transformation from God himself! In spite of his flesh being broken, he hangs on and says NO! I WILL NOT LET GO UNTIL YOU BLESS ME!
You see, Jacob had lied and cheated his way to get blessings from men. But his trials and troubles, twenty years being cheated by Laban, and now a threat on his very life had refined his character and brought him to the realization that nothing less than a transformation from God himself would change his destiny.
The question was cutting: “what is your Name?” Jacob must now admit before God that he is a cheat, a supplanter, a deceiver. He comes face to face with his sin, and his flesh nature. He cannot cross into his destiny until it is broken. Then the Lord speaks destiny into his life:

[28] Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.

Whenever there is a name change of an individual in scripture, is symbolic of a profound spiritual change. Jacob would no longer be the cheat, the one who was not the rightful patriarch. Now by God’s grace he became Israel, which according to Strong’s in Hebrew means “He will rule as God” He is no longer the cheat, he is the Ruler under God’s hand.
Jacob was from this moment transformed, and the nation that he fathered was named after him: Israel.
Maybe you are going through distress at this time. A lot of us are. Perhaps you have rebelled from God’s plan for your life and need to come back to the promised land. Maybe like Jacob you realize that the sin in your flesh, or baggage that you have from your family, or the mistakes that you have made are holding you back from going on with God. Maybe for the first time you have reached your own teachable moment and are willing to wrestle with God and have your nature changed.
Are you ready to confess before God where your life has brought you, and confront the issues that hold you back? Are you ready to grab a hold of God and not let go until He changes you? Are you fed up with living with Laban and ready to cross the Jabbok to live in God’s promise in your inheritance? If that is you, come to Him. He will confront your flesh, but He will transform your spirit as you press into your destiny in Him.

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