A Break And A Blessing

A Break and A Blessing
In the Old Testament book of Genesis chapter 32, is the story of how God deals with Jacob as a part of God's plan of salvation history. Since his birth, Jacob has been a manipulative, conniving and calculating opportunist. While it would seem that Jacob's actions would not make him a worthy candidate for God's affection and adoration; we are reminded that God's ways are not our ways and God's thoughts are not our thoughts. Ultimately, God has to break Jacob and his undesirable ways in order for Jacob to recognize blessings beyond measure. Said differently, until we are broken by God, we will never realize the magnitude of God's desire for our lives.

The Hebrew word used in this text  for break is the same word used for offering a sacrifice to God; a lifting up. In order for Jacob to be lifted up, he first had to be broken. In order for us to present ourselves as living sacrifices unto God, we must first come to God with a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart; these are the sacrifices of God. We must be broken. Even our Lord Jesus demonstrated this in his life. The Bible says that Jesus took two fishes and five loaves, blessed them, and broke them. Once broken, over 5,000 were fed with 12 baskets left over. On the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it. The broken bread represents the prophetic breaking of the body of Jesus that we may have life and life more abundantly. Therefore, the real blessing for Jacob was in his breaking. Because when he was broken, he could no longer stand on his own. All he had was God to hold on to. He went from defying God to depending on God; from rebellion to reliance; and from striving to surrendering. Jacob was able to get a blessing when he gave up depending on his own wit and will and leaned and depended on God.

 Many of us wonder why we are going through what we are going through. Maybe just maybe, God wants us to totally depend on God. When we allow our self reliance to give way to God's sanctifying grace and when we allow our inadequacy to give way to God's sufficiency we will discover the joys of living by faith and not by sight. Depend on God. Hold on to God. Trust God to bless you and provide your increase. 

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