Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Up For The Challenge? | Torah | Genesis 32:22-32

Episode Date: March 23, 2022

The Christian life isn't easy. God calls Christians to own up to sin, have hard conversations and wrestle through tough passages of scripture all in order to grow. Are you willing to let God challenge you? In today's episode, Jensen uses Genesis 31:22-32 to explain why God calls his people to do the challenging thing. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Genesis 31:22-32 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Right now, we're going through the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Last week, I had a long, busy day. I had a friend over for breakfast. I went out and grabbed lunch. I went to the grocery store, had to stop by Target to return some things, and I ended up running into a few acquaintances while I was there. I was out in public for a long time. And when I got home, my husband, my husband was. husband sheepishly asked me if I knew that the back of my sweatshirt was covered in a very large spit-up stain. At this point, with our six-month-old, I'm used to changing my sweatshirt a few times a day. But this day, I hadn't noticed he had thrown up over my shoulder before I went out,

which means I had been walking around all day with dried vomit on my back. And no one told me. Maybe you've never had a vomit-stained sweatshirt, but you've probably realized late in the day that there's something stuck in your teeth, or toilet paper stuck to your shoe, or something embarrassing like this and no one told you. It's so frustrating. And yet, when I see someone struggling like this, oftentimes I don't really want to say anything, especially if I don't know them well. I usually only help out the people I'm really close with. Maybe that's wrong of me, but it rings true. On my day out, not a single stranger helped me out, not the people I ran into it tarred. it was my husband who finally let me in on my struggle. People don't usually want to experience

discomfort with a stranger, but when it's someone close, we're more willing to struggle through that awkward conversation. And this is true for more than just the food stuck in your teeth or the vomit on your back. If I take stock of my relationships, all the most important ones are marked with some of the hardest conversations and disagreements. If you think about it, it's probably the same for you, because the relationships that matter the most are the ones we lean into, the ones we fight for and don't give up on. On the other side of things, think about the people in your life you've never had a disagreement with. They probably live somewhere in your outer circle of friends, because when you're in deep relationship with someone, you care, you stay,

you wrestle through life together. And when you aren't as invested, well, you let things slide. It might seem harsh, but you might just not care enough to lean in and stick it out when it's tough. For a lot of Jacob's life, we've seen him struggle with the people around him. When he was in his mother's womb, he struggled with his brother Esau. He deceived his father to receive a blessing. He had to flee from his brother's anger, and he struggled with his father-in-law to obtain a wife. His life has been messy, and in today's passage, we're going to see Jacob wrestle with God. Literally.

Jacob is returning home and has just sent away his family and possessions to protect them from what Esau might do. We pick up the story at nightfall, as Jacob prepares to face his brother and an army of 400 men the next day. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 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. Then the man said, let me go for it is daybreak.

But Jacob replied, I will not let you go unless you bless me. In this moment of anxiety with his brother and his army looming, a mysterious man comes in and begins to wrestle with Jacob. Now Jacob injured, in pain, exhausted, he won't give up. He realizes at some point that this man he's wrestling with is God, and he refuses to give up even when he becomes in. injured. After a lifetime of struggling and running, Jacob finally sees his need for God's blessing in his life. And he gets it. But Jacob replied, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

The man asked him, what is your name? Jacob, he answered. 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. Jacob said, please tell me your name. But he replied, why do you ask my name? Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, it is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared. The sun rose above him as he passed Penile, and he was limping because of his hip. So God changes Jacob's name to Israel. Now, names had an incredible importance in the ancient near east, and here, God has chosen to give Jacob a name that sounds like he struggled with God. And Jacob later affirms this knowledge of wrestling with God when he says that he has seen God face to face.

In Jacob's hour of need, full of anxiety and worry, we might expect God to send another dream or someone to encourage Jacob, to ease his burden of worry and to comfort him. Instead, God wrestles with him and leaves him injured, physically weaker than before. But we see that though this moment in Jacob's life may have physically weakened him, it does not weaken his faith. He wrestles with God for hours and refuses to give up until he has God's blessing because he knows that he needs it. In the wrestling, in the difficulty, he says that he has seen God's face. And while it may not be what we would expect, through his wrestling, he has had an intimate encounter with his God. And while it leaves him limping, it strengthens him in ways that are far

more valuable. I think we can learn a lot from Jacob. I know when I'm anxious or facing difficulty, I just want someone to be nice to me, to comfort me. But sometimes being nice or comforting instead of digging into what is really wrong is like ignoring the food in your teeth or the vomit on your back. It feels better to not make someone uncomfortable in the moment, but in the end, we leave them vulnerable and still walking around with their mess. Oftentimes, we want God to be this way too. We want him to leave our sin, our stubbornness, our pride alone, even if it's ugly. We'd rather have a God who comforts us than challenges us. We flip to happy scripture that tells us nice things and ignore the parts that challenge us.

We don't want a God who wrestles with us, who challenges us, who pushes us to be strengthened. But that's exactly who God is. He calls his people to difficult things. He wants to be a deep relationship in your life. He wants to see you face to face, to go through the difficulty with you. But we have to be willing to allow him into our lives. we have to be willing to wrestle with him as well. Is God someone you wrestle with often? Or is he like your outer circle of friends? You say nice things on Sunday, but he's not

intimately involved in your life. He doesn't have your permission to say hard things or to challenge you. Be honest with yourself today. Are you willing to wrestle with God? That might sound odd, but I think wrestling with God can look like allowing Scripture to shape your life. It can look like owning up to sins, laying them out on the table, confessing them to friends and actively cutting out temptations in your life. It means reading the parts of Scripture that make you uncomfortable and submitting to their authority. It means leaning into your relationship with God in every area of your life. It will take endurance. Paul describes the Christian life as a race, one that we're running every day.

It takes work. It might leave us exhausted and feeling weary on the other side of it. But as we faithfully wrestle with God day in and day out, it will also strengthen our faith. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.