{"id":4108,"date":"2022-07-18T09:42:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T14:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4108"},"modified":"2022-07-18T09:42:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T14:42:00","slug":"devotional-on-genesis-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-genesis-34\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Genesis"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-DFIPIicJdPY\/XNV3AKwE6wI\/AAAAAAAA7Qg\/MbipfqAJIvMVxHMUG2gSJMV5p8AIRRv_QCKgBGAs\/s1600\/image-010.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1195\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2013 &#8211; Pilot Mountain, North Carolina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An old wrestling injury<br \/>\nGenesis 32: He deliberately threw Jacob\u2019s hip out of joint.<br \/>\nJacob has a lifetime of taking advantage of people and Esau is the one who has lost the most to him. Hearing that Esau&#8217;s coming with a band of 400 men Jacob fears for his life and the lives of all those with him. He shrewdly prepares for the encounter, sending wave after wave of gifts to his brother and instructs his servants to identify Jacob to Esau as \u201cyour servant.\u201d Having done all he can do, Jacob retreats to a place where he can be alone. As he considers his life he finds himself in a wrestling match with a man. Now, all his life, Jacob has struggled with people. His very name means \u201cheel grasper\u201d and he&#8217;s lived down to that name, tripping up others to his own advantage. However, this unknown opponent can\u2019t be beat and they struggle through the night. Finally, his opponent reaches out and throws Jacob\u2019s hip out of joint. At that, the wrestling match is over because Jacob can fight no longer. Still, he holds on, refusing to let go. Now, it may be that Jacob knows what\u2019s going on from the beginning or at least through the night he realizes that this battle is of a supernatural nature. As he clings to his opponent he insists on a blessing. In forcing Jacob to say his name his opponent is making him admit that his whole life has been about \u201cheel grasping\u201d \u2013 cheating and taking unfair advantage of others. Once Jacob does that he receives the blessing he requests. His days of \u201cheel grasping\u201d are over. From now on, he\u2019ll be known as \u201cIsrael\u201d &#8212; a man who knows how to get hold of God and hang on. While I understand that Jacob has wrestled with the Lord through that night, I think he was really wrestling with himself. Finally, the Lord had to bring real pain to him to cause him to realize he can never win unless he confesses to himself and to God who he is. What does it take for us to admit our sin and failure? Restoration starts with confession.<br \/>\nTake away: Sometimes the best victory possible for us is admitting our failures and yielding in defeat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An old wrestling injury Genesis 32: He deliberately threw Jacob\u2019s hip out of joint. Jacob has a lifetime of taking advantage of people and Esau is the one who has lost the most to him. Hearing that Esau&#8217;s coming with a band of 400 men Jacob fears for his life and the lives of all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,7],"tags":[127,206,561,920],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4108"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13744,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4108\/revisions\/13744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}