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At any rate, as the story unfolded, Jacob ended up running for his life in fear after Esau threatened to kill him for “stealing” the blessing from his father. So did Jacob really get the blessing? This could generate a great deal of discussion especially with our western ignorance of what a blessing really is anyway. Typically we think of blessing as associated with material wealth. At first glance in this story it appears that Jacob lost all of the wealth that should have come from his father with the blessing since he left home for a long period of time. But further on in the story we see that Jacob indeed became very wealthy through the apparent benefits of being blessed supernaturally. He ended up with a large family and a great deal of livestock which in that day was the currency of riches. So in light of this and from our viewpoint it might seem that Jacob would finally feel like he had indeed received the blessing that had been pronounced on him from his father.
But if this was true then why is it that we find him in such a desperate state of mind while he spends all night body-wrestling and unknown “assailant” in the dark that he had no idea of their identity? The key moment comes when he realizes who he has been wrestling with and instantly wraps himself around the body of the heavenly messenger in a death-grip of emotional intensity begging for the blessing that his heart had craved for all of his life. To me this looks like a symptom of intense soul-hunger that was never satisfied with what we would consider external blessings in abundance. He had wives, he had children, he had wealth, he had freedom. But the fear that had haunted him all of his life had not disappeared and now he was back face to face with it. He was forced to face his past; he could no longer hide from it. Now his real heart came gushing to the surface and the crisis of his brother's threats only triggered the deeper crisis of the emptiness that he had been attempting to fill repeatedly but had failed to diminish.
This night of sharp focus in the life of Jacob is referred to in the book of Daniel as the time of Jacob's trouble and is prophecied to be repeated in the lives of God's people very near the end of this world's history. Many people believe we are about to enter that time in the very near future. I was raised in a culture where a great deal of emphasis was put on teaching this in a spirit of fear and dread. We were taught that we must prepare for this time of testing by putting away every sin from our life and developing a perfect character so that no sin will be discovered in our life during that time.
Associated with this future event was also a great deal of external violence and world-wide disasters culminating in the second coming of Jesus to bring and end to all the mess and pick up His perfected saints who survive this time of trouble without any sin being found in them. Again, I remember a great deal of fear and foreboding associated with this frequent teaching and was not too keen about suffering through such an ordeal especially given the near impossibility of getting myself to such a level of perfection that was demanded to survive it.
I have begun to realize that there is something wrong with this teaching for a number of years now primarily due to the over-emphasis of fear as the key ingredient. It is becoming very clear to me that teachings based on fear are very suspect at best and present a very distorting picture of God at worst. While many of the facts surrounding a teaching may indeed be accurate, presenting a teaching or doctrine based on fear is attempting to present truth using the methods of the enemy of truth. And when truth is presented in the wrong spirit it ceases to have the power of truth no matter how accurate the facts may be or how many proof-texts are lined up to reinforce it. This is a major problem that has prevented the gospel from spreading to the world and keeps Christianity locked in internal struggles and arguments that profanes the name of the One they claim to represent.
What became startlingly clear to me today is that this fear-oriented teaching has turned away hundreds of thousands of people from growing further in their Christian experience because of the terrors of the “time of trouble” repeatedly kept before them by religious people seeking to motivate them into perfection of character through fear. This is a classic scheme of the Devil who is determined to steal the incredible blessing that God has in store for us. We have missed the most important part of Jacob's story in our teaching about the “time of Jacob's trouble”.
Jacob went into this experience because of the fear that was tormenting him so mercilessly. He had divided up his large family and livestock and had sent them in different directions in another attempt to protect his assets and then retired to a solitary place to seek God earnestly for relief of the greatest cry of his own heart. It was now unavoidable that his heart still craved blessing and now he wanted it more than life itself. He longed to be free of the ever-present feeling of guilt that had tormented him and increased over his lifetime. He desperately wanted peace with God and decided to spend the night in prayer not only for protection but for real satisfaction that only the genuine blessing could bring him.
Ironically, when God showed up in person to answer his prayer and embraced him to fulfill the longing of his heart, Jacob's fear-based mind reacted in alarm and violence in resistance to the very thing his heart longed for the most without realizing it. The original language conveys that the “angel” acutally embraced Jacob, not just touched him. God came to give him a hug but it erupted into a fight instead. How often do we find ourselves in the same situation, reacting in terror against the very things that God brings into our lives to be our greatest source of blessing and fulfillment because we have not known the real truth about what God is really like.
The main point of this story is that Jacob really did receive the blessing he had longed for all of his life, the blessing that everyone of us longs for from the very deepest, misunderstood recesses of our being. It was at the climax of this “time of trouble” that Jacob received this blessing, and the same will be true for those who pass through the future time of “Jacob's trouble”.
So what is this blessing that he received and that we need so badly? I cannot explain that, partly because I do not know and partly because I suspect it cannot be condensed into words easily even by those who have received it. However, I believe that one of the most important aspects of that blessing was a radical shift in paradigms that occurred in Jacob's thinking and perception about how God wanted to relate with him. Because of this new relationship with God and the amazing experience of grace that Jacob experienced when his name was changed to Israel – one who strove with God and overcame – he afterward demonstrated a bold and peaceful confidence and trust in God's protection and abilities never before seen in his life. He had experienced the truth about God on a very personal and intimate level and he was a totally changed man. That is the opportunity that lies embedded in the future “time of trouble” for those who understand enough of the true nature of God to enter into it in anticipation of the blessing waiting for them there.
Promoting fear in association with the time of trouble is to work in concert with the enemies scheme to trick us out of our blessing. Fear is not God's method for motivation. He has made it very clear all throughout scripture that He does not want us operating from a base of fear. “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)
