There is no way around the fact that the character of Jacob as we see him portrayed in Scripture is not one we would point to as an example of a godly life. Jacob lied, cheated, stole, schemed, and ran away constantly. Even in our passage today we begin with him lying to his brother about following him to Seir. Jacob seems like a classic example of looking out for yourself above all else.

Yet Jacob understood that it was the Lord who blessed him. He was a rich man, with a huge family, and a restored relationship with his family, but he knew that wasn’t due to his efforts. Jacob had a constant conflict within himself between wanting to honor the God who blessed him and wanting to take care of himself.

Despite this flawed character, we see in Genesis 35 that God still chose to use Jacob. He promised him that he would be the heir of the promises made to Abraham and Isaac, and would become the father of a great nation. To seal this promise, God reiterated the new name He had given to Jacob: Israel. Jacob’s old name described the character of one who grasps after another, but his new name describes one who struggles with God instead.

It is interesting that unlike Abraham’s name change, the new name does not quickly replace the old one in the text. Jacob still struggled with his old nature, and Israel didn’t immediately take over as his identity. There was still a spiritual wrestling going on, one which would take Jacob time to work out.  In the end, Jacob would become Israel, and the name “Israel” would pass on to his descendants until today.

Sometimes we may feel like we are still wrestling with our old “Jacob” when we want to follow God as “Israel.” Just like Jacob, though, we need to remember that the Lord still wants to bless us and use us, and that He has our future in His hands. In our struggles, we can overcome who we are by the power of the Spirit and move on to become who God wants us to be. Jacob can be our example and our encouragement that through the Lord we can become new people, dedicated to Him and living in a way that honors His name.

Many times when we face a crisis in our lives, we feel that we are fighting against someone or something. Maybe we can’t quite put our finger on it, but we know that the challenge is more than just a puzzle to solve, but is rather an opponent to be overcome. Many times those challenges reside not in our earthly circumstances, but in a spiritual battle.

Here in Genesis 32:22-32 we see Jacob engaged in a spiritual battle. He doesn’t realize it at first. It seems to be a simple physical struggle with an unknown assailant. (The fact that Jacob is 97 years old at the time tells us something about his strength and stamina!) As the wrestling match continues, Jacob starts to realize that he is fighting no mere human opponent. To emphasize that fact, the “man” he was fighting touches his hip socket and dislocates Jacob’s hip. Obviously, this opponent had the power to defeat Jacob at any time.

Yet Jacob refused to surrender. Whatever he realized at the moment, he knew this was a divine agent, and, true to his nature, Jacob refused to let him go without receiving a blessing from him. The answer given to him, and the blessing he receives, show that this was not only not merely a man, but someone more than even an angel. Jacob is given a new name, Israel, which means “he struggles with God.” That name indicated that Jacob’s struggles in life were not against Esau, Laban, or anyone else on earth, but were the result of a spiritual battle that would result in him becoming the progenitor of the nation named for him.

Jacob asks for the name of the man, but He refuses to give it. It may well be that He knew that Jacob already had an idea of whom he was wrestling with. Instead, He gives Jacob a blessing. Jacob figures it out, for he names the place Peniel, which means “face of God,” for he knows he has seen the Lord face to face. He continued to carry the injury from that battle, apparently to his dying day, so much so that it became the custom in Israel not to eat the part of the hip socket where Jacob had been crippled as a memorial.

When we think of fighting with God, we usually give it a negative connotation, thinking that to fight with the Lord means we are trying to maintain our own sinful, selfish lifestyle. Sometimes, however, God places a spiritual battle in front of us to test us and challenge us. He intends to use our struggle to give us a blessing. He doesn’t want us living for ourselves, but He does want us to show a willingness to stand up to the challenges before us and prevail, as Jacob did. While not all of the challenges in our lives fit this mold, some of them will.

You may be facing a challenge like this right now. God may be calling you to persevere in order to receive a blessing He has planned for you. You may not feel that you have the strength for the fight or the courage to stand, but sometimes all it takes is the persistence to keep at the fight, even when it seems you’ve been weakened. Trust in the Lord, look for His blessing, and stand strong today. 

One of the characteristic features of modern Western society is the simultaneous rise of the concept of sin alongside the rejection of forgiveness for the sinner. While society would define “sin” differently than the Bible, and probably wouldn’t even use that term because of its Christian overtones, there is a definite sense among the culture at large that people do things that are wrong and that are not acceptable in society. Where the secular attitude toward sin differs from the Biblical concept is in the necessity and availability of forgiveness.

When a person violates whatever the standard of the day is, whether its sexual behavior, political opinion, environmental awareness, or any of a host of other issues, those who judge them as wrong want to see them punished. This includes not only public shaming (the modern day equivalent of the colonial stocks), but attempts to have people fired from their jobs, kicked out of political office, lose their financial stability, or shunned from society. There is no way back from these judgments, and the accusers often pride themselves on their efforts to minimize and dehumanize the offenders permanently.

Forgiveness is often (if not always) difficult. We forgive those who wrong us, but to do so requires us letting go of our personal hold over that person. There may be consequences beyond our control, but our actions are predicated on what has happened to us. But here in Matthew 9:2, Jesus takes the unprecedented step of forgiving a sick man’s sins- all of his sins. Jesus acts as if He is the aggrieved party in every sin this man has committed, and scribes who were present recognized this. They accused Jesus of blasphemy, of saying something about Himself that was only true of God, since only God could claim to be able to forgive every sin.

Jesus knew what they were thinking, so He gave them a test: is it easier to say “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Rise and walk”? Anyone could say someone’s sins were forgiven, since there is no way to see the state of a person’s heart. Telling a paralyzed person to get up and walk was immediately verifiable, as well as being impossible for an ordinary human being to say with authority. Jesus made the healing the sign of the power to forgive sins. The man rose up and walked, completely healed- and also completely forgiven.

The reaction of the people only partially grasped the truth. They were afraid, seeing great power in Jesus and knowing that that authority came from God. At the same time, they glorified God for giving such power to “men,” missing the truth about Jesus as both God and man. It was through His efforts as the incarnate Son of God that He would make it possible for all sins to be forgiven, but the crowds were still far from recognizing that.

Jesus is the One who can forgive sins, since He is the one who paid the price for our sins. The world wants every person to pay for their own sins. Even religious groups, including many Christians, think that we should pay for our sins. While at one level we do pay the price for the consequences of our actions, we can never pay anything to achieve true forgiveness. That only comes through the power and authority of Jesus. Our ability to forgive others comes through Him as well, since we can only forgive because we have been forgiven.

I think our world needs to know that forgiveness is possible, and see forgiveness put into practice. They won’t see it in most arenas of life, but when we have the chance to extend forgiveness ourselves and to point to the full forgiveness found in Christ we need to let it shine. Guilt and sin are making a comeback; Christians need to see to it that forgiveness makes a comeback as well.

Have you ever thought that if only people could see the power of Jesus in action, they would be completely persuaded to follow Him? We all experience God’s power in our lives on a daily basis. Sometimes He works in subtle ways, but at other times all we can do is look at what He has done and see a miracle. Our stories are evidence of the existence and power of the Almighty Lord of the universe at work, yet when we share them with unbelievers they dismiss them. What if they witnessed His power themselves?

Sadly, the story in Matthew 18:28-34 tells us that it may not matter. In this passage we see Jesus healing two demon-possessed men who were so dangerous that they had to live away from other people. They were so violent that no one could even come near them. Jesus ordered the demons to leave the men, but allowed the demons to possess a herd of pigs. The violence they had incited in the men now filled the pigs, and they ran into the sea and drowned themselves. The men were freed from their demonic oppression at the cost of the herd.

The swineherds, seeing this powerful scene, ran off and told the people of the town what had happened. The people of the city came to see for themselves. I can imagine the scene, with the two formerly demon-possessed men sitting calmly with Jesus while pig carcasses floated on the sea below. It certainly made an impression on the crowd.

Look, though, at their reaction. Verse 34 tells us that when they saw Jesus, they begged him to leave their region. The fact that He had demonstrated power over demons and that these two notorious men were made whole didn’t cause them to wonder at who Jesus was or what kind of power He had. They just wanted Him gone.

We aren’t told specifically why they wanted Jesus to go. This miracle took place in Gentile territory, so there may have been little awareness of the Messianic hope that Israel had. Perhaps they feared Jesus as a magician; the Greco-Roman culture believed in magical and occult powers, and people would naturally be wary of them. But from the parallel passages in Mark and Luke, we see that the people asked Jesus to leave after they heard what happened to the pigs. While there may have been several reasons they requested Jesus’ departure, I think the main one was the economic loss He had caused. They were more concerned about the pigs than the people.

When presenting the gospel to people, never underestimate how much self-interest can cloud the picture of a loving and powerful Savior. Coming to Christ as Lord means making changes in your life, and may require giving up some habits, practices, relationships, and even possessions you value. Faced with this possibility, people may choose to cling to what they have in this world rather than accept the power of Jesus, even though Jesus will far outshine anything this world has to give us. The only way we can change our view is through the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

For Christians, this means continuing to present Jesus to people even after they reject Him. We don’t know when the Spirit may work in their heart, or when they may see the true value of Christ compared to what they have now. And, of course, remember this: while the majority of the city wanted Jesus to leave, two men were released from suffering and started following Jesus. Even when only a few respond, the gospel will have an effect as we share it with others.

Isaac has become a kind of afterthought to many Christians as they read through Genesis. Abraham is the great man of faith, the one to whom God promised the land of Canaan and descendants too numerous to count. Jacob’s story is one of intrigue, deceit, manipulation, and attempts to get God on his side. In between, Isaac seems to be someone whose story is just a reflection of his father’s. He receives the continuation of the promise, has to wait for the birth of his sons, lies about his wife, and has family squabbles among his children.

In Genesis 26:26-31 we have a short narrative about Isaac that stands by itself. Isaac has been having difficulties with Abimelech and the Philistines since he deceived them about Rebekah. His wealth attracted the envy of the Philistines, and his wells were constantly being stopped up by his jealous enemies. Abimelech finally told Isaac to leave his area, so he did. He continued to have issues over wells, until he got far enough away that they left him alone. At that point, Isaac was probably relieved that he didn’t have to deal with Abimelech any more.

Imagine his surprise when one day Abimelech, his adviser, and the commander of his army show up at Isaac’s camp. Isaac was at least wary, if not outride afraid, of what these men had come to do. He points out to them that they have mistreated him and shown hatred for him, so they really had no reason to visit. My guess is that Isaac expected trouble, and wasn’t sure just what form it would take.

Instead, the Philistine leaders came to make peace with Isaac. Their reason? They plainly saw that the Lord was blessing Isaac. Even though Isaac hadn’t always lived an exemplary life as a follower of the Lord, his life, his wealth, the protection he received from God, and all the other blessings of his life showed that the Lord was with him. Even these pagan men recognized the power of God in the life of Isaac, and it seems that they were just as afraid of him as he was of them. They emphasized that they had not harmed him directly, and asked that he would be equally peaceful toward them.

While I’m sure this caught Isaac by surprise, he agreed make an oath with them, and they sealed it with a meal, a common way for two parties to show an agreement in that time. Abimelech and his men departed in peace, and Isaac sent them away with his promise of peace. He even commemorated the oath with the name of the new well his servants had dug: Beersheba, the “well of the oath.”

We all admit that we do not live perfect lives, and sometimes we fall short of what the Lord commands us to do. But as we live out our lives, we should have people looking at us and wondering how our lives are so blessed. That may not mean wealth, as it did with Isaac; it might mean peace in trials, protection from trouble that is clearly from the Lord, or a satisfied understanding of what life means in Jesus. People around us should wonder how and why we are so blessed as we live for Jesus. Perhaps some may be led to ask us why, to admit that they see something in us that they are missing in themselves.

Our goal is not to make deals with people, but to point them to the ultimate source of blessing and satisfaction, Jesus. Even the most wayward may see the peace of God in us, and want us to tell them how we received it. As we live for Christ, may our lives and our words testify to His power and goodness to us, and may we witness His power to those around us every day.

When Christians speak of the standards set out by God in the Bible, people will often come back at us by saying, “You don’t have a right to judge me! Jesus says ‘Judge not!’” It’s not surprising that people take this tack, since none of us like to be reminded of the ways we fall short of God’s standards. This usually is meant more deeply however, as an accusation that we are setting ourselves up as judges over others rather than simply presenting the moral, ethical, and spiritual standards of Scripture.

Matthew 7 has two separate passages that speak about judging others, and taken together they tell us what we should and should not do when judging others. Verse 1 is popularly quoted: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” Taken on its own, it sounds like a pretty absolute prohibition against judging others. Yet even in its own context, it is refrring to something more personal and significant than just a blanket prohibition. Jesus warns us that we will be judged the same way we judge others. His picture of a speck and a plank in the eye illustrates His point that we should be careful that we are not looking at the relatively lesser offenses of others while ignoring huge failures and sins on our part.

Jesus’ warning is not so much against judging others (although we should be slow to do that!) as it is about making sure we are right with the Lord before we seek to help others. The point of judgment here is not to belittle or mock others, but to help them overcome their own sins and weaknesses. After making sure we have taken care of issues in our own lives, we will then be able to assist others by pointing out their issues and helping them work through them.

If Jesus meant that we should never judge another person, He would not have added what He said in verses 15-20. Here we are told we absolutely should judge. When we see people teaching what is false, and practicing behavior that violates God’s commandments, we are to be wary of them. Their outward words and actions show us what their inward life is truly all about. People may look good from the outside, but when we hear them teach contrary to Scripture and act contrary to Jesus’ words, we need to steer clear of their influence.

When false teaching breaks out in a church, it isn’t usually right out in the open and obvious. Some Christians tend to be trusting souls, and they don’t like to think that someone would deliberately deceive them. When allowed to grow and expand in influence, however, false teaching and false practice can draw us away from Jesus and from the Word. We need to carefully examine what people are teaching and what they are doing, and compare it to the standard Jesus gave us in the Word. (Yes, that means you’d better keep checking up on me, too.)

Now we are not the ones called on to provide final judgment. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus continued in Matthew 7 by warning that just saying the right things or using the name “Lord” won’t guarantee a place in heaven. That judgment is left in His hands, not ours. Our calling here in Matthew 7 is to be careful and diligent in examining what people say and do, to make sure we take care of our own sins before looking down on others, and to seek to help each other overcome our weaknesses and to gain a clearer vision of Christ. When we do all that, we are judging the way Jesus wants us to judge.

Genesis 22 is one of the most puzzling passages in the Bible. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote an entire book about it, in which he rewrote the ending several times. People have questioned why God would ask for a human sacrifice, and why Abraham would be willing to do it. Everything about this story seems to run contrary to what we know about God and what He expects from His people.

I think some of the speculation misses the main point. God knew that He would not ultimately ask Abraham to carry out the sacrifice. Abraham didn’t expect to lose Isaac, even if he sacrificed him (see Hebrews 11:17-19). What happens here is a test for Abraham. God is asking, “Where is your faith? Is it in the son of promise I gave you, or is it in Me? Are you willing to give up your deepest desire for My sake?” Abraham passes the test, demonstrating the depth of the faith he had in the Lord.

The other element we need to observe is what actually happens on the mountain. Abraham is willing to give up Isaac, but “the Angel of the Lord” shows up and stops him. When the Angel of the Lord is mentioned in the Old Testament, it is God Himself, in the person of Jesus, who makes an appearance. (Notice that this “angel” speaks of Abraham not withholding Isaac from Him.) Jesus provides an alternative sacrifice, a ram to take the place of Isaac. Instead of sacrificing his son, Abraham sacrifices the substitute given by God.

This is a picture of what God has done for all of us. We all deserve to be “sacrificed” because of our sin. When tested, we all have said at some time in our past that our faith is in ourselves or in something other than God. Yet God Himself provided a sacrifice, a Lamb that was offered in our place so that we could live. The same Jesus who spoke to Abraham came to give Himself for all of us so that we could be freed from the sentence of death we are under due to sin.

The son who would have been sacrificed became a great blessing to the entire world. It was through Isaac that the nation of Israel descended, and from whom the Messiah would come. This was a blessing to all the world; it wasn’t just a promise to a favored person or a chosen nation, but to everyone. Through Abraham’s obedience, the One came through whom it became possible for all of humanity to be saved.

 In reading this story, we need to ask ourselves where our faith has been placed. Is our trust in ourselves? Is it in the things God has given us? Is it in other people? While we rejoice over the blessings God gives us, our faith should be in the giver of those blessings, not in what He gives. Like Abraham, we need to grow in our trust in the Lord. Through Him, we can develop a faith that allows us to get through even our most puzzling times and see God at work in our lives and in our futures.

Maintaining a relationship with Jesus requires significant spiritual “conversation” time. One aspect of that is listening to God by spending time in the Word. We need to hear God speak to us through His revelation, so we need to read, study, and meditate on what the Bible says. The other aspect is speaking to God through prayer. We need to express our worship, our thanks, our needs, and our concerns in prayer to God.

As practicing Jews, Jesus’ disciples would have spent time in prayer. They may have prayed set prayers similar to those used by Jews today. They likely would have expressed their daily concerns to God as they arose. Yet Jesus wanted to teach them even more about prayer (in Luke 11:1, they ask Him to teach them). His first teaching is that prayer isn’t about showing off your spirituality. Many religious teachers liked to have people notice their prayers and praise them for their eloquence. Jesus turned that around, teaching that we should pray privately, seeking our reward not from people but from the Father.

He then gives a model of prayer, which has become known as “the Lord’s Prayer,” and is one of the best-known passages in all of the Bible. He warns the disciples that their prayers are not to be mere repetitious babbling, so we do need to be careful in using this model. There certainly is nothing wrong with truly praying the Lord’s Prayer, as long as we don’t use it as some kind of rote replacement for our conversation with God or as a “charm” to make things right with God.

The key to this prayer is what Jesus tells us we should pray for. There are five clauses in the Lord’s Prayer, and each is something that should be part of our prayer life:

1) Glorifying God,

2) Asking for a willingness to do His will,

3) Requesting our daily needs,

4) Forgiveness for ourselves and a willingness to forgive others,

5) Avoidance of temptation and protection from evil.

We may add more details to these, and make some more specific, but Jesus’ model prayer gives us a powerful example of what makes up a good prayer. Jesus Himself would pray for hours, so His prayers were certainly far more detailed and intimate than this simple paragraph, but as an outline His prayer puts us on the right track.

No matter when and where we pray (and public prayer is not wrong, as long as it isn’t done for the purpose of drawing attention to us), we want to ensure that we aren’t just giving God our personal wish list, but are seeking to honor Him, place ourselves in His will, and working to maintain our relationships with Him and with others. As we pray out our end of the conversation with the Lord, and read and study in His end, we will grow in the depth of our knowledge, understanding, and practice of our relationship with our Lord and Savior.

The American humorist Mark Twain once said, “It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” While there are many passages that are difficult to grasp, hard to understand, or culturally opaque to us, there are also many places in Scripture where we know exactly what the Bible says and struggle with its implications. Matthew 5:43-48 certainly fits as one of those passages that is easy to understand, but very disturbing to our way of life.

Nearly every day we see in the news or hear from people around us about someone who has been wronged and is looking for a way to get back at the people who wronged them. Nations go to war over slights to honor or disputes over just who has the right to a piece of land or a passageway through the water. Co-workers look for ways to get revenge on someone whom they think took a job or a responsibility that should have been theirs. Family members stop speaking over what one person views as an insult. Our world is built around getting what is yours, and getting even if someone takes it from you.

Jesus says exactly the opposite here in Matthew. He tells us “love your enemies.” He even notes that the popular saying of the day, even among the Jews, was to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. His command goes against the wisdom of the day, and clearly tells us that we should love those who hate us and persecute us. He even goes beyond a kind of leave-them-along attitude to telling us to actively pray for them.

If we’re honest, there are times when this is pretty close to impossible for us. The wounds run too deep. The betrayal is too great. What we have lost is more than we think we can bear. We don’t want to love our enemy; we want to hate them and we want God to judge them according to what we think they deserve. Following this commandment of Jesus goes against everything we feel as human beings, and it’s very difficult for us to do this.

Before we try to argue with Jesus about this, however, let’s remember who we were when He found us. We were enemies of God. We openly rebelled against the rightful kingship of Christ. We took what belonged to God, especially the glory and honor due Him, and kept it for ourselves. Everything we lived for was to satisfy self and to neglect or openly oppose God.

The Lord had every right to judge us and condemn us. Instead, Jesus loved us so much that He took on human flesh and came to this earth to die for us. He took our place, so that we could be made right with God. He accepted the persecution and pain to show that even we who were His enemies were loved. He took our judgment on Himself, so that we could be freed from what we deserved and shown grace and mercy.

As hard as it is to deal with people who hate us and persecute us, we need to remember that they have done far less to us than we did to Jesus. When He had the chance to let everyone suffer for their rebellion, He chose to sacrificially give Himself so that we could be brought into a relationship with Him. Not everyone chooses to come to Christ, and not every one of our enemies will accept our forgiveness and love. Yet we need to offer forgiveness the same way Christ offered forgiveness to us,

Is this going to be the easiest lesson we have to learn? No. There are many teachings of Scripture that are far easier to put into practice in our daily lives. But we are here on this earth to point people to Jesus, and to give Him honor and glory. If loving someone who doesn’t love us shows them even a small glimpse of what Jesus has in store for them, it will be worth accepting the loss to help them see the gain He can give.

I suppose it wouldn’t take long for you to come up with an example of a disagreement or even an argument you’ve had recently. As humans living in a fallen world, there are many areas we disagree on, even in the church. A quick look at the news shows us that disagreements can very quickly become nasty and even violent. People stop speaking to each other, fights can break out, and in extreme cases someone may even kill the person with whom they disagree.

In the Bible, we expect our heroes to set strong spiritual examples for us. (Of course, we’ve already seen Abraham give in to fear once already, leading him to lie and endanger others in the process.) In Genesis 13, we see him dealing the fallout from a disagreement between his herdsmen and those of his nephew, Lot. The land just wasn’t big enough for both of them, and something had to be done.

In the cultures of the ancient Near East, respect for elders was a fundamental part of the social structure. Yet here it is not Lot who takes the initiative to resolve the issue, but Abraham. Even more startling, Abraham gives Lot his choice of the land! This would be an unheard of concession in their culture. Abraham values peace between himself and his nephew more highly than his societal rights as the patriarch of the family.

Lot chose the better-looking land, the place where everything looked fruitful and lush. He chose the land that looked like the easier place to raise his herds, and the land near the town of Sodom. He looked at the appearance of the land, and ignored the spiritual decay of the people of the land.

His poor choice would cost him dearly on several occasions.

Abraham humbly took the land that was left. The Lord renewed His promise to Abraham, and assured him that his choice would have lasting effects for generations. Abraham may not have received the land that looked as promising, but he received a spiritual blessing that far outweighed anything Lot would experience in his future.

When you face disagreements and arguments in your own life, what do value most? Do you want to win the argument? Do you want to make sure that you get what you want, or at least that the other person doesn’t get what they want? Do you want to make sure you are treated with the respect you think you deserve? Or do you look for a solution that puts you where God wants you to be, even if others may try to push their own advantage?

Abraham may have failed on occasion, but here he gave us a good example of putting the Lord and others ahead of his own self-interest. It is true that Lot took advantage of his uncle, but his eagerness for appearances led him to overlook the danger. Abraham trusted the Lord to take care of him, and he received a blessing that echoes through the generations. Are we ready to settle our disagreements in a way that will bless others, perhaps for years to come?