AFHA-115
870705AM
ABSOLUTE SURRENDER & HOW GOD MASTERS US: Thirty-eight centuries ago God met and mastered a man named Jacob. Born into a wealthy family, with everything going for him, Jacob was intent upon living a self-sufficient life. He was a man who would be mastered by no one:
• conniving his brother out of his inheritance,
• tricking his dad into blessing him,
• leaving home for Aram 600 miles northeast,
• finding the woman he wanted and taking 20 years to get all he could from her father.
But the road back to Canaan was a long one; every step drew him closer to his unsettled past. In Genesis 32:6 we see the climax of this life direction: the report that brother Esau is one the move in his direction with an army of 400 men! Jacob knew undoubtedly that his grandfather Abraham had wiped out a large army in Genesis 14 with only 318 men — and there were 400. Thus the stage is set.
In the height of his self-sufficient plan, Jacob was stopped in his tracks near a Middle Eastern brook called Jabbok. There they struggled in the darkness of night; he met God face to face. As the sun rose over the wilderness of Palestine the next morning, a lone figure could be seen slowly emerging from a thicket near a quiet stream. The match ended and he was crippled for life and crowned with power — power with God and Man (Genesis 32:28). To all who would ever meet him, a clear message was visible — he was conquered. God took him through specific stages in that conquest. And all who wish to have His power ever upon them must follow that same path.