Broken Before Blessed
Devotions for Growing Christians
Broken Before Blessed
Genesis 32:30-31 - So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved." 31Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh.
Read also Genesis 32:24-31.
Many of you have read the story of Joni Eareckson Tada. Joni had a lot of things going for her. She was popular, pretty, athletic and a very active teenager. She was also a Christian. What more could she ask for?! But Joni's life was far from what God intended. In her book, she says that her teenage life revolved around her own ego and her own desires. About the time she graduated from high school, Joni prayed that God would do something to turn her life around so that she could be used for His glory.
God answered Joni's prayer in a most unusual way. He permitted her to break her neck in a diving accident, and thus lose the use of her arms and legs - permanently. How could God allow such a tragedy? Joni struggled tremendously with this question for the first few months following her injury. Then she gradually began to realize that God really wanted to draw her closer and bless her life through this traumatic experience.
In reality, God was breaking the old Joni down so that the new Joni in Christ could become a blessing to others. Today Joni's beautiful relationship with God radiates out from her wheelchair to literally thousands of people. Completely fulfilled in Christ, Joni says she would not want it any other way. On each of the pictures she sketches (by holding a felt-tip pen in her teeth!) she writes "Joni PTL.” Her "Praise The Lord" signature is a constant testimony that blessing can come from brokenness.
Broken before blessed is a biblical principle. God uses different breaking methods in each of our lives. His methods are not just physical; they vary, depending on the particular blind spots of each believer. The sudden loss of a scholarship, the challenge of unexpected responsibilities, the grief of a personal tragedy - many things can be involved in the breaking process.
The "broken before blessed" principle is very dramatically taught from an event in the life of Jacob in Genesis 32:24-31. A little background. Jacob was the son of Isaac and grandson of the great patriarch Abraham. As Jacob grew up he believed in the God of his fathers, but he was certainly not "totally committed". In fact, the picture we get of Jacob in Scripture is a young man who was selfish and out for “Number One.”
When Jacob was a teenager he cheated his older brother Esau out of his birthright - the family rights and privileges that the older brother would inherit (see Genesis 25:27-34). Some years later he tricked his aged father to grab the paternal blessing, that also rightfully belonged to Esau, the first-born twin (see Genesis 27). At this point Esau was so furious that he determined to kill Jacob as soon as their father Isaac died. Jacob had no chance against Esau in a fight (see Genesis 25:27), so he left home.
Cheating, cunning, coniving Jacob was on the run! But God was not done with him. Jacob had a lot of lessons to learn, but he would eventually become the man of faith God intended him to be. (See Hebrews 11:21.) God never gives up on any of his children. In spite of our selfish and "me-first" ways, the Lord is at work behind the scenes. He is steadily chipping away at our proud and savage hearts. He wants to break us down and open us up for blessing. (See Psalm 51:17 and Philippians 1:6.)
Jacob put several hundred miles between himself and Esau. He went to the land of his mother's relatives and settled there for 20 years. There he married and began a large family. (His sons would later become the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel.) During these 20 long years Jacob "reaped what he had sown.” God taught him and disciplined him in the distant country. It wasn’t by chance that Jacob had to learn to respect the rights of the first-born when he was forced to marry older sister Leah! (See Genesis 29.) It wasn't by chance that Jacob's father-in-law, Laban, happened to be as cunning and selfish as Jacob himself! Time and time again they locked horns and tried to selfishly outwit each other (Genesis 28-31).
But God used all these circumstances to break Jacob down and prepare him for blessing. God used this method to knock off the rough edges. Do you smooth a rough plank by rubbing it with a cotton cloth? No! You must use an abrasive. How often must the Lord bring us into contact with people and circumstances that rub us the wrong way?
Finally Jacob headed for home (Genesis 32). On the way he received word that Esau was coming to meet him, arriving the following day - with 400 men! Jacob was afraid, and he prayed for his life! He divided his large family in two groups for safety, and sent most of them ahead with gifts to appease Esau. He actually put his family in front of him as a buffer between himself and his brother! Maybe the still-crafty Jacob planned to run and save his own skin if Esau would not accept the gifts or show mercy to his family.
While Jacob waited alone that night, a man came into his campsite and began to wrestle with him. We don’t know what was said or how the fight began, but we do know that Jacob's opponent was no ordinary man. Hosea 12:4 indicates that the stranger was an angel of God. In fact, Genesis 32:30 intimates that this heavenly visitor may have been the Angel of the Lord - the pre-incarnate Son of God, temporarily taking on the appearance of a man. (See also Genesis 18.)
God wrestled with Jacob! Jacob had learned a lot of lessons already but, like all of us, he still had a long way to go. Jacob could not go further in his relationship with God until he was thoroughly broken of his scheming and selfishness. So God met Jacob alone, and wrestled with him one-on-one. What a picture lesson for us! Is God wrestling with you because there’s an area in your life that needs to be broken down? What about submission to authority - like your boss or your parents? What about priorities - like Scripture versus sleep?! What about God's will for your life - like next summer or next year?
The wrestling match went on all night! God could easily overpower us, but He doesn’t violate our wills. He patiently wrestles with us to break us down. Near dawn the Lord "put a move" on Jacob which evidently caused an injury to the joint in Jacob's hip. It wasn't an illegal hold or a karate chop - just the touch of God in a critical area. Has the Lord "touched" you in this way yet? The touch of God may be painful at first, but it’s part of the breaking process. And, paradoxically, it leads to greater blessing in your life as a Christian.
Now Jacob was no longer able to wrestle. He was no longer able to run from Esau. He could only cling to God. At last he realized his helplessness, his weakness, and his utter dependence on God. His only hope was to hold on and ask for a blessing from the Lord. What a turnaround in his life! All of us must come to that point. Sometimes the Lord must “touch” us and “disable” us in the area of our greatest natural ability to force us to depend on Him. "My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Then the Lord asked Jacob his name (v27). Why? Before Jacob could be blessed he had to own up to what he really was. Jacob means supplanter. How well his name characterized his life of deceiving and scheming to take what he wanted from others. By telling the Angel his name, Jacob openly confessed his wrongdoing: “I am a supplanter.” Confessing our sin is part of the breaking process. Before God can fill our lives with his blessing we must own up to our past failures. This is humbling - but necessary.
Then the Angel removed the stigma of the old name, and Jacob was given a new name: Israel. There is some question as to the exact meaning of the name Israel, but from the context of verse 28 and Hosea 12:3-4 the idea is "he who strives or perseveres with God.” Quite a change - from "supplanter" to "one who perseveres with God”! Notice that Jacob prevailed with God (v28)! Jacob didn’t win the wrestling match, but he realized his defeat and he clung to the only Source of hope. The breaking process worked a miracle in Jacob’s life - and it still does in the lives of believers today.
Jacob tried to get the “stranger” to reveal Himself by giving His name, but he was unsuccessful. Jacob still had a long way to go before the Lord would intimately disclose Himself, as He did with Abraham, Jacob's faithful grandfather. (See Genesis 35:1-15 for this stage in Jacob's life as a believer.) But the breaking process brought blessing and the realization that God Himself had touched his life.
The view we have of Jacob in verse 31 is a beautiful spiritual picture of the growing Christian who has undergone the breaking process and prevailed. The sun is rising on one who has wrestled all night. He is moving forward - with a permanent limp - but at last he is making progress! Here is a believer who is broken - but blessed!
- Dave Reid