Genesis 32:1-33:20
Who would have guessed that God occasionally dabbles in a little bit of WWF? And poor old Jacob; even if he moonlighted in a bit of wrestling, it must have been a serious brown-trousers-time when he realised he was up again none other than the Almighty Lord of Hosts. All things considered, then, he seems to have fared pretty well; a wrenched hip is far less than many a wrestler suffered at the hands of The Undertaker. But what are we to make of this remarkable episode??
Well, this is a key time for Jacob, finally stepping out from under Laban’s authority and journeying to the land God had promised to his ancestors. And God seems to be using this moment to do a bit of a spot-check on Jacob’s commitment to Him and, at the same time, to prepare Jacob for the challenges that are to come. It is amazing that God should do this - to allow himself to be grappled by the flesh and blood he made - and crucial for our understand of Him to note that God’s primary intention of this engagement was to speak into Jacob’s identify.
I guess there is the question of what actually happened during those moon-lit hours on the river-side. I suppose it might have been a deeply-tangible spiritual experience or (my preference) an actual physical one but whichever it was, it was an incredible demonstration of the extra-ordinary lengths God will go to to build the faith-levels of his people.
Matthew 12:22-45
So Jesus make a man who was mute and blind speak and see and it only gets one sentence! What a testament to how amazing (and how provocative) it must have been following him.
I believe the unforgivable sin is refusing to accept the new covenant of the Spirit that Jesus is inaugurating - ie, denying that God (the Holy Spirit) is working in the church or the He is in what we now call Christianity.
We also see Jesus here warning people that they cannot experience the promptings of God and then excuse themselves from actually changing how they live. Claiming that more proof was needed will not wash. Jesus has come so that people will lay down their arms and fall in behind him - debating and postulating are fine but at some point they must end and the activity of seeking and serving the King of the New Age must begin.
Proverbs2:1-11
It’s interesting that wisdom affects the heart and the soul as well as the mind. This is not some cerebral activity but actual useful stuff for wholistic everyday living.
