God.... yes, God!

What or who is God? If God were to be a person, and if you were to meet him as you were walking down the road one day, would you even know it was God?

God, in the monotheistic religions, is an omnipotent and omniscient supernatural being who is the originator, ruler and sustainer of the universe. It is thereby reasonable to ask, “ If there is a God who created all things and is ruler and sustainer of the universe, who is he and what is he like?”

As we have seen over history wars have been fought regarding ideas of God and what God is or isn't like. It's happened so many times that people sometime like to blame religion itself for war and in an effort to keep peace will even go to great extents to negate the thought of God, claiming that the whole concept is simply too divisive.

However, God is not so simply dismissed. He is everywhere, all the time, all knowing and all powerful, even knowing everything about us. He is trustworthy, true and faithful as a friend and a savior and he cares about about us to the point that he will not let us simply go our own way, at least he is always there, a faithful Father, hoping that the prodigal will turn to him. God does not give up on us without a fight for us, and sometimes like Jacob of the Bible, we find that in order to have our own way, or not, like Jacob of the Bible, we directly have to wrestle with God.

Jacob was a schemer. He manipulated and he scammed throughout his life to get his own way. In today's terms, you might say he was really, simply, only “looking out for number one.”

Psycologically speaking, he had a bit of a complex about being the second-born son instead of the first because in his culture the first born son was the most important child. Jealous, proud and conniving to boot, he would do anything, even trick his brother and deceive his old blind father to get his own way. He was selfish, deceitful, and fearful and he was not an academic genius, but he was conniving and terribly persistent to get his own way. His persistence was so persistant that it persisted even when he came face to face with the living God.

It came about in a moment of crisis, a sort of crossroad in his life, that Jacob knew he was really in trouble and he knew he had to make amends or he was doomed to die. Alone in the desert, anxiously waiting to meet with his brother who had just reason to do him harm, Jacob the supplanter, Jacob the trickster, Jacob the schemer, prepared for the worst. He didn;t know what else to do, so he did the only thing he knew he could when he could do nothing else. He began to pray.

The next thing Jacob knew, he was wrestling and wrestling, with someone, a man, wrestling long into the night, long unto the break of day. “And when he (the man Jacob was wrestling) saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him, and he (the man) said, Let me go, for the day breaketh.” In his persistence Jacob said, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.”

The man he had wrestled with asked for Jacob’s name, and Jacob was honest. He did not lie to the man the way he had lied to his own ailing father. He said, “Jacob.”

Then Jacob asked the man he had been wrestling with, “Tell me, I pray thee, thy name.”

And the man said, “Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?” And he blessed him there.

Jacob left the encounter a changed person, with a new name himself and a new countenance. The name he assumed thereafter was, "One who has struggled with God,” and this because God is the one whom Jacob wrestled.

After Jacob wrestled with God, he went to meet his brother Esau. It was tense because Jacob had always been a deceiver and Jacob’s brother knew him all too well. However, being a man of God himself, Esau received his brother graciously. Scripture records, “Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept. And Jacob told him, "Seeing your face is like seeing the face of Elohim," (Elohim meaning "God")

God is strong and he loves us in spite of wicked deceitful ways, but he loves us enough to wrestle the issue until we decide we want to know the truth. The only way he will let us win and have our own way is if we absolutely hate him and reject him, and even then he will go to great lengths to reveal to the willing heart who exactly he is is. Being God, God could strike us dead in an instant, but that is not his way. He is longsuffering toward us, he will let us wrestle as long as we must, but there also comes a point where he will reveal forever our weakness and our dependence upon him. It is God, not us that have supernatural strength.

God indeed is all powerful. God is kind and gentle, (1 Kings 19:11-13.; James 3:17) forgiving, merciful and slow to anger (Psalm 103:3-12)and yet, he does not leave the unrighteous unpunished. (Numbers 14:18; Romans 3:25)

He is the creator of heaven and earth, (Genesis 1:1) the creator of us. (Psalm 100:3) He is “Our Father.” (Matthew 6: 8-9) He is Spirit. (John 4:24) He is everywhere, (Jeremiah 23:24) and is all-powerful, none can stay his hand. (Dan 4:35) God is absolutely truthful. (Hebrews 6:18) He has revealed Himself through nature, (Rom 1:20-21,) and through His Son, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-2) and through Moses and the law and the prophets and their words via his Holy Spirit. (Luke 24:44; John 5:39; 2 Peter 1:21.) There is only one true God. (Deut 6:4). He is the Word, (John 1:1-3) and He is eternal. (Duet 33:27), 1 Tim 1:17) And Jesus is the exact representation of this very God, in the flesh. (Phil 2:7-8)

Other gods are mentioned in the Bible, and we are told that they are false, (Judges 6:28-31; 1 Kings 18:22-39; 1 Cor 8:4-6), demonic, (1 Cor 10:19-21) but God, God of the Bible is separate from evil, (Psalm 145:17; 1 Samuel 2:2; ) he is holy (Isaiah 6:3”) and righteous. He wants to bless us, not harm us. (2 Peter 3:9; Jeremiah 29:11) We are assured that though things in this world change, even our strength changes into weakness, God does not change. (Psalm 102:25-27 ; Mal. 6:3) God is eternal. (Isaiah 44:6, Psalm 90:2) He is forever the Rock and steady anchor, water for our thirsty and hungry soul. (Psalm 42:1-2; Matthew 5:6)

Meeting God face to face, like Jacob did, will change a person. It happened to Peter, Paul, and the other disciples. And when we meet God, face to face, we may even have to wrestle with the truth of who we are and who we are not, but if we ask, seek and knock, God will surely answer, for he loves us and after wrestling with God, like a Jacob, we too will be forever changed.

Blessed are those who walk in the light of His countenance. (Psalm 89:15-16) Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. (Psalm 33:!2)