Before the Humble Arrival (III)
“I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity…. Everything in Christ astonish me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by Himself. His ideas and sentiments, the truth which He announces, His manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organization or by the nature of things….The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine, everything is above me- Everything remains grand, of a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revelation from an intelligence which certainly is not that of man….One can absolutely find nowhere, but in Him alone, the imitation or the example of His life…I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.”
Napoleon Bonaparte[1]
As stated over the last two weeks, many today are attempting to redefine Jesus Christ as being only a man. Some have gone as far as to question His existence entirely. Yet, for those who truly look at the accounts discussed in the Word of God, we can see how real Jesus Christ is! Jesus Christ is not just a man and not just a God but one hundred percent man and God at the same time, He is truly one of a kind!
When we study the glimpses of Jesus prior to His humble arrival in Bethlehem, we come to undoubtedly one of the strangest written events of Jesus Christ. Jacob, the second son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, is certainly one of the most devious individuals in the Bible. He not only steals his brother’s blessing in Genesis chapter 27, but also runs away from dealing with his brother in Chapter 27-28. The name Jacob even means “usurper.” Still the account found in Genesis chapter 32 can only be described as unique. Jacob meets angels of God and realizes that he is in the camp of God, Genesis 32:1-2. While there he wrestles with God.
“Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When He saw that he had not prevailed against him, He touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with Him. Then He said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.’ But he said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ So He said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said ‘Jacob.’ He said ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked Him and said, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But He said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And He blessed him there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.’ Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip” Genesis 32:24-32. While our study is not over Jacob’s life, it is unique that he would do whatever it took to receive a blessing from God. Any person who has wrestled knows the amount of energy and focus such a task takes, to do it for such an amount of time as Jacob did is incredible.
In verse 30, Jacob gives us the credibility needed to connect this encounter as God wrestling with him. However we can further reason that the specific representation of the trinity in this situation from John 1:18, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” He as in Jesus Christ, has “explained” or in layman’s terms “revealed, shown or brought to light” God for us to see. Thus, based on this, we can connect this encounter of this Man wrestling with Jacob as only Jesus Christ. Elmer Towns stated rather eloquently, “Since Christ is the only one of the three persons of the Trinity to be seen, we are left to believe…Christ appeared to Jacob and wrestled with him during the night. Jacob recognized the next morning he had met with God.”[2]
Yet, we can further see the character of Jesus Christ in the Man who wrestled with Jacob. The Man wrestled with him when presumably at anytime could have dislocated his hip. He showed restraint against man, this is a subtle but vital clue in understanding that this is Jesus Christ. One must only look at all the encounters of Jesus Christ with the Pharisees and other confrontational incidents to know that Jesus Christ showed an amazing amount of restraint. Satan actually helps highlight the capacity of the power of Jesus Christ’s authority to order angels in Matthew 26. Here Satan has finally been given his permission to use Judas to betray Jesus and have the Son of God arrested. The very thought of God being arrested by man is laughable but Jesus, in submission to the Father’s plan, allowed it. During Christ’s arrest, He confirms that He is willfully restraining Himself from what He could do, “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?” Matthew 26:53-54. Self-control is in fact one of the best examples of God’s presence. He can do what He wants at anytime but He will resort to what is necessary for the sake of those He is working with, which in this case is Jacob. Jacob needed to understand that God has preserved Jacob’s life and the coming encounter with Esau was to be left in God’s hands.
Nevertheless, as we study the appearances of Jesus Christ before His humble arrival in Bethlehem, we must continue to find the relevance as to why this is important for us today. The subtle lesson of this encounter is a single event of the overall grander scale and nature of God with all of us. Jesus Christ is willing to do whatever it takes to help us come to grips with Him. In the case of Jacob, Jesus needed to wrestle and physically hold him back to get Jacob to trust Him with the coming encounter of Esau in Genesis chapter 33. Jesus’ willingness to do whatever it takes reminds me of the gospel of Luke in chapter 15 when Jesus sheds light on His actions as the Good Shepherd with those who He seeks, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that in the same, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” Luke 15:4-7.
We can see the loving character of Jesus; He will do whatever it takes to wake up the individual. In the grander scheme, Jesus, with humility and restraint, gave up His own life for us, so that while we were still sinners, He died for us! We can see from this preincarnate encounter with Jacob that Jesus’ love and commitment to doing whatever is necessary, is already there! His character is timeless! This means we can take hold of His never changing character and hold His promises as faithful and true! If He says He is coming back for us, we can take it to the bank, because He has never broken a promise and His character is that of loving to the point of restraining Himself to do what is necessary to get our attention. What an amazing God we have! Typically, a person would make a statement and then show their actions to coincide with those statements made. However, only Jesus Christ could show up prior to His birth in Bethlehem, perform such actions of devotion, restraint, love, and so much more and then be born of a virgin and make the statements/declaration about Himself. We can take what He says in the New Testament as a verified fact, because He has already verified it with His literal actions in the Old Testament. You would not know this unless you studied Jesus in the Old Testament to fully understand Him in the New Testament.
Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming
JL
[1] Michael C. Bere, Bible Doctrines for Today, Pg. 140
[2] Elmer. Towns, Concise Bible Doctrines, Pg. 121