Bible reading: Genesis 32
Whenever We Come Close To The Lord, it is always a life-changing experience. Few have had the privilege of being invited to come intimately and physically close to God. “Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain,” said God to Moses (Exo. 34:2 NIV). Elijah was told, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord” (I Kgs. 19:11). The Lord invited Miriam, Aaron and Moses, “Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you!” (Num. 12:4). The Lord, in the days of his flesh, must often have come very close to his Heavenly Father.
Those who came close to God in this special intimate sense often shone with a radioactive glow afterwards. And sometimes even stranger things happened. In the case of Jacob in Genesis 32, three things occurred which lasted a lifetime. His name was changed. He suddenly developed a mysterious disabling limp. And he received a special blessing. It was a blessing that had pain with it, but Israel was willing to endure the pain to keep the blessing.
Jacob was a very persistent person. He made many mistakes in his life, so that many of us would have treated him with suspicion, if not disdain, as someone less than worthy of our respect. Not so with God. Jacob never gave up on God, and God never gave up on him. He was determined to receive God’s blessing and keep it until death. And for that we are told that he will be in the Kingdom.
We are invited by the Son of God, God manifested in the flesh, to draw near. “Come unto me,” he urges us (Matt. 11:28). At this table, Jesus invites us to come close to him. “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you” (Luke 22:15). “Where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matt. 18:20). It is a life-changing experience.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One