Finally, Jacob has to face his most important and formidable
enemy, himself. As he comes back into
the land from which he had fled so many years ago he does all he can to protect
himself from his fear, Esau. First, he
sends messengers but their message in return is simply, Esau's coming with four
hundred men, no word of reply. Next, he
prays, expressing his thankfulness to God for all he has as he came here last
with only his staff, he tells God of his fears and asks for deliverance, and
reminds the Lord of the promise. Remember
the original promise he received though was that God would be with him and
bring him back here, that was it. He can't
leave the matter in faith though, he is Jacob, so he works his own plan, sends
his brother a gift and then divides his family and flocks into camps, puts his
wives and children and stuff in front and himself in the rear of everything and
everyone, then goes back across the Jabbok for even greater safety, alone. What a guy!
In the moment of security, a man comes upon him and wrestles with him
all night, an angel of the Lord. Finally,
the angel uses his finishing move and Jacob's hip is out of joint. He, however, will not let go until he
receives blessing even from the man who defeated him. In the end, Jacob is no more, only Israel,
his new name. Jacob, his own worst
enemy, is defeated. He will always
retain some of the characteristics of the old man, but not all of them.
"If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." I am the light of the world, I am the good
shepherd, I am the bread of life. How much
more plainly could He have told them?
They refuse to hear these things even in spite of proof accompanying
each declaration. Proof is never enough
for faith to take hold, it works the other way round. William James, a 19th century
philosopher, argued for what he called precursive faith, roughly defined stated
as: "We need to move forward with an openness of mind, and even the first
glimmerings of a positive conviction, in order to discover some truths....
Sometimes something like the positive state of belief, however tentative, helps
to create a situation in which evidence is more likely to be forthcoming." These in our reading have no faith, only
doubt, and therefore cannot hear or see what seems to be directly in front of
them, no more than the Moabite prophet Balaam understood his own dilemma in Numbers
22 prior to the donkey speaking. They
have not been given that spiritual blessing of faith that enables them to
understand and believe, they are not His sheep.
In the end, Jesus' response, "I and the Father are one," is
answer to their original question.
Apparently some have gone out from the fellowship to which
John is writing and they profess to be wise, to have the truth, truth those
remaining do not possess. The charismatic
movement today has the seeds of this prideful belief in it and there is always
a danger of lapsing into Gnosticism, that there is some truth accessible to a
certain privileged few. Not all in the
church are true believers but those who continually leave churches because of
their own belief in their spiritual superiority frequently are more like
Pharisees who are proud in their knowledge but if it does not lead to love of
the brothers then the knowledge is not of God.
Clearly, no one who denies Jesus, fully God and fully man, has truth in
him. Here the problem is docetism, the
denial of the humanity of Jesus but today the problem is more likely to be the
denial of His divinity. The best way to
determine truth and falsehood in the matter is to sort out that particular
issue, what do you make of Jesus. Until we
have been mastered by Him, we are like Jacob, our own worst enemy, no matter
how much "good" we do.
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