October 4 | Genesis 32:22-32
PRAYER PRACTICE
Spoken Prayer – Out loud, pray for God to speak to you through your reading. Praise God for giving us His word. Ask the Spirit to help you read with faith, and to live out what you hear from God through the passage.
DAILY READING:
Genesis 32:22-32
For more help use this Bible Study method
REFLECTION
Jacob Wrestles With God
by Pr. Dave Mann
This story of Jacob wrestling with God is one that has perplexed me for some time. Is this a negative behavior of Jacob, which God allowed to happen but which we should not try to imitate? Or, is it a good thing, a commendable accomplishment, that Jacob wrestles with the angel (and therefore God)? Is this something that we should emulate?

On the one hand, I can see that Jacob’s behavior is not something that we should aspire to. We should rather calmly place our trust in God and believe that he is leading us to what is right and good. Consider these passages:
2 Chronicles 16:9 -- For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.
Isaiah 26:3 -- You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.