A Divine Promise

“For I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Genesis 8:15.

What a wonderful promise! The one who makes it is the True and Faithful One, whose word is Yes and Amen. Jacob was a deceiver, a liar, and due to his actions, he had to flee from his father’s home and live as a fugitive in a foreign land. Before getting there he had a revelation from God. The vision that he saw was all of heaven in movement to save the fallen race. He saw angels going up and down a ladder on whose top was God Himself, and he made a covenant with Him: “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothes to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.” (Gen. 28:20, 21).

The Lord had promised to give him a big inheritance and said that He Himself would fulfill the promise. Jacob’s life was without worldly ambition. He was happy with what God gave him. He went through hard trials, was a victim of deceit by his father-in-law and he got to understand the magnitude of the sin committed in his youth. Circumstances led him to practice polygamy, and his home, instead of being a haven of peace, turned into a place of jealousy, envy, mistrust and where strife was always present. The lessons that Jacob learnt were hard. Nevertheless he accepted them with humility. He never forgot the meeting he had with the Lord of his forefathers with whom he had also made a covenant.

The Lord kept His promise. When the time was fulfilled, He ordered him to go back home. Two important meetings would take place on his way; a wrestling with the angel of peace which due to his effort would end up blessing him, and the reconciliation with his brother. From his great desire and struggle to receive the blessing from heaven, he became lame in one leg while wrestling with the angel. Yet he had the big privilege to have his name changed from Jacob—Deceiver, to Israel—Overcomer. The struggle was hard. It took place in darkness. Everything seemed to show that it would be impossible for him to overcome. The powerful angel seemed not to be ready to bless him. As the hours went by, Jacob’s strength decreased as well as his hope and faith. But, every time he was ready to give up, that ladder that had been revealed to him so many years before, came to his mind. He remembered the divine promise: “For I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

In his whole life he had felt the presence of the Lord even when he had separated himself from Him because of the weakness of his flesh, the advice of his wives, or his own understanding. Now he was there, almost at the end of his way, and he had no other choice. Either he had to wrestle with all his strength to obtain the gift of the Spirit (both physically and spiritually he was exhausted) or to abandon the fight and be lost forever. The day was about to break. It was his last opportunity. He could not let everything be lost. He could not allow his whole life of misery and hardship not to be rewarded with forgiveness and the divine blessing. He could not reject the grace that so abundantly had been poured upon him during his wanderings on the way of life. A thousand doubts came upon him as he struggled. It was already too late to obtain the blessing. He did not deserve such a privilege. His life, even if he was conscientious was lived under grace, had not been faithful to the requirements of heaven. He had not surrendered to the yoke of the Lord and allowed his character to be gradually transformed in the process of sanctification. Nevertheless the fact that the angel of the Lord had appeared on his way, meant that heaven wished to give him that blessing. Heaven did not count his unfaithfulness. It did not pay attention to his past, to his doubts, to his little faith. Jacob himself had paid for his weaknesses leading a life full of trials and afflictions. He had to believe in divine forgiveness, generosity and mercy. The angel had not come in vain. He had a big blessing in store for him. Even though it seemed he did not want to give it to him, and gave the impression he had to obtain it by force. What strength could be found in someone who had lost his youth, his idealism, even his desire to struggle? But that strength he got out of nothing, that insistence and perseverance that was not in proportion to his physical or mental state, were also given to him by heaven who had stubbornly decided to make of that weak and cowardly man, a winner. And thus, making use of the strength given to him from above, not paying attention to his reasoning, he grasped the angel desperately, and told him: “/ will not let You go if you do not bless me.” (Gen. 32:26) Only after this wrestling and his triumph, could he humble himself before his offended brother, and with tears in his eyes accept the grace of forgiveness.

In the same way as Jacob, each one of us who has been called by the Lord has had a revelation from that ladder. That ladder that unites heaven and earth, where the angels of God ascend and descent to reconcile us with the Father. Each has to struggle with the angel of peace to receive his blessing, to be given a new name: Israel-Overcomer. A name without which we may not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Spiritual darkness will precede the second coming of Jesus. In spite of all the light our souls have received from heaven, some have lost their first love and have no more faith or hope left. We are called to go and fight, and before daybreak, before Jesus appears in the clouds of heaven we will receive His blessing and become the spiritual Israel that will inherit the kingdom of Heaven. Once this battle is won, by divine grace, the communion with our brethren will be perfect, free from any trace of pride or self-righteousness. We shall be able to humble ourselves before our Lord. What a liberation! What a peace! What a joy! What a miraculous restoration! Faith and hope! How wonderful to feel that flame of love that is kindled once again in our heart which seemed to have turned into stone!

Israel, that man who had had such a great experience with the Lord, also fulfilled his promise in the covenant he had made with God at Bethel: “If God will go with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God…” God fulfilled his promise, and he would fulfill his, and thus “he bought a parcel of land, where he had pitched his tent… then he erected an altar there and called it El Elohe, Israel” (Gen. 33:20) which means the God of Israel. He was not only the God of Abraham and Isaac, but his own God, his Redeemer, and his friend.

May the Lord give us such an experience so that we may also become Israel so that He may become our personal God to whom we may erect an altar in our heart where the flame of faith and love may always burn.
AMEN.