WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: ‘Today I need to encounter the living God and know once again his hand upon my life. Nothing less will do. Heavenly Father, send your Spirit to me that I may have fellowship with you through Jesus your Son. Amen.’ Totally alone Another powerful story in a biography full of such holy encounters. Jacob is now totally alone. The narrative implies that Jacob has sent everyone else ahead of him so that he might delay Esau’s arrival. It is in this state of solitude that we read one of the strangest stories in the Bible. God’s loving dominance The German theologian Rudolf Otto uses the word ‘numinous’ to describe it. God is experienced in a way that is magnificent, overwhelming and terrifying. He is completely ‘other’ to us. This idea lies behind CS Lewis’ portrayal of Aslan, whom Mrs Beaver says is good but not safe (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Collins, 1980). Jacob fights with God and receives a new name and identity. He is now Israel and through him a nation will one day share the same name. But the cost is significant: Jacob leaves this encounter with a limp; a physical disability that symbolises God’s loving dominance over his life. Respond: ‘Lord, forgive me that I have sought to tame and trap you. You are the Lord of heaven and earth, victorious over death and hell. By your word all things were created, and in Christ all things hold together. I bow before you now in adoration. Amen.’ http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-07-25