In our Faith there is tendency to adopt a belief that we must Obey God without question, and do as He wills or we are rebels and sinners. I want remind people that one of the most famous Patriarchs, Jacob not only sinned, He wrestled with God (Genesis 32:22–32). Yes it was physical, but I believe even spiritual, and in process Jacob got a blessing and limp, like a sheep that has their leg broken. I am going to come back to this wrestling in a moment.
When God led those Israelites into the Wilderness, he was so infuriated by their sins, by their rebellion, that He was going to wipe out the Israelites, to which Moses said, “But Moses begged the Lord his God, “Lord, don’t let your anger destroy your people. You brought them out of Egypt with your great power and strength. But if you destroy your people, the Egyptians will say, ‘God planned to do bad things to his people. That is why he led them out of Egypt. He wanted to kill them in the mountains. He wanted to wipe them off the earth.’ So don’t be angry with your people. Please change your mind! Don’t destroy them. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. These men served you, and you used your name to make a promise to them. You said, ‘I will make your people as many as the stars in the sky. I will give your people all this land as I promised. This land will be theirs forever.’”
So the Lord felt sorry for the people. He did not do what he said he might do—he did not destroy them..” (Exodus 32:11-14). Moses was able to change God’s Mind, not because God was lacking in wisdom, or sinful, His ire was just at the Israelites for worshipping the Golden Calf, I mean I read their murmuring and complaining about manna and meat in the Wilderness and I wanted to roast em, but Moses wrestled with God, that is dialogued with Him and asked for mercy and God changed his mind, and that to me is an amazing moment in Theology, our God is not this stoic, or distant being, He is not this crushing power like Zeus or Oiden, He can be reasoned with, He even invites his Creation to have dialogue with him and change his mind. This happened in New Testament too, when Gentile Woman approached Jesus, “And having gone out from there, Jesus withdrew into the regions of Tyre and Sidon. And behold— a Canaanite woman having come out from those districts was crying out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Master, Son of David. My daughter is badly demon-possessed”. But the One did not respond a word to her. And having come to Him, His disciples were asking Him, saying, “Send her away, because she is crying-out after us”. But the One, having responded, said, “I was not sent-forth except for the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. But the one, having come, was prostrating-herself before Him, saying, “Master, help me”. And the One, having responded, said, “It is not good to take the bread of the children and throw it to the little-dogs”. But the one said, “Yes, Master. For indeed the little-dogs eat from the crumbs falling from the table of their masters!” Then, having responded, Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you wish”. And her daughter was healed from that hour.” (Matthew 15:21-28). In that we see Jesus changed the plan to accommodate the Gentiles earlier, they were part of plan eventually, but the woman’s cries for mercy, for crumbs moved Jesus to hasten the salvation of the Gentiles!
Bible Teachers have done disservice of painting God as this stoic and stone Lord who demands obedience without question. Now obedience is a thing, and I am not saying be irreverent or insolent, He is our Creator, and the King of Kings and Lords of Lords; but He is also our Husband, Ishe, “And it will come about on that day,” declares the LORD, “That you will call Me my husband (Ishe) And no longer call Me my Baal,” (Hosea 2:16), and “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready, it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:7-8). In a marriage you do not just obey, you work problems out with your spouse, and while God is never gonna sin against you as in case of mere human marriage, you can tell God, “I have this struggle, Lord I have to be sexually pure according to the Apostle Paul, but you in your gospel say just believe in you, Jesus, and I am saved, and I live in time when marriage is getting at an older and older age so that I have to forgo what is natural longer and longer.” You can discuss this with God, and cry for mercy, and while I am not gonna say he will give you free pass to do pornography, I think Purity Culture’s one note response is not helping youths who are frustrated with wanting to explore their sexuality, something God made, and at same time trying to conform to Scripture. It is a struggle, it is wrestling with these things and God, and if we just say, “Obey God, be Pure, and shut up,” we do a disservice, because we need to wrestle with it, to wrestle with our Lord on these matters that drive us crazy! Because in that wrestling is an intimacy with God, because its not just you being a Clone Trooper Christian saying “yes, sir,” but like Moses saying, “but Lord..” or like Gentile Woman, “but even the dogs get crumbs from their master’s table.”
The point I am trying to drive home is talk to God yes, pray, but wrestle as Jacob did, talk as Moses did and the Gentile Woman did to God Incarnate! Do not be bashful, do not think, “Well God knows all, and I am gonna bottle up my feelings and just pay him lip service of Hallelujahs,” cuz God can see your heart, and he hated lip service, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Matthew 15:8). Think of it as how couples fight, say what is on their minds, complain, and even share the deepest darkest thoughts, and wrestle emotionally with it all, God wants you to do that with Him too! He is not expecting you to act like there is not stuff to hash out and wrestle with Him on, things you feel is unfair even in your faith walk! The point is Satan wants you to think God is a tyrant who wants you to just submit, no that is how Satan is, a cruel overlord type, Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30). Our Lord and God is not harsh, you can come to Him with stuff, cry it out, rest in Him or like Jacob get on the wrestling mat with Him. For lest we forget, the new name God gave Jacob was Israel, and Israel means “he who struggles with God.” Amen.
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