Jacob’s Struggle – The Blessing

We will talk about the blessing that Jacob insistently asks for, to the point where he sets a condition for the Angel:

“If you want to leave, you must bless me!”

What intrigues us is that Jacob had already been blessed by his father, and this blessing was confirmed by God Himself during his wanderings, when it was clearly visible that He was with him and visibly blessing him. Furthermore, Jacob himself declares that God is the foundation of his success (Gen. 31:9). Or is this statement merely at a declarative level, because in this acknowledgment he is speaking to his father-in-law’s daughters? Perhaps he is not truly convinced that God’s blessing was ever with him. This supposition is confirmed by the subsequent insistent demand for blessing made to the warrior Angel.

What is the Blessing Really?

Ultimately, what is this blessing? Do we feel blessed? Do we have the assurance of blessing? Do we long for it? First of all, if we do not long for it, something is wrong; we must revise our attitude because then we are independent of God, and that is not a good sign. If we have resolved this part, it remains to be seen what we do with this assurance.

It seems that blessing for Jacob was the sense of God’s presence with him. He lacked this feeling (at times). Do you recognize yourself in this feeling? There are periods in life when “bad luck” or misfortunes seem to pile up and stick to us. Misfortune never comes alone, as they say. And in the life of faith, much the same thing happens.

It is as if the evil one refrains or is restrained by Someone for a period, and then pours everything on us at once. Since he is short on virtues and even worse at self-control, the first option is ruled out. It means he is restrained by an angel — like the angels of Revelation holding the 4 winds — and when he gets a signed license, he starts with noise and friction. The crucial question is: where is God in those moments? Does God temporarily deprive us of His blessing? Is He away on vacation, like Elijah ironized the false gods of rival worshipers on Carmel?

“Dangerous and difficult places are precisely those in which He is more than ever beside us.” — Ellen G. White

The Great Burden Bearer is then more active than ever. Suffering darkens our eyes, for if our eyes were opened like Elisha’s servant, we would see that those who are with us are more than the enemies. Let us turn our eyes away from the misfortune and danger we encounter wherever we go, and contemplate the blessings the Lord has scattered from one end of our path to the other.

The blessing exists, but we do not see it! The blessing was with Jacob, but he could not perceive it. The blessing ceases to exist when we forget that it is there. And it will reappear when we remember it. Ellen White also says: Stop worrying, so as not to grieve the Holy Spirit! …All heaven is concerned with our welfare (blessing); and our anxiety and fear grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Blind to blessings.

Edenic Vision and the Trap of Anxiety

Were our eyes opened in Eden to see good and evil? Or to see only evil? The truth is that the general tendency is to see only what goes wrong. If a friend performs 9 acts of kindness for you and one single mistake, all blessings are forgotten and the focus rests solely on the unpleasant thing. And then friendship is over. Friends like that… better off without. But if the Lord gives us good, says Job, shall we not also receive evil from Him (even though He is not the originator of that evil)?

Friends, the lesson of quiet trust, of a spirit reconciled to one’s own destiny (an earthly destiny full of troubles and persecutions, but then an eternal one of glory), of the peace of our often troubled soul: this is something pleasing to the Lord. For we are not required to live more than one day at a time. The burden is not greater, nor should it be, even if we create it ourselves and sometimes live years of concentrated anxiety packed into a single day.

The Promise of a Divine Guarantee

Our Lord does not deceive us: He gives us a 100% guaranteed blessing when we walk this path. And let us not forget the other point: to enter into possession of the blessing already given to us, but which we fail to see due to blindness.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

“In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”

— Jeremiah 29:11; Isaiah 30:15