Day 8: Do not be satisfied with less than God has to offer!

Yesterday we’ve read how God thought about the indifference of Esau, who didn’t value his birthright.

Let us now look at the opposite side, Jacob’s attitude toward what God had to offer. I will take just one key incident. Jacob was on his way back to his own land when he met a man at night, who was also an angel or a messenger from God. As you will remember, he wrestled with this man all night. This is typical of Jacob because he was a wrestler; he was always fighting to be on top.

“So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ The man asked him, ‘What is your name?’ ‘Jacob,’ he answered. Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.’” (Genesis 32:24–28)

The meaning of “Israel,” as here interpreted, is “struggling with God.” How typical! Jacob was a struggler, a wrestler. However, he had one key principle: he wanted God’s best. He said to this angel, “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (verse 26). I believe that was the key to God’s favor toward Jacob. God did not condone the flaws in Jacob’s character; God never does condone character flaws. But, because Jacob would not settle for less than God’s best, God was gradually able to deal with him and to make out of him the kind of man He wanted him to be. The condition, and the starting point, was that Jacob would not settle for anything less than God’s best.

I want to ask you, Will you make the same decision, that you will not settle for anything less than God’s best?