Poor in Spirit
Someone once asked Jesus, “Lord,
will only a few be saved?” And Jesus answered, “Strive to enter through the
narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able”
(Luke 13:23-24). Does it mean that God sets the bar so high? No, the Bible
clearly tells us that God “desires everyone
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). But it
doesn’t mean that everyone will be saved automatically. Rather, it does mean
that salvation is available and open to everyone. Why then will only a few be
saved? It is not because God sets the bar too high, but because we are too
proud to ask for help.
On another occasion, Jesus says, “It will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Why is that? Because rich people tend to be self-sufficient. Rich people have the means to get what they want. Rich people don’t have to rely on anyone else. They are independent. It will be hard for independent, self-sufficient people to enter the kingdom of God. That is why Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt 5:3, 5, 8). So the opposite of “the poor in spirit” is not “the rich in spirit.” Instead, they are those who are self-sufficient, those who don’t see the need to ask God for help.
Prayer in the Night
In the Old Testament Jacob was such
a person: self-sufficient, a self-made man, grabbing opportunities as they
presented themselves. Even when he was born, he was grabbing his twin brother’s
heel. That’s why he was called Jacob – “heel-grabber.” Jacob wanted to be
first. He wanted the blessing of the firstborn – receiving a double portion of
his father’s inheritance. But his brother Esau was the oldest. So what did
Jacob do? First he cheated Esau out of his birthright with a bowl of lentil
stew. Then he deceived his blind father and stole the blessing of the
firstborn. Jacob is a heel-grabber, a deceiver, a self-made man.
Because of Esau’s anger, Jacob had to flee for his life. After a long journey, Jacob arrived at the home of his uncle Laban, who was a greedy deceiver like him. When Jacob fell in love with Laban’s younger daughter Rachel, Laban made him work for her for seven years. But then, on the wedding night, Laban switched daughters, and Jacob had to end up working for another seven years. After working fourteen years, Jacob agreed with Laban that he would continue working for him. But Laban cheated Jacob and changed his wages ten times, but Jacob still got the better of him. The independent, self-sufficient Jacob has become rich at Laban’s expense.
Now he is on the way back home. But then, crisis. Everything is turned upside down when he hears the news that Esau is coming with four hundred men to kill him for deceiving him and his father. Jacob is greatly afraid, distressed, terrified. But Jacob is Jacob. He comes up with a shrewd plan. First, he divides the people and the flocks into two groups, thinking, ‘If Esau attacks one, then the other left will escape.’ Then he sends gifts – wave after wave of gifts – to appease the anger of Esau. Though Jacob did everything he could do, he still cannot sleep. He is still restless. The same night he gets up and takes his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and sends them across the stream. He also sends over all his possessions. Nothing, no one is left. Now he is left all alone – lonely, vulnerable, broken. Perhaps for the first time in his life Jacob desperately prays for deliverance. Jacob prays in the night, he prays through the night. Suddenly, a man appears and wrestles with him until daybreak. It is a long battle. The man says, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replies, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” By this time perhaps Jacob realizes that this man may be God, and he wants his blessing. The man asks Jacob, “What is your name?” It’s an embarrassing question because a person’s name reveals his character, his identity – especially in Jacob’s time. But Jacob admits, he is Jacob – a heel-grabber, a deceiver. Then the man says, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel (“God-wrestler”), because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” His whole life Jacob had striven with others – with Esau, with his father, with Laban, with all other people to receive the blessing. The result? He has become wretched and miserable.
God’s Blessing
Here at the Jabbok River, for the
first time Jacob has striven with God.
And in the night, in his suffering, when he is separated from his loved ones,
and from all his possessions, he begins to understand that the greatest blessing is God himself. Jacob asks the man, “Please tell
me your name.” But the man refuses to give his name, and instead blesses Jacob.
After this, Jacob calls the place Peniel,
saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face.” When Jacob strove for God’s
blessing, God gave him the best gift – his presence, himself.
If you have Jesus, you have everything. Jesus says, “What profit is there if you gain the whole world and you lose your soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matt 16:26) If you have the world, you have the world. You have the whole world, but you don't have Jesus. What have you got? And it's nothing. What if you don't have anything, but you have Jesus. You've got everything. Paul is a perfect example. He was educated under the most renowned Rabbi Gamaliel, a member of the Pharisees, an influential leader of the Jewish religion. But after he was converted, he lost everything. He lost his fame, his power, his status, his community, his security, everything. Paul said, “Whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3:7-8).
The greatest blessing Jesus gives us is himself. After Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, they were following Jesus. In fact, they were ahead of Jesus, waiting for him. When Jesus saw them, he said, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves” (John 6:26). Jesus knew that they were seeking him, because he was useful, not because he was precious. The crowd said to Jesus, “Lord, give us this bread always.” “Satisfy our desires!” Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life.” Here, Jesus was saying, “I came not to give bread, but to be bread. I didn’t come into the world to meet your natural desires. I came to change your desires, to give you new desire so that I would be your main desire, your precious one.” So he often takes bread out of our hands so that we may trust him as the true bread.
Jacob to Israel
Jacob was a self-sufficient, self-made man. But after his encountering, his wrestling with God, now he is a changed person. God gave him a new name Israel. God also knocked out his self-sufficiency. Jacob is limping because of his hip. But Jacob’s limp is a perpetual reminder that he is no longer self-sufficient, but he has to fully rely on God. For Jacob, God is no longer his useful one, but his precious one. Jacob did taste and see God’s greatest blessing in the night.
Recently, I had a chance to listen to the story of a devout Christian woman, Vaneetha Rendall Risner, who had lost her infant son, Paul, after she had already grieved three difficult miscarriages. As she was grieving, one of the church members said to her, “Don’t take this wrong, but we prayed before our children were born, and all of them were born healthy.” In other words, Paul’s death and her miscarriages were easily preventable. According to the church member, she hadn’t prayed enough. But in fact, she did pray. She fasted. She recited set prayers. She read books on healing. She asked friends to pray. She begged God. She did everything she could do. She assumed her prayers would be effective. She had been faithful. She taught Bible study. She tithed. Surely God would do what she wanted. But months later, sitting beside Paul’s empty crib, Vaneetha had more questions than answers. She had many sleepless nights. One night while she was praying, she realized that she was living as if God’s blessings were dependent on her faithfulness and as if trouble was a result of her failings. She realized that her morality was little more than a way to use God to get the things in life she wanted. As she searched the Bible for answers, she found a simple but transforming truth:[1]
This life is not about me; it’s about him. And my supreme delight
is not to rest in anything in this world. My delight is to be in God. The best
gift he can give me is not health or prosperity or happiness, but more of himself — a blessing that
can never be taken away; a blessing that grows richer with time, and lasts
throughout eternity.
This blessing is often found in suffering, in the night, at the Jabbok River. God doesn’t promise a happy, pain-free life. But God does promise to walk through every trial with us. Through the story of Jacob God says to us today: “I love you. You are precious to me that I will not let your self-sufficiency become your God. I will be your God.” My prayer is that we may receive the best gift God gives us, God himself, as we trust him, love him, delight in him. Amen.
[1] Vaneetha Rendall Risner, “The Greatest Gift Is God Himself” (April 22, 2015), DesiringGod, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-greatest-gift-is-god-himself
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