Never Give Up!

Jacob's life really resonated with me this past week.

If any one ever had good reason to quit, it was Jacob. At this point in Jacob's life he had plenty of reason to be discouraged, out of fight and without hope. It seemed as if everything he touched ended in a mess. Imagine taking from your twin brother his most precious possession: The family birthright and their father's blessing. Jacob had deceived his own father to steal his twin brother's blessing. As a result he fled his childhood home fearing for his life.

He meets Rachel and falls in love with her. To marry her he agrees with Laban, Rachel's father, to work 7 years. After the seven years, Laban tricked him, and Jacob unknowingly ends up marrying Rachel’s sister Leah. Laban insists Jacob work another 7 years before he could marry Rachel. Jacob agrees. He works another seven years, but the marriage is in trouble from the very beginning. Rachel, his true love, is unable to bear children. She becomes jealous of Leah. Now Jacob's home and life is worse than ever.

In time Jacob’s family outgrows his father-in-law’s family. This further adds to the list of 'messes' in Jacob's life. Jacob once again must leave town. To make things worse, Rachel steals and desecrates her father’s god’s, so now Jacob has an angry father-in-law. What else could go wrong?

So Jacob gathers his family and all his belongings and begins his journey back to his homeland; Canaan. But, before he would reach Canaan, Esau is in pursuit of him.

So, it's the night before Jacob's face-off with Esau. Jacob is all alone. It's the middle of the night. And, a stranger comes out of nowhere and starts a fight with him.

Jacob must have been thinking, 'Why doesn't anything work out for me? Why go on? Is it worth all the trouble? Why continue to fight? Why not just give up?' But, Jacob did not give up. In fact, he fought with this stranger all night. What resolve! Jacob obviously had not lost all hope.

He made the right choice. The stranger turned out to be the Lord. And, God gave Jacob a new name: Israel - 'God's Fights for His people.' With God fighting for us, why should we give up. God had a purpose and a plan for Jacob and his dysfunctional family. God promised Jacob that through him would come a great nation. A nation that would bless the entire world. Wow! What a turnaround!

I want that same resolve to never give up. I never want to make the mistake of giving up when my greatest victory may be just on the other side of one last fight!