Jabbok

Sunday October 20^th, Genesis 32:  22-23 But during the night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions. 24-25 But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he couldn't get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob's hip out of joint. Jacob was a scoundrel; he manipulated his brother to get the inheritance and blessing and then had to run for his life.  In crossing the ford of the Jabbok, he was entering into unknown territory.  His belief and the belief of others of the day was that God was regional and venturing beyond the Jabbok meant you were venturing beyond the reach of the God of Abraham.  Most of us remember the song of climbing Jacobs ladder, but in the story what we find is that Jacob stays on the ground, it is the messengers of God, the Angels, that come down the latter, Down.  God always comes down.  God came down in creation, down to Abraham, down to the scoundrel Jacob and in Christ and in the last days of the New Jerusalem, God continues the grace and comes down.  In our lives too, God comes down, to us, even when we are scoundrels and even when we are not.  When God comes down, we too find our lives changed and the scoundrel in each of us becomes a saint.