Jacob's Wrestling Match

            Forced to leave his father’s household, Jacob goes back to his mother’s household (back in the old country) to take a wife. What happens next is a lesson in reaping and sowing.
            Just as Jacob tricked Esau out of his first-born birthright, Jacob’s uncle tricks Jacob into marrying Leah instead of his chosen Rachel. Jacob then has to work many years to marry Rachel as well. Eventually, Jacob decides it is time to go back to Canaan. Of course he will have to make amends with Esau, if possible. So he sends a peace offering ahead to smooth the way. And he prays to God to deliver him from Esau.
            Close to his destination, Jacob receives an unexpected visitor as night falls. It’s not Esau, but the Man of God, the pre-incarnate Christ. They wrestle through the night. That must have been a sight for the ages! Jacob surprisingly prevails, but in the process his hip is disjointed. At daybreak, the Man asks Jacob his name. The Man responds with a divine declaration. “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Gen. 32:28).
            Jacob’s twelve sons become the twelve tribes of Israel. Their offspring become known as the Israelites. They worship the God of their fathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Israelites (Jews) are God’s chosen people. Jacob’s disjointed hip symbolizes that they are still out of step with God because of the fallen nature and cycle of disobedience that we see in the rest of the Old Testament.
            The Chronos Lesson: That fateful night and subsequent dawn is a shadow of the Jewish nation in our time. For now, Romans 11 explains that the “natural branch” (the Jews) has been cut off because of their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. This cutting off was marked by the Abomination of Desolation, which led to the destruction of the Temple Fortress in 70 AD. They were scattered across the nations (the Diaspora). Choices always have consequences.
            Still, Romans 11 reminds us that God is not done with the Jews. Hosea 6:1-2 records that they will be cut off or stricken for two Days (Days 5 and 6 of the Church Age). Note: the passage doesn’t make any sense if we use regular 24-hour days here. It has to be referring to how God counts time in terms of 1,000-year great Days. When Christ returns to gather His Church at the start of the last Day, the Jewish remnant will finally recognize Jesus as the Messiah. The last Day is called the 7th Day when counting from Adam; it is also called the 3rd Day when counting from Christ.
            In a sense, Israel is still wrestling with God. But at Daybreak of the last Day, a remnant shall prevail. They shall recognize Jesus as the Messiah. They will not be part of the Church, the Bride, but they shall be part of the redeemed and children of God.  They will be part of His household.
            When Christ comes again, He will stand on Mt. Zion, and His presence will cause a mighty earthquake that makes a way of escape for the revived Jews from the Antichrist’s armies. Now believers and saints set apart to Christ, the latter rain outpouring of the Spirit will enable them to become mighty men in battle. It’s just in time for the last world war, the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty (Rev. 16:14).
            Revelation 10:7 describes this part of the plan as the mystery of God. “But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel [the 7th trumpet of the wrath of that Day], when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.”
            The mystery declared to the prophets is that when Jesus comes again, He will set in motion the times of the restoration of all things. That includes the restoration of the kingdom to Israel as promised to David. When the Antichrist is crushed and thrown into the Lake of Fire (eternal damnation), God sets up Israel as His godly government on the earth. It’s part of the restoration of His original plan from the beginning.
            As promised, all the nations of the world will be blessed as Israel takes its role as God’s natural government on the earth. It will take their directions from the heavenly government comprised of the Heir and His joint-heirs as the One New Man. You probably know it as Christ’s millennial reign. What you may not realize is that we reign from above, from over the earth and not on it. That is Israel’s job. More on that later.