Beholding God’s Face

 

Genesis 32:22-31; Psalm 17:1-7,15

Back in Genesis 28 we had the account of Jacob’s ladder. Today in chapter 32 we have Jacob wrestling with a “man” who he later declares to be God. Jacob is seen as the aggressor here since when the “man” asks him to let go Jacob refuses unless the “man” blesses him. This request shows that Jacob saw this to be no ordinary man. He is then being told that his name will be changed to Israel since he has struggled with God and with humans and has prevailed. Again, this is another hint that this man must be God. Yet the man will not tell him his name but does finally bless him. Then Jacob declares, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved - saved.” A reminder of this encounter will always be the limp he has been given being struck on the hip.

Psalms 17 is a prayer for deliverance from persecution. David the author gives the account of how faithful he has been with no deceitful lips and no wickedness to be found in him. This shows the belief of the time that God listens to only the righteous and that bad befalls sinners for their deeds. David feels free for God to hear a just cause. He is confident that God will answer him, so he asks God to incline thy ear, lean down, and focus on what he needs.

David is assured that he will behold God’s face in righteousness and when he awakens he will be satisfied beholding God’s likeness. This is a reassertion of righteousness and hope for salvation in God’s presence. He too is beholding God’s face in how God will bend down and listen to his cry – incline God’s ear and that God will deliver him.

How do we behold God’s face today? Is it the people who love and help us? Is it in answered prayer? Is it in the hope that God will hear and deliver us from what plagues us? Sometimes it may feel like a struggle but like Jacob persist since we can depend on God’s steadfast love to bless us with an answer God knows is good for us. We shall see God’s face in the way God will bless us. Amen.

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