10/22/2022
Where were you when Jesus first tweaked your heartstrings, or God called you to do a work for Him? Were you seeking them? Had you gone to the holiest place you knew of, and called out to them? Or, were you simply going about your everyday life in the world when you first began to hear their voices? Did you go to a mountaintop searching, or just happen to find yourself in a nondescript place that was made holy because God came to you there? More often than not our encounters with God, and Jesus, occur in unlikely places where we least expect to meet them… are we ready? Will we know them?
“The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.””
Genesis 32:22, 30 ESV
In this particular scripture Jacob was crossing the river at a ford that he had most likely crossed many times before. This was a known crossing place, and the people had given it a name meaning dissipation or wrestling. It is a shallow place where one can safely cross, or wrestle with the river.
But this time, something very different happened… Jacob met a man there, and wrestled with Him, and at the end of the night he realized it was God whom he wrestled with, and he renamed the place of that encounter Peniel… a holy name. Jacob was also renamed by God and his name was changed from Jacob to Israel. So it was that this common river crossing became much more, and this man, Jacob, became a man of God. Where is your common place that was made holy by God’s presence? Perhaps it is right here, right now, and God is using these words to begin your encounter with Him… just as He did with Moses at the burning bush…
“When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.””
Exodus 3:4-5 ESV
We are not unlike Jacob and Moses. God meets us as we go about our lives, and transforms that place, and us into new creations. Jesus did the same to the distraught disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were traveling home thinking that Jesus was dead, on a commonly travelled road that connected Jerusalem to Emmaus, when the net a man who began to tell them how Old Testament scripture related to Himself…
“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
Luke 24:27 ESV
Little did they know that it was Jesus himself that they were speaking with until He blessed their evening meal…
“When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.”
Luke 24:30-31 ESV
A nondescript road to a nearby town, a stranger who walked with them, the revelation of prophesy concerning the Messiah, and a common prayer at an evening meal that opened their eyes. There was no glow of glory, no bright shining light, no grand pronouncement, no Angels singing, no horns blowing… just an everyday place, a dusty, and a tiring walk with a stranger that became a holy journey. Are you on the road to Emmaus right now? Do you see it as holy yet? Do you recognize the voice of your companion as he speaks to you through a prayer, or scripture? What will you do next?
“And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
Luke 24:33-35 ESV
Where were we when we first met the Lord God, and Jesus Christ? Did we nearly miss them because we expected to meet them somewhere that men would consider grand? Were we waiting for them in fine robes at the door of a splendid Cathedral? Maybe we were surprised because we weren’t expecting our encounter with a simple carpenter? Or perhaps even now we are still waiting for God to call us from a towering, and smoking, mountain ethereal lightning flashes, and thunder rolls, instead of from a small burning bush on a hillside.
In the shackles of our grand expectations, will we miss the significance of those everyday moments that will come while we are walking our dog, driving to work, playing with our children, or any one of a million other unexpected places, or times, in which Christ will speak to us, or we will be challenged to wrestle with God? Are we walking around in our finest clothes, and best shoes while Jesus wants us to remove our dusty old sandals so that He can wash our feet, or God wants us to be barefoot before Him on ground made Holy merely by His presence?
“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”
John 13:3-5 ESV
Let’s look for our encounters with divinity here on earth, and not limit them by our imaginations to heavenly places. God sent His Son here to save us, and He Himself comes to us wherever He finds us. Do we look for them always, and especially in the most unassuming of places; the common places where fallen men and women are found everyday… where men are working, and women are in childbirth?
“To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.””
Genesis 3:16-19 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for coming to wherever we are at to call and wrestle with us, and for sending your Son Jesus to redeem us from the grasp of the world… not by lifting us far above it, but by lowering Himself into our midst. We are not righteous, nor are we Holy of ourselves, so you have come to save us in the everyday places we inhabit, dressed in the common garb of men, and by working in the fields, households, and shops, of the most simple among us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who loves us beyond measure. Praised be your name for every walk we take with you through the valleys of our lives, and for looking up from our daily labors to find you there beside us. You are merciful Lord, and never abandon us to sin, death, evil, or any of our shortcomings. Your grace is sufficient for us, and even the slightest brush of your robe is enough to transform us, heal us, and make us righteous before you. Wash us in the blood of Jesus, and give us his body and blood to consume as we are transformed into His image. In this way Father we pray that you will see Him in us on our day of judgement, and will be counted as worthy of eternity in your presence. On that day dress us in heavenly attire, feed us the manna of your Word, and seat us at your table forevermore.
Rich Forbes