THE NIGHT OF WRESTLING

THE NIGHT OF WRESTLING

I was speaking at ————— last evening on Jacob, that he had reached the right place in the land, yet that he must go through a night of wrestling, he must be subdued before God, crippled and powerless, and then at his wit’s end he exclaims: “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me” (Genesis 32: 26). There must be this exercise with God, this breaking down of one’s own will and strength in the presence of God, before there is simple dependence on Him or confidence. The more thoroughly I am shattered and made nothing before Him, the more confidence have I in Him that He must and will bless me. Here the soul learns the state which suits the place in which God in His grace has set one. The loss with many souls in this day of knowledge is, that while they readily accept the place where grace has set us, they think little of the state which must accompany it, and they are almost confounded when they are brought into the night of wrestling. This night is to introduce you into a new day with a new name — Christ’s day really, and Christ’s name. It is quite right to see and accept the place in which God in His grace sets us, but the higher it is, the truer to it your state must be, and the more you must be broken down to enter on it, as practically suited for it.

^[p. 200] I have no doubt the night of wrestling takes many a one by surprise; they have rested much more on the truth of their position than on Him who sets us there, and makes us like Himself because we are there. Hence, that Christ may dwell in our hearts (Ephesians 3) is the prayer after we have been set in Him in heaven (Ephesians 2). If I have learned in the dreary night of wrestling that God can break me down, and that my confidence is in Him, which He answers by assuring my heart of the name and power of Christ, I am in a new name and in a new power. I must not only see my place in Christ, but I must come near to the One who sets me there. The danger with us is resting short of increased nearness to Christ, because of the high position in which through Him we are set, and which we see. In the night of wrestling my flesh is broken down, and my confidence in Him is so answered that I enter on a new day with a new name — Christ. I have no doubt that many are disappointed that after hearing with delight and receiving the truth of God, they are not more affected by it. The reason of this is, I apprehend, that they rest too much in the standing and have not gathered the first-fruits and put it into a basket; they have not occupied themselves increasingly with Christ, have not drawn nearer to Him, and recognised Him as the only One who can make it true to them, and the only One who can keep them in it. There is a felt want with the acceptance of the truth because the soul is no nearer to Christ through it; if it were, it would find that no flesh could glory there, and then it would have acquired a fresh vigour from Himself adequate to sustain one in the truth which had been revealed. The open firmament is the true element of a bird, but what use would that be if it had not wings; but wings must grow. The prodigal son is not told to come to the feast until he had the new clothes on — until he is given a state to suit the father’s house. The kiss does not give him a state; it tells of the father’s heart, but he replies, “I am not worthy”; he is near enough to feel this, and then it is that he receives the new clothes fit for his father’s presence — the very highest blessing, and higher than he could have prescribed for himself. What is the good of a man being ennobled — made a ^[p. 201] prince of — if he feels he has gained no moral or suitable acquisition by it? This is the disappointment with souls, without being able to account for it, and the Lord in His gracious ways subjects them to nights of wrestling, because they have rested in their grand titles, and have overlooked the means of supporting their titles.