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Jacob and the Angel
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and prove him. So will the righteous, in the day of their anguish,
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be tested, proved, and tried, to manifest their strength of faith, their
perseverance and unshaken confidence in the power of God to deliver
them.
Jacob would not be turned away. He knew that God was merciful,
and he appealed to His mercy. He pointed back to his past sorrow for,
and repentance of, his wrongs, and urged his petition for deliverance
from the hand of Esau. Thus his importuning continued all night.
As he reviewed his past wrongs he was driven almost to despair. But
he knew that he must have help from God, or perish. He held the
angel fast and urged his petition with agonizing, earnest cries, until
he prevailed.
Thus will it be with the righteous. As they review the events
of their past lives, their hopes will almost sink. But as they realize
that it is a case of life or death they will earnestly cry unto God,
and appeal to Him in regard to their past sorrow for, and humble
repentance of, their many sins, and then will refer to His promise,
“Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with
Me; and he shall make peace with Me.”
Isaiah 27:5
. Thus will their
earnest petitions be offered to God day and night. God would not
have heard the prayer of Jacob and mercifully saved his life if he
had not previously repented of his wrongs in obtaining the blessing
by fraud.
The righteous, like Jacob, will manifest unyielding faith and
earnest determination, which will take no denial. They will feel
their unworthiness but will have no concealed wrongs to reveal. If
they had sins, unconfessed and unrepented of, to appear then before
them, while tortured with fear and anguish, with a lively sense of
all their unworthiness, they would be overwhelmed. Despair would
cut off their earnest faith, and they could not have confidence to
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plead with God thus earnestly for deliverance, and their precious
moments would be spent in confessing hidden sins and bewailing
their hopeless condition.
The period of probation is the time granted to all to prepare
for the day of God. If any neglect the preparation and heed not
the faithful warnings given, they will be without excuse. Jacob’s
earnest, persevering wrestling with the angel should be an example