"Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us. He has injured us, but He will bind up our wounds. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will restore us that we may live in His Presence." - Hosea 6:1-2
When Jacob was in the process of seeking God, questioning, searching, learning who He really is, He wrestled with the Lord all night. In the physical, this story shows us a literal wrestling match resulting in a permanent limp in Jacob's hip. In the spiritual, we grasp the understanding of why our sovereign, merciful God would allow something like the cyclone in Myanmar - a horrendous wrestling match indeed! "He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us. He has injured us, but He will bind up our wounds. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will restore us that we may live in His Presence."
The "two days" represent the two thousand years since the coming of Messiah, when the Truth of the Gospel has gone forth from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Every single person who finds this Truth and believes will spend eternity in His Presence at the Third Day (Resurrection!) With World Vision and other Christian relief efforts now in Myanmar giving Yeshua's LOVE in the form of rice and shelter, an oppressed people can be reached and healed.
And, it is true for each one of us. We all have our own personal wrestling matches. In the great book "Your God is Too Safe," author Mark Buchanan writes: "I have met so many people who were never really blessed until they strove against God, were wounded, were given both a new identity and a haunting question, and who discovered in the most unlikely place, the most unexpected Face - the Face of God. These are people who never danced until they limped."
In my own journal from 2002 I wrote about my most intense time of seeking God with all my heart and soul - all alone in Florida: "Yes, I remember those moments so well. Agonizing, painful moments of deafening silence; searching heart, tear-stained face. Hours of staring out a small window at lizards and tree frogs stuck to the pane or darting along the vines. Mounds of sweat dripping off my brow in early morning mowing. Nobody was there by the "Man" who would hold me one minute and crush me the next; who encouraged me to persevere, but then knocked me to the floor. Yes, Jacob, I wrestled with Him too - and yes, I won the match also, because I lost it. Losing my life was the victory."
