I AM NOT WORTHY . . . DELIVER ME I PRAY THEE

Genesis chapter 32 describes a momentous day in the life of Jacob. After leaving Laban in the morning, 31. 55, he was met by angels, 32. 2. During the day, he learnt that another ‘host’ was coming to meet him, v. 6, but his encounter with angels did little to reassure him that ‘the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them’, Ps. 34. 7. In the face of apparent danger, Jacob planned, prayed, and went on planning! At night, having sent his family ahead, he was ‘left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day’, v. 24. Jacob gained ‘power with God’, not because he wrestled the man to the ground, but because he clung to Him! The Apostle Paul sums it up with the words, ‘when I am weak, then am I strong’, 2 Cor. 12. 10.

There are three component parts to Jacob’s prayer in verses 9-12.

1. He claimed the promises of God. First of all, he cited God’s promise of personal preservation, v. 9. Then, he cited God’s promise of national preservation, v. 11. God delights to honour His promises, and we must never forget to claim them.
2. He confessed his unworthiness to God. ‘I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant’. Jacob certainly speaks for us here! The more we contemplate ‘the kindness and love of God our Saviour’, Titus 3. 4, the more we exclaim, ‘I am not worthy’.
3. He cried for deliverance to God. ‘Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother’. We scan the previous chapters in vain for evidence of Jacob’s prayer-life. Immediate danger certainly concentrates the mind! F.B. MEYER says: ‘ls not this the key to God’s dealings with us all? He brings us into sore straits; He shuts us up in a corner; He causes the walls and ceiling and floor of our room to draw together, as if to crush us. At such moments there is only one resource left. It is Himself’.

But was Jacob wholehearted? It almost seems as if Jacob’s prayer just briefly interrupted his planning. He does not seem to have learned the lesson of 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 7, ‘Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you’. Have we learned that lesson?