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#6. (concluded).
Bethel and Peniel.
pp. 62, 63
Consider the following alliterative headings:--
The PRAYER (9-11).
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The PRESENT (13, 18, 20).
The PREVAILING (25, 28).
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The PRINCE (28).
The PRESERVATION (30).
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PENIEL (30).
Here at Peniel Jacob became Israel. By the ford of Jabbok--where he received that
touch cause him ever after to halt--here he saw the face of God, and ceased contending
and clung tightly.
Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians breathes much of the atmosphere of Peniel:--
"We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but
in God which raiseth the dead" (1: 9).
"The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (4: 6).
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be
of God, and not of us" (4: 7).
"I besought the Lord thrice" (12: 8).
"My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most
gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest
upon me . . . . . for when I am weak, then am I strong" (12: 9, 10).
Here are both Jabbok and Peniel; the wrestling (II Cor. 12: 8) and the resting
(II Cor. 12: 10); the shrinking of the sinew and the halting & limping (II Cor. 12: 9, 10).
Bethel and Peniel represent two stages in Christian progress. The young believer is
warned against despondency. At first all goes with a swing, but after a while Jabbok
must be crossed, and in the fuller vision of the Lord one's own unworthiness
(Gen. 32: 10; Eph 3: 8; I Tim. 1: 13), and unfitness (Isa. 6:) take on new shapes,
boasting in self receives a death blow, and trust in Him that raiseth the death becomes
more real and more vital. Thank God for both Bethel and the gate of heaven, with its
vows and it encouragement, and thank God for Peniel and its Jabbok, with its confessions
and humbling. Both are needed on the pilgrim journey of faith.